2018 Chapbook Contest from Gazing Grain Press and Fall for the Book

Submission Guidelines

About: An inclusive feminist chapbook contest edited by George Mason University MFA alumni and sponsored by the Fall for the Book literary festival. This contest is open to feminists of all genders and sexualities and is meant to promote socially conscious poetry and hybrid writing to a wide audience. We adhere to no one “definition” of feminism—we encourage a broad and diverse range of approaches. Challenge us!

Contest winners will be announced in fall 2018 and published within one year of acceptance. Contest winner(s) will be invited to read at a book launch event at the New Leaves Literary Festival at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

  Manuscripts are read by the editors, who will select a set of finalists to send to the judge for winner selection.  One to three chapbooks will be published from this contest. 

EXTENDED Reading Period: March 22 to June 15

Reading Fee: $15 flat fee or $21 with choice of one chap (2018 winning chapbook or selection from our catalogue). Let us know your choice in the “submit” form, with your cover letter.

 Prize: Publication and 10% of print run. Winners will be invited to read at a book launch event at Fall for the Book or New Leaves Literary Festival at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Travel and accomodation will be paid, up to $500.00 USD. Runners-up and/or designated finalists will also be invited to receive recognition at the event(s). Contest finalists and semi-finalists will be considered for publication in the Gazing Grain Press miniature series of small limited-run, handmade artist books and ephemera. 

Judge: Khadijah Queen

Khadijah Queen is the author of five books, most recently I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On (YesYes Books 2017). Earlier poetry collections include Conduit (Akashic / Black Goat 2008), Black Peculiar (Noemi Press 2011) and Fearful Beloved (Argos Books 2015). Her verse play Non-Sequitur (Litmus Press 2015) won the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women's Performance Writing. Reviews of her work can be found in The New Yorker, Rain Taxi, BOMB Magazine, SCOUT, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Review, Open Letters Monthly, The Volta, Kenyon Review, Boston Review, and other publications. She serves as core faculty in poetry and playwriting for the new Mile-High MFA in creative writing at Regis University, and is raising a teenager. 

Chapbook Submissions

See category below for chapbook submission guidelines.

  Book Review Submissions

 Book reviews are accepted unsolicited year-round. Reviews appear online at gazinggrainpress.com

  (See category below for book review submission guidelines.)

  Chapbook Cover Art Submissions

  (See category below for guidelines.)



Gazing Grain Press is accepting art for consideration for the covers of published titles and for use in our miniatures. We accept art submissions year-round.

Submit no more than three images as representations of your work. Feel free to include a link to your website or web gallery in the submit form. If you wish, include a statement in your cover letter about what feminism means to you and your work. Visual art in any medium (including photographs of three-dimensional work) and photography is accepted.

The published artist will receive 10% of the print run and shall negotiate a usage contract with GGP.

Note: Art submissions are not read anonymously.

  1. Length: 500-1000 words.
  2. Unsolicited reviews are welcome.
  3. We only consider previously unpublished book reviews. A book review may be re-posted with proper acknowledgement of its first appearance at Gazing Grain Press.
  4. Edit please! Grammatical mistakes detract from the quality of a review.
  5. Appropriately and correctly cite and quote in MLA format. Provide links to publisher and seller where appropriate.
  6. Provide a bio of 50-100 words.

Note: Review submissions are not read blind.

Gazing Grain Press