2025 Ricochet Editions Call for Manuscript Submissions

Reading Period: July 1 - September 1, 2025

Ricochet Editions invites manuscript submissions that are unpredictable. We are looking for purposeful experimentation with language and form that challenges or plays with convention—whether textual or visual, contemporary or historical, personal or cultural. Send us your texts that merge genres and languages, that draw on found forms, that are collaboratively or collectively authored, that collage, fragment, and blend mediums to expand the limits of the book form. 

Ricochet Editions is committed to publishing and promoting innovative, risk-taking work. Since 2012, we have published genre-blurring, hybrid, and unconventional manuscripts, ranging from chapbooks to full-lengths. We publish writers at any stage of their career​​—established and emerging authors alike. We welcome work from underrepresented voices, including BIPOC writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, writers from non-academic backgrounds, and writers with disabilities.

Writers are encouraged to read our previously published books to get a sense of Ricochet’s aesthetics: Sympathetic Little Monster by Cameron Awkward-Rich, The Hatchet and the Hammer by Caitlin Scarano, People I’ve Met From the Internet by Stephen van Dyck, As I Said: A Dissent by Abby Minor, ryman by Christian Schlegel, Temporal Anomalies by Matt Broaddus, and Six Tones of Water by Vi Khi Nao and Sun Yung Shin. All titles are available for purchase at the Ricochet Catalog page.

GUIDELINES
Your manuscript should be between 40 and 200 pages, although we’re open to exceptional work outside these limits.

If your manuscript is selected for publication, you will receive $1,000 and 50 copies of the perfect-bound book with ISBN. The staff will also send out copies to venues for reviews and (if applicable) awards.

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Multiple submissions are acceptable, as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.
• Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.
• No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. Authors whose manuscripts are accepted will have the opportunity to make revisions prior to publication.
• Current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2019 to present) are not eligible to submit. Please direct any further questions to ricocheteditions@usc.edu.

Submission Fee: $15

Free submissions are available for self-identifying POC and Indigenous writers and writers facing financial hardship. (Please submit to the relevant category to avoid the fee; all submissions are read and considered equally regardless of which submission category was used.)

Every reading fee provides us with the necessary funds to defray printing costs and to compensate our authors.

2025 Ricochet Editions Call for Manuscript Submissions 

Reading Period: July 1 - September 1, 2025

Ricochet Editions invites manuscript submissions that are unpredictable. We are looking for purposeful experimentation with language and form that challenges or plays with convention—whether textual or visual, contemporary or historical, personal or cultural. Send us your texts that merge genres and languages, that draw on found forms, that are collaboratively or collectively authored, that collage, fragment, and blend mediums to expand the limits of the book form. 

Ricochet Editions is committed to publishing and promoting innovative, risk-taking work. Since 2012, we have published genre-blurring, hybrid, and unconventional manuscripts, ranging from chapbooks to full-lengths. We publish writers at any stage of their career​​—established and emerging authors alike. We welcome work from underrepresented voices, including BIPOC writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, writers from non-academic backgrounds, and writers with disabilities.  

Writers are encouraged to read our previously published books to get a sense of Ricochet’s aesthetics: Sympathetic Little Monster by Cameron Awkward-Rich, The Hatchet and the Hammer by Caitlin Scarano, People I’ve Met From the Internet by Stephen van Dyck, As I Said: A Dissent by Abby Minor, ryman by Christian Schlegel, Temporal Anomalies by Matt Broaddus, and Six Tones of Water by Vi Khi Nao and Sun Yung Shin. All titles are available for purchase at the Ricochet Catalog page.

GUIDELINES Your manuscript should be between 40 and 200 pages, although we’re open to exceptional work outside these limits.

If your manuscript is selected for publication, you will receive $1,000 and 50 copies of the perfect-bound book with ISBN. The staff will also send out copies to venues for reviews and (if applicable) awards.

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Multiple submissions are acceptable, as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.
• Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.
• No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. Authors whose manuscripts are accepted will have the opportunity to make revisions prior to publication.
• Current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2019 to present) are not eligible to submit. Please direct any further questions to ricocheteditions@usc.edu.

Submission Fee: $15

Free submissions are available for self-identifying POC and Indigenous writers and writers facing financial hardship. (Please submit to the relevant category to avoid the fee; all submissions are read and considered equally regardless of which submission category was used.)

Every reading fee provides us with the necessary funds to defray printing costs and to compensate our authors.

