About the Chapbook as an Art Form

The chapbook is an old and intimate form most often but not exclusively associated with poetry.

Typically, a chapbook consists of between 18-48 pages of poetry (or prose, hybrid genre work, or whatever). The material available in a chapbook is usually digestible in one sitting. We think of it as a smaller canvas than the full-length book, a tinier (not to say tiny) constellation of art.

Though our earliest chapbooks were black and white productions, since 2008 we have been printing perfect-bound, four-color cover chapbooks.

Though we are a small press with fairly limited resources, we are devoted to producing striking and elegant chapbooks, and we keep them in print.

Design is an important element to us, and we work with our authors on cover art and design.

Let us also add a word about promotion. Like many small presses, our resources are limited. We send out review copies, do occasional ads, and have a good track record of getting our chapbooks reviewed or promoted on websites like Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, Newpages, and in many literary journals. If you're a reviewer, contact us <nmp--at--thediagram.com> and we're happy to send out review copies or add you to our list.

Most of our chapbooks are acquired via our yearly chapbook contest co-sponsored with the magazine DIAGRAM (deadline in April every year). When we're not reading submissions for the contest, we are happy to read queries (June-December).