Black Lawrence Press — PROSE — Black River Chapbook Competition

Overview
Black Lawrence Press conducts the Black River Chapbook Competition twice annually, alternating between poetry and prose. This call is for prose manuscripts—fiction, creative non-fiction, lyric essay, or prose hybrid—between 16 and 36 pages. The competition is open to new, emerging, and established writers, and the press maintains a blind reading process: all entries are evaluated without identifying information by a panel of editors. The winner receives book publication, a $500 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes are awarded on publication. There is a $20 entry fee. The deadline for this cycle is November 2, 2026. Manuscripts should include a title page listing only the title, a table of contents if applicable, and an acknowledgments page when appropriate. Pages must be paginated. Prose poem chapbooks and poetry/prose hybrid projects may be submitted under either the poetry or prose category, at the writer's discretion.