Gold Line Press is accepting chapbook manuscripts for its 2025 contest from August 15 until September 30, 2025. 

We invite submissions of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that are chapbook-length as a key element of their concept. Our judges this year are Jenny Tinghui Zhang in fiction, Claire Hong in poetry, and Samantha Hunt in Nonfiction.

We welcome a wide range of styles and approaches. In past years, Gold Line Press has published both writing that is innovative or genre-crossing, as well as writing that is more traditionally structured. While we have a particular interest in promoting the work of emerging writers, we welcome and celebrate submissions from writers in any stage of their career who are creating innovative and resonant chapbook-length texts.

We seek works of prose that are purposefully planned as chapbooks: novelettes, carefully curated collections of vignettes, short stories, essays, or other projects that take the chapbook format as an instrumental element of their design. Excerpts of novels or short story/essay collections should form a sustained and individual project in their foreshortened form.

For poets, we also recommend that manuscripts be cohesive and self-contained in the chapbook length.

Length: 20-30 pages of poetry, 7500-15000 words of prose.

Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Gold Line Press is affiliated with the Literature and Creative Writing Department at the University of Southern California.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

· Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.

· Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.

· Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.

· No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. The author of the winning manuscript will work with Gold Line's editorial staff to make revisions prior to publication.

· Colleagues and current or former students of this year’s judges—as well as current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2018 to present)—are not eligible to submit.

In December 2025, we will announce contest results by email, as well as on the Gold Line Press social media accounts. 

Each winner receives $750, publication of their perfect-bound chapbook with ISBN, and 50 contributor copies. Gold Line Press sends out 30 copies on behalf of winners for review. Winners can purchase additional copies of their chapbooks at cost. The chapbook is cataloged in the Library of Congress.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts must be 20-30 pages in length for poetry entries, and 7,500-15,000 words for fiction and nonfiction entries (not including the title page and table of contents). Please submit your manuscript typed in font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Prose manuscripts should be double spaced.

Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents at the beginning, unless the form of the book does not warrant it.

Individual poems/short stories/essays may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be original and unpublished.

Manuscripts must be the submitter’s original work. We will not consider AI generated submissions.

The manuscript must be in English. Translations are ineligible.

The submission fee is waived for writers of color, indigenous writers, and writers facing financial hardship.

All manuscripts must be received by SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 via Submittable.

We do not accept hard copy or emailed submissions. Any manuscripts and checks we receive in the mail will be shredded and recycled without being read.

HOW WE READ

Each genre editor will review all submissions and will select a finalist pool, in conversation with the Editor-in-Chief and the rest of the editorial board. Finalist manuscripts will be sent to the judges, who will select the winning manuscript to receive $750 and publication. All finalists will be listed on the Gold Line Press website and social media pages. The judge may request to see additional manuscripts if necessary. The judge is not permitted to choose manuscripts that present a conflict of interest.

Gold Line Press, as a member of the CLMP, abides by its Code of Ethics:

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses’ community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our staff, editors, or judges; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Gold Line Press is accepting chapbook manuscripts for its 2025 contest from August 15 until September 30, 2025. 

We invite submissions of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that are chapbook-length as a key element of their concept. Our judges this year are Jenny Tinghui Zhang in fiction, Claire Hong in poetry, and Samantha Hunt in Nonfiction.

We welcome a wide range of styles and approaches. In past years, Gold Line Press has published both writing that is innovative or genre-crossing, as well as writing that is more traditionally structured. While we have a particular interest in promoting the work of emerging writers, we welcome and celebrate submissions from writers in any stage of their career who are creating innovative and resonant chapbook-length texts.

We seek works of prose that are purposefully planned as chapbooks: novelettes, carefully curated collections of vignettes, short stories, essays, or other projects that take the chapbook format as an instrumental element of their design. Excerpts of novels or short story/essay collections should form a sustained and individual project in their foreshortened form.

For poets, we also recommend that manuscripts be cohesive and self-contained in the chapbook length.

Length: 20-30 pages of poetry, 7500-15000 words of prose.

Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Gold Line Press is affiliated with the Literature and Creative Writing Department at the University of Southern California.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

· Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.

· Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.

· Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.

· No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. The author of the winning manuscript will work with Gold Line's editorial staff to make revisions prior to publication.

· Colleagues and current or former students of this year’s judges—as well as current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2018 to present)—are not eligible to submit.

In December 2025, we will announce contest results by email, as well as on the Gold Line Press social media accounts. 

