On Groundhog Day, I will be announcing the winner of the 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge. From more than 150 submissions, I have narrowed the field down to 21 finalists.

Each person who completed the challenge put in more work than the typical poet. First, they wrote poems regularly throughout the month of November. Second, they revised and compiled 10-20 pages worth of poems during the month of December. Third, they followed the submission rules to make sure their manuscripts were in by the deadline. Accomplishing all these goals is a task within itself and should give you an idea of the quality of the manuscripts I received. It is obvious to me that each poet who entered is dedicated to their craft. To those who entered: Thank you so much!

However, my goal after the deadline is to narrow the many great submissions down to one winner.

Here are the 21 finalists (in no particular order):

1. Ghost Flower, by Ruth Nolan
2. Wild Grace, by Jeanne Rogers
3. Endless, by Anne Baber
4. Blood and Bones and Water, by Christina Hile
5. Perpetual, by J R Turek
6. River-Hearted City, by Karen H. Phillips
7. Grateful, by Mike Barzacchini
8. The Real Bionic Woman, by A.C. Leming
9. Something Borrowed, by Tish Lester
10. Against the Sky, by Deborah Hauser
11. Let the Lady Speak, by Nancy Posey
12. Sampled Between Teeth, by Jennifer Miller McIntyre
13. French Lessons, by Ken Kibler
14. After a Decade, by Faye Williams Jones
15. Life Stories, by Jenny Doughty
16. Greeks Bearing Gifts, by Joseph Harker
17. Something Beautiful in the Desert, by Jane Beal
18. The Making of a Common Man, by Taylor Graham
19. no small thing, by Khara Elizabeth House
20. Women in Eden, by Alana I. Capria
21. Through This Rain, by J. Hugh MacDonald

The overall winner will be drawn from this list. If you don't see your name in this list (and expected to see it), I would like to remind you that the quality level was high and that I had to cut manuscripts with good poems in them. Plus, writing competitions are subjective. Another judge probably would've looked at the same 150 manuscripts and came up with a slightly different pool of finalists. But I don't want to take away from these 21 highly deserving poets who are now one step closer to joining Shann Palmer (the 2008 winner) as November PAD Chapbook Challenge Champions.

Have a great weekend, and I'll announce the overall winner on Tuesday.

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If you don't already, you can follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

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Friday, January 29, 2010 8:00:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [58]