Gasher Press

A literary and visual art journal and chapbook press. We want art that guts us with surgical precision. Make everything useful.

Gasher Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit publisher founded by Whitney Koo in 2018. We are interested in fresh voices and innovative forms. 

Gasher is made up of a volunteer staff so that we can focus our resources on writers. 

All profits from book sales and submission fees are reinvested in opportunities and prizes.

We champion our authors with gracious royalties, no preorder minimums, collaborative book design, and meaningful editing.

We work to create opportunities in editing, publishing, and awards for underrepresented writers and editors. We welcome feedback on how we are doing and how we can improve.

Our prizes are always free to submit. 

We are micro. Meaning we are small but mighty. We can't offer tour stipends and we don't have a hired marketing person, but we work diligently to submit our books for prizes, attend book fairs, organize reading tours, and find review platforms. 

Our books are never sold on Amazon. We have recently begun a partnership with SPD, and we can be found in several independent bookstores.

For those of us whose minds work in layers, footnotes, and beautiful tangents. Thoughtful publications for thoughtful writers.

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Gasher Journal

General call

GUIDELINES:
Your submission fee comes with a free Gasher book. Please select from one of the available titles in your submission form.

2025 Open Reading: Full-Length Poetry Books

Please review the details and guidelines before submitting. The winning manuscript will be published in Fall 2026.

  The chapbook prize includes 10 free copies and $250. 
  Please submit manuscripts between 20-37pgs of poetry. 
  Please include a brief bio with your submission.
  We accept simultaneous submissions. Please, let us know immediately if your submission is accepted elsewhere.
  Once work is submitted, it can not be revised or edited. Please do not email revised versions of the original works or attach revisions to your submission on Submittable. We will not consider it.
  Manuscripts must be submitted as either .pdf or .docx
  We only accept submissions from those residing in the U.S.
  We publish perfect-bound chaps with ISBN. Our chapbooks are sold exclusively through the Gasher website, independent bookstores, and book fairs.

2025 Poetry Chapbook Prize

This submission form is for current Gasher Press authors ONLY. If you are not currently an author or forthcoming author of Gasher Press, please visit our other submission forms. Non-Gasher Press authors that submit to this form will not be considered.

For Current Gasher Press Authors

Gasher is looking for work that surprises us with its language, voice, and authenticity. We are excited by work that is deeply engaged in the nuances of craft, uniquely original in voice, and pushes creative boundaries. We are less interested in what’s currently “fashionable” and/or fits within the predictable mold of what makes writing “publishable.” While we welcome poetry that works in traditional forms, we believe in poetry that makes sense of and achieves its form (or lack thereof) as opposed to the poems’ forms existing for artifice’s sake. Similarly, we appreciate approaches to project that are driven by curiosity, leading language into unexpected corridors of thought, opposed to the project working as a shell for language to play within. We are unamused by cleverness, vulgarity, hate, and/or violence. 
 
To ensure ethical reading practices, we request that all identifying material be removed from the manuscript such as the author’s name, email/physical address, etc. An acknowledgments section, located at the end of the manuscript, detailing where poems have been previously published is okay but not required. We ask that you submit a book synopsis and statement of craft interest in lieu of an author’s bio. This update to our submissions screening guidelines aims to protect writers from the pressures to flatten real, lived experiences into a series of codification and/or unconscious biases that may arise on the part of screeners.
 

  Please submit manuscripts, ideally, between 20-37pgs, excluding front/back matter, though you may exceed this page number as long as the manuscript remains under 48pgs.
  We accept simultaneous submissions. Please, withdraw your submission immediately if accepted elsewhere.
  Manuscripts must be submitted as either .pdf or .docx
  We currently seek work strictly from those residing in the United States, regardless of citizenship status. 
  We do not accept works composed, either in part or entirely, with the use of Artificial Intelligence.
  We do not accept manuscripts that have been previously published in their entirety, though individual poems or smaller works from the manuscript may be previously published. We consider self-published collections as published. 
  Manuscripts must include a table of contents.
  Please do not include any preambles in the manuscript.
  Please do not submit updates, either of the manuscript, individual poems, or acknowledgements once you have submitted your work. 

 
*We reserve the right to not select any work during open-reading periods if we do not find work(s) that fit our needs.

