Guidelines: The Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series

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Submissions for the Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series are considered annually in October. Thank you for your interest in Seven Kitchens Press and this series.

Guidelines:

Since 2014, Seven Kitchens Press has been proud to sponsor the annual Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series for an original, unpublished poetry manuscript. This series honors the vision of poet & teacher Rane Arroyo and is open to all poets. We are especially interested in reading poets from marginalized communities. Though Seven Kitchens publishes almost exclusively in English, we welcome manuscripts for this series that mix English and Spanish; there are no restrictions on content or form.

Our goal is to publish two manuscripts, one by a writer with, and one by a writer without, previous book or chapbook publication, each in a limited edition of 100 copies.
Each selected poet will receive 20 copies of their chapbook, which will be designed, printed, and hand-assembled by Seven Kitchens Press. All our authors may purchase additional copies of their chapbook at a 50% discount. Additionally, the publisher will distribute ten review copies to reviewers, libraries, and organizations at the author’s recommendation.
The annual reading period will extend from October 1 – October 31, with the selected title(s) scheduled for publication in early 2025.
There is no reading fee, though we encourage readers to purchase copies of our chapbooks and we gratefully accept donations large or small. Seven Kitchens survives solely on your donations and on the sale of our chapbooks.
Manuscripts will be read by publisher Ron Mohring and a team of selected readers. We are currently in the process of naming a Series Editor.
The editors and publisher may, at their discretion, choose not to award publication in either category. Provided we have sufficient response, and depending on the quality of work submitted, we will select two manuscripts for the series through this submission window. It is also possible that more than one manuscript in either category may be offered publication. Please send your very best work.
- Submit a paginated manuscript of 16-20 pages of poems with no more than one poem per page. Include a title page and a table of contents, but no identifying information in the manuscript. Do not include images of any kind. Please don’t use fancy fonts.
- In a separate file, please provide the manuscript title, author name, address, email and phone number. This file should include acknowledgments if anything in the manuscript has been previously published. Please also provide a brief biographical note, and title the document according to the following format: Arroyo_Your Last Name.
- In your brief (one paragraph) biographical note, include a statement of any previous or pending book or chapbook publication. (We need this information in order to read your manuscript in its proper category; we are very open to work by new writers and this series is designed to showcase both emerging and established poets.)
- Please follow all guidelines. Manuscripts received without necessary information will indicate to us that you have not spent adequate attention to presenting your work. (It’s always a good idea to check any publisher’s website for complete guidelines rather than rely on second-hand sources.)
- The collection may contain a series of poems or one single chapbook-length poem.
- Collaborative works are welcome. Should a winning manuscript be collaboratively written, author copies will be distributed equally (for example, two authors writing collaboratively would receive 10 copies apiece, or 20% of the print run).
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us promptly if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere by sending an e-mail to sevenkitchenspress at gmail dot com.
Submissions must be postmarked or e-mailed between October 1 and October 31, and the selected title(s) will be announced on or before January 31 of 2024.
Please do not double-dip: If your manuscript is currently under consideration for another of our series, please do not send the same work for this series.
Multiple submissions are welcome as long as they are not already under consideration for another of our series. Please send each manuscript separately.
Authors will receive updates throughout the process: once finalists have been selected, they will be notified by email, and all other entrants will be individually notified via email.
Manuscripts will not be returned. E-mailed submission is preferred, but you may send via regular mail.
If sending by mail, please mail flat in an 8.5 x 11 envelope. Please do not use expedited delivery services; your postmark date is sufficient to ensure your entry qualification, and we will allow 7-10 days for receipt of all entries mailed after October 31. Use First-Class Mail and consider spending the money you’ve saved on a chapbook from a small, independent press! Mail your manuscript to: Ron Mohring, Publisher; Seven Kitchens Press; 2547 Losantiville Ave; Cincinnati OH 45237.
If sending by e-mail, please send your manuscript in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx file); include the words “Arroyo Chapbook” in the subject line of your e-mail, and please title your document Arroyo_Your Title. Send to sevenkitchenspress at gmail dot com.
Manuscript titles will be posted, alphabetically by title, on the Seven Kitchens Press site (remember to refresh this page to see the most current information).
There is never a reading fee. However, we will gratefully accept any donation that you wish to make in support of this series. Any amount is appreciated. Checks should be made out to Ron Mohring; Paypal donations may be sent to sevenkitchenspress at gmail dot com. Please feel free to reach out directly via the email address above if you would like to discuss other options.
Please consider purchasing titles in this series. For a modest donation of $10 with your manuscript entry, you may select a copy of any available title in this series; just indicate in your cover material if you wish to do so.
Please direct any inquiries to publisher Ron Mohring via the above email address. Though we welcome and appreciate social media connections, we might not see questions posted there.
Please notify us of any changes in your contact information, especially your e-mail address!

The Series:

This chapbook series honors the vision of Rane Arroyo, a deeply talented and much-beloved poet, playwright, and professor. Arroyo received his PhD in English and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, and taught most recently at the University of Toledo. His poetry collections include The Singing Shark, Home Movies of Narcissus, The Portable Famine, Same-Sex Seances, The Buried Sea: New & Selected Poems, and The Sky’s Weight. He also published a book of stories, How to Name a Hurricane, and several plays. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in May of 2010.

The Series Editors:

Ron Mohring (2012 – ) holds degrees from the University of Houston and Vermont College of Norwich University. His work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Assaracus, Bloom, diode, Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, and many other journals. He has served as the Stadler Fellow and as the Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing at Bucknell University. His chapbooks are Amateur Grief (Frank O’Hara Prize), The David Museum (New Michigan Press Prize), Beneficence (Pecan Grove Press), and Touch Me Not (Two Rivers Review Prize); his full-length collection, Survivable World, won the Washington Prize, and his new collection, The Boy Who Reads in the Trees, is due out from The Word Works in 2023. He founded Seven Kitchens Press in 2007.

We are currently seeking two series editors: please reach out to sevenkitchenspress at gmail.

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Eduardo C Corral (2012 – 2015) won the Yale Younger Poets Prize for his debut collection of poetry, Slow Lightning; he is the first Latino recipient of this award. A CantoMundo Fellow, his numerous honors include the Discovery/The Nation Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing at Bucknell University, and the Olive B O’Connor Fellowship in Creative Writing at Colgate University.

Dan Vera (2016 – 2021) is a poet, editor, and watercolorist living in Washington, DC. His most recent book, Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press, 2013), won the 2012 Letras Latinas/Red Hen Press Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Cutthroat, Naugatuck River Review, Notre Dame Review, White Crane, and many other journals, and in the anthologies D.C. Poets Against the War, Divining Divas, Gratitude Prayers, and The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South. His poem, “Lingering Fraction” won the 2017 Oscar Wilde Award from Gival Press.

Titles in the Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series: