Listed below are our current open calls. We are open for our chapbook contests from March to May, our open reading period for full-length poetry manuscripts from June to August, our broadside contest from September to November, and our open reading period for prose manuscripts from December to February. Our residency applications are open year-round. Other calls will be published here as they open.
Sundress Publications Open for Broadside Contest
Deadline: November 30, 2025
Sundress Publications is pleased to announce that we are now open for submissions for our annual poetry broadside contest. The contest will be open for submission between September 1st to November 30th, 2025.
The winner’s poem will be letterpress-printed as an 8.5” x 11” broadside complete with custom art and made available for sale on our online store. The winner will receive $200 and 20 copies of their broadside.
To submit, send up to three poems, no longer than 28 lines each (line limit includes stanza breaks but not the title) in one Word or PDF document in each submission slot on the Google Form by November 30, 2025. Be sure to include a copy of your payment receipt or purchase order number (see below for payment of fees).
Please make sure that no identifying information is included in the submitted poems.
From September 1st through 14th, submissions to this contest are free for the first submission for any and all writers. If you submit more than one set of poems during the free period, only the first set will be accepted without payment.
Beginning September 15th, the reading fee is $10 per batch of three poems, though the fee will be waived for entrants who purchase or pre-order any Sundress title. Entrants can place book orders or pay submission fees at our store.
Once the purchase is made, the store will send a receipt with a purchase code. This code should be included in the submission, or you may forward the email receipt at the same time as you send the submission. This fee is waived for all writers of color.
Previously published material is welcome so long as you maintain the rights to the work. Let us know in your cover letter if any of your submitted poems have been previously published. Poems translated from another language will not be accepted.
Simultaneous submissions are fine, but we ask that authors notify us immediately if their work has been accepted elsewhere; poems accepted for publication are still qualified provided the author retains the rights to the work at the time of printing.
The judge this year is Stevie Edwards. Dr. Stevie Edwards is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University and Poetry Editor of The South Carolina Review. Stevie’s poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of Quiet Armor (Northwestern University Press, 2023), Sadness Workshop (Button Poetry, 2018), Humanly (Small Doggies Press, 2015), and Good Grief (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). Her next book, The Weather Inside, is forthcoming from the University of Arkansas Press in Spring 2026 as part of the Miller Williams Poetry Series edited by Patricia Smith. She holds a PhD from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Cornell University. Originally a Michigander, she now lives in South Carolina with her spouse and a small herd of rescue pitbulls.
Any questions or concerns, as well as withdrawal notifications, can be sent to sundresscontest@gmail.com.
Call for Readers for Poets in Pajamas
Deadline: December 15, 2025
Poets in Pajamas is a monthly reading series, hosted by Sundress Publications, which prides itself on producing high-quality poetry readings for an online audience. Our mission is to connect readers and writers across the world from the comfort of their own pajamas! Hosted on Zoom and live-streamed to Facebook on the third Sunday of the month, two readers are paired together per reading to perform for 20 minutes each and participate in a joint audience Q&A for an additional 15 – 20 minutes. We are currently recruiting readers for our 2026 season during the months of February – December 2026.
We are interested in hearing from all writers around the globe, but we particularly welcome writers that identify as being a part of disenfranchised communities (such as, but not limited to: persons of color, those from immigrant populations, native and indigenous people, LGBTQ+, d/Deaf and Disabled, non-binary folks, members of non-dominant religious groups, all women, Dreamers, the formerly incarcerated, and more). We want to promote you and your work.
Apply to read by December 15, 2025!
Microgrant for Palestinian Writers
Deadline: December 31, 2025
Sundress Publications is open for submissions for microgrant applications from Palestinian and Palestinian diaspora writers with a chapbook or full-length book in progress. Projects of all genres are welcome. Applications must be received by December 31, 2025.
The Sundress Publications Microgrant for Palestinian Writers awards one author $500, a one-week residency at the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, TN and the potential for publication of their grant-supported project. All applications will be read by members of Sundress’s editorial and/or reader boards.
To apply, please send a sample of the work in progress (up to 15 pages) along with a brief (no more than 500 words) statement describing how this grant would assist you with your project. There is no fee to apply. One winner will be chosen and notified in spring of 2026.
Sundress Academy for the Arts Open for Spring 2026 Residencies
Deadline: February 1, 2026
Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) is now accepting applications for short-term writing residencies in all genres—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, journalism, academic writing, and more—for their summer residency period which runs from May 10th to August 15th, 2026. These residencies are designed to give artists time and space to complete their creative projects in a quiet and productive environment.
Each farmhouse residency costs $350/week, which includes a room of one’s own, as well as access to our communal kitchen, bathroom, office, and living space, plus wireless internet. Residencies in the Writers Coop are $175/week and include your own private dry cabin as well as access to the farmhouse amenities. Because of the low cost, we are rarely able to offer scholarships for Writers Coop residents.
