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.
In Off to War, Daughter, readers will accompany Trapper Markelz as he looks back on the tenderness of early parenthood while reckoning with the uncertain world his children will someday inherit. Though rooted in a father’s experience raising his daughters, these poems reach far beyond parenthood itself, speaking to the joy and wonder that naturally accompany loving others deeply.
—Anne Marie Wells, founder of The Joy of Poeting, author of Survived By: A Memoir in Verse + Other Poems
Off to War, Daughter is a poignant ode to fatherhood, where tenderness and self-reckoning move alongside exquisite imagery. Universal to any parent—or anyone who has loved a small, beautiful thing meant to leave—these poems ask to be carried and returned to like any book you’d never leave “outside in the rain.”
–Candice M. Kelsey, author of Another Place Altogether
Off to War, Daughter is a beautiful tribute to fatherhood and raising three daughters, while skirting the fragile boundary between love and impermanence. Written with lyrical precision and rooted in everyday life—clothing, routines, small exchanges—these poems keep close to what might otherwise be missed.
—Susan Michele Coronel, author of In the Needle, A Woman (winner, 2024 Donna Wolf Palacio Prize)
Off to War, Daughter
Off to War, Daughter
Recent titles
HEAVY: poems that count by Megan Hollingsworth, coming April 7!
by-the-wind-saylor by Maya Cheav, coming March 31!
Paradise by Stephan Antoine Viau, coming March 28!
Off to War, Daughter by Trapper Markelz
Secrets she has saved by Rachel R. Baum
Different With Him by mk zariel
my mother is a mixed metaphor by Shivani Gupta
The Biology of Leaving by Candice M. Kelsey
Sky Over by Lana Hechtman Ayers
Lavender Stones by Kenneth Pobo
From the Bowels of Molluscs by Carlie Daley
Banana Pancakes by Annalisa Hansford
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.
