Steel Toe Books

19/03/2024

14/03/2024

We're so thrilled to release our latest chapbook selection officially tomorrow!

don’t call us punk because we hate that
by Adam Oyster-Sands
Get the book HERE! https://www.steeltoebooks.com/

Adam Oyster-Sands' don’t call us punk because we hate that is a collection of poems about learning to let go so you can escape a stifling suburban existence into a real community through the joys and heartbreaks that come from youthful desires for something like freedom.

18/01/2024

Dear readers and writers, thanks so much to everyone who submitted to the STB 2023 Prize in Prose. We're thrilled to announce the winner of 2023's Prose Prize, "Raising Panic" by Rhonda Zimlich. You can read about the book here: https://www.steeltoebooks.com/2023-award-announcement
Also, congratulations to the SHORTLIST and LONGLIST authors!
The press thanks everyone who submitted to the contest and notes that the work submitted to the contest was very strong across the board.
Also, be on the lookout for our new releases and announcements regarding new titles!

19/12/2023

Dear readers and writers, thanks so much to everyone who submitted to the STB 2023 Prize in Poetry. We're thrilled to announce the winner of this year's Poetry Prize, "Banana Heart" by Rita Mookerjee. You can read about the book here: https://www.steeltoebooks.com/2023-award-announcement

Also, congratulations to the SHORTLIST and LONGLIST authors!
The press thanks everyone who submitted to the contest and notes that the work submitted to the contest was very strong across the board.
Also, be on the lookout for our new releases and announcements regarding new titles early next year!

08/12/2023

We're pleased to announce that Adam Oyster-Sands's "don't call us punk because we hate that" is our 2023 Chapbook selection! It will receive publication in early 2024, so stay tuned!

Please read below for details about the author and chapbook:
https://www.steeltoebooks.com/2023-chapbook-announcement

Our 2024 chapbook category will open again in early 2024. Thanks so much to all who submitted! The Shortlist and Longlist are below:

SHORTLIST
Tyler St. Amant
Michael Harris Cohen
Samantha Malay
Alejandro Escude

LONGLIST
Christie Marra
Rosemarie Dombrowski
Kenneth Jakubas
Jennifer Kulbeck
Meg Tuite
Edward Cohen
Phillip Sterling

13/09/2023

The STB prizes in Prose & Poetry ($500 to each) has been extended. We're allowing folks to submit up until September 30. Thank you to everyone who has already sent in work. We look forward to reading this year beginning in October! Visit our website for more information. Best of Luck!

All books submitted to the awards are considered for general publication. In addition to the winner, we look to publish 1-2 other titles from the pool of prize submissions and open submissions. Please click HERE for full guidelines.

18/08/2023

STB Prizes in Poetry & Prose - DEADLINE Sept 1
Dear writers, the deadline approaches for our 4th annual prize.
We hope to see some great, polished manuscripts and look forward to publishing in 2024!

Join Jenni Qi, Amy Roa, DM Armstrong, Robert Kirvel, Jen Knox and others!

https://www.steeltoebooks.com/

Literature of the New American Experience

"I cannot think of another contemporary poet who has done a finer job of combining form and content, to dazzling effect."  

18/04/2023

We're pleased to announce that Nancy Botkin's The Honeycomb is our 2022 Chapbook selection! It will receive publicaiton in Fall 2023.

Please read below for details about the author and chapbook!
https://www.steeltoebooks.com/about-3

You can also read about the author at Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine here https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nancy-botkin

Our 2023 full-length book categories in poetry and prose, and our annual poetry and prose prize submissions are open. Our 2023 chapbook category will open later this year!

29/03/2023

We're so happy to announce the release of our 2021 Prose Prize Awardee! Please meet "We Arrive Uninvited," a novel written by Jen Knox. This is a lovely book about family, familial legacy, particularly how matriarchal culture, quiet though it may be at times, passes from generation to generation, and how secrets are kept and honored. Filed under Literary, Family Fiction, & Magical Realism, Knox creates impassioned and love-filled characters who truly want to learn themselves and how to be accepted in a changing and sometimes hostile world. And so much more!

Find "We Arrive Uninvited" at our Bookshop Page: https://bookshop.org/a/20182/9781949540383

From the back cover:
When Emerson was twelve, she was enamored by her grandmother Amelia and believed that what others saw as eccentricity or mental illness was instead a misunderstood gift. Five years later, hardened by her mother's su***de and worried that she might be destined for a similar fate, Emerson visits Amelia at The Lavender House, a mental health facility for the elderly, to learn more about the enigmatic women in her family who found either magic or madness in response to a world that often seemed too small to contain them. As Amelia's warped fairy tale emerges, buried stories are unearthed, and everything Emerson thinks she knows shifts as she begins to confront her own magical thinking and burgeoning feelings toward her best friend, Courtney.

When Emerson was twelve, she was enamored by her grandmother Amelia and believed that what others saw as eccentricity or mental illness was instead a misunderstood gift. Five years later, hardened by her mother's su***de and worried that she might be destined for a similar fate, Emerson visits Ameli...