Each winner receives $750, publication of their perfect-bound chapbook with ISBN, and 50 contributor copies. Gold Line Press sends out 30 copies on behalf of winners for review. Winners can purchase additional copies of their chapbooks at cost. The chapbook is cataloged in the Library of Congress.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts must be 20-30 pages in length for poetry entries, and 7,500-15,000 words for fiction and nonfiction entries (not including the title page and table of contents). Please submit your manuscript typed in font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Prose manuscripts should be double spaced.

Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents at the beginning, unless the form of the book does not warrant it.

Individual poems/short stories/essays may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be original and unpublished.

Manuscripts must be the submitter’s original work. We will not consider AI generated submissions.

The manuscript must be in English. Translations are ineligible.

The submission fee is waived for writers of color, indigenous writers, and writers facing financial hardship.

All manuscripts must be received by SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 via Submittable.

We do not accept hard copy or emailed submissions. Any manuscripts and checks we receive in the mail will be shredded and recycled without being read.

HOW WE READ

Each genre editor will review all submissions and will select a finalist pool, in conversation with the Editor-in-Chief and the rest of the editorial board. Finalist manuscripts will be sent to the judges, who will select the winning manuscript to receive $750 and publication. All finalists will be listed on the Gold Line Press website and social media pages. The judge may request to see additional manuscripts if necessary. The judge is not permitted to choose manuscripts that present a conflict of interest.

Gold Line Press, as a member of the CLMP, abides by its Code of Ethics:

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses’ community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our staff, editors, or judges; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Gold Line Press is accepting chapbook manuscripts for its 2025 contest from August 15 until September 30, 2025. 

We invite submissions of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that are chapbook-length as a key element of their concept. Our judges this year are Jenny Tinghui Zhang in fiction, Claire Hong in poetry, and Samantha Hunt in Nonfiction.

We welcome a wide range of styles and approaches. In past years, Gold Line Press has published both writing that is innovative or genre-crossing, as well as writing that is more traditionally structured. While we have a particular interest in promoting the work of emerging writers, we welcome and celebrate submissions from writers in any stage of their career who are creating innovative and resonant chapbook-length texts.

We seek works of prose that are purposefully planned as chapbooks: novelettes, carefully curated collections of vignettes, short stories, essays, or other projects that take the chapbook format as an instrumental element of their design. Excerpts of novels or short story/essay collections should form a sustained and individual project in their foreshortened form.

For poets, we also recommend that manuscripts be cohesive and self-contained in the chapbook length.

Length: 20-30 pages of poetry, 7500-15000 words of prose.

Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Gold Line Press is affiliated with the Literature and Creative Writing Department at the University of Southern California.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

· Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.

· Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.

· Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.

· No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. The author of the winning manuscript will work with Gold Line's editorial staff to make revisions prior to publication.

· Colleagues and current or former students of this year’s judges—as well as current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2018 to present)—are not eligible to submit.

In December 2025, we will announce contest results by email, as well as on the Gold Line Press social media accounts. 

Each winner receives $750, publication of their perfect-bound chapbook with ISBN, and 50 contributor copies. Gold Line Press sends out 30 copies on behalf of winners for review. Winners can purchase additional copies of their chapbooks at cost. The chapbook is cataloged in the Library of Congress.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts must be 20-30 pages in length for poetry entries, and 7,500-15,000 words for fiction and nonfiction entries (not including the title page and table of contents). Please submit your manuscript typed in font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Prose manuscripts should be double spaced.

Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents at the beginning, unless the form of the book does not warrant it.

Individual poems/short stories/essays may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be original and unpublished.

Manuscripts must be the submitter’s original work. We will not consider AI generated submissions.

The manuscript must be in English. Translations are ineligible.

The submission fee is waived for writers of color, indigenous writers, and writers facing financial hardship.

All manuscripts must be received by SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 via Submittable.

We do not accept hard copy or emailed submissions. Any manuscripts and checks we receive in the mail will be shredded and recycled without being read.

HOW WE READ

Each genre editor will review all submissions and will select a finalist pool, in conversation with the Editor-in-Chief and the rest of the editorial board. Finalist manuscripts will be sent to the judges, who will select the winning manuscript to receive $750 and publication. All finalists will be listed on the Gold Line Press website and social media pages. The judge may request to see additional manuscripts if necessary. The judge is not permitted to choose manuscripts that present a conflict of interest.

Gold Line Press, as a member of the CLMP, abides by its Code of Ethics:

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses’ community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our staff, editors, or judges; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Gold Line Press is accepting chapbook manuscripts for its 2025 contest from August 15 until September 30, 2025. 

