Want your call for submissions included on our list?
Email your call-out to [email protected] (do not send your submissions here) Subject line: Call for submissions.
Black Lawrence Press
About: Black Lawrence Press is an independent publisher of contemporary poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Founded in 2004 by Colleen Ryor, Black Lawrence became an imprint of Dzanc Books in 2008. In January 2014, they spread their wings and became an independent company in the state of New York.
Their books are distributed nationally through Small Press Distribution to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and various brick and mortar retailers. Through their annual contests and open reading periods, they seek innovative, electrifying, and thoroughly intoxicating manuscripts that ensnare themselves in their hearts and minds and won’t let go.
Submissions: Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The Hudson Prize for an unpublished collection of poems or short stories. The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes awarded on publication.
All entries read blind by our panel of editors. Manuscripts should include a title page (listing only the title of the work), table of contents, and when appropriate, an acknowledgments page. Manuscripts should be paginated and formatted in an easy-to-read font such as Garamond or Times New Roman. Manuscripts should be 45-95 pages in length (poetry) or 120-280 pages in length (fiction), not including front and back matter (table of contents, title page, etc.). Identifying information for the author should not be included anywhere on the manuscript itself. You are welcome to include a brief bio or something about yourself in your cover note, which will only be made accessible to the editorial panel after the group of Semi-Finalist and Finalist manuscripts has been chosen.
A note regarding previously published work: Manuscripts containing individual stories or poems that have been previously published online or in print are absolutely eligible–please simply note previously published work on an acknowledgments page. On the other hand, if your manuscript has been previously published as a collection (including publication with a press, self-publication, online/digital publication, and publication in a small, limited-edition print run), then the manuscript is not eligible.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable and encouraged, but please notify by withdrawing your manuscript on Submittable immediately if it is accepted for publication elsewhere.
Multiple submissions (the submission of more than one manuscript to the contest) are permitted.
Collaborative collections are welcome.
Hybrid/multi-genre submissions are also welcome; please enter under the submission category that best fits your work.
The past winners of The Hudson Prize are Jo Neace Krause, Daniel Chacón, Abayomi Animashaun, Patrick Michael Finn, Sarah Suzor, B. C. Edwards, Jacob M. Appel, Bettina Judd, Matthew Cheney, Gillian Cummings, Caroline Cabrera, Beth Mayer, Alan Chazaro, Gwendolyn Paradice, and Ananda Lima.
Pay: The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book!
Deadline: Submit to Black Lawrence Press by March 31, 2021. Click HERE to submit fiction.
Check out the other annual contests that Black Lawrence Press offers!