ALCOVE CHAPBOOKS
“Green creates a window into the circuitries of violence, loss, and longing that haunt relationships. Hers is a story of bonds that bring people together and mistakes that tear them apart. In prose that’s both lucid and lyrical, THE HAUNT invites us to ponder our own ghosts—the ones we wish will vanish, the ones we hope never leave us. Green’s examination of hurt, hope, and renewal teaches us that to recover is to strike a balance between living and ‘missing what is gone, a missing that will not stop.’ ”
About the WTAW Alcove Chapbook Series
WTAW Press is pleased to provide a platform to support the efforts of more writers and to welcome new writers and readers into the WTAW community through our Alcove Chapbook series. We publish chapbooks of prose selected through an annual competition. The competition is open to new, emerging, and established writers. We strongly encourage writers of traditionally underrepresented and marginalized communities and first-time authors to send us their work.
What we seek to publish
Please take a look at the books we have published. Hybrid texts, lyric essays, collections of flash, mini novellas, long stories, braided essays, innovative approaches to memoir, biography, and journalism, experimental fiction and creative nonfiction: all are welcome. We’re drawn to intimate, relevant writing and to material that explores issues of contemporary significance on any theme or subject. We’re interested in works that extend the possibilities of or challenge the conventions of prose and welcome submissions that innovate and take risks.
Learn more with our guidelines.
2024 Alcove Chapbook Series
PRIZE WINNER
$250
25 books
Publication, contract with royalties
RUNNERS-UP
10 books
Publication, contract with royalties
FINALISTS
THE HAUNT BY LIZ GREEN
THE SMITHS OF 115 STREET by AZARIA BROWN
MARISOLANDIA by MICHELLE CRUZ GONZALES
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER SIT FOR A PORTRAIT by ALICE KALTMAN
NOTES FOR THE AFTERLIFE by MARK L. KEATS
MANGO PICKLE IN SUMMER by SWETHA AMIT
ALL THIS BUTTONING AND UNBUTTONING by CATHERINE BORDERS
THE WAY OF FIRE by MICHAEL CHIN
NOT QUITE CHILDREN, NOT QUITE GHOSTS by VICKI DERDERIAN
ONE SURVIVOR'S GUIDE TO RAPE by JENNIFER FOSTER
AN ESTATE OF IRONIES by MARYANN IFEANACHO
MENAKE by VANDANA NAIR
THE LONG RISING LOAF by CHARLES SMITH
INTO THE PIT by ZACK WYNER
UNDER THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE OVERPASS by SUZANNE MARTINEZ
2023 WTAW Alcove Chapbook Series
WTAW Press is pleased to share the results of the 2023 WTAW Alcove Chapbook Series Competition. The quality of submissions we received was outstanding.
PRIZE WINNER
Promiscuous Ruin by Julian Mithra, who received an honorarium of $250, publication, and 25 copies of their book. Learn more about Promiscuous Ruin and author Julian Mithra, and purchase a copy in our shop.
FINALISTS
Outtakes by Joanna Acevedo
Something I Might Say by Stephanie Austin
Mississippi River Museum by Keith Pilapil Lesmeister
Sarra Copia: A Locked-in Life by Nancy Ludmerer
Eggs in Purgatory by Genanne Walsh
SEMI-FINALISTS
Annetta in Style, Stacy Bierlein
Delivery, Martha Coats
Attachment Disorders, Alice Hatcher
The Slough, Natalie Nebel
The Rest of Us, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera
Neurotypical, Meghan Williams
HONORABLE MENTIONS
American Filigree, Fatima Alharthi
Therapy, Sean Bernard
Imaginary Places, Alicia Bones
Applications, Anna Mantzaris
A Natural Man, Reggie Scott Young
Alcove Chapbook Series Guidelines
The Alcove Chapbook Series Contest opens for submissions annually. We announce the dates in our newsletter and on our social media platforms. The competition is open to new, emerging, and established writers. The winner will receive book publication, a $250 honorarium, and 25 copies of their book. All submissions will be considered for publication. There is a nonrefundable $18 fee.
What we seek to publish
Please take a look at our books. We publish chapbooks of literary prose. Hybrid texts, lyric essays, collections of flash, mini novellas, long stories, braided essays, innovative approaches to memoir, biography, and journalism, experimental fiction and creative nonfiction: all are welcome. We’re drawn to intimate, relevant writing and to material that explores issues of contemporary significance on any theme or subject. We’re interested in works that extend the possibilities of or challenge the conventions of prose and welcome submissions that innovate and take risks.We don’t publish material we deem abusive or offensive.
The length of manuscripts will be ideally between 20 and 48 pages, but slightly shorter or longer is okay. Collections, excerpts from longer works that stand alone, and single longform works considered too long for journal publication but too short for full-length book publication are all welcome.
Chapbooks must have a cohesion of some sort. In the case of collections, there must be an intentionality to the placement of the material together as a single body of work (art).
We strongly encourage writers of traditionally underrepresented and marginalized communities and first-time authors to send us their work.
General guidelines
Eligibility Requirements:
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We prefer manuscripts between 22 and 48 (double-spaced) pages, but slightly shorter or longer is okay. Each new piece should begin on a different page. The title page and table of contents do not count toward the total page count.
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We only accept chapbooks of literary fiction, literary nonfiction, or a form of prose somewhere between the two. We do not accept poetry.
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Chapbooks with new, unpublished work are preferred. Individual portions of the chapbook may have been published elsewhere, but the majority of the chapbook as a whole must be previously unpublished.
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We accept submissions only through our submission manager.
Full submission guidelines will be posted there when the contest is open for submissions.There is a $18 nonrefundable fee. Be sure to read and follow the guidelines on the submission manager page carefully. Submissions that don't follow the guidelines will not be considered and the fee will be forfeited.
All submissions will receive a response through our submission manager to the email entered on the submission form.
WTAW Press is committed to publishing the best work we can find, and we look forward to reading your manuscripts. Should we not receive manuscripts that fit our criteria for publication, we reserve the right not to publish manuscripts received during the open competition period.
Thank you for considering WTAW Press.