Submissions
OPEN CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS
We will be accepting new manuscripts from July 14 - 17, 2026 (closes midnight AEST).
We are looking for collections of poetry, short stories, essays, novellas, novels, art books and memoir.
We're particularly interested in prose books, fiction and non-fiction.
Please be familiar with the type of work we publish before submitting your manuscript to us. If you've never read one of our books, maybe order a copy of Living Systems to get a sense of the work we publish in poetry, Yoshida or Handayani for fiction, and Macken or Smith for non-fiction.
- Manuscripts must be by an individual author. We don't accept co-authored books or anthologies.
- Note if the manuscript has been previously submitted to other publishers and who. We do not accept manuscripts currently under consideration with another publisher.
- Manuscripts should be 60-100 A4 pages for poetry and between 100-250 A4 pages for prose. We do not accept incomplete manuscripts or (at present) chapbooks.
- Include a list of previous publications: minimum of 3 poems, short stories or essays in literary journals, newspapers, anthologies or other professionally edited collections.
To submit your manuscript, send the following together in a single PDF:
- Cover letter – providing (a) the author’s contact details, including postal address, and real name if writing under a pen-name; (b) author bio and publishing history; (c) a brief book description of the work (see website for examples); (d) a brief explanation of how publication will impact your career and why you want to publish with us.
- The manuscript – include a table of contents, list of acknowledgments for previous publications where applicable, and list of sources for any and all copyright material quoted in the book.
- (Optional) Letter/s of support from a writer/editor/mentor familiar with your manuscript or work more broadly. Note if we are interested in publishing your collection, we will need two letters of support for funding applications from other writers.
Send cover letter etc, manuscript, letters of support in a single PDF using your family name + the title of the manuscript + the genre as the file name. ('Name_Title_Genre.pdf') (Don't send multiple files, Word docs or links).
Send submissions to <submissions[at]vagabondpress[dot]net>.
Submissions won't be accepted outside the open call dates above.
Creative Partnerships
We remain interested in forming a partnership with university-based creative writing schools wanting to develop and fund new works or a new list of works of poetry, prose and translations stemming from their faculty and program. If you run a program and have funding to support a list of work produced by students or faculty, please get in touch.
We're always interested in publishing new work from Asia-Pacific. Where possible, if you're an academic sending us a collection you have written or translated, please flag funding or partnership opportunities that might be available via your home institution.