We invite submissions of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that are chapbook-length as a key element of their concept. Our judges this year are Jenny Tinghui Zhang in fiction, Claire Hong in poetry, and Samantha Hunt in Nonfiction.

We welcome a wide range of styles and approaches. In past years, Gold Line Press has published both writing that is innovative or genre-crossing, as well as writing that is more traditionally structured. While we have a particular interest in promoting the work of emerging writers, we welcome and celebrate submissions from writers in any stage of their career who are creating innovative and resonant chapbook-length texts.

We seek works of prose that are purposefully planned as chapbooks: novelettes, carefully curated collections of vignettes, short stories, essays, or other projects that take the chapbook format as an instrumental element of their design. Excerpts of novels or short story/essay collections should form a sustained and individual project in their foreshortened form.

For poets, we also recommend that manuscripts be cohesive and self-contained in the chapbook length.

Length: 20-30 pages of poetry, 7500-15000 words of prose.

Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Gold Line Press is affiliated with the Literature and Creative Writing Department at the University of Southern California.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

· Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.

· Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.

· Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.

· No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. The author of the winning manuscript will work with Gold Line's editorial staff to make revisions prior to publication.

· Colleagues and current or former students of this year’s judges—as well as current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2018 to present)—are not eligible to submit.

In December 2025, we will announce contest results by email, as well as on the Gold Line Press social media accounts. 

Each winner receives $750, publication of their perfect-bound chapbook with ISBN, and 50 contributor copies. Gold Line Press sends out 30 copies on behalf of winners for review. Winners can purchase additional copies of their chapbooks at cost. The chapbook is cataloged in the Library of Congress.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts must be 20-30 pages in length for poetry entries, and 7,500-15,000 words for fiction and nonfiction entries (not including the title page and table of contents). Please submit your manuscript typed in font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Prose manuscripts should be double spaced.

Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents at the beginning, unless the form of the book does not warrant it.

Individual poems/short stories/essays may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be original and unpublished.

Manuscripts must be the submitter’s original work. We will not consider AI generated submissions.

The manuscript must be in English. Translations are ineligible.

The submission fee is waived for writers of color, indigenous writers, and writers facing financial hardship.

All manuscripts must be received by SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 via Submittable.

We do not accept hard copy or emailed submissions. Any manuscripts and checks we receive in the mail will be shredded and recycled without being read.

HOW WE READ

Each genre editor will review all submissions and will select a finalist pool, in conversation with the Editor-in-Chief and the rest of the editorial board. Finalist manuscripts will be sent to the judges, who will select the winning manuscript to receive $750 and publication. All finalists will be listed on the Gold Line Press website and social media pages. The judge may request to see additional manuscripts if necessary. The judge is not permitted to choose manuscripts that present a conflict of interest.

Gold Line Press, as a member of the CLMP, abides by its Code of Ethics:

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses’ community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our staff, editors, or judges; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Gold Line Press is accepting chapbook manuscripts for its 2025 contest from August 15 until September 30, 2025. 

We invite submissions of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that are chapbook-length as a key element of their concept. Our judges this year are Jenny Tinghui Zhang in fiction, Claire Hong in poetry, and Samantha Hunt in Nonfiction.

We welcome a wide range of styles and approaches. In past years, Gold Line Press has published both writing that is innovative or genre-crossing, as well as writing that is more traditionally structured. While we have a particular interest in promoting the work of emerging writers, we welcome and celebrate submissions from writers in any stage of their career who are creating innovative and resonant chapbook-length texts.

We seek works of prose that are purposefully planned as chapbooks: novelettes, carefully curated collections of vignettes, short stories, essays, or other projects that take the chapbook format as an instrumental element of their design. Excerpts of novels or short story/essay collections should form a sustained and individual project in their foreshortened form.

For poets, we also recommend that manuscripts be cohesive and self-contained in the chapbook length.

Length: 20-30 pages of poetry, 7500-15000 words of prose.

Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Gold Line Press is affiliated with the Literature and Creative Writing Department at the University of Southern California.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

· Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.

· Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.

· Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.

· No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. The author of the winning manuscript will work with Gold Line's editorial staff to make revisions prior to publication.

· Colleagues and current or former students of this year’s judges—as well as current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2018 to present)—are not eligible to submit.

In December 2025, we will announce contest results by email, as well as on the Gold Line Press social media accounts. 

