submit to stillhouse press!

At Stillhouse Press, we believe in fostering author relationships that are rooted in genuine collaboration and in championing work that is strange, unconventional, transcendent, and risky. We look for fresh voices and authors who push the boundaries of their craft in ways we haven’t seen before. We are committed to soliciting work from the widest possible range of voices, including those often excluded from traditional publishing, including writers of color, gender non-conforming and LGBTQ+ writers, low-income writers, and those living with disabilities. We especially love publishing emerging authors and debut works. 

As a student and alumni-led teaching press, our primary aim is to provide educational opportunity through applied experience in the art of craft publishing. Student staff are responsible for acquiring, producing, and marketing work from independent authors in the course of their education, allowing them to forge lasting professional relationships and step out with confidence into the greater literary community. 

SUBMIssions: Publishing with Stillhouse Press

 

Stillhouse offers a competitive royalty-based compensation structure: authors earn 20% of net revenue from standard online and bookstore sales and from Stillhouse website and direct sales. We publish a limited number of titles each year to offer more personalized support and attention to our authors. Collaboration is paramount: we partner with and champion our authors to build awareness of their work through review and award submissions, endorsements, newsletter campaigns, and social media promotion. 

  • We accept submissions only via Submittable—we cannot accept submissions via email or mail.  

  • Stillhouse Press can only accept manuscripts from writers based in the United States. At this time, we are only able to distribute in the U.S.  

  • We do not accept agented manuscripts. 

What We’re Looking For:

Fiction: 

We are excited by fiction that bends genre towards lyrical or uncanny ends, that approaches identity with nuance rather than declaration, and that treats language itself as an evocative, shapeshifting force. As we grow our catalog, we hope to publish writers whose work broadens the emotional and imaginative possibilities of contemporary fiction and leaves a lasting mark on the literary landscape. We are interested in rich stories that forefront tangled relationships and unexpected narrative turns. We welcome speculative fiction, diaspora narratives, and literature that centers on the complexities of societal expectations. 

 Poetry:

We want collections that change the way we think– whether they're about diaspora, gravity, parenthood, or anything else. We’ve published collections that track a journey—one of healing or a trajectory of obsession—and above all we are looking for work that engages with the human experience in ways that constantly surprise us. We want work that astounds us, that takes surrealism and turns it on its side; work that uses forms in ways that delight. We want your collections that organize themselves in novel ways and stun us with their view of the world. 

 Nonfiction:

We particularly enjoy nonfiction that pushes boundaries and examines the world as well as the self— nonfiction that questions who we are, what we feel, and why we as human beings matter more than ever. We want work that is direct, honest, and succinct, that draws us in quickly from the first few pages and refuses to let us go. We love manuscripts that play with form or have an unexpected twist or theme. We love to see manuscripts that intertwine humor with tragedy or connect the writer's world at home to complexities of the world at large.  

What we are not interested in: 

 We do not accept any AI-generated prose, series books, previously published or forthcoming manuscripts, work from writers currently or recently affiliated with George Mason’s Creative Writing MFA/BFA/BA programs, or agented submissions. 

Additionally, the following list represents things that are hard sells for us:  

  • Genre cliches that don’t break from the mold 

  • Military sci-fi 

  • Space operas 

  • Epic and high fantasy 

  • Urban fantasy 

  • Splatterpunk 

  • Erotica 

  • Biographies 

  • Monographs with little to no personal narrative 

  • Translations (we do not currently have the capacity to support them) 

 

General Submissions Windows: 

Stillhouse is open for speculative fiction every fall and literary fiction every spring. 

We will open for poetry OR nonfiction every summer.  

Current and Upcoming Submissions Windows:

  • Open for NONFICTION between November 2025 and March 2026. 

  • Open for POETRY between May 2026 and August 2026. 

  • Open for SPECULATIVE FICTION (novels and short story collections) between August 2026 and November 2026. 

  • Open for LITERARY FICTION (short story collections) between January 2027 and April 2027.  

New voices welcome

Stillhouse Press is committed to soliciting work from voices and perspectives often excluded from traditional publishing, including low-income writers, writers of color, gender non-conforming and LGBTQ writers, and those living with disabilities. To create an accessible platform for disadvantaged voices, we offer fee-free submissions to writers who request a fee waiver via email at submissions@stillhousepress.org

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