Submitting a Proposal
Evaluation Process
Submitting for Vassar Miller
Submitting for Katherine Anne Porter

Submitting a proposal

Evaluation Process

If we respond favorably to your query and invite your manuscript for consideration, we ask that you send one clean copy of the manuscript, double-spaced, with photocopies of any illustrations you deem pertinent for review at this stage. We may also request that you send a computer disk containing the manuscript files for back-up purposes.

The complete manuscript will be evaluated in-house, and if it passes initial scrutiny it will then be sent to outside readers for a full reading and written report. We strive for outside readers who are recognized experts in their field, demonstrated by research and publications in the discipline relating to the author's manuscript and by academic rank and stature.

For complete manuscripts we must have two positive reports before recommending the project to our Editorial Board and issuing a contract. In the case of proposals for a book or a partial manuscript, in which the complete manuscript will be written later after a contract is awarded, we still secure two outside positive readings before recommending a provisional contract before our Editorial Board. For reprints of books previously published elsewhere, we seek a minimum of one positive outside reading and supplement the Board proposal with copies of published reviews, preferably those in scholarly journals.

Each reader has the option of withholding his or her name from the author so as to make the report "blind." Conversely, if an author requests that his or her name be withheld from readers, then we will do so, but typically we do not mask an author's name unless there are special circumstances.

This process of obtaining two reports usually takes three or four months, although we ask that you not contact us regarding status until at least two months have passed.

Sometimes the outside reader report will call for revisions before recommending publication. In this case, we may return the manuscript to you for revision and invite you to resubmit the manuscript later, at which time we may ask the original reader to verify that revisions are done satisfactorily, or else we will obtain a new reading.

If the evaluations are positive, we then present your project to our faculty Editorial Board, who has the final authority on whether we issue a contract. Both the readers and the Editorial Board may have suggestions on revising and improving the manuscript. Sometimes Board approval may be contingent on whether or not these changes are made.

If the vote is in favor of publication, we will issue a contract to publish your book. The contract will include a due date for the final manuscript, illustrations (and their permissions), maps, figures, etc. complete and ready for editing. Once you deliver a final manuscript to us, you can expect your book to be published within a year.

If the Editorial Board votes for a provisional contract on a proposed book or partial manuscript, then publication is contingent upon full evaluation of the completed manuscript by outside experts and final approval by the Editorial Board in a follow-up publication proposal (i.e., still need two positive readers'; reports on the completed manuscript).

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Submitting for Vassar Miller

Announcing the 2008 winner of our Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, selected by Eric Pankey:

Alison Stine, Ohio Violence

To be published in April 2009

Announcing the 2009 winner of our Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, selected by Beth Ann Fennelly:

Amy Clark, Stray Home

To be published in April 2010

The Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry 2010

The winner of this annual award receives $1000 and publication by the University of North Texas Press.

This year's judge will be J. D. McClatchy. To avoid conflicts of interest, current or former students of the judge should not enter.

Postmark deadline: November 15, 2009

Submit 50- to 80-page, typed manuscript, including an additional title page that does not bear the name of the poet. All pages indicating the poet's identity will be removed from the manuscript prior to its being forwarded to the final judge.

Manuscripts cannot be returned, but must be accompanied by:

$25 fee, payable to UNT Press and a letter-sized SASE for notification

Previously published portions of the manuscript should be identified on a separate acknowledgment page. Once a winner is declared and contracted for publication, UNT Press will hold the rights to the poems in the winning collection. They may no longer be under consideration for serial publication elsewhere and must be withdrawn by the author from consideration.

Winning manuscript will be announced by March 15, 2010.

Send manuscripts to:

John Poch
Vassar Miller Prize
Department of English
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-3091

Previous Winners:

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Submitting for Katherine Anne Porter

Announcing the 2009 winner of our Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, judged by Janet Peery:

Tim Johnston, IRISH GIRL

to be published November 2009

Katherine Anne Porter Guidelines

The University of North Texas Press announces the 2010 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction.

The winner of this annual award will receive $1000 and publication by UNT Press. Entries will be judged by an eminent writer.

Entries can be a combination of short-shorts, short stories, and novellas, from 100 to 200 book pages in length (word count between 27,500 and 50,000). Material should be previously unpublished in book form. Once a winner is declared and contracted for publication, UNT Press will hold the rights to the stories in the winning collection. They may no longer be under consideration for serial publication elsewhere and must be withdrawn by the author from consideration.

Please include two cover sheets: one with title only, and one with title, your name, address, e-mail, phone, and acknowledgment of any previously published material. Your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript except on the one cover page. Manuscripts for the 2010 award should be postmarked between May 1 and June 30, 2009. The winning manuscript will be announced in January 2010. Watch for more details in Poets & Writers.

Manuscripts cannot be returned and must be accompanied by a $25 entry fee (payable to UNT Press) and a letter-sized SASE for notification.

Send entries to:

Laura Kopchick, General Editor
Katherine Anne Porter Contest
English Department
University of Texas at Arlington
203 Carlisle Hall, Box 19035
Arlington, TX 76019

Prior Winners—

Last Known Position by James Mathews was our 2008 winner, judged by Tom Franklin.

Wonderful Girl by Aimee LaBrie was our 2007 winner, judged by Bill Roorbach.

Body Language by Kelly Magee was our 2006 winner, judged by Dan Chaon.

What Are You Afraid Of? by Michael Hyde, was our 2005 winner, judged by Sharon Oard Warner.

Let's Do by Rebecca Meacham was our 2004 winner, judged by Jonis Agee. Let's Do was selected for the Spring 2005 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Program.

Here Comes the Roar by Dave Shaw was our 2003 winner, judged by Marly Swick.

The Stuntman's Daughter, a collection of stories by Alice Blanchard, was the 1996 winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. Ms. Blanchard went on to sign a lucrative contract with Bantam for her first novel, Darkness Peering.

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