Submission Guidelines
Submissions are open January 1 – April 1 (summer issue) and July 1 – October 1 (winter issue).
Our annual chapbook contest is open for submissions from May 1 – July 31 (fall publication).
We publish poetry, essays, images, multimedia, hybrid, cross-, multi-, and post-genre work. We are interested in work that does not sit comfortably inside genre labels—work that bends or pushes against traditional limitations; that mixes, blends, and steps outside of the normal bounds.
The best way to understand what we're looking for is to read our Special Feature: Hybrid Forms & the Post-Genre Approach.
- Submit your work as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file and title the document with your name.
- You may submit 3-5 shorter pieces or 1 longer piece, max. length 15 pages. Include all pieces in one document.
- For visual work, title the file with your name and upload as a .jpg or .pdf. For video pieces, attach a link and/or embed code.
- If your submission does not fit into the categorical boundaries of "word" or "image" and there's no way to put it through Submittable, query us. We'd like to experiment with you.
- Attach a brief cover letter including a bio.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine; we ask that you let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- Past contributors must wait one year before submitting again.
- We acquire first rights (which revert back to you upon publication) and request acknowledgement in subsequent publications.
Annual Chapbook Contest
We seek cohesive manuscripts that deal in hybrid, cross-, multi-, and post-genre approaches. We are interested specifically in project-based work; while pieces within the manuscript may be disparate, they should resonate as a whole.
Inaugural Chapbook Contest Winner
Jake Syersak, Impressions in the Language of a Lantern's Wick
http://ghostproposal.com/store/
Reading period: May 1-July 31, annually
Contest will be judged by the editors.
Winner will be announced on September 1.
Winner and finalists will be notified via email prior to September 1.
The winning manuscript will be published in the fall following the reading period.
We reserve the right to extend the deadline if a manuscript is not selected from the original reading period.
Reading fee: $7
Winner receives: 25 copies of the manuscript.
Fine print:
- Manuscripts should be 16-32 pages
- Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please inform us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere
- Collaborative manuscripts are okay
- Multiple submissions are fine if submitted separately with a reading fee for each
- Images are permissible but manuscripts should not rely heavily upon them
- Include an acknowledgements page that lists previous publications: individual pieces are fine, but the manuscript as a whole should be previously unpublished
- This contest will not be judged blind: please include contact information
Windowframes Guidelines
In this ongoing feature on our blog, we invite writers and artists to take us into their own isolated moments of seeing/being. Send in a photograph, video, or sound clip of the image, song, or moment accompanied by a piece of writing – of any length, in any style or form – that brings us into your moment of awareness. Perhaps it is an old box filled with a meaningful collection; a particular moment of light hitting a brick wall; found text on the sidewalk; a compelling configuration of trees. ‘Frame’ it for us; show us what you see.
Book Reviews Guidelines
We accept submissions of book reviews. Books can be by our contributors or within the realm of our post-genre aesthetic. Reviews will be accepted on a rolling basis and published on our blog. There is no minimum or maximum word count and we are open to all styles.
Letterboxes Newsletter
‘Letterboxing’ is a contemporary treasure-hunt style outdoor activity, in which clues are used to seek out and find very small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places. Inside these boxes are unique stamps; finders make an imprint of the stamp in their personal logbook, and imprint their own stamp in the logbook of the letterbox.
But the original letterbox was somewhat different. In 1854 in southwest England, an area guide hid his calling card in a jar in a remote area near Cranmere Pool on the moors of Dartmoor. He encouraged his clients to leave their calling cards in the jar as well. As time went on, visitors began to leave self-addressed notes and postcards in hopes that other visitors would find them, gather them, and return them by mail to the sender.
At Ghost Proposal, ‘Letterboxes’ is our periodic newsletter; a relationship in the form of transmission. A letter from a friend, from a stranger, hand-typed for you. Letterboxes is a letter from one of our past contributors to another—an effort to build connections across boundaries.
For reference on this initiative, please see “Not the Map but the Winding” in Essay Daily.
All readers can subscribe to our newsletter on the Contact page of our website.
