The Blue Nib Chapbook 1

Welcome to the Blue Nib's first publication, which showcases the prize winning entries to our first Chapbook Contest, The Summer/Autumn Chapbook Contest, 2017. The Blue Nib is a not for profit small press and online publishing platform run by editors Shirley Bell & Dave Kavanagh.In The Blue Nib magazine we offered the 3 winning poets, in first, second and third places, chapbook publication, along with cash prizes and copies of this chapbook. The contest was open to new, emerging and established poets from any country but at least one of the three winners was to be a debutante (with no chapbook or book published previously), In fact, we were delighted to find that all three winners were debutantes, so we are proud to be the first publisher to introduce these new poets into print: First prize-winner, Derek Kannemeyer, 2nd prize-winner, Jackie Gorman and 3rd Prize-winner, Christopher Meehan.Each entry consisted of 8 poems, in the English language, which were the sole work of the entrant with no translations or 'versions'. The poems could be in verse or prose. Our judge was the renowned poet Michael Blackburn, who lectures at the University of Lincoln, UK.We are delighted to be able to showcase these emerging talents.