Formerly based out of New York City, now at home in Asheville, North Carolina, and with our Managing Editor currently situated in Reykjavik, Iceland, MadHat Press is open to authors of all creeds and distinctions, from the emerging to the emergent, from the multicultural to the insolent. For a list of some of our contributors over the years, click on the Mad Hatters' Review tab.
To inaugurate the official birth of MadHat Press, CAConrad, Philly poet extraordinaire and author of the gripping collection, The Book of Frank (Wave 2010), will be judging the first poetry chapbook competition. Future MadHat Press chapbook competitions will include flash-fiction, short story, and novella categories.
MadHat Press places great emphasis on the aesthetics of design, typography and the printed word. It is MadHat Press's vision to connect the reader with the physicality of the book in its creative unraveling. The Press will also publish aesthetically pleasing e-books.
As a non-profit organization promoting the literary arts, MadHat Press welcomes all donations. They are fully tax-deductible for US residents.
Please note guidelines for the "Wild and Wyrd" poetry chapbook competition below. We look forward to receiving your submissions.
MadHat Press
2011
"Wild and Wyrd" Inaugural Poetry Chapbook Competition
June 15 – August 31
MadHat Press, an offspring of the non-profit innovative and collaborative arts organization MadHat, Inc., invites submissions of poetry manuscripts for its first chapbook contest. The genre "poetry" is broad and includes prose and conceptual poetry. There are no restrictions regarding form, style, or content.
This inaugural contest will be judged by CAConrad.
CAConrad is the author of The Book of Frank (Wave Books, 2010), Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), and a collaboration with Frank Sherlock, The City Real & Imagined (Factory School Press, 2010). He has a new book of poetry forthcoming, A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon (Wave Books, 2012). He lives in Philadelphia and writes with his friends at PhillySound, and he is a co-founder of PACE: Poet-Activist Community Extension. Look for him at http://CAConrad.blogspot.com.
WINNERS
FIRST PRIZE
$US500.00 and five copies of the perfectly bound chapbook will be awarded to the first prize winner. If the book is co-authored, each of the two authors will be awarded $250.00 and three copies. The winning manuscript will be issued as a professionally designed, typeset and printed chapbook with a color cover, and cataloged with an ISBN number and copyright information. Additional copies will be available to the author at cost plus postage. Three to five poems from the book, selected by the author/s, will be published in Issue 13 of Mad Hatters' Review. The book will be available for purchase on amazon.com and possibly, other popular venues. Depending on the geographical situation of the winning author, the editors will arrange a book launch in a venue in the U.S.; should this not prove feasible, an online book launch will be arranged, including a podcast with audio excerpts of the winning work.
SECOND PRIZE
The manuscript of the second prize winner will be published as a MadHat Press e-book, downloadable via Mad Hatters' Review.
FINALISTS
Poems by two finalists will be published in Issue 13 of Mad Hatters' Review. CAConrad will select three to five poems from each winning author's manuscript.
ENTRY GUIDELINES
Each manuscript must consist of 26 – 36 pages in single-spaced 12 Point Roman font, page-numbered, but otherwise no identifying information, and sent as PDF file or in Word (.doc) format to: http://madhatter.submishmash.com/Submit
Individual pieces may have been published elsewhere, but the manuscript should not have been published previously as a whole, either in a chapbook or a full-length work. Your submission of previously published poems includes an acknowledgment that you hold the copyright. Please provide us with acknowledgments of these pieces in your cover letter.
You may make multiple submissions; however, an $18 fee paid through Submishmash must accompany each entry. We accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you withdraw your submission through the Submishmash system if your work is accepted elsewhere. No refunds will be provided for partial or full withdrawals.
When preparing submissions, please make sure that in your substantive (manuscript) attachment, your work does not include any identifying information within the title or body of your entry. Please provide a list of the proposed book title, along with a table of contents, including all poem titles in your manuscript. Manuscripts will be read "blind."
Note that any manuscript containing the author's name or other identifying information will not be considered and the entry fee will not be returned.
In your separate cover letter, provide relevant contact information including full name, mailing address, email address, telephone number and a short bio.
CONTEST READING PERIOD: Contest entries will be accepted from June 15, 2011, 12:00 a.m. US EST through August 31, 2011, 11:59 p.m. US EST. Any contest submissions received outside of this submission period will not be considered. Winners will be announced no later than November 1, 2011, 12:59 p.m. ELIGIBILITY: In accord with MadHat Press's mission and vision, English-language submissions from non-U.S. residents and/or citizens are welcome.
For queries or otherwise, please email the editors at: press@madhatarts.com