UPDATED DECEMBER 2021: They have been acquired by Deep Vellum press, and now they focus on scholarly work. They also now say “ To make this program possible, authors of scholarly works supplement some of the publication costs involved in bringing their book into print. This is most often achieved through subventions from their institutions and/or related organizations.” This does not align with our guiding principles. To learn more about their submission guidelines go here.
Dalkey Archive Press has good distribution, offices in three countries, a great reputation, and a well organized website. Their books are often taught in universities.
They receive around 12,000 submissions a year. They have a year turnaround time in terms of responding to unsolicited manuscript submissions. If you have not heard from them after a year, you can query, but not before.
It is key that you get a good feel for what they have previously published. A good place to start is by browsing their catalog.
They primarily publish literary fiction. They are less likely to publish poetry and nonfiction. They have separate submission guidelines for scholarly work.
You can read their submission guidelines as a whole here. Make sure to follow their submission guidelines when submitting.
Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser and spends much of her time researching manuscript publishers. You can follow her on Facebook.