Each winner receives $750, publication of their perfect-bound chapbook with ISBN, and 50 contributor copies. Gold Line Press sends out 30 copies on behalf of winners for review. Winners can purchase additional copies of their chapbooks at cost. The chapbook is cataloged in the Library of Congress.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts must be 20-30 pages in length for poetry entries, and 7,500-15,000 words for fiction and nonfiction entries (not including the title page and table of contents). Please submit your manuscript typed in font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Prose manuscripts should be double spaced.

Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents at the beginning, unless the form of the book does not warrant it.

Individual poems/short stories/essays may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be original and unpublished.

Manuscripts must be the submitter’s original work. We will not consider AI generated submissions.

The manuscript must be in English. Translations are ineligible.

The submission fee is waived for writers of color, indigenous writers, and writers facing financial hardship.

All manuscripts must be received by SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 via Submittable.

We do not accept hard copy or emailed submissions. Any manuscripts and checks we receive in the mail will be shredded and recycled without being read.

HOW WE READ

Each genre editor will review all submissions and will select a finalist pool, in conversation with the Editor-in-Chief and the rest of the editorial board. Finalist manuscripts will be sent to the judges, who will select the winning manuscript to receive $750 and publication. All finalists will be listed on the Gold Line Press website and social media pages. The judge may request to see additional manuscripts if necessary. The judge is not permitted to choose manuscripts that present a conflict of interest.

Gold Line Press, as a member of the CLMP, abides by its Code of Ethics:

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses’ community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our staff, editors, or judges; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Gold Line Press is accepting chapbook manuscripts for its 2025 contest from August 15 until September 30, 2025. 

We invite submissions of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that are chapbook-length as a key element of their concept. Our judges this year are Jenny Tinghui Zhang in fiction, Claire Hong in poetry, and Samantha Hunt in Nonfiction.

We welcome a wide range of styles and approaches. In past years, Gold Line Press has published both writing that is innovative or genre-crossing, as well as writing that is more traditionally structured. While we have a particular interest in promoting the work of emerging writers, we welcome and celebrate submissions from writers in any stage of their career who are creating innovative and resonant chapbook-length texts.

We seek works of prose that are purposefully planned as chapbooks: novelettes, carefully curated collections of vignettes, short stories, essays, or other projects that take the chapbook format as an instrumental element of their design. Excerpts of novels or short story/essay collections should form a sustained and individual project in their foreshortened form.

For poets, we also recommend that manuscripts be cohesive and self-contained in the chapbook length.

Length: 20-30 pages of poetry, 7500-15000 words of prose.

Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Gold Line Press is affiliated with the Literature and Creative Writing Department at the University of Southern California.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

· Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.

· Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.

· Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submittable.

· No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. The author of the winning manuscript will work with Gold Line's editorial staff to make revisions prior to publication.

· Colleagues and current or former students of this year’s judges—as well as current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2018 to present)—are not eligible to submit.

In December 2025, we will announce contest results by email, as well as on the Gold Line Press social media accounts. 

Each winner receives $750, publication of their perfect-bound chapbook with ISBN, and 50 contributor copies. Gold Line Press sends out 30 copies on behalf of winners for review. Winners can purchase additional copies of their chapbooks at cost. The chapbook is cataloged in the Library of Congress.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts must be 20-30 pages in length for poetry entries, and 7,500-15,000 words for fiction and nonfiction entries (not including the title page and table of contents). Please submit your manuscript typed in font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Prose manuscripts should be double spaced.

Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents at the beginning, unless the form of the book does not warrant it.

Individual poems/short stories/essays may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be original and unpublished.

Manuscripts must be the submitter’s original work. We will not consider AI generated submissions.

The manuscript must be in English. Translations are ineligible.

The submission fee is waived for writers of color, indigenous writers, and writers facing financial hardship.

All manuscripts must be received by SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 via Submittable.

We do not accept hard copy or emailed submissions. Any manuscripts and checks we receive in the mail will be shredded and recycled without being read.

HOW WE READ

Each genre editor will review all submissions and will select a finalist pool, in conversation with the Editor-in-Chief and the rest of the editorial board. Finalist manuscripts will be sent to the judges, who will select the winning manuscript to receive $750 and publication. All finalists will be listed on the Gold Line Press website and social media pages. The judge may request to see additional manuscripts if necessary. The judge is not permitted to choose manuscripts that present a conflict of interest.

Gold Line Press, as a member of the CLMP, abides by its Code of Ethics:

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses’ community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our staff, editors, or judges; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.