Workhorse Writers Chapbook Announcement

We are excited to announce the Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series Selections to be published in 2022! 

Allen Blair’s Throw Down Your Mattock Blinking 

Luke Wortley’s Purge 

Roberta Schultz’s Asking Price 

These manuscripts will be available to order in the coming months. You can have all 3 books (and a copy of each year’s Lexington Poetry Month anthology) delivered to you and support our mission to provide opportunities for working writers to share their work and grow in their craft by clicking on this link: Support Workhorse. 

Workhorse Writers Chapbook Announcement

We are excited to announce the Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series Selections to be published in 2021! 

 

Southern Ladyspeak by Libby Falk Jones 

Forward Through the Interval by Melissa Helton

Dimensions by Jonel Sallee 

 

This year we will also publish Cruising the Word Bar by Mary Allen. Her chapbook will be available in the winter.

These manuscripts will be available to order in the coming months. You can have all four books (and a copy of each year’s Lexington Poetry Month anthology) delivered to you and support our mission to provide opportunities for working writers to share their work and grow in their craft by clicking on this link: Support Workhorse. 

Workhorse Writers Chapbook Open Reading Period

Our fourth chapbook reading period is open from December 1st to the 31st!

The Basics

We are looking to publish 1-3 poetry chapbooks by working writers, which we define loosely as anyone who does not make a living from writing or teaching writing alone. The manuscript should be 14-26 pages of poetry that has not previously been published as a whole. We aren’t considering translation at this time.

How We Choose What to Publish

Workhorse’s mission is to provide opportunity and access to writers at all stages of their practice. We incorporate writers/readers from our community to discuss the manuscripts and come to a final decision on what to publish. We hope to publish local writers and writers who we would like to introduce to our community. If you want to read some of the past selections before submitting visit our shop.

What Authors Receive upon Publication

We want to provide an opportunity for a zero cost publication for our authors. Along with no reading fee to submit, author’s receive 50 copies of their book (from a print run of 100), $100 dollars toward publishing related expenses for readings they may give, and, if local, a featured reading at a local spot to celebrate the release.

Help Us Sustain and Expand This Opportunity

This reading period is possible thanks to the generous support of people in our community of writers. If you would like to become one of those people, click this link to checkout ways to get involved. And join us on Facebook and Instagram!

Thank you. We can’t wait to read your work!

The Details

  • Manuscripts should be 14-26 pages.
  • We cannot publish previously published collections.
  • Only submit one collection.
  • Simultaneous submissions are fine.
  • We do not need a cover sheet.
  • One poem per page, multi-page poems are good.
  • Use a standard, 12-point font.
  • We cannot allow revisions once a manuscript has been submitted.
  • Decisions will be made by February 15th, 2021.

Click to Submit to the Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series

Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series Announcement

We are excited to announce the Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series Selections to be published in 2020! 

Above the River by Sue Churchill 

Elephants in the Casket by K. Nicole Wilson 

A Place to Sleep by Drew Pomeroy 

We are also thrilled to be expanding our number of books this year. Each year we will solicit one chapbook book from a member of our Workhorse community.  This year we happily get to publish The Two/Body Problem by Joseph Nichols. His chapbook will be available in the winter.

These manuscripts will be available to order in the coming months. You can have all four books (and a copy of each year’s Lexington Poetry Month anthology) delivered to you and support our mission to provide opportunities for working writers to share their work and grow in their craft by clicking on this link: Support Workhorse. 

Workhorse Writers Open Reading for Chapbooks

Our third chapbook reading period is open from December 1st to the 31st!

The Basics

We are looking to publish 1-3 poetry chapbooks by working writers, which we define loosely as anyone who does not make a living from writing or teaching writing alone. The manuscript should be 14-26 pages of poetry that has not previously been published as a whole. We aren’t considering translation at this time.

How We Choose What to Publish

Workhorse’s mission is to provide opportunity and access to writers at all stages of their practice. We incorporate writers/readers from our community to discuss the manuscripts and come to a final decision on what to publish. We hope to publish local writers and writers who we would like to introduce to our community. If you want to read some of the past selections before submitting visit our shop.

What Authors Receive upon Publication

We want to provide an opportunity for a zero cost publication for our authors. Along with no reading fee to submit, author’s receive 50 copies of their book (from a print run of 100), $100 dollars toward travel expenses for readings they may give, and, if local, a featured reading at a local spot to celebrate the release.

