Loblolly Press Gold Star Program Gold Star

Loblolly Press is an indie publisher in Asheville, NC, spotlighting contemporary poetry, short fiction, and novels by emerging and marginalized Southern writers. We champion bold, underrepresented voices and build a literary community where readers see their own stories reflected on the page.

Note: This project only allows submissions from the following countries:

United States

Open Call for Writers from the American South Temp Closed

Submission Window: November 12–December 17, 2025

Who can submit:

Open to all writers from the American South. Preference is given to writers from marginalized communities, including but not limited to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; LGBTQ+ writers; disabled writers; and writers from rural or low-income backgrounds.

Writers of Color should submit through the Writers of Color category to waive the submission fee.

Genres Accepted:

Poetry (up to 3 poems in a single PDF)
Short Fiction (1 story in a single PDF)
Novels (1 chapter in a single PDF)

Theme: Micro-Regionality
At Loblolly Press, we believe the strongest Southern writing doesn’t just use a place — it emerges from it. This year, we’re drawn to micro-regionality: work rooted so deeply in a specific landscape or history that it couldn’t exist anywhere else.

We want writing that names its coordinates. Rural, coastal, urban, or liminal — what matters is that your work belongs unmistakably to somewhere.

Reading Fee: The reading fee for this category helps sustain the work of the Press and supports our editors, readers, and operational costs. Every dollar goes toward:

Paying our team
Maintaining equitable submission periods (including free windows for Writers of Color)
Covering administrative costs
Supporting the publication and promotion of Southern writers

Submission Notes:

Please submit one file.
Cover letters are optional — include one only if you have something essential to share. The strength of the writing comes first.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere.
All work must be original and previously unpublished in book form.

Timeline:

End of January 2026 — Full manuscript requests sent
End of March 2026 — Finalists and 2027 Author Cohort notified
End of June 2026 — 2027 Author Cohort introduced

We anticipate selecting 2–3 authors for the 2027 publishing year: ideally one poet, one short fiction writer, and one flexible slot for a novel or non-fiction work. Every submission is read with care.

AI Policy: We want to hear you. Please don’t use AI-generated or AI-written work — basic tools like spell check or grammar suggestions are totally fine.

About Loblolly Press:
Loblolly Press is an independent publisher based in the mountains of North Carolina. We amplify emerging and marginalized voices from the American South through poetry, fiction, and short fiction that reflect the region’s full complexity — its beauty, contradictions, and resilience.

Not Open

Open Submissions for Writers of Color Temp Closed

Submission Window: October 14–December 17, 2025

Who can submit: Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian, Middle Eastern and North African, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander writers — including multiracial writers who identify as people of color — with ties to the American South. Self-identification is respected; no explanation required.

Genres Accepted:

Poetry (up to 3 poems in a single PDF)
Short Fiction (1 story in a single PDF)
Novels (1 chapter in a single PDF)

We want writing that names its coordinates. Rural, coastal, urban, or liminal — what matters is that your work belongs unmistakably to somewhere.

Reading Fee: None.
This free submission period honors our ongoing commitment to ensuring access to publishing opportunities without financial barriers.

Priority Review:
All submissions in this category receive precedence during our full reading period.

Submission Notes:

Please submit one file.
Cover letters are optional — include one only if you have something essential to share. The strength of the writing comes first.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere.
All work must be original and previously unpublished in book form.

Timeline:

End of January 2026 — Full manuscript requests sent
End of March 2026 — Finalists and 2027 Author Cohort notified
End of June 2026 — 2027 Author Cohort introduced

We anticipate selecting 2–3 authors for the 2027 publishing year: ideally one poet, one short fiction writer, and one flexible slot for a novel or hybrid work. Every submission is read with care.

AI Policy: We want to hear you. Please don’t use AI-generated or AI-written work — basic tools like spell check or grammar suggestions are totally fine.

Tip Jar: No fee is required for this submission. Optional tips go straight back into our work supporting and publishing Southern writers.

Not Open

Understory: Volume II Temp Closed

What is the Understory Anthology?

We launched Understory: Volume I (2024) in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to raise money for relief efforts, and successfully raised over $2,000 for BeLoved Asheville, a local organization on the front lines of recovery in our community. In a time when everything was uncertain, seeing the ways the anthology brought our community together breathed hope back into the press. Now, two years later, we're launching Understory as an annual anthology for writers, artists, and creators from across the American South.

What We Look For:

Situated between the forest floor and the tree canopy, the understory teems with a diverse array of shade-tolerant life. Much of what composes the understory is hidden, in some way, from the sun: fungi that decomposes the fallen trees from the inside out, earthworms the wriggle in and out of the temperate dirt, small dogwoods and flame azaleas that bloom in early spring before the tree canopy blooms into their light.

For Understory: Vol. II (2026), we want the typically unseen. Writing as bioluminescent as the blue ghost firefly, and goblin’s gold moss. Vibrant and rooted as a cliffside of fiddlehead ferns. Stories resilient and surprising enough to make us re-see, in some way, how the American South is perceived. In short, we want work that names its coordinates; that isn’t afraid to dig into the honest truth and grit of the world where we live.

Who can submit:

Open to all writers from the American South; which refers to writers who were born in or spent a significant part of their life in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, or Washington D.C. We’re particularly interested in publishing writers from marginalized communities, including but not limited to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; LGBTQ+ writers; disabled writers; and writers from rural or low-income backgrounds.

Reading Fee:

The $3 reading fee helps sustain the work of the Press by supporting operational costs. Every dollar goes toward:

• Maintaining equitable submission periods

• Covering printing costs for the Anthology

• Supporting the publication and promotion of Southern writers

If the submission fee is a barrier to you, email [email protected] for a fee waiver, no questions asked.

General Submission Guidelines:

We accept submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and art. See specific genre guidelines below for more information.
Cover letters are optional — include one only if you have something essential to share. The strength of the writing comes first.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere.
All work must be original and previously unpublished.
We want to hear you. AI-generated or AI-written work is not allowed — basic tools like spell check or grammar suggestions are totally fine.

Genre Guidelines:

Visual Art
- All visual art genres welcome; painting, drawing, photography, etc. Send us up to 8 files/images of original art. Please keep file sizes under 10mb.
Poetry
- We’re interested in reading poetry in an array of forms from traditional to experimental. Please submit up to 4 poems in a single document, and no more than 10 pages total.
Fiction
- We want fiction that makes us think about the world around us, that sets us so firmly in place and with the characters while we’re reading it that we wouldn’t dare leave until we finish the story. Submit 1 short story, no longer than 4,000 words. Or, up to three flash pieces, no more than 1,000 words each.
Nonfiction
- We want to see non-fiction submissions that span the genre. Whether the essay you’ve just polished up is a weird lyrical and braided piece, or it’s academic research that speaks to the current realities of living in the American South, send it our way! Submit 1 piece, no longer than 4,000 words.

Timeline:

We’ll read submissions until August 1, 2026 with plans to launch the issue in October.

We look forward to reading your work!

About Loblolly Press:

Loblolly Press is an independent publisher based in the mountains of North Carolina. We amplify emerging and marginalized voices from the American South through poetry, fiction, and short fiction that reflect the region’s full complexity — its beauty, contradictions, and resilience.

Not Open