Scholarships for Tupelo Press Teen Writing Program Creative Writing Classes are available to students who are rising High School Freshman through High School seniors for the 2023 - 2024 school year. Please include a note about how this scholarship will help you.
Tupelo Press welcomes applications for the following internship opportunities:
Teen Education Outreach Intern:
This project focuses on two central tasks for our teen writing program outreach: developing contemporary resources in diverse voices for HS teachers in multiple writing genres, and assisting with developing contact lists for educator outreach. Adding to our online bank of contemporary examples enriches our ability as a literary press to expand access to the diversity of material in the poetry world. The intern will leave the position with a a keen sense of diverse contemporary voices and genres with examples, as well as network of secondary level contacts for future teaching initiatives.
Social Media Intern for Education:
Responsibilities depend on intern’s social media experience and will include creating and curating educational content for Tupelo Press's Social media platforms, and interns with recording talents this can include TikTok, Vimeo, and YouTube Channels. Content will routinely be drawn from a diverse bank of literary publications as well as Tupelo Press's deep well of experience in publishing and teaching, the intern will leave the position with a greater bank of literary tools and deeper understanding of resources that support them while building a portfolio of social media material.
Book Sales and Distribution Intern:
This project focuses on producing content for book promotions including writing book descriptions of varying lengths, including following guidelines for sales algorithms, and developing keywords for the books based on their own experience as well as language from literary and lay reviews. The intern will leave the position with a keen sense of book promotion within the industry as well as a portfolio of examples, and the skills to make them an asset for any publication institution.
Generative Fundriasing Project Intern:
This internship involves the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project and involves database management, and monthly organization of participant materials to support a vibrant ten-year generative poetry fundraising project. Knowledge of Wordpress is an asset but can be taught. Participants will gain valuable insights into donation management software and reporting and leave with an expanded bank of literary contacts.
Course Adoption Intern:
This project would focus on two central tasks: developing a portfolio of curricular resources pertaining to a recent work of literary poetry, fiction or nonfiction published by Tupelo Press, and assisting with outreach to educators who could adopt the book into their curriculum. The student will develop a letter that highlights and frames the curricular materials developed during the internship, and will also work collaboratively to create databases of educators for outreach purposes. Because many publishers are foregrounding course adoptions as a way to bolster sales and create a sustainable business enterprise, this internship will offer valuable and marketable expertise for those interested in careers in literary publishing. The student will leave the internship with practical skills and a network of educator contacts for future course adoptions initiatives in literary publishing.
Book Publicity Intern:
This project will consist of two central tasks: assisting with the further development of a database of reviewers and review markets in the student’s chosen genre, and assisting with outreach to both reviewers and review markets for a book publicity campaign in the student’s chosen genre. Students will leave with a working knowledge of publicity outlets within their genre of choice, as well as a roster of contacts in that genre. Student will also have the option to write reviews, receive feedback, and interview a writer for their chosen publicity campaign. The benefit of this being that he or she will have the opportunity to participate in and receive feedback on both sides of the publicity business, and will also have published clips to present for future reviewer, interviewer, and magazine writing opportunities.
Development and Fundraising Intern:
This internship will consist of three central tasks: 1) Developing creative strategies for fundraising in coordination with the staff of Tupelo Press, such as auctions, crowdfunding campaigns, and more; 2) Assisting with outreach to past donors and prospective donors; 3) Organizing past donation history into a user-friendly database for other key staff. The intern will leave with an expanded network of fundraising contacts, as well as valuable and marketable expertise in development for arts nonprofits and literary publishers.
Web Design Intern for Tupelo Quarterly:
This internship would offer the opportunity of participating in every aspect of production for one of our issues. Responsibilities would include designing posts for our website, which includes cross-disciplinary work, poetry films, collaborations, translation, poetry in all styles, fiction, essays, interviews, and reviews; proofreading; and corresponding with authors to perfect their presentation of the work on the site. The student would work collaboratively with myself, our managing editor, Tiffany Troy, our Associate Editors-in-Chief, Erica Buist and Wendy Chen, and a staff of Associate and Senior editors that includes Guggenheim fellows and Levis Prize Winners, among many other honors. The student will leave with a working knowledge of Wordpress, enabling him or her to start their own web publication, assist in the development of an established web based literary magazine, or simply make themselves more marketable to literary publishers who are rapidly expanding their web based content and resources.
Tupelo Press is now reading submissions of literary nonfiction year-round. Please submit only completed manuscripts for our consideration.
Please keep in mind that this is not a contest. Manuscripts are not read anonymously. We hope to find manuscripts we love and want to publish, but understand, please, that Tupelo Press is under no obligation to publish any of the prose manuscripts submitted to us. Please also bear in mind that Tupelo Press accepts very few works of prose — no more than one or two per year. All manuscripts will be read and all decisions made by the editors of Tupelo Press only.
There is a reading fee of $45 for each prose manuscript submitted. Why a reading fee? We are an independent, nonprofit literary press. Reading fees help defray, but do not by any means cover, the significant time involved in reading works of prose, and the cost of publishing the books we commit to. Before submitting, be deeply thoughtful about whether your manuscript is fully ready for publication. Please don’t send works of prose previously submitted to us, unless specifically asked to do so.