Help Us Sustain and Expand This Opportunity

This reading series is possible thanks to the generous support of people in our community of writers. If you would like to become one of those people, click this link to checkout ways to get involved. And join us on Facebook and Instagram!

Thank you. We can’t wait to read your work!

The Details

  • Manuscripts should be 14-26 pages.
  • We cannot publish previously published collections.
  • Only submit one collection.
  • Simultaneous submissions are fine.
  • We do not need a cover sheet.
  • One poem per page, multi-page poems are good.
  • Use a standard, 12-point font.
  • We cannot allow revisions once a manuscript has been submitted.
  • Decisions will be made by February 15th, 2020.

Click to Submit to the Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series

2018 Gauntlet Participant: Devan Watson

 

“A sense of immediacy and intimacy. Beauty in the mundane.”

 

BigDog’s Prayer

 

All hail the fenceline, harbor of small life

As well the field edge and construction plastic

Scurrying with the flow of prey.

 

Praise be the hummocks of grass in snow

And frozen clots of earth in tractor tracks

From which to dig mice.

 

Glory to the hillside with thickets of honeysuckle

Tangled with underbrush and game trails

Where deer might spring from sleep.

 

Thanks for the hollow of a dead tree

Tilted over the edge of the creek,

Home to heron who rattles as he flies.

 

Wonder at the blessing of running water,

Cold creek in which to cool the belly

Path of indignant ducks to be pursued.

 

Snake in the undergrowth of ivy,

Rabbit racing down the trail

Squirrel, inattentive, fucking under a bush.

All life, abundant and chaseable,

Forever and ever,

Amen.

 

March 2018

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Devan Watson has made Lexington their home since attending Transylvania University in the early 90s. A lover of the liminal, they live and write from an often uncomfortable intersection of queerness, mental illness, and chronic pain. As the stay-at-home parent of a teenage boy, Devan spends as much time as possible hanging out with dogs. “I curse like a sailor, laugh like a fiend, and cook too well to ever be skinny.”

Selections for the 2018 Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series

Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series Selections! 

 

The River Singing by Lennart Lundh

The Rainy Season by Eduardo Ballestero 

Hands: Ten Fingers in a Game of Never Have I Ever by Helen Feibes

 

These manuscripts will be available to order in the coming months. You can have all three books (and a copy of each year’s Lexington Poetry Month anthology) delivered to you and support our mission to provide opportunities for working writers to share their work and grow in their craft by clicking on this link: Support Workhorse.

 

Workhorse Writers Open Reading Chapbook Series

Our second chapbook reading period is open from December 1st to the 31st!

The Basics

We are looking to publish 1-3 poetry chapbooks by working writers, which we define loosely as anyone who does not make a living from writing or teaching writing alone. The manuscript should be 14-26 pages of poetry that has not previously been published as a whole. We aren’t considering translation at this time.

How We Choose What to Publish

Workhorse’s mission is to provide opportunity and access to writers at all stages of their practice. We incorporate writers/readers from our community to discuss the manuscripts and come to a final decision on what to publish. We hope to publish local writers and writers who we would like to introduce to our community. If you want to read some of the past selections before submitting visit https://workhorsewriters.com/shop/

What Authors Receive upon Publication

We want to provide an opportunity for a zero cost publication for our authors. Along with no reading fee to submit, author’s receive 75 copies of their book (from a print run of 150), $100 dollars toward travel expenses for readings they may give, and, if local, a featured reading at a local bookstore to celebrate the release.

Help Us Sustain and Expand This Opportunity

This reading series is possible thanks to the generous support of people in our community of writers. If you would like to become one of those people, click this link to checkout ways to get involved. And join us on Facebook and Instagram!

Thank you. We can’t wait to read your work!

The Details

  • Manuscripts should be 14-26 pages.
  • We cannot publish previously published collections.
  • Only submit one collection.
  • Simultaneous submissions are fine.
  • We do not need a cover sheet.
  • One poem per page, multi-page poems are good.
  • Use a standard, 12-point font  Times New Roman.
  • We cannot allow revisions once a manuscript has been submitted.
  • Decisions will be made by February 15th, 2019.

Click to Submit to the Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series