Essay Press is dedicated to publishing artful, innovative
and culturally relevant prose. We are interested in publishing single essays
that are too long to be easily published in journals or magazines, but too
short to be considered book-length by most publishers. We are looking for
essays that have something to say, essays that both demand and deserve to stand
alone. We particularly welcome work that extends or challenges the formal
protocols of the essay, including, but not limited to: lyric essays or prose
poems; experimental biography and autobiography; innovative approaches to
journalism, experimental historiography, criticism, scholarship and philosophy.
Essay Press is accepting chapbooks submissions in an open reading period during the month of December.
We’re particularly excited to publish chapbooks that extend or challenge the formal possibilities of prose, including but not limited to: lyric essays and prose poems or poetics; experimental biography and autobiography; innovative approaches to journalism; interdisciplinary historiography, criticism, scholarship, and philosophy. Simultaneous submissions, multiple submissions, collaborative manuscripts, translations, and digital and hybridized text/art manuscripts are all welcome.
Submissions will ideally be between 20 and 40 pages, but slightly shorter or longer is fine. You are welcome to submit an excerpt from a longer work, a collection of texts, or a single essay that is too long for journal publication but too short for full-length book publication.
Publication decisions are expected to be completed in February.
Authors will receive 25 author copies and a $300 honorarium.
The reading fee is $5, or $15 to receive a copy of a previously published Essay Press book, for those in the United States.
If the submission fee is prohibitive, please contact us at essaypress@gmail.com about a fee waiver.
Questions about the reading period can be sent to essaypress@gmail.com.