Purple Ink Press Chapbook Contest 2024
We are opening Purple Ink Press’s inaugural Chapbook Contest. We are doing things a bit differently. We hate binaries. We don’t believe in only one winner. We believe in bringing as many people as possible to the table. The contest will have one to three winners. The prize is $500 plus publication and ten copies of the chapbook. If there is more than one winner, the monetary reward will be increased and distributed among the winners. All winners will receive ten copies of their chapbook. Prizes are awarded at publication.
We are thrilled to have Chen Chen as our inaugural judge this year.
About Chen Chen:
Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (2022), and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (2017), both published by BOA Editions. His latest chapbook is Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023). His honors include two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and United States Artists. He lives in Rochester, NY, and teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College, Stonecoast, and Antioch.
Also about Chen Chen:
Chen Chen is both dramatic and yearning. He is always having A Week. Due to personal reasons and much like the moon, he writes poems and is gay.
We approve, as we are also dramatic and yearning.
What is Chen looking for:
“I’m looking for poems that sing, that surprise, that offer deep insight into self/world, that move, that fly through the air like figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, that land as he does—with grace and maybe some sexy flair, too. I’m also looking for, when it comes to the chapbook form, a strong sense of cohesion, though I also love formal range and variety in subject matter—so, it comes down to how persuasively the collection is shaped. In other words, convince your reader that these poems truly belong together. Oh, and weird—I’m looking for weird. By which I mean an idiosyncratic language and attention. Please be weird.”
Chapbook guidelines
All manuscripts will be considered for publication. We encourage both new, emerging, and established writers to submit. We are looking for unpublished chapbooks of poems or hybrid manuscripts of poems and visual art between 16-30 pages in length.
Submissions are anonymous. Manuscripts are reviewed without identifying information by our readers, editors, and our judge. Please remove all identifying information from your manuscript, including the file name and the “title” field in Duosuma. Identifying information from the poet should. 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.
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 amount of fee waivers available. Please message yael@purpleink.com for consideration.
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. Manuscripts should have page numbers and be formatted in Garamond, Georgia, Times New Roman, or Calibri. Manuscripts should be 16-30 pages in length of poetry and or images. These 30 pages do not include your title page, table of contents, or acknowledgments. The manuscript should be single-spaced except for intentional spacing choices.
You can include a bio in your submission. Your bio will only be considered after the final selections are made.
Previously published poems within the manuscript are fine. Please note where your poems were published in an acknowledgments page. We do not accept chapbooks that appeared in this entirety or 50% in another work, like a full-length collection. We do not accept previously published chapbooks, including self-published, online/digital publications, and publications in a small, limited-edition print run.
- Deadline: October 31st.
- 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.
- Hybrid poetry and visual art submissions, including photographs, are welcome and encouraged.
- Currently, we are not accepting translations.
Contest results: A list of semi-finalists, finalists, and winners will be announced after the contest closes. The contest is scheduled to close on October 30th, with winners announced in December. Follow us on social media for updates.
Our chapbooks are distributed worldwide and beautifully laid out. Your cover will be graphic and striking. They are designed in-house by a graphic designer with over twenty years of experience. We publish visually startling books people can’t help picking up. Each chapbook receives ISBN, and sold worldwide, as well local independent booksellers and sites larger markets like Barnes & Noble. We create a promotion/publicity plan for each author.
Feedback options are available for your poem(s) and chapbook manuscripts.
We are excited to read your work!
