Submission Guidelines

In an effort to remove barriers for BIPOC, Deaf, and Disabled authors, Palimpsest Press is officially opening submissions year-round for authors who identify as BIPOC, Deaf, or Disabled. These guidelines take effect immediately. Please include “Year-round Submission” in the email subject line if you submit outside of our designated January1st-March 31st submission period.

We are currently looking for literary fiction by BIPOC, DEAF, and DISABLED authors.

Open submissions for all other authors will ONLY be accepted and read from January 1st to March 31st of each year. All unsolicited manuscripts submitted outside the time frame will be put in the recycle pile, a worse fate than the dreaded slush pile.

Palimpsest Press highly encourages women, Black authors, writers of colour, Indigenous writers, members of the LGTBQ2S+ community, and Deaf/Disabled writers to submit. We value your stories and are proud to publish them.

Poetry collections should be between 70 and 100 pages. Nonfiction and fiction have no page requirement. Although you do not need to be published in book form, you must have been published substantially in literary journals. If you are sending poetry or non-fiction, please query jim(at)palimpsestpress.ca with a sample first. If you are sending fiction, please query aimee(at)palimpsestpress.ca with a brief description of the work and short sample (No more than 4 pages). Include a cover letter and a list of publications for all genres.

We do accept multiple submissions but ask that you let us know if the MS has been accepted by another publisher immediately. We DO accept work from non-Canadians but you must query first. We are NOT accepting short story collections, children’s poetry / picture books or poetry chapbooks .

It is our goal to publish high-quality editions that are widely distributed. We are only interested in working with authors who will work cooperatively in the promotion of their work. The daunting job of creating an audience cannot be done alone. We expect authors to network on their own behalf and on ours, and we will do the same. The tasks of setting up readings, interviews, and sending out review copies will be shared.

We want to work with authors who value craft and write with authentic voices. We also want writers who are dedicated to the process, involved, and understand the venture that we are undertaking. If you think you are one of these people, we would enjoy reading and considering your manuscript.

Please note that it might take up to six months for a response. It takes time to read the manuscripts carefully and in full. More information may be solicited from you during this time. If you don’t hear anything from us after six months, please email a kind note asking us to hurry the hell up!