2010 Chapbook Contest Guidelines
The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM chapbook contest announces our guidelines for 2010. We pick the majority of our chapbook titles each year from the ranks of the chapbook contest finalists, so this is an important one for us.
$1000 plus publication; finalist chapbooks also considered for publication
$16.00
April 30, 2010
Interesting, lovely unpublished work (unpublished as a whole; individual pieces may be published already of course), prose or poetry or some combination or something between genres, 18-44 manuscript pages (no more than one poem per page if you're sending poems unless they are very, very short)
Yes. We don't print color interiors, so black and white images are acceptable; you must be able to obtain reprint rights for any images you include; please don't send originals of anything, since we cannot return manuscripts.
It's fine with us if individual works have been published elsewhere, but the manuscript can't have been published as a whole before. Please include specific acknowledgments if any of the works have appeared elsewhere—tell us where individual pieces appeared, as we consider submitted work for possible publication in DIAGRAM.
We recommend that your manuscript be as coherent--as much a project--as possible. Not to say everything needs to be thematic or narratively related, but most of our winning chapbooks show a sense of aesthetic unity so that the books make sense as books. Chapbook manuscripts do not necessarily have to be diagrammatic (though the diagrammers among us do enjoy those).
Co-authored manuscripts are fine.
Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each.
Please don't put your name/identifying info on the piece itself. If you send electronically, it'll be in the submitter info only. If you send snail mail, include a detachable cover page.
Email nmp--at--thediagram.com with further questions if you have them.
REQUIRED STEP ONE: Pay contest fee through Paypal by filling out the form with your last name and the manuscript title, then clicking on the [Add to Cart] button just below this paragraph. You may use a credit card if you like (or a checking account etc.). No need to create an account. Once you complete step one it will click through to a page with step two on it (also copied below just in case).
Great. Note that the payment goes to New Michigan Press, which is the publisher of DIAGRAM.
REQUIRED STEP TWO: submit your manuscript through our Submissions Manager system [here]. You'll have to create an account with the system if you haven't submitted to us before. Make SURE, SURE, that when you enter the submission's genre, you choose CHAPBOOK CONTEST SUBMISSION ONLY. Do NOT select "fiction," "poetry," or anything else. That way it gets read, processed, and responded-to properly (our contest submissions go through different process than regular submissions). If you submit under something else things will get munged (though we are happy to read your non-contest submissions whenever, of course) and you'll have to resubmit. Please give us some kind of cover letter if you like. Or not.
Note: only one file may be submitted through the submissions manager. PDF preferred, or Word format (.doc, .docx), or .rtf is fine if necessary (we cannot read any other word processing formats; sorry). If your submission is more than one file, copy and paste it into one file or otherwise attach it. A zipfile would be acceptable if you prefer.
*If you'd like a complimentary copy of the winning chapbook or another NMP chapbook of your choice (if we have it in stock; please indicate on envelope), send us a 6" x 9" or larger self-addressed envelope to NMP/DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest, English Department, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067.
If you send electronically you'll be notified electronically by default. No SASE required unless you want a copy of the winning chapbook. If you'd like us to send you a hardcopy results letter, that's fine.
If you'd rather send traditional mail, fine. Mail your manuscript and check (made out to New Michigan Press--or pay online above if you'd rather and include the receipt) for $16 to: NMP/DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest, English Department, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067.
So, make sure you send us a business-sized SASE with $0.46 of postage if you'd like notification of the results in the USA. Manuscripts cannot be returned (sorry—please don't send your only copy). And we can't do email if you don't submit online.
Enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you'd like confirmation that we received your manuscript.
Enclose a self-addressed 6" x 9" envelope with $2 of postage (in USA—$6 is a safe bet if you're sending from overseas) if you would like a complimentary copy of the winning chapbook (or another chapbook in our series—please specify which, if any, on the envelope). If you do not care, there is no need for this. Unfortunately we are giving up on IRCs. They don't seem to work. It is truly horrible.
Please send your manuscripts via airmail.
Please do not send submissions certified mail, express mail, or anything we have to sign for; it's a pain and if we're not home, we're not going to be able to make a trip to the post office, which is truly horrible in Arizona, to pick up your manuscript. If you want to overnight it, fine, please check off the "no signature req'd" box.
We don't have a celebrity judge for our chapbook contest. Since we pick the majority of our chapbooks from the submissions to the contest, we judge everything internally. The final judge is our editor, Ander Monson. Readers change and vary year to year. We read anonymously and try to vary our aesthetic year to year. Still, we like what we like. To find out what we like, you should probably check out our chapbooks if you haven't already.
That's it. Good luck!