Sarabande Series in Kentucky Literature

SUBMIT JULY 1 - JULY 31

Sarabande is proud to be an independent publisher headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Each year since 2005, thanks to the generosity of benefactors from our home state and beyond, we have published a new work of Kentucky literature. 


ELIGIBILITY

This series is open to writers and projects with ties to Kentucky. Employees and board members of Sarabande are not eligible. We accept manuscripts of poetry, short fiction, and literary nonfiction. Eligible submissions should meet at least one of the following requirements:

  • The author is from Kentucky or lives/has lived in Kentucky.

  • The manuscript is set in Kentucky or about a Kentuckian.

Additionally the author must be willing and able to travel to or within Kentucky for readings and public events.

It is highly recommended that those who intend to submit a manuscript familiarize themselves with Sarabande’s catalog. You can find some of our recent titles by Kentucky-affiliated authors to the right.

SUBMISSION Requirements

Submissions to the Sarabande Series in Kentucky Literature should include:

  • A cover letter that specifies your fulfillment of the eligibility requirements

  • A complete, full-length manuscript of poetry, short fiction, or literary nonfiction (48 to 100 manuscript pages for poetry, 150 to 250 for prose). Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents and an acknowledgements page.

  • A $22 reading fee.

Submission of more than one manuscript is permissible with separate reading fees. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers are permitted. We ask that you notify us immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

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Previous titles from the Sarabande Series in Kentucky Literature

2022: Ricky & Other Love Stories, stories by Whitney Collins

2021: Mare’s Nest, poems by Holly Mitchell

2020: Dear Damage, essays by Ashley Marie Farmer

2019: Even Shorn, poems by Isabel Duarte-Gray

2018: New Bad News, stories by Ryan Ridge

2017: Make/Shift, stories by Joe Sacksteder

2016: Witch Wife, poems by Kiki Petrosino

2015: Everywhere Home, essays by Fenton Johnson

2014: The Spoons in the Grass are There to Dig a Moat, poems by Amelia Martens

2013: Model of a City in Civil War, poems by Adam Day

2012: Elegy on Kinderklavier, stories by Arna Bontemps Hemenway

2011: Red Holler: Appalachian Literature, edited by John E. Branscum and Wayne Thomas

2010: Gin & Bleach, poems by Catherine Wing

2009: Small Fires, essays by Julie Marie Wade

2008: The Name of the Nearest River, stories by Alex Taylor

2007: Black Sabbatical, poems by Brett Eugene Ralph

2006: The Motel of the Stars, a novel by Karen McElmurray

2005: The Guyanese Wanderer, stories by Jan Carew

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