Flume Press Chapbook Contest Guidelines

Submission period: September 1st — October 15th 

We're pleased to announce this year's chapbook contest will be judged by Farnaz Fatemi, an Iranian American poet and writer and Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate for 2023 & 2024, is a founding member of The Hive Poetry Collective, a member of Writers of Color – Santa Cruz County, and a former Lecturer in Writing at UCSC. Her book, Sister Tongue زبان خواهر, was published in September 2022. It won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Tracy K. Smith, won an honorable mention from the Foreword Indies, and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly. She is a California Individual Artist Fellow and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Some of her poems and lyric essays appear or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Academy of American Poets (poets.org), among others. More at farnazfatemi.com

We invite you to submit chapbook manuscripts in poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and hybrid forms. Chapbooks, in their relative brevity, function more like concept albums or curated collections in which the manuscript shows intentionality, whether through themes, forms, and/or narrative. We’re interested in manuscripts that invite surprise, invention, and genre bending. Collaborations are welcome. Inclusion of art or images will be considered, yet the writing should be the primary focus.

Guidelines:

Poetry: Submit between 18-25 pages

Prose: Up to 25 pages of prose (flash, long-form, novella, or a blend of genres), Please include a list of acknowledgements

• Your name and contact information should not appear anywhere in the manuscript
• Include a brief Cover Letter in the Submittable form
• A $15 entry fee must be paid at the time of submission. This money goes directly toward printing costs. We source environmentally responsible materials wherever possible.
• Manuscripts should be submitted in PDF or Microsoft Word (.doc and .docx) formats only. We recommend PDF formatting if you want to ensure that your page breaks, indentations, and other manuscript formats are as you intend.

All manuscripts will be read by the Flume Press editors. At least ten finalists will be sent to the contest judge, Farnaz Fatemi. The winner will receive $300, plus ten copies of the chapbook. Our books are handmade, so the print run will be limited.

We only accept submissions through Submittable. Work sent by any other means will not be read. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know immediately if your manuscript has been accepted elsewhere.

Results will be announced in January 2025.

One essay of up to 2500 double-spaced words (.doc, .docx, or .rtf format) may be submitted by an individual author per publishing period. Do not include any identifying information within the document.

We will consider personal essays, lyric essays, literary journalism, memoir, or hybrid prose.

Do not send previously published work (either online or print).

Include a short biographical statement highlighting literary, academic, and artistic achievement, interest or affiliation.

If you have been published recently by Watershed Review, please wait 6 months before submitting again.

One essay of up to 2500 double-spaced words (.doc, .docx, or .rtf format) may be submitted by an individual author per publishing period. Do not include any identifying information within the document.

We will consider personal essays, lyric essays, literary journalism, memoir, or hybrid prose.

Do not send previously published work (either online or print).

Include a short biographical statement highlighting literary, academic, and artistic achievement, interest or affiliation.

If you have been published recently by Watershed Review, please wait 6 months before submitting again.

One story of up to 2500 words double-spaced (.doc, .docx, or .rtf format) may be submitted by an individual author per publishing period. Do not include any identifying information within the document.

Only send previously unpublished work (either online or print).

Include a short biographical statement highlighting literary, academic, and artistic achievement, interest or affiliation.

If you have been published recently by Watershed Review, please wait 6 months before submitting again.

One story of up to 2500 words double-spaced (.doc, .docx, or .rtf format) may be submitted by an individual author per publishing period. Do not include any identifying information within the document.

Only send previously unpublished work (either online or print).

Include a short biographical statement highlighting literary, academic, and artistic achievement, interest or affiliation.

If you have been published recently by Watershed Review, please wait 6 months before submitting again.

Up to 4 poems, single-spaced, may be submitted by an individual author per publishing period. Please submit all poems in one file (.doc, .docx, .rtf) without any identifying information within the document.

Please list the poem titles in the "Title" section of this form (ex: The Fire Season, Former Ratio...")

Do not send previously published (either online or print) work.

Include a short biographical statement highlighting literary, academic, and artistic achievement, interest or affiliation.

If you have been published recently by Watershed Review, please wait 6 months before submitting again.

Up to 4 poems, single-spaced, may be submitted by an individual author per publishing period. Please submit all poems in one file (.doc, .docx, .rtf) without any identifying information within the document.

Please list the poem titles in the "Title" section of this form (ex: The Fire Season, Former Ratio...")

Do not send previously published (either online or print) work.

Include a short biographical statement highlighting literary, academic, and artistic achievement, interest or affiliation.

If you have been published recently by Watershed Review, please wait 6 months before submitting again.