Hub City Press announces new BIPOC Poetry Series with editor-at-large Ashley M. Jones

SPARTANBURG, S.C—Hub City Press announces the establishment of the Hub City Press BIPOC Poetry Series with editor-at-large Ashley M. Jones, Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama (2022-2026). This first-of-its-kind series aims to champion BIPOC/ALAANA poets working in the South today by offering two writers an advance of $3000 and publication by Hub City Press in 2025.

The series is open to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) poets at all stages of their careers who reside in or are from the South. Submitters must live in or be from the following thirteen states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia or West Virginia. This is an open reading period rather than a contest and submissions will not be read blind. There will be no fee to submit. Eligibility information and guidelines can be found at www.hubcity.org/BPS. Manuscripts will be taken through online submission only.

Ashley M. Jones is Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama (2022-2026) and the author of three poetry collections: Reparations Now!, longlisted for the 2022 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry; dark // thing; and Magic City Gospel. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is Associate Director of the University Honors Program at UAB, founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, and co-director of PEN Birmingham. “I have dedicated my life and my work to creating space for everyone to live and write as their authentic selves,” Jones says. “I believe all of us have a valuable story to tell, and this series is one beautiful way to celebrate that. I'm honored to be a part of this effort, which not only creates deliberate space for poets of color, but for poets of color from the South. We are often overlooked and undervalued, and this series works to erase those barriers.”

Executive Director of Hub City Press Meg Reid says, "I'm over the moon to have an opportunity to work with Ashley M. Jones, who is one of the finest and most generous poets of her generation, to find and champion works by Southern poets of color. This series will offer two poets sizable advances, as well as the careful editing and author-driven, boutique publishing process that Hub City Press has become known for."

Founded in 1995 in Spartanburg, SC, Hub City Press is an award-winning publisher committed to well-crafted and high-quality works by new and established authors from the American South. Its books are distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West. Focused on finding and spotlighting extraordinary new and unsung writers from the American South, our curated list champions diverse authors and books that don’t fit into the commercial or academic publishing landscape. In recent years, Hub City Press has become the leading publisher of Southern poetry, with books featured in outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on Good Morning America. 

Eligibility and guidelines