Press 53 was founded in October 2005 by Kevin Morgan Watson and quickly began earning a reputation as a quality publishing house of short story and poetry collections. We are located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the Community Arts Cafe building at Fourth & Spruce.
Here is a brief overview of what we publish at Press 53:
Short Story Collections: Since we published our first short story collection in October 2005, Press 53 has gained a reputation for being a champion of the short story. We publish 6-8 short story collections each year. If you are a short story writer, please read our submission guidelines. Several colleges and universities use our collections in their classrooms, including the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking, whose students adapt short stories for film projects. We prefer short story collections from established authors with at least 70% of the stories previously published in magazines, journals, and anthologies. Having an award or two is also a plus. Our interest in story collections with a high percentage of previously published and/or award-winning work is to show us that the author is actively building readership and has a support team of fellow authors, editors, and publishers to help in marketing and promoting the collection. We need authors to bring with them readers who will then discover our other authors, whose readers will discover our new authors. We are building a community of authors and readers who enjoy the writing we publish.
Poetry: We also publish 6-8 poetry collections each year, including our Tom Lombardo Poetry Selections, edited by Tom Lombardo, and our newly formed Silver Concho Poetry Series, edited by Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root. We are looking for strong voices from poets who are actively building readership through publication and awards, poets who will bring readers and a support team with them to the press. To get a clear idea of the poetry we publish, please read some of our poetry collections. Samples of poetry can also be found easily by doing an Internet search for any of our poets.
Novels: We no longer publish new novels.
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir: We no longer publish new memoirs or book-length nonfiction.
Press 53 Classics: Our first Press 53 Classics edition was The Land Breakers, by John Ehle, which was published by Harper & Rowe in 1964. It was a best seller in the US and Europe, and somehow ended up out of print. One of our missions at Press 53 is to find great stories that are out of print that we feel should never be out of print. If you know of such a book, please let us know and we will consider adding it to our Press 53 Classics imprint if the rights are available.
Anthologies: Every odd year on Halloween we publish Surreal South, a collection of odd, strange, Gothic, sci-fi, genre-bending short stories, edited by Laura and Pinckney Benedict. Sumissions usually open every odd year in January. We also publish each year the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology, which features the top three winners in each category (first prize only in Novella) in the Press 53 Open Awards.
The Press 53 Open Awards is a writing contest that allows us to discover and publish new writers each year. The contest has five categories—Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Creative Nonfiction, and Novella—and is judged by five industry professionals ranging from award-winning writers, to editors, agents and publishers. We award a First Prize in each category (which includes a $250 cash prize, a personalized etched-glass award, and publication), a Second Prize and Honorable Mention, which includes an awards certificate and publication (first prize only in Novella). All finalists receive a copy of the anthology, where they are mentioned by name in each category. A special mention is given to those writers who enter two or more pieces and are finalists in one or more categories. Submissions for The Press 53 Open Awards begin in September and run till March 31 for all categories. Winners and finalists are announced on July 1. This contest is a great way to give writing and writers some great exposure.
Prime Number Magazine: In July 2010, Press 53 launched Prime Number Magazine, a free online quarterly publication of distinctive poetry and prose, edited by Clifford Garstang, Valerie Nieman, and Tracy Crow. The magazine features bi-weekly-ish updates of flash fiction, flash nonfiction and poetry, called Prime Decimals. Submitting and publishing with Prime Number Magazine is a great way to place your work alongside other great writers and to bring work to our attention.
We hope you will support Press 53 and our authors by sampling our books and telling your friends about us. If you have questions, you can always contact me via the email link below.
Kindest regards,
Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher/Editor
Press 53 . PO Box 30314, Winston-Salem, NC 27130-0314
Press 53 is located at
The Community Arts Cafe
411 W. Fourth St
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
About Us
