Become the next acclaimed Tupelo Press author!
We welcome your submissions and offer many opportunities each year to submit your work to us.
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
Second Annual Tupelo Broadside Prize
Submission period: June 1 – June 30
The Second Annual Tupelo Broadside Prize is an open poetry competition. The editors of Tupelo Press and Tupelo Quarterly will choose three winners who will each receive $350 in addition to broadside publication by Tupelo Press, 20 copies of the winning broadside, and publication in Tupelo Quarterly. Read the complete guidelines here.
Berkshire Prize
Submission period: January 1 – April 30
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: August 1 – October 31
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 28
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.
Kundiman Prize
Submission period: February 1 – March 15
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 are featured in an online gallery. All Poetry Project submissions must be uploaded to our online submission manager; mailed submissions are not acceptable. For more information click here.