CALYX Press is the oldest feminist press in the United States, and our herstory includes the publication of authors such as Barbara Kingsolver, Ursula K. Le Guin, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Julia Alvarez, Ellen Bass, Sharon Olds, Jean Hegland, Haunani-Kay Trask, and Chitra Divakaruni, among many others. CALYX was the first US publication to print Frida Kahlo's artwork in color, as well as the first to print an English translation of Wisława Szymborska's work.
Established in 1976, CALYX Press is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to providing an intersectional platform for women and nonbinary writers and artists. We accept work on any theme and in any style. Accepted material is published in CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Womne+, our biannual publication. Each issue features poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as a glossy, full-color insert of visual art.
CALYX is open for poetry and/or prose submissions three times a year. Submissions are restricted to women and nonbinary writers.
General Submission Period (October 1 - December 31): Poetry (up to six poems per submission) and prose (fiction or creative nonfiction with a 5,000-word maximum per submission). Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions are welcome.
Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize (March 1 - June 30): A blind competition with a rotating judge and a $300 cash prize. Submit up to three poems.
Margarita Donnelly Prize for Prose Writing (July 1 - September 30): A blind competition with a rotating judge and a $500 cash prize. Submit up to 10,000 words of fiction.
Book reviews and art submissions are considered year-round.
Artwork by women and nonbinary artists may be submitted year-round, but it is considered for publication only in May and December, so response times will vary.
All art pieces submitted should meet the following requirements:
- At least 300 dpi
- Size for width at least 5 inches at 300 dpi (14 inches at 72 dpi only ends up being 2.5 inches at 300 dpi)
- JPG, PNG, or TIF file
- Send in RGB or CMYK.
Please have electronic images cropped and colors adjusted to best represent the artwork; our production staff will only make the slight adjustments needed to accommodate printing requirements.
All book reviews are published on our website: www.calyxpress.org/reviews.
Men are welcome to review books, but we request that the books themselves be written by women or nonbinary authors.
You may submit book reviews year-round, but they are considered for publication biannually in March and November. Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions are welcome.
Please limit your book reviews to books published in the last two years. Please read our guidelines and previous reviews on our website before submitting to see the type of review CALYX is interested in. Guidelines are also provided below:
We welcome reviews of books by women, especially those that would otherwise receive little critical attention. We like to be consistent, and we offer these guidelines so reviewers can approach the task of reviewing with these issues in mind. A sample review is available using the link above, and we encourage reviewers to consult it as a reference for our desired style and literary approach.
- Include in your review both a judgment of the quality of the writing and an analysis of the content of the work, together in an overall statement of why the book is worth reading.
- Quotations from the text are REQUIRED. Weave them into the analysis of the book rather than stacking them one after the other. Don’t quote more than you need to make your point, but enough to give the flavor of the book. CALYX Journal style in reviews is to put all direct quotations in italics. The title of a poem should always be given with each quotation from that poem. Please include page numbers when quoting from the source. It will not be included in the final version, but it makes our proofing process infinitely easier.
- AVOID MERE SUMMARY. Reviews that provide only summary without text quotation and analysis will not be accepted.
- The review should be appropriate to the work being reviewed, e.g., a review of a book of poems will probably concentrate on the language while a review of an autobiography might give some background about the subject’s life.
- Put the book in context as appropriate—in the context of women’s writing, Black writing, this author’s writing, etc.
- Where appropriate, you may comment on the publisher and/or format and physical appearance of the book.
We believe that a good review excites one to read the book, contains conjecture, emotional response, and tells the reader something that is not already obvious.
The 25th Annual Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize is now open! This year's final judge is Ellen Bass!
Submit up to three poems. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged. Submissions are restricted to women and nonbinary writers (see our website or general guidelines for more information about CALYX's mission).
The winner of the 25th Annual Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize will receive a $300 cash prize and publication in an upcoming issue of CALYX Journal. The winner and up to three runners-up will be published on our website (www.calyxpress.org) and receive a complimentary one-volume subscription (three issues) to CALYX Journal.
See www.calyxpress.org for full details and to read previous winners of the prize.