SUBMISSIONS
YEAR-ROUND. FREE.
GUIDELINES
At Whittle Micro-Press, we are seeking contemporary, compact poetry collections that are heavily themed, and which are spare and haunting in style.
We do not accept individual poem submissions. We are not a journal.
Collections should be 8-12 pages of poetry. Please include a title page in addition to those 8-12 pages. No more than one poem per page, though we are willing to consider long poems.
No bios. We are focused on the work. We will request a bio and publishing credits should your manuscript be selected.
We prefer to read professional fonts such as Garamond or Times New Roman.
Do not submit cover artwork; we have an in-house illustrator and font team. If your manuscript is selected, we will be in touch about cover design.
Submit to whittlemicropress [at] gmail [dot] com as a docx or pdf file, with “Submission” as the subject line. Be sure to add our email address as an approved sender.
Failure to adhere to our guidelines will result in non-response.
POLICIES
Please submit only one manuscript at a time; you may send another after receiving a response.
We accept and encourage simultaneous submissions. If your manuscript is accepted elsewhere before we have a chance to respond, congratulations! Let us know as soon as possible via your original email thread, and edit your subject line to include the word “Withdrawal.”
Refrain from submitting work that features anything that may be reasonably perceived as hate speech or violence for the sake of violence. We support diversity, equity, and inclusion and operate under feminist and humanist principles. However, we do consider context. While we do not require cover letters, they are acceptable should you need to explain your intentions.
We do not charge submission fees. It is advisable to purchase one or more of our recent titles to assist you in understanding our style preferences, and if you would like to support our administrative costs, we welcome donations to the press, but monetary support is not required to submit and will not affect the outcome of your submission.
PREFERENCES
We appreciate the unexpected and we appreciate stylistic experimentation within the bounds of reader comprehension. Found poems are welcome (provided they give credit), as are collaborations between authors. Pop culture and fan culture surely have a place in poetry: show it to us.
We are open to traditional form poems if the poems have not been forced into shape, but please be judicious re: end rhymes. We are unlikely to become attached to inspirational or comedic poetry.
That being said, we aren’t quite sure what makes a poem a poem, either, so don’t be afraid to send off-kilter work.
PAYMENT AND RESPONSE
We try to keep prices low for accessibility, but if you are in a position to give more than the price of the book, we won’t stop you from ordering a handful of them. All book proceeds go directly to authors.
Response time will vary from a few days to six months. If you receive a swift rejection, please do not take it to mean your work was not considered carefully. Sometimes we have the time to commit to sustained reading and as writers ourselves, if we have made a decision we would prefer you not have to wait.
Should we work together, we may provide both macro and line edits. Acceptance is acceptance and you may decline our edits, but we welcome a workshop/collaborative experience.
If your manuscript is selected, we’ll be in touch about publication schedule and cover design.