06/02/2023

Dear Freinds, Writers, and Readers, we're very pleased that Radioactive Wolves by Amy Roa officially releases tomorrow!

Amy Roa’s Radioactive Wolves inhabits an ecosystem teeming with the dreamlike imagery of a long-lost animal kingdom. To open this book is to step through a portal leading straight to the heart of a blazing meteor about to crash land on an unsuspecting planet. In this world, an electric catfish dev...

14/11/2022

Congratulations to Amy Roa, our 2021 Poetry Awardee for Radioactive Wolves. It's now available for order!

Amy Roa's Radioactive Wolves inhabits an ecosystem teeming with the dreamlike imagery of a long-lost animal kingdom. To open this book is to step through a portal leading straight to the heart of a blazing meteor about to crash land on an unsuspecting planet. In this world, an electric catfish devel...

18/10/2022

Dear readers and writers. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted to the STB 2022 Prize in Prose or Poetry. We're now diligently and contentedly reading manuscripts and will have announcements in Mid November. We wish everyone a great early fall!

In case you missed the prize deadlines, we host a yearly prize and will open again for submissions once awardees have been announced. We also have a general submission category which is open now. We will read all Q4 submissions in that category in Q1 or Q2 2023.

Also, be on the lookout for our new releases and announcements regarding new titles!

Focal Point is a scientist’s unofficial dissertation, a daughter’s faithful correspondence, and a coming-of-age story. Written largely while Jenny Qi was a young Ph.D. student conducting cancer research after her beloved mother's death from cancer, the collection turns to “all the rituals of a...

31/03/2022

A NEW podcast with Jenny Qi is up at The Nocturnists. Check out the great talk here!

To get a copy of the award winning Focal Point click here! shorturl.at/iwDV3

https://thenocturnists.com/special-episodes/2022/03/29/emily-in-conversation-with-jenny-qi

Emily speaks with cancer biologist and poet Jenny Qi, about her poetry collection Focal Point, which examines science, disease, love, and family.

08/02/2022

Thank you Rain Taxi Review for this wonderful review of Jenny Qi's book Focal Point! Read the review here!
http://www.raintaxi.com/category/current-edition/

13/12/2021

We are overjoyed to announce the release of our 2021 Chapbook Award selection, Soft Animals by Brian Rigg!

Looking for powerful conversations about love and violence in hostile geographies? These poems explore uneasy intersections of joy and pain with the sensitivity and skill of a keen observer of the human and natural world. They bear witness to past acts of human predation, but always with an eye to a future of catharsis and hope, and in homage to victims of violence. Throughout this collection, Brian Rigg challenges us to question easy assumptions about erasure and agency.

Check it out on our Bookshop, available now!

Soft Animals is in conversation with the urban, natural, and imaginative landscapes that surround us. This small offering of poems explores sometimes hostile geographies, taking the reader along a journey that is both violent and beautiful. These poems bear witness to past acts of human predation bu...

01/12/2021

We are pleased to announce the longlist, shortlist, and awardees for Steel Toe Books 2021, second annual awards in Poetry and Prose (Fiction and Creative Nonfiction.)

Please congratulate Poetry Winner, Radioactive Wolves by Amy Roa chosen by judge Kelli Allen, and Prose Winner, We Arrive Uninvited by Jen Knox chosen by judge Brian Leung. Their titles will be published in Fall 2022!

You can read the lists and citations here
https://www.steeltoebooks.com/steeltoebooks2021awardannouncement
Thank you to everyone who submitted and thank you to the judges!!

26/10/2021

Jenny Qi talks about award winning Focal Point on Rattle's live podcast, availble to watch and listen for free https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB6Obr7G48Q thank you Timothy Green for hosting.

To get a copy of Focal Point, click here https://bookshop.org/lists/steel-toe-books-catalogue

Jenny Qi is the author of Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Her essays and poems have been published in The New York Times, The A...

25/10/2021

Check out this great interview on ZYZZYVA Literary Magazine with Jenny Qi about her Focal Point!

Jenny Qi’s first poetry collection, Focal Point (98 pages; Steel Toe Books), sees release this week. Written over the course of Qi’s graduate study in

05/10/2021

Jenny Qi's award winning Focal Point launches on October 13th!

You can join us in celebrating an amazing debut author by attending the live online reading event with us here: https://www.facebook.com/events/814210569243007/?ref=newsfeed

Victoria Chang wrote, "Focal Point is a beautiful and reflective book that inhabits the necessary liminal space of betweenness.”

Matthew Zapruder wrote, "A singular, exciting new voice in American poetry.”

Francesca Bell wrote, "The poems in Jenny Qi’s haunting debut collection, Focal Point, are delicate the way a scalpel is delicate."

Celebrate the book's debut and a debut author with us!
Read more about Focal Point and get it here: https://www.steeltoebooks.com/

30/09/2021

Hi Friends,

Our final extended deadline is today!

If you haven't already, please feel free to gather materials and make final adjustments. Thanks so much to all those who have submitted. We are eagerly looking forward to diving into these manuscripts!