Typically preliminary readers assist with evaluating contest entries, and vote on which manuscripts should be honored as finalists and forwarded on to the judge. We assign each preliminary reader 50 book or chapbook-length manuscripts. While this is an honorary position, we would be pleased to feature a bio with information about your creative work on the Tupelo Press staff page, and provide complimentary Tupelo Press books and broadsides as a token of our appreciation.
Please use this link to submit book-length works of literature in translation. We are open to submissions of both poetry and prose, as well hybrid and experimental work. As you prepare your translation submission, there are a few things to note:
--We pay a $2,500 - $3,000 advance for a book of poetry.
--We pay for rights, however, we expect the translator to have made sure that rights are available.
--Whenever possible, please be sure to include the original language text alongside the English language translation.
--We are particularly interested in works of literature being made available in English for the first time.
Thank you, as always, for thinking of Tupelo Press. We look forward to reading your submission!
Submission period: August 15th — October 31st (postmark or online submission-date)
Prize: $1,000
Final Judge: Jane Wong
Jane Wong is the author of the debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, out now from Tin House (2023). She is also the author of two books of poetry: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016).
She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney’s, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and Want: Women Writing About Desire (Catapult).
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page to enter and attach your file. Please read the complete guidelines before submitting your manuscript.
The Helena Whitehill Book Award is a prestigious national poetry prize for adult writers. Established in 2002, the Prize has drawn submissions from around the country that have been judged by renowned poets such as Martha Collins, Patricia Smith, and Tony Hoagland.
The Helena Whitehill Book Award includes a cash award of $1,000 in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, a book launch, national and international distribution by the University of Chicago Press, a one-week residence at Gentle House on the Olympic Peninsula, and unlike our other prizes, open to submissions of poetry, chapbook or full length, no page limit, and also open to creative non-fiction, no page limit. Manuscripts are judged anonymously and all finalists will be considered for publication. Please read the complete guidelines before submitting your manuscript.
Who May Submit
The Helena Whitehill Book Award is open to anyone writing in the English language, whether living in the United States or abroad. Translations are not eligible for this prize, nor are previously self-published books. Employees of Tupelo Press and authors with books previously published by Tupelo Press are not eligible. This contest is open to all poets, regardless of prior publication history.
We continue to be impressed by the quality of work we see and generally receive many, many more worthy manuscripts than we are able to publish. In addition, each of our contests and reading periods has a different team of editors, guest editors, esteemed readers, and final judge. And of course our tastes and needs evolve from year to year with each production schedule. For all of these reasons and more, please know you are welcome to submit your manuscript even if you have already entered it in one or more of our contests or reading periods in the past, and even if you have a manuscript pending in a recent submission opportunity. Thank you for honoring us with your work — we’re excited to see what wonders arrive over the transom.
Manuscript Requirements & Ethical Guidelines
Submit a previously unpublished, full or chapbook-length poetry manuscript, or creative non-fiction manuscript with a table of contents. There is no mandatory page count. All manuscripts will be read and considered with full respect, regardless of length, and no manuscript will be rejected simply because it’s shorter or longer.
If you are submitting a paper manuscript, include two cover pages: one with the title of the manuscript only, the other with title of manuscript, name, address, telephone number, and email address. Cover letters or biography notes are optional; if included, these will not be read until the conclusion of the contest.
If you are submitting a manuscript online, include a single cover page with the title of the manuscript only, so that your manuscript document remains anonymous. Submittable provides fields to fill in your contact information: name, address, telephone number, and email address.
Individual poems in a contest manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, journals, or anthologies, or chapbooks, but the work as a whole must be unpublished. If applicable, include with your manuscript an acknowledgments page for prior publications.
Simultaneous submissions to other publishers or contests are permitted, as long as you notify Tupelo Press promptly if a manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
Kindly note that poets who have personal relationships, current or recent student-teacher or mentoring relationships with the contest judge, or who have attended a program at the same time that the contest judge served on faculty, are not eligible for this prize. Likewise, poets are ineligible where it is reasonably likely that the contest judge will recognize your work.
Before you submit a manuscript to a Tupelo Press competition, please consider exploring the work of the poets we have published. We’re drawn to technical virtuosity combined with abundant imagination; memorable, vivid imagery and strikingly musical approaches to language; willingness to take risks; and an ability to convey penetrating insights into human experience.
Tupelo Press endorses and abides by the Ethical Guidelines of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), which can be reviewed here, along with more about Tupelo Press’s ethical considerations for literary contests.
Notifications & Results
Submittable automatically confirms receipt of your manuscript. Beyond this, kindly refrain from requesting an individual response to confirm receipt of your manuscript and/or payment. We receive thousands of manuscripts each year and cannot offer individual acknowledgments. Thank you for your understanding.
Results will be announced in winter 2024 via email and will also be posted on our website.
Deadline
All entries must be certified by Submittable by midnight of October 31st, 2023.
Reading Fee
A reading fee of $25 (U.S.) must accompany each submission. Multiple submissions are accepted, so long as each submission is accompanied by a separate $25 reading fee. Why a reading fee? We are an independent, nonprofit literary press. Reading fees help defray, but do not entirely cover, the cost of reviewing manuscripts and publishing the many books we select outside of our competitions.
Please be sure that your document is complete and formatted correctly before uploading.
We look forward to reading your work!