Newcomers to Sackville, NB may be surprised to find a long history of small press engagement at Mt. A. Or it might seem obvious— with so many developing storytellers on and around campus, there are bound to be communities determined to share their voices. Those interested in poetry, specifically, have an opportunity to look forward to: the return of High Marsh Press’ Deborah Wills Chapbook Contest.

Keagan Hawthorne, circulation clerk at Mt. A’s R.P. Bell Library and co-publisher of High Marsh Press, gave me a tour of the studio and manual printing press that makes up High Marsh Press and The Hardscrabble Press. Both micropresses are run at least in part by Hawthorne here in Sackville.
Founded in 2019, The Hardscrabble Press publishes chapbooks. They are small, handbound books; the ones Hardscrabble publishes contain poetry and some nonfiction.
“There’s this community of micropresses in Canada,” Hawthorne shares. “It’s actually a pretty exciting scene. Lots of folks are doing lots of interesting things out there— and it really is a vital link in the literary ecosystem. Lots of poets get their first public publication with a small chapbook.”
The pages of these chapbooks are printed digitally then hand-sewn together, with covers printed on the letterpress machine, “from usually handmade nice, cotton paper”.

High Marsh Press, and its main production, the Deborah Wills Chapbook contest, emerged out of dialogue between Hawthorne and Dr. Geordie Miller, assistant professor in Mt. A’s English Department. As Miller shares, the two discussed, “What we appreciate about what’s available to us, and what’s missing in a way,” here in town. The chapbook idea, he shares, was “to give people the experience of publishing on a manageable level scale”.
The competition title honors Deborah Wills, who was a professor in the English Department for over 20 years. Hawthorne shared how Wills gave many students a leg up in her own time, just as the chapbook competition aims to do now. Open nationally to any poets without previously published poetry, the contest is supported by Mt. A students like fifth-year English student Freddy Smith. Smith is the Publishing Assistant for the press, helping every step of the way; printmaking students of Mt. A’s Fine Arts Department will also contribute to the chapbook’s final design over the winter season.
This collaborative production process, along with the competition’s demographic, all work to strengthen connections between up-and-coming writers and creatives in Sackville and beyond.
“That’s the thing about writing. It can be so goddamn lonely when you don’t have a community,” Hawthorne laughs. “Doing the sometimes unglamorous work of running a literary organization, whether that’s a micro press or a literary journal […] the reward for that is that you are instrumental to making the community that you are a part of”.
Miller agrees with that sentiment. “When it comes to bringing words into the world,” he shares, be it promotional events, venues, literary publications and workshops, “That is all collective activity.”
High Marsh Press certainly is collective – Miller acknowledges support from the Mt. A’s experiential learning office, and the English and Fine Arts Departments. Submissions for the 2024 contest are open until December 6. Submissions will be reviewed anonymously and judged by poet Triny Finlay along with the High Marsh Editorial team. Curious about submitting your own poetry? To read the full rules, visit https://www.highmarshpress.ca.