We publish two books, one prose and one poetry each year. Each award winner receives book publication, a $500 prize, and a $1000 social media and advertising promotional package. In addition to the winner, we will look to publish 1-3 other titles in each category. Our longlist, shortlist, and winners will be announced in October 2021. We read blind and judges receive 5-10 manuscripts constituting the shortlist before selecting one finalist.

This year's judges are:
Kelli Allen for Poetry
Brian Leung for Prose

If you'd like to know more about them, and for more information about the contest, please visit https://www.steeltoebooks.com/submit

To see our 2020 Award Recipients, longlist, and shortlist, check out https://www.steeltoebooks.com/2020-award-announcement/

We look forward to reading your polished work!

All books submitted to the awards are considered for general publication. In addition to the winner, we look to publish 1-3 other titles in each category. Please click HERE for full guidelines.

15/09/2021

We’re overjoyed to bring you Robert D Kirvel's collection iWater & Other Convictions, available for preorder now from Bookshop!

From neuropsychologist Robert D. Kirvel, these award-winning snapshots from American life examine what personal authenticity means. Written for anyone who has tried to make sense of the political environment, iWater and Other Convictions will entertain, amuse, and challenge readers to think more deeply about conventional wisdom and human conviction.

Support Local Bookstores via Bookshop and preorder the book there today!

https://bookshop.org/books/iwater-and-other-convictions/9781949540253?aid=20182&listref=steel-toe-books-catalogue

We all do it on occasion: spew words to defend or offend. But when someone insists "Nobody knows anything" or "All [insert political or religious affiliation] are idiots," what's really going on? iWater and Other Convictions is about the people we know who embrace unfounded political, social, sexual...

07/09/2021

***Final EXTENDED DEADLINE***

Dear Writers,

Many folks have asked for an extended time to tinker and then submit. We're extending the deadline for the Steel Toe Book Awards to Sept 30! If you haven't already, please feel free to gather materials and make final adjustments. Thanks so much to all those who have submitted. We are eagerly looking forward to diving into these manuscripts!

We publish two books, one prose and one poetry each year. Each award winner receives book publication, a $500 prize, and a $1000 social media and advertising promotional package. In addition to the winner, we will look to publish 1-3 other titles in each category. Our longlist, shortlist, and winners will be announced in October 2021. We read blind and judges receive 5-10 manuscripts constituting the shortlist before selecting one finalist.

This year's judges are:
Kelli Allen for Poetry
Brian Leung for Prose

If you'd like to know more about them, and for more information about the contest, please visit https://www.steeltoebooks.com/submit

To see our 2020 Award Recipients, longlist, and shortlist, check out https://www.steeltoebooks.com/2020-award-announcement/

We look forward to reading your polished work!

19/08/2021

Read Jenny Qi in The Atlantic! "Postcards from the Living" is from her debut poetry , winner of the Steel Toe Books , Focal Point! You can purchase a copy here to support debut and independent bookstores with Bookshop
https://bookshop.org/books/focal-point-9781949540260/9781949540260?aid=22715&listref=2021-poetry-debuts-63e01bbe-19d6-4412-a7e1-3c1c0f122c50

Read the poem "Postcards from the Living" here!
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2021/08/poem-jenny-qi-postcards-living/619762/

Winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award, Focal Point is a scientist's unofficial dissertation, a daughter's faithful correspondence, and a coming-of-age story. Written largely while Jenny Qi was a young Ph.D. student conducting cancer research after her beloved mother's death from cancer, th...

11/08/2021

Dear Writers,

The 2021 Steel Toe Book Awards submission period is winding down!

We publish two books, one prose and one poetry each year. Each award winner receives book publication, a $500 prize, and a $1000 social media and advertising promotional package. In addition to the winner, we will look to publish 1-3 other titles in each category. Our longlist, shortlist, and winners will be announced in October 2021. We read blind and judges receive 5-10 manuscripts constituting the shortlist before selecting one finalist.

This year's judges are:

Kelli Allen for Poetry
Brian Leung for Prose

If you'd like to know more about them, and for more information about the contest, please visit https://www.steeltoebooks.com/submit/

To see our 2020 Award Recipients, longlist, and shortlist, check out https://www.steeltoebooks.com/2020-award-announcement/

We look forward to reading your polished work!

03/08/2021

We're very excited that Jenny Qi's award winning book is available for presale at the Bookshop link below, and that Focal Point was a #1 New Release in Asian American Poetry on Amazon!
Support Local Bookstores via Bookshop by getting the book there!
https://bookshop.org/books/focal-point-9781949540260/9781949540260

27/05/2021

We are pleased to announce the longlist, shortlist, and awardee for the Steel Toe Books inaugural Chapbook Awards.

Please congratulate our winner Brian Rigg for his chapbook Soft Animals, chosen by our editors. Soft Animals will be published this fall from Steel Toe Books!

You can find out Chapbook Award lists at https://www.steeltoebooks.com/2021-chapbook-announcement

Thank you to everyone who submitted!

Steel Toe Books is excited to announce our Steel Toe Books Chapbook Award Winner. The title will receive publication in Fall 2021. Congratulations to our shortlist and longlist authors, and thank you to all of the authors that submitted to the prize. The 2022 Steel Toe Books Chapbook Awards will o....