Ghost peach press

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We publish full-length poetry collections and—now—creative nonfiction essay collections annually through a contest model. Submissions for our fourth annual poetry contest are closed. Submissions for our inaugural essays contest are open. More information can be found below.

The 2023 Ghost Peach Press Prize
in Essays

This contest for a full-length creative nonfiction essay collection is open to any essayist writing in English who has not yet published more than one full-length book in creative nonfiction (writers with multiple chapbooks ​are ​eligible), and offers a cash prize of $1,000 and publication, as well as ten copies of the published book. This contest is open.

The brilliant Jenny Boully will judge the contest.

Jenny Boully is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow in General Nonfiction. She is the author of Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life. Her previous books include not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them, The Book of Beginnings and Endings: Essays, [one love affair]*, of the mismatched teacups, of the single-serving spoon: a book of failures, and The Body: An Essay. 

A ลูกครึ่ง (half-child), she was born in Thailand and grew up on the southwest side of San Antonio, Texas. She attended Hollins University, where she double majored in English and Philosophy and then went on to earn an MA in English Criticism and Writing. Her other degrees include an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She currently teaches at Bennington College and the Bennington Writing Seminars.

Entries will first be read by Ghost Peach Press’s panel of editors, and 2023 judge Jenny Boully will choose the winning collection from ten finalists. All manuscripts should include a title page, table of contents, and an acknowledgements page (if applicable). No identifying information should be included in the submission. Manuscripts should be paginated and formatted in a pleasant-to-read font (as in, not comic sans), with no more than one poem per page. Manuscripts should consist of 48 – 75 pages of poetry (not including front and back matter). We prefer that you are ethical and do not submit if you are related to/work with/are besties with or otherwise have personal connections to the judge which could cause your work to be recognized.

Ghost Peach Press accepts the $22 entry fee exclusively through our Submittable page. The entry fee is due at the time of submission. Please email us at coatofbirdseditors@gmail.com if this fee causes a financial burden. The contest runs from July 1st, 2023 – November 1st, 2023. The winner will be announced by May 2024 and publication is expected in the spring of 2025.

 

 

The 2023 Ghost Peach Press Prize
in Poetry

 

This contest for a full-length poetry collection is open to any poet writing in English who has not yet published more than one full-length book in poetry (poets with multiple chapbooks ​are ​eligible), and offers a cash prize of $1,000 and publication, as well as ten copies of the published book. This contest is now closed.

 

The brilliant Tiana Clark will judge the contest.

Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collection, I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), winner of the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Equilibrium (Bull City Press, 2016), selected by Afaa Michael Weaver for the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. Clark is a winner for the 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award (Claremont Graduate University), a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, and the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize. She is a recipient of the 2021-2022 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship and 2019 Pushcart Prize. Clark is the 2017-2018 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. Her writing has appeared in or is forthcoming from The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Virginia Quarterly Review, Tin House Online, Kenyon Review, BuzzFeed News, American Poetry Review, Oxford American, The Best American Poetry 2022, and elsewhere. She teaches at the Sewanee School of Letters.

Entries will first be read blind by Ghost Peach Press’s panel of editors, and 2023 judge Tiana Clark will choose the winning collection from ten finalists. All manuscripts should include a title page, table of contents, and an acknowledgements page (if applicable). No identifying information should be included in the submission. Manuscripts should be paginated and formatted in a pleasant-to-read font (as in, not comic sans), with no more than one poem per page. Manuscripts should consist of 48 – 75 pages of poetry (not including front and back matter). We prefer that you are ethical and do not submit if you are related to/work with/are besties with or otherwise have personal connections to the judge which could cause your work to be recognized.

Ghost Peach Press accepts the $22 entry fee exclusively through our Submittable page. The entry fee is due at the time of submission. Please email us at coatofbirdseditors@gmail.com if this fee causes a financial burden. The contest runs from January 1st, 2023 – May 1st, 2023. The winner will be announced by November 2023 and publication is expected in the fall of 2024.