Canadian Poets Series #27 : Cameron Anstee

Cameron Anstee is the author of Sheets: Typewriter Works (Invisible Publishing, 2022)—winner of the 2023 Nelson Ball Prize—and Book of Annotations (Invisible Publishing, 2018), and the editor of The Collected Poems of Williams Hawkins (Chaudiere Books, 2015). A book of essays is forthcoming from Palimpsest Press in 2026 (Footnotes: Case Studies in Canadian Small Press Book Making) and a collection of poetry is forthcoming from Knife | Fork | Book in 2027 (Narrows). He has published chapbooks with Gaspereau Press, Puddles of Sky Press, above/ground press, Baseline Press, The Emergency Response Unit, and In/Words.

Recent essays include “On Minimalism” (periodicities, February 2025), “Some Silences: Notes on Small Press” (Apt. 9 Press, August 2024), “On Culling” (published as part of the Shelf Portraits Series at the Richler Library Project), and “meeting ph.” in AnyWord: A Festschrift for Phil Hall (Beautiful Outlaw Press, 2024).

He is the editor and publisher of Apt. 9 Press, a small press that recently celebrated its 15^th anniversary and that produces handmade chapbooks, including two winners of the bpNichol Chapbook Award and the first chapbook to win the Nelson Ball Prize. Apt. 9 Press was featured in Jim Johnstone’s Write, Print, Fold and Staple.

He holds a Ph.D. in Canadian Literature from the University of Ottawa. His dissertation focused on independent bookselling and the small press in Canada after the Second World War. His research has been published in journals, including Journal of Canadian Studies, Amodern, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews, and DA: A Journal of the Printing Arts; and in edited collections from the University of Ottawa Press and Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

He posts photos of small press books in his collection on Instagram (@smallpress_bookshelf).