Porkbelly Press is an independent chapbook press based in Cincinnati, Ohio (where pigs fly). We print chapbooks, micro chapbooks, anthologies, zines (such as the body image zine Love Me, Love My Belly), and literary magazine Sugared Water.
We welcome works from writers all along the identity spectrum; we're queer-friendly & feminist. No hate speech.
Our catalog favors lit & poetry leaning heavily toward fabulism, folklore, & magic—often confessional or intimate poems or personal lyric essay. All work should be tightly linked.
Full guidelines: porkbellypress.com or click the market you're interested in under subs:
SUBMISSION PERIODS
- chapbooks : January 1 – 31
- charcuterie (second chance books) : Feb 14 - Feb 28
- love me, love my belly : May 1 - May 31
- micro chapbooks : July 1 – July 31
- sugared water : October 1 - 31
- anthologies : varies
- broadsides : varies
- reviews : varies
NOTES
Sugared Water is transitioning to an online magazine with occasional mini-print issues. Issues 001 - 007 are print. Issue 008 on are digital-only. See porkbellypress.com for more information & updates.
Charcuterie is our effort to help bring out-of-print chapbooks (poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction), either orphaned after printing, or books that were accepted but never released by shuttered presses. Submissions are open for a couple of weeks each year.
Simultaneous Submissions are fine by us, but do let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere and needs to be withdrawn in part (please use submittable's messages feature). Submittable's "withdraw" button will take the entire packet out of consideration.
Need to make an edit? Please request an edit rather than withdrawing.
We sometimes leave the jar open between regular reading periods, allowing for submissions slipped under our doors whilst we're huddled at the proofing table.
Though tipping doesn't mean we'll treat your submission differently than others during the selection process, it does garner our good thoughts, thanks, and some good vibes sent out into the universe in your name.
Please be sure to note whether your submission is a chapbook (12-26 pages) or a micro (8-11). Page counts do not include front and end matter such as dedication, epigraph, bio, etc.
We're interested in all kinds of CNF from lyric essay to memoir. We adore character sketches, journal entries, letters, and flash nonfiction. Send us your feminist tales, recipes passed down through your family laced with personal essay or prose poems. We'll check out your braided essays and vignettes, your lists and even your word maps. Stun us with the beauty of your story.
Submit up to 2,000 words, but wow us if you do. We prefer shorter works from 500 - 1,500 words.
No AI generated pieces please.
We'd be delighted to sample 5 of your finest poems, narrative or lyric, experimental or grounded. We look forward to leaping with you, discovering as you lead us along the page.
Give us your decayed, sugar-crusted little black hearts. Write to us about sun-warmed planks and hollow bones. Don't be afraid to bury the grotesque right next to the beautiful. It's the change we're looking for, the surprise hidden just under the surface.
We're happy to consider free verse and prose poems.
Please submit all poems in one .rtf, .doc, or .docx.
Poems should be spaced as you'd like them to appear.
Things that are a hard sell for us: rhyme, sports poems, formal poems, preachy poems, poems that contain the word "soul," love poems containing the word "love."
If your poem has a misogynist tone, look elsewhere.
No AI generated work please.