2026 Lefty Blondie Press
First Chapbook Award Winner
Field Notes from a Cult
by Nelle Yvon
Nelle Yvon
Nelle Yvon lives in Georgia where she writes poetry and nonfiction about the doomsday cult of her youth and high control fundamentalism, among other things. She enjoys teaching poetry in the carceral classroom and photographing turtles along the Chattahoochee River.
IG: @nellcox
Facebook: Nellie Cox
Threads: @nellcox
2026 winning manuscript selected by
DIANA KHOI NGUYEN
Diana Khoi Nguyen is the author of Root Fractures and Ghost Of, a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and her video work has been exhibited at ICA Pittsburgh. A Kundiman and MacDowell fellow, and member of the Vietnamese artist collective, She Who Has No Master(s), Nguyen teaches creative writing in the MFA programs at Randolph College and the University of Pittsburgh, where she directs the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writer Series and is an Interim Director of the Writing Program.
2026 winning manuscript selected by Diana Khoi Nguyen
Recipient of the 2026 LBP First Chapbook Award receives:
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$250 USD
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10 (ten) author copies
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Copy numbers 1-10 of 250 copies published
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40% author discount on additional copies
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Public reading with the final judge
Lefty Blondie Press will:
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Print a first run of 250 carefully edited, handbound, hand-cut, and hand-numbered chapbooks
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Organize a limited run of an original letterpress from the collection
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Promote finalists and the winning chapbook widely on our website, social media, and other outlets
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Sponsor a public reading
Thanks to everyone who submitted a manuscript!
We are deeply honored to read your work
& grateful to you for trusting us with it.