Sundress Publications announces its tenth annual e-chapbook contest. Authors of all genres are invited to submit manuscripts during our reading period of March 1 to May 31, 2021. Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid work are welcome, as are visual poetry, poetry comics, and visual hybrid works. Manuscripts must be between twelve to twenty-six (12-26) pages in length, with a page break between individual pieces. Individual pieces may have been previously published in anthologies, print journals, online journals, etc., but cannot have appeared in any full-length collection, including self-published collections. Both single-author and collaborative dual-author manuscripts will be considered. Manuscripts must be primarily in English; translations are not eligible.
The entry fee is $10 per manuscript, though the fee will be waived for entrants who purchase or pre-order any Sundress title. Authors may submit as many chapbook manuscripts as they like, so long as each is accompanied by a separate reading fee or purchase/pre-order. Entrants can place book orders or pay submission fees at our store. Entry fees are waived for all BIPOC writers.
The winner will receive $200, plus publication as a beautiful full-color PDF available for free exclusively online. Runners-up will also be considered for publication.
All manuscripts should include a cover page (with only the title of the manuscript), table of contents, dedication (if applicable), and acknowledgments for previous publications. These pages will not be included in the total page count. Identifying information should not appear in any part of the manuscript. Authors with a significant relationship to the judge (friends, relatives, colleagues, past or present students, etc.) are discouraged from entering.
To submit, attach your manuscript as a DOCX or PDF file along with your order number for a Sundress title or the entry fee to contest@sundresspublications.com. Simultaneous submission to other presses is acceptable, but please notify Sundress immediately if the manuscript has been accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions are allowed, but a separate entry fee must accompany each entry. No revisions will be allowed during the contest judging period. Winners will be announced in late summer of 2021.
This contest will be judged by librecht baker, the author of vetiver (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and an English Professor. baker frolics with Black Girl Magic Creative Series and joined Radar Productions’ Sister Spit 2020 tour. her full-length play, “Taciturn Beings,” was a semi-finalist for the 43rd annual Bay Area Playwright’s Festival and part of The Vagrancy’s Blossoming: A New Play Reading Series 2019. baker’s one-act dramedy, “Afterlife or Bust,” will be produced by Q Youth Foundation in 2020. her other writings, i.e. poetry, appear in ACCOLADES: A Women Who Submit Anthology, Solace: Writing Refuge, & LGBTQ Women of Color, Bone Bouquet (Issue 8.1), Sinister Wisdom 107 – Black Lesbians: We are the Revolution!, and other publications, but can also be experienced via Women Who Submit’s IGTV for their ACCOLADES online reading series and The Vagrancy’s “The Life and Dead Of,” written by June Carryl, via The Vagrancy’s webpage.
