2015 Vella Chapbook Prize:

– Manuscripts may be between 16 – 24 pages

– Please include a title page with ONLY the title, a table of contents, and an acknowledgements page (not included in page count).

– Please do NOT include any identifying information in the manuscript.

– Open to poetry, fiction, and mixed- or hybrid-genre works (prose poems, flash fiction, lyrical short-shorts, a short story sandwiched between a dozen poems, one long-ish short story, 24 pages of poems, and any other combination that might be missing in this list).

– Thematically-linked works are encouraged, but not required. Quality is the only criteria.

– Collection as a whole must be unpublished, but individual publications are fine.

– Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please withdraw it immediately if someone else snatches up your amazing work before we do.

– Prize: 100 copies of your winning chapbook, ISBN included, to use however you’d like (sell them, give them away, make a modern art installation in your living room, etc.) Paper Nautilus will be selling an additional limited number of copies through our website or at literary events – for which the winner will receive 10% royalties –  but the rest are yours.

– Entry fee: $11, payable through Submittable

– Entry period: February 15th – May 15th, 2015.

– Expected announcement of winner: (approximately) August 1st, 2015.

– Expected date of publication: (approximately) January 2016.

– Contest entries will be judged by Lisa Mangini, Paper Nautilus Editor in Chief.

This year, we’re also introducing the Debut Series Chapbook Contest. The same guidelines and criteria apply as above, but we are only accepting manuscripts from writers who have yet to publish any chapbook- or book-length collections. Winner receives 50 hand-stitched copies (no ISBN,) and 10% royalties. $5 fee, or $8 with a free back issue (i.e., free entry with the purchase of a back issue). We are committed to supporting emerging writers, and this is our newest venture to expand that support!