A Multi-Genre Chapbook Contest for BIPOC Women and Nonbinary Folks

Closed!

I will call them my people, which are not my people;
And them beloved, who were not beloved.
-Romans 9:25

This is a multi-genre Chapbook Contest for BIPOC women and nonbinary folks. What do we mean by multi-genre? You can submit fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid, graphic novel, or anything in between, or a genre we have never seen. Show us your creativity.

This selection will be the first of the Beloved series, named in honor of Toni Morrison’s incredible novel, Beloved.

The contest will be judged by the fabulous Jennifer Maritza McCauley. Depending on the judges’ selection, there might be multiple winners. The prize is $500, publication, plus twenty copies of the chapbook. If there is more than one winner, the monetary reward will be increased and distributed among the winners.

We publish visually stunning books that people can’t help picking up. Each chapbook receives an ISBN and is sold worldwide by local independent booksellers and in larger markets like Barnes & Noble. We create a promotion/publicity plan for each author. 

We encourage both new, emerging, and established writers to submit!

About Jennifer Maritza McCauley:

Jennifer is a writer, poet, and university professor. She has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in prose, Kimbilio, CantoMundo, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. She holds an MFA from Florida International University and a PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Missouri. She has received awards from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Academy of American Poets, and Best of the Net, and was a finalist for the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and Big Moose Prize (Black Lawrence Press) in fiction and longlisted for the Aspen Words Prize and the Reading the West Book Awards. She has received 13 Pushcart Prize nominations and a Pushcart Prize Special Mention for her poetry, fiction, and hybrid work. She has been published in or has forthcoming publications in Boston Review, Passages North, Puerto del Sol, Afro-Hispanic Review, Vassar Review, Columbia Journal, The Texas Review, The Breakbeat Poets: LatiNext, Deep South Magazine, Jabberwock Review, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, Verse Daily, Connotations Press, and Latinas: Protests and Struggle among other places. She has been on staff at Pleiades (Fiction Editor, current), The Missouri Review (Poetry Editor, Contest Editor), Origins Literary Journal (Poetry Editor), Gulf Stream Magazine (Staff), and Florida Book Review (Contributing Editor). She is the author of the cross-genre collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF (Stalking Horse Press), the short story collection When Trying to Return Home (Counterpoint), the poetry collection KINDS OF GRACE (‘24) (Flower Song Press), and the speculative fiction collection NEON STEEL (Cornerstone Press) (2/26). Her next poetry collection, VERSUS: Poems, is forthcoming in 2027 from Texas Review Press.

Chapbook Guidelines

  • The entry fee is $12, and submissions are through our portal on Dousuma. We are not able to accept submissions via email or postal mail. We have a limited number of fee waivers available. Please message purpleinpress (at) gmail (dot) come for consideration.
  • Hybrid poetry and visual art submissions, including photographs, are welcome and encouraged.
  • Currently, we are not accepting translations.

Manuscript Guidelines

  • Work must be unpublished in any genre between 16 and 35 pages, including text and images. These 35 pages do not include your title page, table of contents, or acknowledgments. 
  • Poetry Manuscripts can be single-spaced; prose submissions should be double-spaced.
  • Your manuscript should include a title page with the name of the work, a table of contents if needed, and, when appropriate, an acknowledgments page.
  • You can include a bio in your submission. Your bio will only be considered after the final selections are made.
  • Written manuscripts should have page numbers and be formatted with a white background in Garamond, Georgia, Times New Roman, or Calibri (colored backgrounds are difficult to read).
  • We prefer visual manuscripts in .pdf.
  • Submissions are anonymous. Manuscripts are reviewed without identifying information by our readers, editors, and our judges. Please remove all identifying information from your manuscript, including the file name and the “title” field in Duosuma. If your name is in the manuscript, please remove it or make a substitution. You will have the chance to edit your name back in if selected for publication.

Simultaneous, Multiple, and Collaborative Submissions

  • Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please withdraw your manuscript in Duosuma if accepted elsewhere.
  • Multiple submissions, that is, the submission of more than one manuscript for the contest, are permitted. You need to pay a submission fee for each submission.
  • Collaborative works are welcome with the permission of the authors.

Feedback

  • Feedback options are available for your story and chapbook manuscripts.

Previously Published Work

  • We will accept manuscripts with some previously published work. Up to 20% of the manuscript can be published elsewhere. Please note where your work was published on an acknowledgments page. Also, please check that you have the right to republish. We do not accept previously published chapbooks, including self-published, online/digital All s, and publications in a small, limited-edition print run.

Deadline: January 25th, 2026.

  • Semifinalists and finalists will be announced in February 2026, and winners in March 2026. Follow us on social media for updates.

We are excited to read your work!