Sundress Publications is a woman-run, woman-friendly publication group founded in 2000 that hosts a variety of online journals and publishes chapbooks and full-length collections in both print and digital formats. We also run the annual Best of the Net Anthology, celebrating the best work published online, and the Gone Dark Archives, preserving online journals that have reached the end of their run.
Although we are conscious of the lack of representation by women writers in literary publishing, we do not only publish women. Our policy is non-discriminatory and focused on promoting excellent creative work independent of the age, race, sex, gender, class, religion, culture, social status, sexual orientation, or country of origin of its creator(s).
We are firm believers in fostering artists whose work is worthy of recognition. Sundress Publications works closely with its authors, artists, and contributors, providing feedback and assistance through every stage of the publication process. For this reason, we do not and cannot publish works we do not love wholeheartedly.
Our aesthetic sensibilities run the gamut from traditional to innovative; we do not align ourselves with a single school or style. While we do confess a preference for poetry, we do not publish it exclusively. Instead, we seek works in all genres by intelligent, creative humans that speak to other intelligent, creative humans. In many ways, Sundress Publications envisions the manuscripts it publishes as concept albums, not merely as collections of hot singles. We are most interested in the overall effect created by the artist, how the parts act in concert to create the whole.
Sundress Publications is, first and foremost, the umbrella site of the publications The Best of the Net Anthology, Stirring, Wicked Alice, grain short / grain long, Trailer Park Quarterly, and Intentional Walk as well as a small-press publication company. Stirring : A Literary Collection was founded by Erin Elizabeth Smith in September of 1999 and has published poems by Sharon Olds, Dorianne Laux, Patricia Smith, and many, many others. Wicked Alice is a women-centered poetry journal, dedicated to publishing quality work, by both sexes, depicting and exploring the female experience. grain short / grain long is envisioned by managing editor T.A. Noonan as a publication project explores the limits of text & the visual. The editor of Trailer Park Quarterly sees itself as a place for real writing, something that an actual human being might want to read; this journal asks its writers to shoot for the big, weird world, but remember that clever isn't always a compliment and quirk doesn't quite fill the glass.
Our three newest journals, bring new and varied aspects to Sundress. Intentional Walk is the only literary journal devoted to the poetry of sports. From antiquity to the present, the editors here are interested in anything that involves competition and/or recreation. Sunsets and Silencers is open to a wide variety of styles and wants to publish only the most innovative and creative work. We are careful about the work we publish, and we read and consider every submission, carefully. S&S publishes short fiction, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, essays, paintings, photography, and comic strips as a platform for emerging and established artists to showcase their work. Finally, the Gone Dark Archives seeks to preserve now-defunct online journals so that the work of their editors and authors does not disappear into the recesses of cyberspace.
Above all, we are dedicated to publishing creative work that makes our authors, artists, readers, and staff proud to be a part of Sundress. We hope that you agree that the fruits of our combined efforts are as worthwhile as the effort itself.