Submission Guidelines

Orison [“or-ĭ-sən”/“or-ĭ-zən”] Books seeks to publish spiritually-engaged poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of exceptional literary merit. In our view, spiritual writing has little to do with subject matter. Rather, the kind of work we seek to publish has a transcendent aesthetic effect on the reader, and reading it can itself be a spiritual experience. Such work is not merely about spiritual contemplation, but itself leads the reader into profound contemplation. It is not merely about the sublime, but itself has a sublime effect on the reader. It is not merely about the mystery of being, but itself heightens the reader’s sense of the mystery underlying the fabric of our daily lives.

The poet Gjertrude Schnackenberg, in an interview with Jonathan Galassi, articulated a perspective on literature that resonates with our mission, and her words are worth sharing: “When I said that poetry tries and wants to make contact with reality, that is, with uttermost-being (truth, God, whatness, somethingness-nothingness, chaos-order)—to the Veda seers, the vibrating void; to the eighth-century Chinese poets, that-which-is-self-engendering; to mathematicians, a veil of numbers; to the Jewish mystics, the En-Sof; to Christian mystics, the indwelling of God and emanation of Christ in all things; to the animal kingdoms on earth, the starry night; to contemporary physicists, the excitation of superstrings; to cosmologists, the residue of an explosion of something to whose pre-explosion existence there is perhaps, as my friend Elaine Scarry once said to me, ‘no door’—I am referring very specifically and particularly to the material we are made from, this animated-in-us matter which we, in turn, express such a passionate drive to know (and which, in turn, has evolved a way to be known, through us, and is the source and object of our wonder and compulsion).”

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Orison Books seeks to be broad, inclusive, and open to perspectives spanning the spectrums of spiritual and religious thought, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

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Orison Books titles have been reviewed or featured in The New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Poets & Writers, Foreword Reviews, Booklist, The Jewish Review of Books, The Chicago Tribune, The Millions, The Rumpus, The Washington Independent Review of Books, Poetry Daily, Pleiades, River Teeth, Beloit Poetry Journal, and many other places. Poems from our books have twice been featured in The New York Times Magazine, and our books have won the Chicago Review of Books' CHIRBy Award, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award, and the Texas Institute of Letters’ Bob Bush Memorial Award, and also have been named finalists for The Kate Tufts Discovery Award, The National Jewish Book Award, The Balcones Fiction Prize, The New Mexico Book Award, and The Paterson Poetry Prize.

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General Fiction and Nonfiction submissions, as well as Anthology Proposals, are accepted during the month of October.

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We do not consider self-help, how-to, or “inspirational” manuscripts.

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Self-published manuscripts are considered previously published and are not eligible for submission in any category.

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We hold three annual contests:

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1. The Orison Prizes in Poetry & Fiction for book-length manuscripts. Submission period: December 1 – April 1. The winners receive $1,500 and publication. The 2024 judges are Ellen Bass (poetry) and Kaveh Akbar (fiction).
    

2. The Orison Chapbook Prize for manuscripts of 20 – 45 pages, in any genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, or hybrid). Submission period: April 1 – July 1. The winner receives $300 and publication. Judged by Orison Books founder and editor, Luke Hankins.
    

3. The Best Spiritual Literature Awards for single works in 3 genres (poetry, fiction, & nonfiction). Submission period: May 1 – August 1. The winners receive $500 and publication in our annual anthology, Best Spiritual Literature. The 2024 judges are Sarah Ghazal Ali (poetry), Amit Majmudar (fiction), and Susanne Paola Antonetta (nonfiction).

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Orison Books is committed to running ethical and transparent contests. Current or former students of a judge, or anyone with a close personal relationship with that judge, are not eligible to submit in the category in question. Judges also never see author names until after they have made their selections. Orison Books also undertakes never to extend contest deadlines, except in the case of technical problems or other events that would prevent submitters from entering the contest by the original deadline.

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We release all titles in print, and fiction and select nonfiction titles in both print and e-book formats. When possible, we offer a small advance on royalties for all books accepted for publication through our open submission periods, and a cash prize as well as a standard royalties contract for manuscripts selected as contest winners.

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Orison Books publishes Best Spiritual Literature (formerly The Orison Anthology) every year, a collection of the best spiritual writing in all genres published in periodicals in the preceding year. Editors of periodicals may submit work for consideration from August 1 – November 1.

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All submissions must be sent digitally via Duosuma. 

For more information, please consult the guidelines below.