Flume Press operates at the intersection of brevity and intentionality, treating the chapbook not as a lesser form but as a concentrated artistic statement. The press seeks manuscripts that function like concept albums or curated collections—where every poem, paragraph, or panel is placed with deliberateness, whether through thematic coherence, formal experimentation, or narrative arc. This contest is an opportunity for writers whose work resists the sprawl of the full-length collection in favor of a tighter, more resonant architecture. The 2026 iteration is adjudicated by Emily Lee Luan, a poet whose own chapbook, I Watch the Boughs, was selected for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship, and whose full-length collection, 回 /Return, won the Nightboat Poetry Prize. Her credentials—a Pushcart Prize, a 2025 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, and inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2021—signal a judge attuned to both lyric precision and cultural hybridity. Her editorial eye will likely favor manuscripts that demonstrate risk, invention, and a command of the chapbook as a form capable of surprise. While the contest accepts poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and hybrid forms, the chapbook remains the unifying constraint: a space where intentionality is paramount. Submitters should consider how their manuscript coheres as an object—not merely a gathering of pieces, but a sequence that earns its brevity. The press's language emphasizes 'surprise, invention, and genre bending,' suggesting a predilection for work that challenges categorical boundaries while maintaining internal logic.