Every publisher has its own mission. To maintain the integrity of our house and the quality of our offerings in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, the Sarabande editors make their selections based on a set of guidelines. As detailed below, we look to:

1. Publish only the highest quality writing. As encapsulated in the qualities of the sarabande dance that is our namesake, we seek work that has stylistic sophistication with a wild underside. It should expresses an urgency of subject matter in fresh, startling language.
2. Publish debut collections. Sarabande has served well as a launching pad for writers who then go on to publish with mainstream publishers. Examples include Kate Walbert, who published her story collection Where She Went with us and then sold her novel to Scribner. After Lee Martin's short story collection The Least You Need to Know won our Mary McCarthy Prize, he sold both a novel and a memoir to Dutton. The poets Cate Marvin, Thomas Heise, and Karen An-Hwei Lee are further examples.
3. Publish revivals and comebacks--writers who have been passed over by mainstream publishers, who have lost their publishers, whose careers could use a mid-life boost, or who are re-entering the writing world again after many years. Examples of this include Eleanor Lerman's The Mystery of Meteors and Joan Silber's In My Other Life.
4. Publish subsequent books by previous Sarabande authors. It has always been one of our goals to provide a "home" for writers, provided the collection meets our standards for excellent writing.
5. Give the highly talented but unpolished writer a chance with more editorial help than is generally offered at most literary publishers.
6. Offer a balance of gender, race, and sexual identity in our subject matter.
7. Offer a list with stylistic diversity. This keeps people guessing and sustains interest in the press. Our range includes "experimental" poetry (Michael Burkard's Unsleeping; Karen An-hwei Lee's In Medias Res), narrative and formal poetry (Mark Jarman's To the Green Man), minimalist, imagistic short fiction (Kiki Delancey's Coal Miner's Holiday; William Tester's Head), lush, baroque prose (Joseph Caldwell's Bread for the Baker's Child), novelistic short stories (Mary Ann Taylor-Hall's How She Knows What She Knows About Yo-yos), and experimental fiction (Ander Monson's Other Electricities, stories; Yolanda Barnes' When It Burned to the Ground, a novel).
8. Stubbornly resist publishing trends in favor of stylistic diversity.
9. Take into account, all other things being equal, a manuscript's sales potential and its potential to reach the widest audience for fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.
10. Foster a good relationship with each writer. We are a small house that works very closely with our authors. If an author is willing to work hard for a book, we promise to match his or her enthusiasm.