Our projects are often inspired by the people, places, and history of the American Midwest.
For examples of our past publishing successes, visit us here at our books page.
We are also managers of The Aiming Circle community of military-writing practitioners.
Middle West Press LLC seeks poetry manuscripts by a single author, comprising 50 to 100 poems each, for potential publication in 2018.
Reading period ends June 1, 2018.
Middle West Press is a Johnston, Iowa-based editor and publisher of non-fiction, fiction, journalism, and poetry. Our projects are often inspired by the people, places, and history of the American Midwest. Our book titles are available for sale in print and e-book editions via on-line retailers, and via select independent and museum bookstores.
We publish from 1 to 4 titles annually, and have plans to make at least one of these a collection of poetry that informs and illuminates the American Midwest.
We have previously published three poetry collections—each of which notably explored, at least partially, themes of national service during wartime. While we look forward to continue to explore such themes—indeed, we are particularly interested in publishing work from women veterans—we are equally motivated by any work that helps renew and revise the milieu of the Middle West as a growing, changing, modern place.
Our informal rule-of-thumb is that the modern U.S. states carved from the Louisiana Purchase, and/or states located west of the Ohio River and east of the Missouri River, safely define our playground. The Middle West is a moveable feast, however. We recognize that the Middle West includes themes, characters, and geographies that cannot be contained by mere borders. In fact, the Middle West may be most apparent in places where it is not.
Whether you are from here or live here—or just adhere to a particularly Midwestern sensibility—we would love to read your work!
Please submit Microsoft Word (.DOC) files; Times New Roman, 12 point type.
Each poem should be presented on its own page.
We currently offer both a no-fee and reading-fee option for submission. We consider submissions generated by each equally, and on a similar (4 to 12 weeks) schedule.
The $50 reading-fee option generates for the submitting author a written critique of the work, potentially covering both editorial and marketing possibilities for the work, regardless of whether Middle West Press selects the work for publication.
