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Book Contests

Etchings Press 2024 Book Prizes

Etchings Press, a student-run publisher at University of Indianapolis, welcomes submissions for its annual contests: a chapbook of poetry, a chapbook of prose, and a novella.

The deadline for all contests is Tuesday, January 30, 2024.

Please submit through Submittable between September 1st and January 30th.

UIndy graduate and undergraduate students will read the submitted manuscripts and choose a winner in each category. The students will then edit, design, publish, and promote the chapbooks and the novella.

Students are interested in editing and publishing authors in our region. The students are using the 370 miles between Flannery O’Connor’s Milledgeville, Georgia, and William Faulkner’s Oxford, Mississippi, as the relative mileage for regional literature. Using UIndy’s campus on the southside of Indianapolis as a starting point, that distance makes a circle which includes all of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, most of Michigan, Tennessee, and West Virginia, and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and even Ontario. To see if you’re eligible for submission, please see the circle on this map.

Each year, students will judge and publish one chapbook in poetry, one chapbook in prose, and one novella. Mixed genre and multiple author manuscripts are welcome. All topics/themes are welcome.

Past Winners

Support past winners and purchase their books at Amazon.

Cover Art. Other Side of Sea. Mountains and Forests in a watercolor style.

Other Side of Sea
by Xiaoqiu Qiu (poetry)

Cover Art. Leaving the House Unlocked. A wooden blue door on a black background.

Leaving the House Unlocked
by Elizabeth Enochs (prose)

Cover Art. Our Cadaver. An old drawing of a dissected cadaver hand showing bones and blood vessels

Our Cadaver
by Elizabeth Toman (novella)

Cover Art. A Place That Knows You. A photograph through a rainy window of a some retail spaces in a city.

A Place That Knows You
by Tiwaladeoluwa Adekunle (poetry)

Cover Art. The Vaudeville Horse. A Victorian woman wearing a horse costume.

The Vaudeville Horse
by Elizabeth Kerlikowske (poetry)

Cover Art. Goodbye to the Ocean. A colorful shadow of a butterfly on a wooden deck.

Goodbye to the Ocean
by Susan L. Lin (novella)

Cover Art. slighted. A close up of type bars and letters on a manual typewriter.

slighted.
by Chad V. Broughman (fiction)

Cover Art. Triple Point. Three hyperdermic needles, one with yellow liquid, one with red, and one with oraange, converge on a sky blue background.

Triple Point
by Laura Story Johnson

Cover Art. My Mother's Ghost Scrubs the Floor at 2 a.m. A woman's shadow on a dark background with yellow lettering.

My Mother’s Ghost Scrubs the Floor at 2 a.m.
by Robert Okaji (poetry)

Cover Art. Bad Man Love Stories. White silhouette of a man with jacket and heart on chest.

Bad Man Love Stories
by Curtis VanDonkelaar (fiction)

Cover Art. Miss Alma May Learns To Fight. A line drawing of a tree in green, brown and dark green.

Miss Alma May Learns To Fight
by Stuart Rose (novella)

Cover Art. Vaginas Need Air. Hands breaking open peeled grapefruit

Vaginas Need Air
by Tori Grant Welhouse (poetry)

Cover Art. Three in the Morning and You Don't Smoke Any More. Close up of a Caucasian man's hand holding a cigarette

Three in the Morning and You Don’t Smoke Anymore
by Peter J. Stavros (prose)

Cover Art. Under Black Leaves. Blurry black and white close up of a woman's reclining face

Under Black Leaves
by Doug Ramspeck (novella)

Cover Art. Fruit Rot. Yellow apples in a tree, blue sky

Fruit Rot
by James R. Gapinski

Cover Art. As Lovers Always Do. Closeup photo focused on rear of person in winter hat and jacket sitting on subway bench

As Lovers Always Do
by Marne Wilson (poetry)

Cover Art. Dissenting Opinion from the Committee for the Beatitudes. Red telephone receiver sits on white background

Dissenting Opinion from the Committee for the Beatitudes
by Marc J. Sheehan (prose)

Cover Art. Savonne, Not Vonny. Cabin obscured by overgrown vegetation. Black Labrador sits on lawn, attentive

Savonne, Not Vonny
by Robin Lee Lovelace (novella)

Cover Art. In the Herald of Improbable Misfortunes. Illustration. Close up of sun in tarot card

In The Herald of Improbable Misfortunes
by Robert Campbell (poetry)

Cover Art. The Forsaken. Photo of elderly Caucasian man’s hand pressing against wall, bathed in golden light

the forsaken…
by Chad V. Broughman (prose)

Cover Art. Edge of the Known Bus Line. Title in white on black background

Edge of the Known Bus Line
by James R. Gapinski (novella)

