We are not currently open for submissions. Check back regularly or keep an eye on our social media platforms for updates.
Thank you for your interest in submitting to Lemures Books. We are an independent publisher based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, dedicated to publishing emerging voices and talents in affordable and accessible ways. You can familiarize yourself with our guidelines below for our next open reading period. Please do not submit until then– any submissions received outside of our reading period will be deleted without consideration.
Manuscript Submission:
Writers are invited to submit a chapbook manuscript of up to 15 poems– less if your individual poems are longer than a page.
We are currently focused on receiving submissions of experimental poetry and prose, but are open to hybrid works and works that are hard to define. If you are unsure of how to define your work, please send us a query letter prior to your submission.
Please familiarize yourself with our mission and catalog before submitting a manuscript. For further clarification on the works we're looking for, feel free to look to the works of some of our favorite authors: Federico Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Samuel Beckett, Jean Cocteau, Richard Brautigan, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul and Jane Bowles, Paul Eluard, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams, Fernanda Melchor, William S. Burroughs, Gertrude Stein, E.E. Cummings, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Leonora Carrington. Basically, the entire catalogs of New Directions and The Jargon Society.
We are open to authors at every stage of their career. We do not discriminate based on nationality, race, gender, sexual preference, physical or mental disability, or religion. (We will, however, discriminate against authors who obviously don't read these guidelines.)
Simultaneous submissions are permitted. You may do so with the understanding that you will promptly let us know if your manuscript has been accepted elsewhere. We ask that you show the same courtesy to any publisher you submitted your work to if we accept your work first.
Please do not submit more than once (1 time) per reading period, unless personally asked by the editors.
How to Submit:
Submissions must be sent via email to [email protected]. Please adhere to the following guidelines and instructions when submitting.
Your subject line must read "Your Name///Chapbook Submission"
You must include in your email:
A cover letter addressed to our editors (Kristopher Biernat and Kaleigh Dandeneau) in the body of your email.
A third–person bio of a reasonable length (we do not need to know your entire publishing history– proud of you, though!) in the body of your email.
An acknowledgements page (if applicable) in the form of a word document (.docx) or PDF mentioning which works have been previously published and where.
Both a word document (.docx) and a PDF of your manuscript as attachments. Please do not paste your manuscript into the body of the email. If you are unable to provide a word document or PDF, please send us a query prior to submitting. Your manuscript should be no more than 20 pages; anything longer will be rejected without further consideration.
If you are including images in your submission make sure they are: black and white, at least 300x300 pixels with a high resolution, labeled by file name "Title of your work_Your Name". You may be asked to resend images if your work is selected but not yet optimized for print.
By submitting, you are confirming that your work is original, you are the sole author, and it has not been previously published.
How to Send a Query Letter:
Please submit a query letter (500 words or fewer) to [email protected] with the subject line "Query///Your Name".
You may submit queries to: ask if your work is the appropriate style to submit or ask for clarification about submission guidelines.
You may not submit queries to: ask if we have read your work yet (before a 3 month period has passed since you've submitted), ask why you were rejected, or to complain (about anything, really. even birds).
Do not include attachments or samples of your work. If you are unsure of your work's genre, please describe your project in detail without sending samples or your full manuscript.