Guidlines for Submitting Poetry, Fiction, and Non-Fiction

The submission deadline for the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry and the G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction is January 15 (postmark). Click here for full prize guidelines. 

BkMk Press will read unsolicited submissions from February 1 through June 30. Please follow the guidelines below.

1. Send a sample of your work: approximately 10 pp. poetry; or 50 pp. prose.

2. Typed and paginated. Prose should be double-spaced.

3. Please include a cover letter indicating your name and address and the title of your submission.

4. Please also send a self addressed stamped envelope for our reply (with sufficient postage for the manuscript's return, if applicable). Please indicate whether you want your manuscript returned or recycled.

5. BkMk publishes quality poetry, short fiction collections, and creative non-fiction essays. We do not currently publish novels.

6. DO NOT SUBMIT MANUSCRIPTS VIA E-MAIL OR OTHERWISE THROUGH THE INTERNET.  Mail to BkMk Press, 5101 Rockhill Road, University of Missouri-Kansas City, K.C., Mo. 64110.

7. We try to reply to your submission in four to six months.

Note: It is highly unusual for us to accept a novella or anything aspiring to novel-hood, preferring instead to publish short fiction collections. We will not consider mystery, western, romance, or other genre novels.