STEEL TOE BOOKS 2022 FULL LENGTH OPEN BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
Steel Toe Books is excited to announce our 2022 Full Length Open Book selection. We host an annual alternative to our book awards with Full Length Open Book submissions in both poetry and prose. Our 2022 selection will receive publication in Fall 2023. We received many noteworthy and strong manuscripts in poetry and prose (fiction, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction), and we wish we could publish many more deserving books. Thanks to everyone who submitted!
As a note, the 2023 Steel Toe Books Full Length Open Books is open now. We look to pick up 1-2 extra books outside of the prize selections each year for publication the following year.
OPEN SELECTION
The Ghost Owl Says Go Now by Stephen Benz
About The Ghost Owl Says Go Now
At its core, The Ghost Owl Says Go Now is about place, specifically the vast American landscape from California to Key West and points in between. Guided by the wandering spirit of Bashō, some of the travel poems in this collection are wistful; others reflect on harsh realities experienced under the spell of wanderlust. Along the way, there are encounters with a variety of people—neighbors, relatives, strangers—that might be described as instances of synchronicity: encounters that seemingly offer significance beyond the random. In these poems, Stephen Benz continues his probing explorations into the topographies of Americana.
About the Author
Stephen Benz has published four books of creative nonfiction, including Topographies and Reading the Signs (both from Etruscan Press). He has also published a book of poems, Americana Motel (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.), along with essays in New England Review, Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, Boulevard, and Best American Travel Writing. He lives in Albuquerque, where he teaches at University of New Mexico.
Please visit our Submit page to enter our 2023 Full Length Book Submissions and to read more details about our process. Please sign-up to our newsletter below for book announcements and deadlines.