Submissions
Camber Press is pleased to announce our Second Annual Fiction Chapbook Award. Our ethos is to publish contemporary fiction exhibiting lucid delivery while not sacrificing emotional depth, mastery of craft, or originality.

The Camber Press
Fiction Chapbook Award

Deadline:
May 30, 2010

First Prize:
$1,000 and publication of chapbook

Judge:
Chuck Kinder

Submission guidelines:

The winning fiction writer will receive $1,000 and have his or her manuscript published by Camber Press, Inc. The winner will also receive ten copies of the book. Only typed manuscripts no greater than 10,000 words of original English-language fiction will be considered. Manuscripts must include a cover page listing the author's name, address, phone number, e-mail address, word count, and manuscript title. Names should not appear anywhere else. A title page with no biographical information should follow. Simultaneous submissions are allowed if Camber Press is immediately notified of acceptance elsewhere. Submissions will be recycled, not returned. Include a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you wish acknowledgment of receipt. A $15 entry fee payable to Camber Press must accompany all submissions. International submissions are $15 provided they are in US funds. Submissions must be postmarked no later than May 30, 2010. The winner will be announced on or before August 1, 2010 via our Web site, Twitter feed and Facebook page. E-mail us for more information. Send entries to:

Fiction Award
Camber Press
807 Central Avenue
Suite 2
Peeksill, NY 10566

Other details:

• If your story has been previously published in a literary journal or review, please include this information in an acknowledgments page. Any manuscript previously published as a whole in book form is not eligible.
• Multiple manuscripts by the same writer will be accepted if submitted with a corresponding entry fee for each work.
• If the writer's name is present anywhere on the manuscript aside from the cover page, the entry will be disqualified.
• If the writer needs to refer to his/herself in the story, a pseudonym must be used.
• Please do not send corrections or additions. The winner will be allowed to make revisions before publication.
• Submissions postmarked after May 30, 2010, will not be considered for the competition.
• At 10,000 words maximum, this award could qualify for that much-neglected fiction form of a "long story" or "novelette." This award isn't limited to that genre. Word counts for short stories (generally considered up to 7500) will also be accepted.
• Using the industry standard of approximately 250 words per page, your manuscript should not be over 40 pages. Line length, chapter sections, type size, margins, and other factors affect the number of pages both a manuscript and a finished book will be. Please rely on the word count feature of your word processing application.
• Covers, tables of contents, dedication pages, acknowledgements pages, etc., do not count toward the total number of pages.
• "No greater than 40 pages" does not mean your manuscript need be 40 pages. Please think of the quality of your writing first, and "40 pages," if ever, last. An excellent story of 7400 words will beat a padded 10,000 word story every time.
• If you wish to bind your manuscript(s), please use a paperclip. Folders, binders, "bullnose" clips, and staples are strongly discouraged.
• Please do not send your manuscript via a carrier requiring a signature for delivery. Not only is this is an unnecessary expense for writers, we find the USPS does a more than adequate job of delivering to our location.
• Submissions will be recycled, not returned. Do not send a return envelope or return postage. Do not send the only copy of your manuscript.
• To be advised of future Camber Press news, please join our e-mail newsletter list. Camber Press will not sell, trade, or distribute your e-mail address to any other company, organization, or individual. We don't like spam, either. An e-mail to the same address will remove you from our future mailings.

About our judge, Chuck Kinder

Chuck Kinder Chuck Kinder is the Director of the Writing Program and the author of the novels, Snakehunter (Alfred A. Knopf), The Silver Ghost (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) and Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a 2001 New York Times Notable Book. Kinder's most recent book is titled Last Mountain Dancer: Hard Earned Lessons In Love, Loss, And Honky-Tonk Outlaw Life, which was published in 2004. Kinder's awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Fiction, a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Award in Fiction, a Dorothy & Granville Hicks Residence in Literature from the Yaddo Foundation, an Appalachian Heritage Dennis C. Plattner First Place Award for Nonfiction, a W.V.U. 2008 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Recognition Award, and a 2009 University of Pittsburgh Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award.

A PDF of the above submission guidelines is available here.

Last year, Ron Carlson chose Rob Davidson's Criminals in a blind submission similar to the above guidelines. It will be available shortly.

Camber Press is thoroughly devoted to maintaining the integrity of our competitions. Judges are directed to discard any manuscript where the writer of the work can be identified, where they have had a personal relationship with the writer, or if they have contributed in the making of the manuscript.

Camber Press does not choose writers or judges based on race, sex, color, religion, age, national origin, physical ability/handicap, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or geographic location. Manuscripts are chosen for publication based solely upon quality of work. Judges are chosen because we feel given their style and reputation, they will choose a manuscript accurately reflecting the ethos of Camber Press.

We thank you for your interest in submitting your work. Camber Press looks forward to publishing new, talented writers for the rest of the world to discover along with us. At this time we have several other manuscripts in production for publication, and we are not accepting unsolicited manuscripts outside this competition. Watch our Web site for announcements on the winning manuscript and forthcoming awards in both poetry and fiction.