The 2007 Chapbook Contest Guidelines:

Each year, New Michigan Press joins forces with DIAGRAM for its yearly chapbook competition. These are the guidelines for 2007. Please note the new deadline.

The 2006 Prize
$1000, 25 copies of the finely-printed chapbook, author can purchase more at 40% discount.

We will also publish at least one other finalist manuscript, possibly more (in 2006 we published four).

Sundries
18-44 pp of poetry, fiction, essay, mixed-genre, or genre-bending work. Images can be included, though they must be black and white. No more than one poem (if yer sending poems) per page.

$15 reading fee (U.S. funds please; cash if you want to risk it, money orders, or checks made out to New Michigan Press, or use your credit card buy clicking on [add to cart] below, in which case mention on your cover letter that you paid online.

Enclose a business-sized SASE for notification. Manuscripts cannot be returned (sorry—please don't send your only copy).

Enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you'd like confirmation that we received your manuscript.

Enclose a self-addressed 6"x9" envelope with $1 of postage (in USA—more if you're sending Internationally) if you would like a complimentary copy of the winning chapbook (or another chapbook in our series—please specify which, if any). If you do not care, there is no need for this.

Please do not send submissions certified mail, express mail, or anything we have to sign for; it's a pain. If you want to overnight it, please check off the "no signature req'd" box.

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.

This contest is open to both published and unpublished writers.

Multiple submissions is fine; a separate reading fee is required for each.

Deadline
postmark between Oct. 12, 2006 and April 02, 2007.

Mail to
NMP/DIAGRAM
648 Crescent NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Typically we narrow the field down to ten finalists, all of which are considered for publication (even if they don't win the contest; in 2003, NMP published four contest finalist mss.; in 2004, we published two; in 2005, we published four; 2006: four). All work submitted (unless previously published) is considered for possible publication in DIAGRAM.

About the chapbook as an art form
Though we are a small press with fairly limited resources, we are devoted to producing striking and elegant (when appropriate to the subject matter) chapbooks, and we keep them in print. We feel that we run one of the classier chapbook operations around. (The Wick Poetry Program through Kent State University runs a series of chapbooks that we envy.) All contest entry fees go to support the contest, chapbook series, and the press.

Buy previous winners and other NMP chapbooks [here] to see what we mean.

We recommend that your manuscript be as coherent as possible. Chapbook manuscripts do not necessarily have to be diagrammatic (though the diagrammers among us do enjoy those). Since our resources are limited, we generally do not print four-color chapbooks.

Our readers change from year to year; we read work anonymously and try to be open to both traditional and experimental work. We strive to vary our aesthetic year to year and be open to what is excellent and moving.

QUESTIONS OR QUERIES
Email nmp@thediagram.com .

http://thediagram.com/contest.html