Updated February 5th, 2025: It’s hard to determine is they are still actively hosting free contests for submissions or not.
Blair is a nonprofit press combining the lists of Carolina Wren Press and John F. Blair, Publisher. To learn more about the history of both presses which merged in 2018, go here.
Based in the South, with roots in North Carolina, they strive to publish quality writing with a focus on authors and subjects historically neglected by mainstream publishers. This includes women, people of color, authors with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ authors. They take their inspiration from the many voices of southern US, and beyond. They publish poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. To get a good feel for what they publish, go here.
They only accept nonfiction directly from authors (as well as agents). Submissions of nonfiction proposals must be submitted via email. You can learn more here.
To submit unsolicited fiction, memoir, or poetry, you must do so through their contests. Their current contest is the Lee Smith Novel Prize and it will be open till September first 2021. The judge is Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Novels must be works of literary fiction and at least 25,000 words in length. There is a suggested donation of $25.00, but no required payment. You can learn more about the contest here if you are logged into Submittable.
To learn more about Blair, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2020 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.
She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