Cover image of Cover Art. Uncle Harold's Maxwell House Haggadah. Polaroid photo of family at dinner table wearing yarmulkes

Uncle Harold’s Maxwell House Haggadah
by Danny Caine (poetry)

Cover Art. Unravelings. Title written on a chalkboard in wobbly font

Unravelings
by Sarah Cheshire (prose)

Cover Art. The Denialist's Almanac of American Plague and Pestilence. Remparts against brilliant, cloudy sky

The Denialist’s Almanac of American Plague and Pestilence
by Christopher Mohar (novella)

Cover Art. Some Animals. Photo. Arial view of dancer in white dress against black background. Resembles flower

Some Animals
by Kelli Allen (poetry)

Cover Art. #lovesong. Photo. Black/white. Closeup of bird claw and tail lying on a cloth on a table

#lovesong
by Chelsea Biondolillo (mixed media)

Cover Art. Pathetic. Photo. Black and white. Woman sits on bench in institutional hallway, face covered by a black bar

Pathetic
by Shannon McLeod (prose)

Cover Art. Followers. Three Christian crosses on a hill with sunrise in background, purple sky with clouds

Followers
by Adam Fleming Petty (novella)

Cover Art. Ologies. Illustration of man’s head. Brain filled with small photos of landscapes

Ologies
by Chelsea Biondolillo (prose)

Cover Art. Velocity of Slugs. Photo of bullet hole in window, obscured city in background

Velocity of Slugs
by Joey Connelly (poetry)

Cover Art. Static: Stories. Photo. Close up of 1950s telephone on desk. Staticy filter in foreground

Static: Stories
by Frederick Pelzer (prose)

Cover Art. Action at a Distance. White background featuring an apple, title text swirls around it

Action at a Distance
by Christopher Petruccelli (poetry)

Chapbook Guidelines

Chapbook submissions of 15-40 pages in poetry or prose will be considered. Collaborative works (two or more authors) are eligible, as are mixed-genre works. The chapbook winners in poetry and in prose will receive a $150 honorarium and 15 copies of the published chapbook.

  1. The manuscripts or authors must have a connection to the geographic area shown on the map.
  2. Manuscripts should be 15 to 40 pages in length (up to 10,000 words in prose).
  3. Collaborative works (two or more authors) are eligible. Mixed-genre works are also eligible.
  4. For prose, a single piece or multiple pieces can be submitted (multiple flash pieces, thematically connected pieces, etc.).
  5. Please submit chapbook manuscripts in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction using the Submittable content submissions manager for Etchings. You will be prompted to create a free user account that will allow you to submit your manuscript and monitor its status.
  6. Please submit your manuscript as a single file and include a title page (without name) and a table of contents. We ask that your name be removed from the manuscript for blind reading.
  7. Submittable will request a cover letter with a short biographical statement and links to web sites and social media you use to promote your writing.
  8. Undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Indianapolis will read all entries and choose a winner in poetry and in prose to publish. Students will then edit, design, publish, and promote each winning book.
  9. Winners will be notified in March, 2024. Chapbooks will be released and available for sale in May, 2024, or soon thereafter.
  10. The reading fee is $7 (payable via submittable.com)
  11. The deadline is Tuesday, January 30th. Please submit through Submittable between September 1st and January 30th.
  12. Alumni and current students of University of Indianapolis and former students of its faculty are not eligible.

Submit your manuscript and additional materials at etchings.submittable.com.

Novella Guidelines

Etchings Press, a student-run publisher at University of Indianapolis, invites submissions for its fifth annual novella contest. The winner will receive a $300 honorarium and 15 copies of the published novella.

  1. The manuscripts or authors must have a connection to the geographic area shown on this map.
  2. Collaborative works (two or more authors) are eligible.
  3. Manuscripts should be 10,000-40,000 words.
  4. Please submit novella manuscripts of 10,000-40,000 words using the Submittable content submissions manager for Etchings. You will be prompted to create a free user account that will allow you to submit your manuscript and monitor its status.
  5. Please submit manuscripts as a single file and include a title page (without name). We ask that your name be removed from the manuscript for blind reading.
  6. Submittable will request a cover letter with a short biographical statement and links to web sites and social media you use to promote your writing.
  7. Undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Indianapolis will read all entries and choose a winner. Students will then edit, design, publish, and promote each winning book.
  8. Winners will be notified in March, 2024. Novellas will be released and available for sale in May, 2024, or soon thereafter.
  9. The reading fee is $12 (payable via submittable.com)
  10. The deadline is Tuesday, January, 2024. Please submit through Submittable between September 1st and February 1st.
  11. Alumni and current students of University of Indianapolis and former students of its faculty are not eligible.

Submit your manuscript and additional materials at etchings.submittable.com.

If you have any questions, please contact Kevin McKelvey at mckelveyk@uindy.edu.