Sapling issue # 845
The one in which we talk to Krista Cox and Erin Elizabeth Smith of Sundress Publications.
Hi writers.
In recent award news, the longlist for the 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel was announced by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and we were thrilled to see an independent press title on the list, North Sun by Ethan Rutherford (Deep Vellum). Represent!
Now, here’s what’s happening in the small press world this week.
—Kit
Managing Editor / Sapling editor
Black Lawrence Press
Contest: Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award - Persea Books
Genre(s): poetry (open to any poet who has previously published at least one full-length book of poems)
Award: The winner receives an advance of $2,000 and publication of their collection by Persea.
Entry Fee: $30
Deadline: March 15, 2026
Guidelines: perseabooks.com/lexi-rudnitsky-prize-award
Journal: Bennington Review
Genre(s): poetry and fiction
Website: benningtonreview.org
Guidelines: benningtonreview.org/submit
Open January 5 - March 9, 2026
Small Press: Blue Light Press
Genre(s): poetry, micro fiction or prose poems (both contests)
Website: bluelightpress.com/index
Guidelines: bluelightpress.com/contests
Blue Light Book Award Competition is open until February 28, 2026.
Poetry Prize and Chapbook competition is open February 1 - June 30, 2026.
Feature: Sundress Publications
This week, Sapling spoke with Krista Cox, Managing Editor, and Erin Elizabeth Smith, Founder & Executive Director of Sundress Publications.
SAPLING: Sundress Publications is a nonprofit, volunteer-run literary press collective publishing chapbooks and full-length works. You also put out the Best of the Net Anthology and host a variety of online journals. Whew! Can you take us back twenty-five years to give us a peek at the press’s origin story?
ERIN ELIZABETH SMITH: In 1999, I was a college drop-out living illicitly in my boyfriend’s dorm room at Brown. It was the first real internet boom, and everyone was going to make their fortune online. At eighteen, I thought, why not poetry?
In 1999, I found Stirring, now our flagship journal at Sundress. In 2000, I decided that instead of buying a specific hosting domain for the journal, that I would buy a new site for a new press which could serve as a home for other literary journals as well. Thus in the spirit of collaboration, Sundress Publications was founded.
Initially we brought on a few other online journals that were publishing on places like Geocities and Angelfire (for those of you over 40, I hope this is a fun nostalgia beat) and gave them free hosting space on our website. We also helped to cross-promote each other’s issues and submission calls. Sundress was always meant to be a space of shared joy and commitment to literature even before we were an actual press.
SAPLING: Where do you imagine Sundress Publications to be headed over the next couple years? Are there any changes you foresee taking place in the near future, or anything on the horizon you’d like people to know about?
E. E. S.: As a micrononprofit with over 100 volunteers, we are always excited for new opportunities to grow and give people agency in creating new initiatives, supporting new ideas, etc. One thing that we’re super excited about for 2026 is being able to pay our intern staff an honorarium thanks to a grant from the Poetry Foundation. We have always been entirely volunteer-run, so being able to pay any of our team is always an honor.
KRISTA COX: I continue to be excited by the extraordinary manuscripts we receive! Each year, our open reading periods beat the submissions record from the previous year, and more manuscripts means more wonderful work to choose from. (Allow me to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated Reader Board!)
SAPLING: As the managing editor of a nonprofit literary press, is there anything you wish more authors would know from your side of the desk?
K. C.: I think it would be wonderful for more authors and readers, alike, to recognize that a book is a collaborative work of art. Our volunteers put so much time, talent, and love into each of our books to make it the best version it can be. The author’s artistry and vision are extremely important, and we aim to support those at every stage of the process, and we bring valuable experience and insight to each book. It’s so satisfying to work together to put beautiful and meaningful work into the world.
SAPLING: You will hold your annual open reading period for prose manuscripts from December to February, and writers can find information about open and forthcoming calls on the Sundress website. What’s the first thing that Sundress editors look for in a submission? Any deal breakers?
K. C.: Like most presses, we notice when submitters don’t adhere to our (very modest) guidelines. We’re committed to lifting voices that tend to be pushed to the margins or that are underrepresented in the industry. We get excited about novel forms, hybrid genres, and atypical subject matter, especially when combined with an obvious attention to craft and a strong emotional core.
SAPLING: Sundress also runs the Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) residency program in Tennessee. Writers can often feel intimidated about applying to writing residencies—any words of advice to potential applicants?
E. E. S.: We try really hard to make sure that the barrier to application for our residency program is not too arduous. We don’t require letters of recommendation. We don’t require you to answer any bespoke questions. Our application fee is waived for all writers of color and those applying for financial aid. We just want to read your writing and hear what you’re working on. Since our residency is on a farm and does require five hours of service, we also love hearing if you have connections to Appalachia, to farming or to writing about the land, or other reasons why a residency in Knoxville could be special for you.
SAPLING: What one or two small press publishers deserve more recognition, and why should more people be seeking out their books (or perhaps seeking a home for their own writing there)?
E. E. S.: I love the work that Abode Press is doing both with their publishing and workshop programs. I also adore every book I’ve ever read from Game Over Books, including recent books by Liv Mammone, Jessica Nirvana Ram, and Catherine Weiss.
K. C.: When I was Managing Editor over at The Wardrobe (also by Sundress), I saw so many amazing books published by Variant Lit cross my (metaphorical) desk. I also really dig the work Riot in Your Throat is doing and publishing.
SAPLING: Just for fun (because we like fun), if Sundress was planning a vacation, where would you go and how would you get there?
E. E. S.: We have the mountains here, so it’s gotta be the beach. Ideally somewhere that doesn’t get internet service and has a bucket of icy beers.
K. C.: I’ll follow Erin anywhere, if she’s cooking.
Krista Cox is the Managing Editor of Sundress Publications and is still a poet, technically. She’ll be savoring pints and getting rained on in Dublin, Ireland for the next several years, at least.
Erin Elizabeth Smith (she/her) is the Executive Director of Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy for the Arts and a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently DOWN (SFASU 2020) and the founder of the Best of the Net Anthology. Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Guernica, Ecotone, Crab Orchard, and Mid-American. Smith is a Teaching Professor and Director of Career Development in the English Department at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
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