The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM chapbook contest announces the guidelines for 2017.
We pick the majority of our chapbook list each year from the ranks of the chapbook contest finalists, so this is the best way to get your work read by our eager readers.
The Prize
$1000 plus publication; finalist chapbooks also considered for publication (in 2016 we published five)
What we want
Images okay?
Yes. You must be able to obtain reprint rights for any images you include, unless they're in the public domain or qualify under the exemption for fair use. We do prefer images be in low-res for the manuscript to keep file size down (the submissions manager maxes out at around 9 meg), but we'll need high-res versions if your manuscript is selected for publication. ALSO: please don't send originals of anything, since we cannot return manuscripts.
Other questions?
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if any of the works have appeared elsewhere: tell us where individual pieces appeared, as we do consider submitted and unpublished individual pieces for possible publication in DIAGRAM.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 have a feeling of aesthetic unity or resonance: we think books should 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 via the mail, include a detachable cover page. Email nmp@thediagram.com with further questions if you have them.
Judge
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 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 DIAGRAM authors if you haven't already.
How to Enter
You can participate in the contest online or by mail.
For application information or more details please click "Further Official Information" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://www.thediagram.com/contest.html#2016chapbookguidelines