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Lefty Blondie Press First Chapbook Award

OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS: JANAUARY 1 - MARCH 31, 2026

We welcome poetry chapbook manuscripts written by those who:

  • self-identify as woman or non-binary individual

  • are 40+ years old

  • write in English, & currently live in the U.S

  • have yet to publish a poetry chapbook, poetry collection, or full-length poetry book before September 30 of contest year​

Lefty Blondie Press
First Chapbook Award

2026 chapbook contest judge

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. www.dianakhoinguyen.com

The Lefty Blondie Press First Chapbook Award details

  • 2026 winning manuscript selected by Diana Khoi Nguyen

  • Lefty Blondie Press will print 250 carefully edited, handbound, hand-cut, and hand-numbered chapbooks 

  • The poet of the winning manuscript will receive: 

    • $250

    • 10 (ten) author copies

    • 40% off any additional author copies

  • LBP will promote finalists and the winning chapbook widely on our website, social media, and other outlets

  • LBP will sponsor a public reading in Pittsburgh, PA (or online as necessary) in fall 2026 

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  • ​​​​​Lefty Blondie Press holds first serial rights for work that we publish, and the right to reprint that work in other formats with your permission.

  • Upon publication, all rights revert to the author. 

  • Please cite Lefty Blondie Press if your poems published with LBP are published elsewhere in the future.

Details for formatting chapbook manuscripts 

  • 18-24 pages of poetry (not including title page, table of contents, endnotes)

  • Can be any form or topic, though we find a unifying theme works best

  • Begin each new poem on a new page

  • Your name should not appear anywhere in or on the manuscript

  • Individual poems may be previously published, with acknowledgements

  • Simultaneous submissions accepted. Please notify us at LeftyBlondiePress@gmail.com immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere

  • Absolutely no submissions that are racist, homophobic, misogynist, discriminatory, or hateful.

  • No AI-generated texts nor AI-modified texts. Human-created poems only.

Pay-what-you-can reading fee via Duosuma tip jar!

  • We suggest $15-$20 reading fee per manuscript submission, but please feel free to submit and skip the reading fee. 

  • ALL manuscripts are read by LBP editors and readers with openness and attention, regardless of what you're able to add to our tip jar. 

  • ​All tip jar donations support LBP's mission to promote the poetry of self-identifying women and non-binary people.

  • To submit through Duosuma, you need a free personal Duotrope account. 

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