Flume Press positions the chapbook not as a lesser form but as a concentrated one—a manuscript that operates like a concept album or a curated collection, where brevity demands intentionality across theme, form, or narrative. The press seeks work that invites surprise and invention, and that resists the merely incidental. This is a call for manuscripts that know what they are doing and why. The contest is open to poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and hybrid forms, with this dossier specifically addressing the nonfiction category. The guest judge is Emily Lee Luan, author of 回 /Return, winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize, and I Watch the Boughs, selected for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. Luan is a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, a Pushcart Prize recipient, and her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2021, American Poetry Review, and Lithub, among others. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Adelphi University and teaches in Adelphi's low-residency MFA program. The submission period runs from August 25 to October 10, 2026. A fee of $15.00 is required. The prize is not specified in the provided materials. The contest is administered online, and the press's stated interest lies in manuscripts that demonstrate intentionality—whether through a cohesive thematic arc, formal experimentation, or a sustained narrative—and that make room for the unexpected.