innovative. daring. beautiful.
Rockwood Press makes right-sized poetry chapbooks for people who need poems.
We believe chapbooks are an art form as much as a literary form, perfectly suited for revolution, protest, political change, and social critique. They can be both haunting and hauntingly beautiful.
We believe in emerging and established poets and aim to make room for all kinds of mighty voices in teeny books that might not otherwise find their way into the world.
We believe that a work doesn’t have to be full-length to have a full life. That’s why almost all of our releases are open editions.
Nicholas Skaldetvind’s In the Way of Things invites us on a coastal, irresistibly watery journey that spans from Italy to Greece to California and elsewhere. This poet’s deep connection with the microscopic changes in the natural world and how these changes imbricate our language and thinking resonates in his long lines and gorgeous descriptions. Throughout the collection, we are compelled to follow a relentless searcher—whose searching for the place of the self in the world and with others is not only marvelously articulated but also genuine and very intensely alive, “feeding on every living thing.”
—Christina Pugh, author of The Right Hand
In the Way of Things
In the Way of Things
Recent titles
Different With Him by mk zariel, coming March 13!
Lavender Stones by Kenneth Pobo, coming February 24!
From the Bowels of Molluscs by Carlie Daley, coming February 3!
A Razor’s Edge by Matthew J. Andrews, coming February 1!
In the Way of Things by Nicholas Skaldetvind
On Music: Collected Poems by Nancy Dillingham
Without a Prayer by Scott McConnaha
Confirm Humanity by El Bentivegna
Prayer of Scalpel & Ash by Amy Riddell
Prayers Are the Kites We Fly by Toni Ortner
View all our available chapbooks
submissions
We select manuscripts through an open submissions process that occurs year-round.
Manuscripts should be tightly linked collections of ten to thirty poems or up to forty pages, submitted in .rtf, .doc, or .docx formats only. All submissions should be made via email. We do not accept unsolicited paper submissions.
Eligibility: Poets writing in English are eligible. Previous book publication is not a consideration. Simultaneous submissions are permissible, but entrants are asked to notify Rockwood Press immediately if a manuscript becomes committed elsewhere.
There is no open submission fee.
We do our best to reply to submissions within one month, but the time can vary depending on submission volume. If your work has not been accepted or declined, it’s still under consideration. Every submission is considered thoroughly before a response is made.
All submissions are eligible for publication by Rockwood Press with a standard royalty contract.
submissions at Rockwood Press dot com
If we seem familiar
That’s because, Rockwood Press, a not-for-profit literary imprint, is a project of Fernwood Press and its parent company, Barclay Press. For years, we’ve made our books and full-length poetry collections available through POD services, but we wanted to produce more books in-house where we have control over color, texture, paper quality, and the overall shape each project takes.
We’ve also seen a ten-fold increase in poetry submissions over the last year and sensed from our conversations with writers that it’s getting harder and harder to find homes for good work.
The project of Rockwood Press is to bring more great poetry into the world in smaller, focused collections that can be produced locally, quickly, and beautifully.
