Call for Submissions

Manifest West is an annual anthology, published each fall by Western Press Books in cooperation with Western State Colorado University's Creative Writing program.

The editors of Manifest West #7: Transitions and Transformations want your best work describing and expressing this titular theme. We are seeking voices from all perspectives and walks of life in the West to contribute to our collection of poems, short stories, creative nonfiction, and hydrid forms.

What changes, alters, undergoes renewal or metamorphosis in the west? The space shared and sparred-over in urban Arizona versus remote Alaska casts doubt on the concept of a true continuity to the west. Where and when do those frontiers, borders, or alterations in course occur? Each watershed and microclimate is a slight shift from the next, each city center and community hall a locus of both change and tradition, and the emotional landscapes can be as dramatic or serene as those on the map. Language can do some of the work of capturing that flux: tracking transition and transformation to get at the heart of a life lived, an eon along a river’s path, the slow progress of road construction to that new development or the old hospital, or the moment a hummingbird changes its flight path.

We do not charge a reading fee; submission is free.

Open for submissions November 1, 2017 – December 31, 2017.