Open Genre / Open-Reading Chapbooks

Gasher is looking for work that surprises us with its language, voice, and authenticity. We are excited by work that is deeply engaged in the nuances of craft, uniquely original in voice, and pushes creative boundaries. We are less interested in what’s currently “fashionable” and/or fits within the predictable mold of what makes poems “publishable.” While we welcome poetry that works in traditional forms, we believe in poetry that makes sense of and achieves its form (or lack thereof) as opposed to the poems’ forms existing for artifice’s sake. Similarly, we appreciate approaches to projects that are driven by a curiosity that leads language into unexpected corridors of thought, opposed to the project working as a shell for language to play within. We are unamused by cleverness, vulgarity, hate, and/or violence.
The Final Judge for 2026 is Sandra Simonds.
Sandra Simonds, an award-winning writer and professor, is the author of ten books. She is the author of nine collections of poetry, including Burning Oracle, forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press in 2026. She is also the author of Triptychs (Wave Books, November 2022), which was a 2022 New York Times selection. Her first novel, Assia (Noemi Press, 2023), based on the life of Assia Wevill, won the 2023 Vermont Book Award in Fiction and was shortlisted for the Dzanc Fiction Prize.
To ensure ethical reading practices, we request that all identifying material be removed from the manuscript such as the author’s name, email/physical address, etc. An acknowledgments section, located at the end of the manuscript, detailing where poems have been previously published is okay but not required. We ask that you submit a book synopsis and statement of craft interest in lieu of an author’s bio. This update to our submissions screening guidelines aims to protect writers from the pressures to flatten real, lived experiences into a series of codification and/or unconscious biases that may arise on the part of screeners.
We currently seek work strictly from those residing in the United States.
We do not accept works composed, in part of entirely, with the use of Artificial Intelligence.
We do not accept manuscripts that have been previously published in its entirety, though individual poems or smaller works are acceptable. We consider self-published collections as published.
We accept poetry (hybrid works are welcome) books between 48-90pgs, excluding front and back matter.
Do not include an author bio anywhere in your submission, including in the sections reserved for the book synopsis and craft statement.
Manuscripts must include a table of contents.
Submissions must be anonymous. Please remove any inclusions of the author's name, acknwoledgements, addresses/email, bios, or other identifiying material from your submissions. Submissions that do not comply will be disqalified.
Please do not include any preambles in the manuscript.
Simultaneous submissions are okay. Please withdraw your work immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.
Please do not submit updates, either of the manuscript, individual poems, or acknowledgements once you have submitted your work.
*We respect the final judge’s right to not select a winner for the prize.

Gasher Book Award

The Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize awards a single poem written by a trans poet who has yet to publish their first full-length book. The prize consists of $500, 5 limited edition letterpress broadsides of the winning poem.
Gasher is looking for work that surprises us with its language, voice, and authenticity. We are excited by work that is deeply engaged in the nuances of craft, uniquely original in voice, and pushes creative boundaries. We are less interested in what’s currently “fashionable” and/or fits within the predictable mold of what makes poems “publishable.” While we welcome poetry that works in traditional forms, we believe in poetry that makes sense of and achieves its form (or lack thereof) as opposed to the poems’ forms existing for artifice’s sake. Similarly, we appreciate approaches to projects that are driven by a curiosity that leads language into unexpected corridors of thought, as opposed to the project working as a shell for language to play within. We are unamused by cleverness, vulgarity, hate, and/or violence.
Eligibility:
Requirements:
Additional  info:

Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize

Stepping out from behind the shadow cast by literary hubs and their creative tastes, Boor Soirée serves as cultural ethnography of the often neglected voices working in rural spaces. The digital project is an archive, community, and shape for the future of craft in rural literatures, shining light on the inventions and interventions that project a cultural response to the social, political, and economic realities of the landscapes writers of rural America create within and from.
FOR ESSAYS:
Boor Soirée is accepting pitches for craft and pedagogy essays and lesson plans which engage the intersection of rurality and poetry or rurality as poetic craft. Specifically, articles should engage with how rural spaces impact either one’s writing craft or their pedagogy when teaching poetry. We are interested in essays that engage directly with experiences and examples as opposed to discussing these ideas conceptually without application. For craft essays, this includes referencing specific poems; for pedagogical approaches, this includes in-classroom examples.  We are interested in lesson plans that help create access to rural poetics for higher education learners. Articles should remain between the length of 500-1,500 words.
FOR INTERVIEWS:
Boor Soirée is accepting completed interviews of no more than 6,000 words, with an introduction paragraph to the interview for forthcoming or newly released book and chapbooks of poetry written by poets who consider themselves to be part of rural American poetry, or write about rurality in their work.
FOR WRITERS SEEKING TO HAVE THEIR BOOK CONSIDER FOR AN INTERVIEW:
Please have the publisher reach out to us directly with a digital ARC and contact information for the poet. Though we cannot guarantee a feature to every forthcoming title, we make our best effort to showcase a wide variety of titles from various presses.  Send pitches to boorsoiree@gasherpress.com​

Gasher Journal

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