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 by-the-wind-sailor, a man in his late twenties who still lives with his parents gets laid off from his job at an Asian grocery store. He finds himself unable to admit this fact to his family and continues to pretend to go to work, instead visiting a local aquarium, becoming more and more entranced with the marine life exhibits to the point where reality begins to blur. This chapbook explores the stigma around mental health in households of color, particularly with practices like therapy and medication, how suffering can feel comfortable when you’ve been used to it for so long, and the discomfort it takes to overcome the hurdles needed to get better.
Maya Cheav is a Cambodian-American writer and the author of the poetry chapbooks Lykaia (Bottlecap Press, 2023) and Tan’s Donuts (Chestnut Review, 2025). Her writing has been featured in Stone of Madness, ALOCASIA, Scapegoat Review, The Weaver, Across the Margin, and elsewhere. She was a top 10 finalist for the 2023 Palette Poetry Chapbook Prize, guest judged by Danez Smith, as well as a 2024 Tin House Workshop alum, under the faculty mentorship of Roy G. Guzmán. She was a 2024–2025 poet in residence with Collections of Transience and a Season 22 AWP Writer to Writer Poetry Mentor. They participated in the 30:30 project with Tupelo Press in November 2025 and are the assistant communications manager at Chestnut Review. Their flash fiction is featured in the Kevin Atwater “Achilles” Literary Collection to accompany his song “Call of Duty.”
by-the-wind-sailor
by-the-wind-sailor
Recent titles
HEAVY: poems that count by Megan Hollingsworth, coming April 7!
by-the-wind-saylor by Maya Cheav
Paradise by Stephan Antoine Viau
Masquerading as a Gastropoda by Hachi Chuku
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
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.
