Wells College Press invites submissions to its annual Poetry Chapbook Contest. The next submissions window is from October 15, 2023 to January 15, 2024. The winner will be announced in April 2024. The author of the chosen manuscript will receive 10 copies of the artist-designed, hand-sewn chapbook, plus a digital version, and will be invited to read from their new chapbook at Wells College in the fall of 2024. The poet will receive a $1,000 honorarium plus room and board for the reading.

The Wells College Press will print a special edition of 50 signed and numbered copies. The design of the winning chapbook will respond directly to the poems of the manuscript, and we will also create a digital edition available for download. Prior chapbooks have included type and ornaments cast in metal at the Bixler Letterfoundry in Skaneateles, commissioned engravings, and tactile cover materials enclosing the hand-sewn bindings, and we will continue our tradition of crafting each chapbook individually and obsessively. 

Submission Guidelines:

·  18-30 manuscript pages (with no more than one poem per page)

·  Individual poems may have been published in periodicals, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. An acknowledgments page is optional for the contest submission, though it will be included in the final chapbook.

·  Co-authored manuscripts and translated manuscripts are welcome as long as the author has all relevant permissions.

·  Close personal friends of the judge, as well as current or former students of the judge, are ineligible.

·  Multiple submissions are welcome, but each submission must be accompanied by a separate entry fee.

·  Please limit your identifying information to your cover letter; the manuscript itself must be anonymous, as the judging will be blind.

Entries can be submitted at https://wellscollegepress.submittable.com/submit or by mail to: Chapbook Contest, Wells Book Arts Center, Wells College, 170 Main Street, Aurora, New York 13026. Make checks for $25 payable to Wells College Press, with “WCPress entry fee” on the memo line. Include an SASE for notification of the results. Optional: Include a self-addressed, stamped postcard for acknowledgment of receipt. A limited number of fee waivers are available for submitters who may be experiencing financial hardship; please email bookartscenter@wells.edu with the subject line “Chapbook Fee Waiver” for details.

Early readers for our contest are all award-winning poets. The final judge of the WCP Poetry Chapbook Contest is Dan Rosenberg. The winner of the most recent contest was James D’Agostino’s “This Much.” 

For more information, visit wellsbookartscenter.org.