(O:JA&L) Open: Journal of Arts & Letters — DALLY POST PRESS, an imprint of OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L). Open call for chapbook submissions: Cowboy Poetry
Overview
Open: Journal of Arts & Letters operates as a literary press with a distinct imprint, Dally Post Press, dedicated to the chapbook as a concentrated form. This call is for single-author collections of cowboy poetry—a genre with deep roots in oral tradition, vernacular rhythm, and the working landscapes of the American West. The press seeks manuscripts that honor that lineage while engaging with its contemporary possibilities, whether through narrative, lyric, or formal experimentation. The scope is deliberately bounded: 20 to 44 pages of poetry, with acknowledgments, dedication, and table of contents excluded from the count. Pamphlets of 4–16 pages and broadsides up to 36 lines are also considered under the same general guidelines. The press asks for a single document, each poem beginning on a new page, .docx preferred. A cover letter with full contact information and a third-person professional biography of up to 100 words is required. The subject line or cover letter must include “Call for Submissions: DALLY POST CHAPBOOK” to route the manuscript to the correct editors. There is no submission fee. Simultaneous submissions are permitted. The press does not specify a prize or advance; the reward is publication by an imprint that values the chapbook as a serious literary artifact. The curatorial vision favors manuscripts that are cohesive, attentive to the music of language, and rooted in the specificities of cowboy life—its labor, solitude, humor, and terrain—without resorting to caricature. The editors are looking for work that earns its place through craft, not costume.