Roxane Gay Books is a new imprint of Grove Atlantic. Roxane Gay has written about this new imprint here. Roxane Gay is the award-winning and bestselling author of a number of books, including Hunger and Bad Feminist. She’s a respected essayist, professor of writing, and one of the original co-founders of PANK.
The published their first three “new” books last spring and are also reprinting classics.
They have just re-opened to submissions with no stated deadline for when they will close to them.
On their main Submittable page they say they will not reopen to unagented submissions till June 2023, but as of 27th of October they added back the portal that allows unagented authors to submit, which you can access here.
This is what Roxane Gay has to say about what she plans to publish:
“I am going to publish books I love from interesting writers. That could, of course, mean anything. I am looking for beautifully written, compelling books that challenge, delight, and entertain readers. I love literary fiction but your story has to have an interesting plot. Things have to happen. I want books I simply cannot put down and that, when I finish, I can’t stop thinking about. I love stories about difficult women. I welcome your so-called unlikable protagonists. I enjoy dark, gritty stories but I am also open to happy, joyful but unsentimental stories that reflect faith in the overall goodness of humanity.”
Roxane Gay Books prioritizes underrepresented writers.
The imprint will publish novels, short fiction, memoir, essay collections, and nonfiction. She adds the additional disclaimer, “Most genres are welcome but my tastes skew to not only literary fiction but contemporary romance, and science fiction and fantasy. I am always open to being surprised but I will not likely be drawn to stories about sad white people marriages or autofiction. I am not interested in police propaganda narratives. Historical fiction, Westerns and the like will be a hard sell and there are other imprints that are a better fit for those stories.”
Additional information about what she is looking for is available here. It should be read carefully and thoroughly before you submit. All submissions will be responded to, although not personally.
Submissions must be submitted via Submittable. Response times should be between three and six months. There is no official deadline in which the imprint will close for submissions. She’s made it clear that it will not not always be open to direct submissions, and that it depends on volume. If the imprint closes to submissions because of this review that is very understandable, and it may well open again soon. Please check back.
To learn more about their submission guidelines, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 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.
