Penumbra Online
Penumbra Press
Since 1989, Penumbra has published the artistic and literary talents of students and creatives regionally, nationally, and internationally and has strived to be a champion for writers of all ages and backgrounds. As a publication, Penumbra is unique; its student-led staff personally solicits, selects, and edits its content and design. This journal provides its staff with the unique opportunity to gain firsthand experience putting together both an online and print publication featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid, and art pieces. Penumbra is excited to share a unique opportunity: Penumbra Press, a new branch of the Stan State publication. Through Penumbra Press, we offer poets the chance to have their poems printed as physical and online chapbooks!
The editorial staff of Penumbra is excited to announce our journal’s first annual chap book competition for poets seeking to publish a collection of original works while enjoying some friendly literary rivalry. Contest winners will receive a cash prize and have their collection of poems published in a unique and beautifully crafted chap book manufactured by Penumbra Press. We are therefore soliciting submissions from poets of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Even if you’ve never published a poem before, we are eager for the opportunity to consider your work! We ask that you provide a sampling of your poetry and a brief prose synopsis of the projected contents of the completed work to follow. We will accept submissions from July 18th until August 18th. Finalists will be contacted by August 25th and completed chap books will be due by September 19th. A $10 entry fee must accompany each submission. Upon publication (usually in late November or early December), winners will receive $150 in prize money and ten free copies of their work. The poems featured in your chap book submission should be original and unpublished. Our chap books are typically 20-40 pages in length; poets collaborate with students from Stan State’s Art and Graphic Design programs to produce original cover art. To join the contest, poets should follow these steps:
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Review the manuscript guidelines on the Penumbra website
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On Submittable, upload a PDF containing 3-5 poems and a 200-300-word proposal for the projected collection that will be built around the poems. In other words, your chap book should express a unifying theme or concept that is clearly specified in your proposal. The single document containing your poems and your proposal must not exceed seven pages in length.
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Pay the $10 entry fee through Stan State’s Warrior Life site, available here. We accept Google Pay, credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), or an electronic checking (ACH) payment.
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Email us with questions or comments at penumbra@csustan.edu.
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For examples of some of the past chap books we’ve published, look here.
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We will only consider the first 100 submissions received, so don’t delay!