Our next open reading period is in November 2021.
Sphinx Moth Press wants to change the systems of inequality that exist in the poetry world. Submitting a poetry manuscript to first book contests, second book contests, and open reading periods run by small presses can cost a lot of money. Most small presses charge reading fees, anywhere from $25 to $30 to submit work. This creates a great deal of inequity in who publishes a poetry book in America. Poets with discretionary income can submit their work, while lower-income writers often get left behind. At Sphinx Moth Press, we know that poets come from all walks of life.
That’s why we don’t charge reading fees. We want to make publishing a poetry book available to all, including those with lower incomes. We currently only accept manuscripts from writers who cannot afford to submit to fee-based contests. If you are on SNAP, housing assistance, or will not be submitting your manuscript to fee-based contests or open reading periods this year because you cannot afford to do so, we invite you to submit your work to us. We are a small press based in Hawai’i and we also particularly favor low-income writers from the islands, especially underrepresented voices. We favor genre-bending titles that otherwise might not have found a home in a more-traditional press.
We are committed to promotion of the titles we publish. This includes advertisement of our books in blogs, partnerships with blogs, Instagram promotions, and other sources of promotion. We will only publish one book a year and devote ourselves to promoting that title.
For writers who can afford to submit to writing contests this year, we invite you to support our mission by ordering our current title.
