We’re currently accepting manuscript submissions from emerging APIDA writers, artists, and/or creatives! We’re looking for one 15-20 page experimental manuscript that engages with our theme place to release as a limited-print chapbook. We encourage those who identify as APIDA and have not yet released a chapbook-length collection of works to submit. The winner will receive a $200 honorarium + 10 author copies. Submissions are open until April 30, 2024 @ 11:59 pm PST.
About Milkteeth
Milkteeth Books is the intern-run chapbook imprint of Kaya Press. We publish experimental, hybrid works of creative writing by emerging APIDA-diasporic writers/artists/creatives. Here, we believe that publishing is political and that art can be a powerful tool for collective liberation. We hope to cultivate a community and serve as a creative lab for those interested in mapping out previously uncharted avenues within these literary spaces.
Theme
place
Our lives unfold in homes, cities, countries. From strip malls in K-Town to sunsets at the Griffith and beyond the flat expanse of the I-5, Los Angeles has deeply infused our own sensibilities at Kaya Press. To know a place is to understand its people and its secrets, where histories hide and new stories are born; to leave it is to risk alienation and loneliness, but also discover another life altogether. In this way, place is more than a geographical location—it exists, too, in the imagination, where desire gathers and runs free toward a sense of (un)belonging. Where have you been? Where are you going? If you know a spot, take us there. Even the blank landscape of the page requires a compass.
⛰️☁️🏙️
For a taste of what we mean, check out:
Diana Khoi Nguyen's Ghost Of
Foragers (2022)
Azealia Banks - 212
Nadia Misir's “To Eat, Drink, and Gyaff”
Ching-in Chen's recombinant
Momtaza Mehri's “Glory Be to the Gang Gang Gang”
Craig Santos Perez's “ars pasifika”
Kai Cheng Thom's Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars
Shelley Wong's As She Appears
Past Lives (2023)
Lana del Rey - Venice Bitch
Trinity Nguyen's A Banh Mi For Two
Shangyang Fang's “轰隆隆 is the sound of thunder”
⛰️☁️🏙️
We are looking for experimental manuscripts that engage—loosely or otherwise—with the prompt by playing with typical ideas of what poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction, (or a secret fourth thing…) can be. We’d love to see visual poetry, interdisciplinary material, slipstream hybrids, and works that incorporate multimedia such as illustrations, diagrams, maps, code, marginalia, annotations—whatever gives and makes sense to you.
General Guidelines
Please do
- Send all unsolicited submissions through Submittable. We will not be able to read email submissions.
- Remove all identifying information from your manuscript.
- Send us a 15-20 page manuscript—this might mean your submission looks like a compilation of shorter pieces or one longer piece. As long as it’s within the page range and engages experimentally with the prompt in some way, we’d love to read it!
- Send us previously unpublished work; simultaneous submissions are okay, but please notify us promptly if they are accepted elsewhere.
Please don’t
- Feel too constrained by the number of words in your manuscript. We’re all too familiar with how words sometimes fail us. We encourage you to lean into this and play with other media that might better suit the ideas you’re trying to get across! (In other words, there’s no word count requirement.)
- Feel obligated to stick to any particular formatting requirement (we just ask for readability!)
- Forget that we will not publish work that’s racist, homophobic, transphobic, or generally hateful.
Payment & Publication
- $200 honorarium + 10 author copies.
- Accepted works are subject to potential edits that will be approved by the author before publication.
Questions? Reach out at milkteeth@kaya.com
Please allow approx. 2-3 weeks after the end of the reading period before reaching out regarding the status of your submission. We are a small team--we appreciate your patience!
Kaya Press wants to create a space that would bridge the gap between Asian Pacific American scholars and the Asian Pacific American literary community. In 2018, we launched a newsletter – Throughlines – focused on this project to help keep Asian American scholars and educators up-to-date on recent publications with inventories, author interviews, annotated syllabi, teaching-focused reviews and more. We hope this newsletter will act as a gateway for readers to keep up-to-date on what’s new and exciting in the literary community and academic circles.
As we continue developing our newsletter. we want to hear from you; Kaya swag—stickers, t-shirts, books—will be given for any contribution! To contribute to Throughlines, you can send capsule reviews, mini-essays on your experiencing teaching API titles, and any other ideas through this form. Be sure to look at our past issues to see what content we enjoy featuring. The recommended length for finished submissions is between 300-500 words, with a maximum of 600 words. Files must be sent in a Word document or as a PDF. If you have questions, we invite you to email us at neela@kaya.com.
We have an open submission process, and our Editorial Board meets three times a year to discuss manuscripts. Before submitting to us, we strongly recommend that you take the time to familiarize yourself with our list, to make sure that your work will be compatible with our program. We will not respond to submissions that have absolutely nothing to do with our mission of publishing Asian diasporic literature.
Please send your manuscript to us in an electronic format. Files must be sent in a Word document or as a PDF. Direct any questions to Managing Editor Neelanjana Banerjee (neela@kaya.com).
In addition to the full text of the manuscript, please include a cover letter that includes the following information:
- Contact information.
- Brief description of the project.
- Brief explanation of why you feel Kaya is an appropriate place for your book.
- List of previous publications.
- List of any awards that you might have received.
Works are judged solely on the virtue of the quality of the writing and compatibility with our program; the cover letter is meant primarily to give us more context for your work