Become the next acclaimed Tupelo Press author!
We welcome your submissions and offer many opportunities each year to submit your work.
It is important that you read the complete guidelines for each contest or reading period before submitting your work. Writers submitting work for consideration may be published authors or writers without previous book publications. Submissions are accepted from anyone writing in the English language, whether living in the United States or abroad.
Tupelo Press does not publish children’s books, inspirational books, graphic novels, or religious books. We do not accept emailed manuscripts for any contest, reading period, or submission opportunity.
Before submitting an entry to Tupelo Press, please explore the work of the writers we have published. We’re drawn to technical virtuosity combined with abundant imagination; memorable, vivid imagery and strikingly musical approaches to language; willingness to take risks; and an ability to convey penetrating insights into human experience.
Read our submission procedures here.
Tupelo Prizes
Four Quartets: Poetry During the Pandemic
Submission period: May 11 — June 30
We are pleased to announce an open call for four 12-page folios of poetry, to be included in a book to be published by Tupelo Press in the late fall, titled: Four Quartets: Poetry in the Pandemic. Submissions open immediately and close promptly at midnight, Tuesday, June 30th. The editors of Tupelo Press will select four folios of poetry—to be read blind—from among the manuscripts submitted during this open call. The four selected poets, comprising a “quartet,” will be published alongside three other quartets already in preparation by such literary luminaries as Mary Jo Bang, Yusef Komunyakaa, Khadijah Queen, Shane McCrae, A Van Jordan, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and six other noted poets who have each kindly committed to participating in this project. Read the complete guidelines here.
Berkshire Prize
Submission period: January 1 – May 31
The annual Tupelo Press Berkshire Prize Award for a First or Second Book of Poetry is an open competition for a poetry manuscript with a $3,000 prize. Prior winners include Kristina Jipson, Daniel Khalastchi, Megan Snyder-Camp. Read the complete guidelines here. See last year’s winner.
Sunken Garden Chapbook Poetry Prize
Submission period extended through November 30th
The Sunken Garden Poetry Prize is a prestigious national poetry prize established in 2002. The Prize has drawn submissions from around the country that have been judged by renowned poets such as Martha Collins, Patricia Smith and Tony Hoagland. The winner receives a cash prize, an introductory reading at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, and publication of a chapbook. Read the complete guidelines. See past winners.
Dorset Prize
Submission period: September 1 – December 31
The annual Dorset Prize is an open competition for a poetry manuscript, with a $3,000 prize. Prior winners include G.C. Waldrep, Joshua Corey, Rusty Morrison, and Ilya Kaminsky. Read the complete guidelines here. Click here to see past winners.
Snowbound Chapbook Award
Submission period: December 1 – February 29
The annual Snowbound Chapbook Award is an open competition for a poetry manuscript with a prize of $1,000 and 25 copies. Prior winners include Kath Jesme, Brandon Som, and Stacey Waite. Read the complete guidelines here. Click here to see all past winners.
Tupelo Quarterly
Tupelo Quarterly, a literary journal, extends and expands upon the vision of Tupelo Press, publishing work by emerging and established writers and artists of many sensibilities and styles. Tupelo Quarterly cultivates generous artistic community, celebrates intellectual curiosity and creative risk, and presumes abundance. We hold the gate open, not closed. Read the complete guidelines here.
Prose
Submission period: year round
Our editors now read submissions of fiction and non-fiction year-round, including novels, novellas, short story collections, essays, and memoir. Prose manuscripts are not read anonymously. Read the complete guidelines here.
Poetry Project
The Tupelo Press Poetry Project was established in 2007 to provide poets and creative writing teachers with engaging, challenging prompts or provocations for writing new poems. Our guest editors’ selections were featured in an online gallery. The project ended in 2012. For more information click here.