Residents will stay at the SAFTA farmhouse, located on a working farm on a 45-acre wooded plot in a Tennessee “holler” perfect for hiking, birdwatching, and foraging. The farmhouse is also just 20 minutes from downtown Knoxville, an exciting and creative city that is home to a thriving arts community. SAFTA is ideal for writers looking for a rural retreat with urban amenities.
We are dedicated to supporting the diversity in the literary community. As part of our commitment to anti-racist work, we use a reparations payment model for our farmhouse residencies which consists of the following:
- 3 reparations weeks of equally divided payments for Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers at $150/week
- 3 discounted weeks of equally divided payments for writers of color at $250/week
- 6 equitable weeks of equally divided payments at $350/week
Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers are also invited to apply for a $350 support grant to help cover the costs of food, travel, childcare, and/or any other needs while they are at the residency. We are currently able to offer two of these grants per residency period (spring/summer/fall). If you would like to donate to expand this funding, you may do so here.
For the 2026 Summer residency period, SAFTA will be offering the following fellowships only:
- Black & Indigenous Writers Fellowship: One full fellowship for Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers
- Writers of Color Fellowships: One full and one 50% fellowships for writers of color
- SmokeLong Quarterly Fellowship for Trans Writer: One full fellowship for a trans writer thanks to a generous gift from SmokeLong Quarterly
The application deadline for the summer residency period is February 1, 2026.
The application fee is waived for all BIPOC identifying writers. For all fellowship applicants, the application fee will also be waived for those who demonstrate financial need; please state this in your application under the financial need section.
Sundress Academy for the Arts Open for Spring 2026 Residencies
Deadline: February 28, 2026
Sundress Publications is open for submissions of full-length prose manuscripts in all genres. All authors are welcome to submit manuscripts during our reading period, which runs from December 1, 2025 – February 28, 2026. Sundress is particularly interested in prose collections that value genre hybridization, especially speculative memoir; strange or fractured narratives; flash fiction; experimental work; or work with strong attention to lyricism and language. These collections may be short stories, novellas, essays, memoir, or a mixture thereof.
We are looking for manuscripts of 125-165 double-spaced pages of prose; front matter is not included toward the page count. Individual stories may have been previously published in anthologies, chapbooks, print journals, online journals, etc., but cannot have appeared in any full-length collection, including self-published collections. Manuscripts translated from another language will not be accepted. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but we ask that authors notify us immediately if their work has been accepted elsewhere.
From December 1st-14th, all submission fees are waived. After the 14th, the reading fee is $15 per manuscript, though the fee will be waived for all writers of color and entrants who purchase or pre-order any Sundress title. Authors may submit as many manuscripts as they would like, provided that each is accompanied by a separate reading fee or purchase/pre-order. Entrants can place book orders or pay submission fees in our store.
All manuscripts will be read by members of our editorial and reader board, and we will choose one manuscript for publication in 2026. We strive to further our commitment to inclusion and seek to encounter as many unique and important voices as possible. We are actively seeking collections from writers of color, trans and nonbinary writers, writers with disabilities, and others whose voices are under-represented in literary publishing. Selected manuscripts will be offered a standard publication contract, which includes 25 copies of the published book as well as any additional copies at cost.
To submit, send us a 20-35 page sample of the manuscript (DOC, DOCX, or PDF); the sample should include the author’s name and an acknowledgements page. The sample may include one story/essay or a number of shorter pieces. After our initial selection process, semi-finalists will be asked to send the full manuscript in the spring.
Submit your manuscript samples to us here.
Please note that we are unable to accept manuscripts from authors who reside outside of the USA or Canada as we are unable to adequately support books in international markets.
Any questions or concerns, as well as withdrawal notifications, can be sent to sundresscontest@gmail.com.
Sundress Reads Looking for Recently Published Books to Review
Deadline: Rolling
As part of Sundress’ Publications’ ongoing commitment to service and the importance of highlighting work from other small presses, we are now accepting submissions for consideration for inclusion in our review series, Sundress Reads. We’re looking to feature reviews for any books published or to be published in 2023 or 2024.
We at Sundress champion writers whose work highlights human resilience and challenges misconceptions. We will not consider reviewing any book that promotes actions or includes language that contribute to oppression. Books by authors from LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, neurodivergent, disabled, immigrant, incarcerated, and otherwise marginalized communities are encouraged to submit. Recent titles we’ve reviewed include Alicia Mountain’s Four in Hand (BOA Editions), Teow Lim Goh’s Faraway Places (Diode Editions), and Noreen Ocampo’s Not Flowers (Variant Literature).
Authors or publishers of books published within this date range are invited to submit books, chapbooks, or anthologies in any genre for consideration by our reviewers who are standing by. Books must be published by independent presses, university presses, or small presses; we do not accept submissions from “the Big 5” or self-published collections. Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis.