How to submit
We are now reviewing submissions for the Open Reading Period and Carolyn Bush Award until July 1, 2024. Guidelines for both opportunities below.
We are now reviewing submissions for the Open Reading Period and Carolyn Bush Award until July 1, 2024. Guidelines for both opportunities below.
Wendy’s Subway is pleased to announce our fifth reading period for full-length manuscripts. Titles selected through the Open Reading Period are published as part of the Passage Series, which features books by emerging writers and artists whose work manifests in innovative, hybrid, and cross-genre forms that imagine new possibilities and expressions of the poetic, the political, and the social.
The author will publish a book with Wendy’s Subway, receive an honorarium of $1,250, and 25 author copies.
Deadline and Announcement
Submissions will be accepted through July 1, 2024. The winning book will be announced in Fall 2024 and published in Fall 2025.
Judge
Bhanu Kapil is the author of six books of poetry and hybrid work, including two new editions of Incubation: a space for monsters, published by Prototype (UK) and Kelsey Street Press in 2023. Currently, she is based in Cambridge, England, where she is an Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College. The winner of the TS Eliot prize, a Windham Campbell prize, and a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors, Kapil has written two new books, as yet in manuscript form: The Secret Garden, a novel of the forest, and Promiscuity, an unpublishable work of creative nonfiction.
Eligibility
The call is open to writers at any stage of their career. Wendy’s Subway is committed to a publishing practice that amplifies marginalized and underrepresented writers.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but should the manuscript be accepted for publication elsewhere, we ask that you notify us as soon as possible and withdraw your Submittable application.
Format and Guidelines
Please submit a manuscript of 40 pages or more of original work. While excerpts from the manuscript may have been previously published (as chapbooks, online, or in journals and anthologies, for instance), the manuscript as a whole should reflect a new and unpublished work. Your manuscript may include visual art and illustrations. Collaborations are accepted. While experimental approaches to translation will be considered, one-to-one translations of another author’s writing are not eligible.
Our submission review process is not anonymous. Your manuscript should include: page numbers, a title page, a table of contents, and acknowledgements of previous publication, if applicable. Please also include a one-paragraph biographical statement in the submission form. You may only submit one manuscript for consideration. You will not have the opportunity to make any edits or revisions to your manuscript in Submittable once it has been submitted. The winning author will have time to revise the manuscript once it has been accepted.
We encourage applicants to familiarize themselves with our publishing initiative and public programs to learn more about the mission and activities of Wendy’s Subway.
Conflict of Interest
Wendy’s Subway abides by the Code of Ethics developed by the Community of Literary Magazines and Publishers (see below). We are committed to fairly and ethically evaluating each and every submission. A group of external readers and Wendy's Subway staff will review all applications before the judge selects a manuscript through review from the 10 finalists. Close friends, relatives, colleagues, and students (past and present) of the judge are not eligible to submit.
CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believe that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.
How to Submit
Please submit online using our Submittable page. No hard copies accepted. There is an entry fee of $20.
The $20 submission fee assists our small press support publishing costs and writer honoraria. We recognize that not everyone can afford this expense at this time, and are committed to making this call as accessible as possible. We are offering a fee waiver if this expense presents a hardship for you. Please email publishing@wendyssubway.com with any questions or to make a request, using the subject line “Open Reading Period Waiver.”
You can write us at publishing@wendyssubway.com with any questions about your eligibility or the application process.
The Carolyn Bush Award aims to support innovative, hybrid, and cross-genre work that contributes to expanding the discourses and practices of poetry. Titles selected for this award are published as part of the Passage Series, which assembles books by emerging writers and artists that imagine new possibilities and expressions of the poetic, the political, and the social.
This award honors the life and work of Wendy’s Subway co-founder Carolyn Bush and seeks to provide in-depth editorial and professional support to an emerging writer in her name.
The author will publish a book with Wendy’s Subway, receive an honorarium of $1,250 and 25 author copies. Crucial to the award is the editorial support provided to complete the manuscript for publication, which includes close collaboration with Wendy’s Subway’s editorial team to build a process for the manuscript’s development and completion. At key stages in the manuscript’s progress, editors will work with authors to schedule two consultations with established writers who will offer rigorous feedback and suggestions for revisions or further development.
