GENERAL GUIDELINES

Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as they are submitted separately with separate entry fees.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please be sure to withdraw your submission via Submishmash if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Please update any changes in contact information via your profile on Submishmash.

No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered. The author of the winning manuscript will have the opportunity to make revisions prior to publication.

Friends, colleagues, and current or former students of the judges — as well as current students of English or Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and recent alumni (graduating years 2006 to present) — are not eligible to compete. This year’s chapbook judges are David St. John (poetry) and Percival Everett (fiction).

In January 2012 we will announce contest results by email, as well as at http://goldlinepress.com. The winning chapbooks will be published in spring of that year.
Winner receives $500 and 40 copies of the perfect-bound chapbook, 30 of which are sent to magazines and other venues for review.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts must be 20-30 pages in length for poetry entries, and 7,500-15,000 words for fiction entries (not including the title page and table of contents).

Manuscripts should be paginated with a table of contents at the beginning, unless the form of the book does not warrant it.

Include a cover page with title of manuscript only. No identifying material should appear anywhere in the body of the manuscript. Your identifying information will be available to us via our submission manager when needed.

Please do not include an acknowledgments page.

Individual poems/short stories may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be original and unpublished.

The manuscript must be in English. Translations are ineligible.

The $15 entry fee ($18 for applicants outside the US or Canada) includes a copy of the winning chapbook in your genre.
All manuscripts must be received by November 1, 2011.

HOW WE READ

We use the Submishmash system for our submissions, which ensures the submitter’s anonymity during review by our editors and judge. To avoid conflicts of interest, editors will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they can identify the work’s author.

The judge will select the winner (who will receive $500 and publication) and finalists (to be listed on our website). The judge may request to see additional manuscripts if necessary. The judge is not permitted to choose manuscripts that present a conflict of interest.

Gold Line Press, while not a member of the CLMP, abides by its Code of Ethics:

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses’ community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our staff, editors, or judges; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

http://www.goldlinepress.com/
http://www.goldlinepress.com/contest/

Click on the link above and go to the contest official site