Digging Press Chapbook Series
The Digging Press Chapbook Series Competition is open for submissions twice a year for fiction, poetry, or hybrid* manuscripts. We seek innovative manuscripts that are inventively personal and richly imagined. We are inspired by the works of Clarice Lispector, Augusto Monterroso, Lynne Tillman, Óscar Esquivias, Giannina Braschi, Italo Calvino, Lydia Davis, Zakaria Tamer, Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa, Sonia Sanchez, Ocean Vuong, Sam Sax, Claudia Rankine, Eileen Myles…
–
We are passionate about presenting a unique book design and offering editorial support. We aim to produce beautiful and artistic books. Selected manuscripts have a small print-run (100 – 120 copies), and authors receive 20 copies plus $250 payment. Authors retain all rights to the text material within the author’s chapbook.
–
*We define hybrid as any text mixing two or more genres within one manuscript. Poetry and creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry, expository and fictional narrative…
–
The textbook definition:
A hybrid text is referred to as an informational storybook (Leal, 1992), a blended or mixed-genre text (Elster & Hanauer, 2002), a multi-genre text (Flurkey & Goodman, 2004), or a postmodern picture book (Pantaleo, 2014; Sipe & Pantaleo, 2008).
–
–
Winners:
2018: Mandy-Suzanne Wong (Publication April 2019)
Fall 2019: TBA in September
Winter 2019/2020: TBA in February
Open Submission Periods:
Spring/Summer Entry Period: April 1 – June 15
Summer/Fall Entry Period: August 1 – October 15
Submission Fee:
The submission/reading fee is $10 per submission. You can email: editor@diggingpress.com, if you would like to submit but have any trouble paying the submission fee. Please note that fees offset the cost of publishing and promoting the winning chapbook. A small portion also helps cover our Submittable hosting fees. We also rely on donations and purchases to support our chapbook series. If you would like to donate $10 to cover the cost of a fellow writer, Donate Here to our Digging Press Fund.
GUIDELINES
Digging Press, LLC is an independent publisher. We publish the literary and arts journal, Digging Through The Fat, and a chapbook series. As a micro-press and journal for cultural omnivores, we aim to nurture experimentation in the arts and encourage broad-mindedness and cultural inclusion. Read our interview at Six Questions to learn more about who we are.
We only accept manuscripts between 16 and 36 pages via Submittable. Please read the following carefully:
-
Respect our blind submission policy. The manuscript must be free of any identity-revealing information, including in the name of your file or in the “title” field in Submittable. Submissions that do not respect this policy will be automatically declined.
- Page limit: 16 to 36 pages. Please use a readable font in 12-point. Times New Roman or its equivalent is recommended. Manuscripts should be paginated (and double-spaced for fiction), not including front and back matter (table of contents, title page, etc.).
-
You are welcome to include a brief bio or something about yourself in your cover note on Submittable, which will only be made accessible to the editorial panel after the group of Semi-Finalist and Finalist manuscripts has been chosen.
-
Include the following in your upload document: a description or synopsis of your work, title page, table of contents, if appropriate, an acknowledgments page. (If the manuscript contains individual stories or poems that have been previously published online or in print, note previously published work on the acknowledgments page.)
-
The manuscript must be previously unpublished as a collection (including publication with a press, self-publication, online/digital publication, and publication in a small, limited-edition print run).
-
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable and encouraged, but please notify us by withdrawing your manuscript on Submittable immediately if it is accepted for publication elsewhere. Do not email us a withdrawal.
-
Multiple submissions are permitted if submitted separately, each with a submission fee.
-
Collaborative collections are welcome.
-
Text only Hybrid/multi-genre submissions are also welcome.
-
We cannot accept translations.
-
You will have the option to purchase our latest chapbook for a discounted price, which includes the cost of shipping. While authors from around the globe may submit to the Digging Press Chapbook Series, these discounted book prices are only available to those with U.S. mailing addresses.
Announcements:
–
SPRING/SUMMER ENTRIES: The selected chapbook is announced in September with publication in June of the following year.
Spring/Summer 2019 Entries – Results will be announced September 23, 2019 .
FALL/WINTER ENTRIES: The selected chapbook is announced in February with publication November.
All submissions are read, reviewed, and considered by Gessy Alvarez, editor of the Digging Press Chapbook Series. Accepted works will be promoted in our online journal, and at our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.
With permission from our contributors, we may include accepted works in promotional material for Digging Through The Fat and Digging Press, LLC.
If you have any questions or concerns, please add your comments in the section below and we’ll respond within 24 hours.
— Digging Press Team
To the Editors–
For your chapbook call, how many copies are in a “small print run”?
Thanks!
100 – 120 copies.
Got it…thanks!
I recommend submitting text only. If the images are essential to your project you can include pages with short descriptions of images. If your manuscript makes it to the finals, we will be in touch and request your full pdf to review.
I am putting together a chapbook at the minute, and this competition looks perfect. However, I just wanted to check – is it America only? Or can people in the UK submit?
You can submit from the UK. If you win, the US dollar cash prize will be sent via Paypal. International shipping fees may apply
What exactly is the definition of Hybrid Text. I need to know to see if my chapbook qualifies.
We define it as any text mixes more than one genre within one story. Poetry and creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry, expository and fictional narrative…
The textbook definition:
A hybrid text is a single text with a dual purpose: to integrate narrative and informational text (Donovan & Smolkin, 2002). It presents important information about a specific topic using narrative text as the primary means of expression (Maloch & Bomer, 2013)—for example, to teach scientific information (Ebbers, 2002). A hybrid text is also referred to as an informational storybook (Leal, 1992), a blended or mixed-genre text (Elster & Hanauer, 2002), a multi-genre text (Flurkey & Goodman, 2004), or a postmodern picture book (Pantaleo, 2014; Sipe & Pantaleo, 2008).
Unfortunately, we are not accepting hybrid texts with graphics or visual arts, yet, but we hope to in a future call for submissions.
Thanks for your question.
Best,
The Digging Team
Hi — My chapbook “Three Fat Men” is 76 pages when it is double spaced (dialogue). Can I send it anyways? Its a lightly science fiction story about 3 aliens who come to Earth around Chrismastime and discover a horrible plot to kill old people.
We have a small budget right now which is why our page count is low. But that may change for a future call. I would recommend you hold off on submitting for this call.
Does It has to be in English or could be in Spanish? In addition is it open for International writers?
The manuscript should be understandable to an English speaker, but it doesn’t have to be totally in English. For example, Braschi’s Yo-Yo Boing is a work written in Spanglish.
We do accept international submissions. If you win, the US dollar cash prize will be sent via Paypal. International fees may apply.