Hub City Writers Project is a literary nonprofit organization located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Comprised of an acclaimed literary book publisher, an independent bookshop, and a literary programmer focused on education and outreach, our mission is cultivating readers and nurturing writers in both the Spartanburg community and throughout the South to foster an inclusive literary arts culture. Open positions will be reflected below.
Hub City Press publishes books of literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, regional nonfiction, nature, and art. We are seeking new and extraordinary voices from the American South who have written well-crafted, high-quality works. We are particularly interested in books with a strong sense of place. We believe strongly that the publishing industry needs to promote a more diverse range of experiences, and so have committed ourselves to spotlighting lesser-heard Southern voices including: people of color, members of LGBTQ and gender diverse communities, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, as well as ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities. Hub City is a small press, publishing eight to ten titles per year. In general, our publication schedule operates at least 12-18 months in advance of release.
Hub City publishes writers living in or from the South. What's the South? A complicated issue, to say the least, but the short answer for our purposes: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. (Are you from a border state like Missouri, Oklahoma, or Ohio? If you feel like your book is a good fit for us, make a case in your query.)
We do not publish romance, science fiction, true crime, mystery, cookbooks, how-to books, horror/paranormal or specific-religion inspirational books. We do not publish books for young people (YA, middle grade or childrens). Please do not send us a query if your book has already been self-published, even only as an e-book. We are looking only for full length works, rather than single stories, essays, or poems. We will automatically reject works with evidence of AI authorship.
About our Open Submission Periods:
Our open periods for unagented query submissions are March/April and September/October. You may only submit queries during these months. (Agents: it's best to contact Meg Reid directly to pitch us a book.)
What to send us:
- A brief, informative query letter about your manuscript (include the title, genre, length, description of the work, author background and publication history)
- Any credentials that particularly qualify you to write your book. If you have access to special markets or promotional opportunities for your book, we’d like to know about them as well.
- Your full manuscript (.doc and .docx preferred) Please note incomplete manuscripts will be automatically rejected.
We can no longer accept queries for poetry collections or short story collections during our open submission period. Please wait to submit in these genres through our New Southern Voices Poetry Prize (open every other spring) and C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize (open every other fall). We do occasionally open for poetry queries, so keep an eye out on our social media for dates. If you are a South Carolina fiction writer, we hope you’ll consider submitting your novel to the South Carolina Novel Prize (open every other spring via the South Carolina Arts Commission).
Due to the size of our staff and the volume of queries we receive, we are unable to respond to every query. We will be in touch with you if we have interest in your work. If you have not heard back within six months of your query or manuscript submission, assume your manuscript was not a good fit for us. Please feel free to withdraw and resubmit to another open submission period after 12 months if you have made revisions to your project and have not heard back from us.
The Hub City Writers Project Winter Intensive will be held on the weekend of January 12-14, 2024 at the AC Marriott in downtown Spartanburg, SC. It is a brand-new program that consists of a weekend of dedicated fiction workshops with limited participants (10-12 per class). It is geared toward more experienced writers who are working on a book-length project and will benefit from a dedicated workshop environment. Applicants must be 21+ years old.
Our inaugural Intensive workshop leader will be acclaimed writer Dorothy Allison. A craft capsule workshop will be taught by Carter Sickels, followed by a publishing Q&A session with Hub City Press. Learn more about the Intensive at www.hubcity.org/winterintensive.
Acceptance to the Intensive will be by application with an application fee of $15.
Please submit the following:
A cover letter that includes your bio and publication history.
One unpublished writing sample of short fiction or an excerpt from an in-progress novel--2,500 words or less.
Full scholarships for room and board are available for two LGBTQ+ writers from the South. All self-identified applications will be considered. Please reach out to Kate McMullen for more information.
Our open period for unagented query submissions for nonfiction opens in April and Ocotber. You may only submit queries for nonfiction projects during these months. Fiction and poetry queries will not be read if they are submitted in this form. Fiction queries open in March and September.
About us:
Hub City Press is a small press, publishing eight to ten titles per year including books of literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, regional nonfiction, nature, and art. Focused on finding and spotlighting extraordinary new and unsung writers from the American South, our curated list champions authors who represent the many people of this region and books that don’t fit neatly into the commercial or academic publishing landscape.
In general, our publication schedule operates at least 12-18 months in advance of release.
When submitting your query, please have ready:
- A one-page query letter about your novel, including: the title, genre, length, description of the work, author background and publication history, any credentials that particularly qualify you to write your book (if you have access to special markets or promotional opportunities for your book, we’d like to know about them as well), and;
- Your full manuscript (.doc and .docx preferred). Please note incomplete manuscripts will be automatically rejected.
- Your biographical information and a list of writers you know who might be willing to support your book.
We are looking for:
Well-crafted literary works by new and established authors with an emphasis on the Southern experience and a strong sense of place. We will expect to read completed manuscripts, and we rarely accept unfinished work.
We are committed to publishing and supporting lesser-heard Southern voices, including Black and Indigenous people, queer and trans people, immigrants, people with disabilities, as well as people from ethnic, cultural, and religious groups who have been oppressed and underrepresented by the publishing industry.
Hub City publishes writers living in or from the South. What's the South? A complicated issue, to say the least, but the short answer for our purposes: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. At the same time, we're interested in boundaries, borders, and in-betweens, so if you want to make a case for a state not listed here, we'll take a look.
We are not looking for:
Submissions in the following categories: books for young people (YA, middle grade, or children's), romance, science fiction, mystery, how-to books, horror/paranormal or specific-religion inspirational books. Please do not send us a query if your book has already been self-published, even only as an eBook.
We can no longer accept queries for poetry collections or short story collections during our open submission period. Please wait to submit in these genres through our New Southern Voices Poetry Prize (open every other spring [2022, 2024...]) and C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize (open every other fall [2021, 2023...]). If you are a South Carolina fiction writer, we hope you’ll consider submitting your novel to the South Carolina Novel Prize (open every other spring via the South Carolina Arts Commission).
What to expect from us once you have submitted:
Due to the size of our staff and the volume of queries we receive, we are unable to respond to every query. We will be in touch with you if we have interest in your work. If you have not heard back within six months of your query or your manuscript submission if we have asked for it, assume your manuscript was not a good fit for us. If we pass on your project and you go on to make revisions, the best way to tell us about it again is to re-submit your project in a new query period.
The C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize includes $5,000 and book publication. The prize is open to emerging writers in thirteen Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia or West Virginia) and must have no more than one previously published book.
The prize is named in honor of C. Michael Curtis, who has served as an editor of The Atlantic since 1963 and as fiction editor since 1982. Curtis has discovered or edited some of the finest short story writers of the modern era, including Tobias Wolff, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, and Anne Beattie. He has edited several acclaimed anthologies, including Contemporary New England Stories, God: Stories, and Faith: Stories. Curtis moved to Spartanburg, S.C. in 2006 and has taught as a professor at both Wofford and Converse Colleges, in addition to serving on the editorial board of Hub City Press.
This prize is made possible by a generous contribution from Michel and Eliot Stone of Spartanburg.
Manuscripts will be taken through online submission only. All manuscripts will be read anonymously by paid screeners. This contest is guided by the CLMP Code of Ethics.
Please read the full guidelines before submitting.