Yearly Contest Details

SUBMISSION PERIOD: Our 2025 series is coming soon in March 23rd through March 29th! 
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Please send all submissions to: gardenpartycollectivelit@gmail.com

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Our judges—Ashley Elizabeth, Kenny Bradley, Jacob Jardel, and Maya Williams—will pick 4 winners. We're excited to bring these collections into print! 

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All submission entries should be accompanied by a 2-4 sentence bio, the title of the chapbook, and any relevant links in the body of the email. Please attach your chapbook manuscript as a pdf / doc / docx to the email.

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ADDITIONALLY: 

• Submissions must be ~20 pages min/~30 pages max (including ToC, Acknowledgements, etc)

• Acknowledgments page required for all previously published pieces

• Please start each piece on a new page

• Individual pieces may be previously published, but large portions of the manuscript cannot be already published

• Prose, poetry, and hybrid combinations are all welcome (in traditional or experimental styles)

• Please double-space all fiction and essays 

• We’re open to collaborations, translation, reviews, art, and anything you can think of–surprise us!

• International submissions are accepted

• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please keep us in the loop if you hear back elsewhere 

• Please include your pronouns in your bio/submission so we can properly refer to you <3​

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One manuscript per person, please. Any entry received after the selected dates will not be considered for publication. We read every manuscript, and will have our picks for finalists within two months of submissions!

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WHAT WE OFFER OUR AUTHORS: 

• 20 author copies (plus additional copies at-price as desired)

• Free copies of the other winning chaps for the year

• An initial print run of 100 copies, with additional print runs as needed 

• Beautiful cover art! We'll work with you if you have someone in mind, or we'll find somebody wonderful together 

• Expert printing & binding via Astringent Press

• Online release of our winning chaps as free ebooks the next year

• An invitation to feature at our Garden Party online reading

• Reviews & blurbs for your book from within our network

• Invitation to join the Garden Party Collective—lend your voice for picking new winners in future contests

• Winners will have extensive involvement regarding their cover art, interior design, and general editing, with plenty of guidance from our entire collective—let's grow your writing with lots of different perspectives!​

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ROYALTIES: We initially pay our authors w/ 20 copies of their chaps + free copies of the other 2 winners, and also provide royalties once we break even on production costs.
 

For context/transparency, we'll be selling the chapbooks to people at a "Pay-What-You-Can" rate (see below). As such, our goal each contest is firstly accessibility, then trying to break even. Once we reach that point though, the Garden Party Collective will split all profits with each writer, 50/50. We'll use our share for future GPC projects and promotion!  

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DISTRIBUTION: like our previous project, Nostrovia! Press, we believe money should never be a gatekeeping factor for the amazing writing we want to share, which is why all of our print copies are sold at a "Pay-What-You-Can"! And we also will share all of our winners as free ebooks later for further availability. 

We also donate chaps to fundraisers, literary events, and schools. 

If you have such an organization, please contact us! We'd love to help you out! 

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2023 & 2024 STATS:

• Tremendous thanks to everyone who trusted us with their work—we received 147 submissions during our 1-week period in early 2023 and then 80 submissions in 2024!

• In both contests, we responded to all of our submissions, with a +97% personalized rejection rate.