The author also benefits from professional development opportunities tailored to their specific needs and interests, including but not limited to building strategies for residency and fellowship applications, crafting personal statements, submitting to journals and magazines, and undertaking successful marketing and publicity campaigns. Additionally, free enrollment in two workshops at Wendy’s Subway and a one year key-holding “Contributor” membership to the Wendy’s Subway reading room in Brooklyn, which includes a library collection of over 3,000 titles, will be made available to the author.
Wendy’s Subway is committed to a publishing practice that amplifies marginalized and underrepresented writers. The Carolyn Bush Award aims to encourage an emerging writer to follow and develop their work and envision a future in the field with confidence and an abundance of support.
Deadline and Announcement
Submissions will be accepted through July 1, 2024. The winning book will be announced in Fall 2024 and published in Spring 2026.
About this Award
This award has been established in honor of founding member of Wendy’s Subway, Carolyn Bush (1990–2016). In honoring Carolyn and continuing her legacy, we seek to acknowledge her fiercely particular approach to learning, writing, and collaborating. Carolyn chose her own path and followed her own schedule. She was wary of formal education but sought out workshops, reading groups, and informal collectives where learning is enacted relationally, as a form of exchange and intimacy. She engaged mentors but was skeptical of received wisdom of any kind. Her library included poetry and fiction, mystical and religious texts, feminist theory and biography, and idiosyncratic curricula including a collection of texts on the limits of language itself. The poetry and essays she left us are densely allusive, hybrid in forms, galvanized by her concern with social and political justice, and alive with the curiosity and irreverence for which she was famous and beloved. She loved truth-tellers, and was one.
Judges
The Wendy’s Subway Carolyn Bush Award Editorial Committee, composed of Wendy’s Subway staff and community members: Harris Bauer, Corinne Butta, Sanjana Iyer, Juwon Jun, Gabriel Kruis, Matt Longabucco, and Rachel Valinsky.
Eligibility
This award is intended for emerging writers residing in New York City. We welcome submissions from female-identifying, genderqueer, non-conforming, non-binary, and trans writers.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but should the manuscript be accepted for publication elsewhere, we ask that you notify us as soon as possible and withdraw your Submittable application.
Format and Guidelines
We seek early-stage manuscripts of 20 pages in length to be considered for the Carolyn Bush Award. Your manuscript may include visual art and illustrations. It may not be a translation of another author’s writing and should reflect your original work.
Applications also consist of a 500-word written reflection about your work, how you see it developing, and how you think you will benefit from this opportunity with Wendy’s Subway to do so. The manuscript need not be complete at the time of application. While excerpts from the manuscript may have been previously published (as chapbooks, in journals), the manuscript as a whole should reflect a new and unpublished work. Please include page numbers, a title page, a table of contents, and acknowledgments listing previous publications (if applicable). You may only submit one manuscript for consideration. You will not have the opportunity to make any edits or revisions to your manuscript in Submittable once it has been submitted.
We encourage applicants to familiarize themselves with our publishing initiative and public programs to learn more about the mission and activities of Wendy’s Subway.
Conflict of Interest
Wendy’s Subway abides by the Code of Ethics developed by the Community of Literary Magazines and Publishers (see below). We are committed to fairly and ethically evaluating each and every submission. Close friends, relatives, colleagues, and students (past and present) of any the judges are not eligible to submit. You can write us at publishing@wendyssubway.com with any questions about your eligibility or the application process.
CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believe that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.
How to Submit
Please submit online using our Submittable page. No hard copies accepted. There is an entry fee of $15.
The $15 submission fee assists our small press support publishing costs and writer honoraria. We recognize that not everyone can afford this expense at this time, and are committed to making the contest as accessible as possible. We are offering a fee waiver if this expense presents a hardship for you. Please email publishing@wendyssubway.com with any questions or to make a request, using the subject line “CBA Fee Waiver.”
Open Reading Period
2019
Book Prize, selected by Lucy Ives
Benjamin Krusling, Glaring
2020
Book Prize, selected by Renee Gladman
Nico Vela Page, Americón
Editors' Pick
Toby Altman, Discipline Park
2021
Book Prize, selected by John Keene
Miko Revereza, Nowhere Near
2022
Book Prize, selected by Asiya Wadud
Amelia Zhou, Repose
Editors' Pick
Justin Allen, Language Arts
Carolyn Bush Award
2019
Rachel James, An Eros Encyclopedia
2020
Kamelya Omayma Youssef, A book with a hole in it
2021
Kaur Alia Ahmed, Cursive Paradise
2022
Alisha Mascarenhas, A Catalogue of Risk