In 2000, at the dawn of digital publishing, Erin Elizabeth Smith founded Sundress Publications in Knoxville, Tennessee. At the “tender age of nineteen,” eager to find a home for her online literary journal, Stirring, but unsatisfied with the design of the few existing free hosting platforms, Smith decided to buy the domain name for Sundress Publications and offer it as an umbrella site for other literary journals she admired. The ethos that guided Smith twenty-five years ago remains now that Sundress has grown into a book publisher: “We as small presses should not look at the rest of our community as competition, but as inspiration, as friends, and as collaborators in the art that we make and promote,” she says.
The print arm of Sundress Publications began operations in 2002 and released its first full-length collection in 2011. Today the press publishes six poetry books, three or four chapbooks, one prose collection, one anthology, and three Craft Chaps per year. Craft Chaps—free, downloadable essays by contemporary writers on creative writing practice—were originally conceived by writers Meg Cass and Amy Sayre Baptista as a response to the fact that most craft books being published were written by white male authors. The goal of the series is to enhance the accessibility of craft essays and center on perspectives that have been historically underrepresented. This year’s trio were written by Meg Cass, K. Iver, and Rajiv Mohabir and feature topics such as body horror, translation, and neurodiversity. Other recent titles at Sundress include the debut poetry collections Grief Slut (2023) by Evelyn Berry and Slaughterhouse for Old Wives’ Tales (2024) by Hannah V. Warren. Sundress is open for chapbook submissions in all genres from March to May. All chapbook submissions are free from March 1 to March 14, after which the fee is $10 or the purchase of a book from the press. Submission fees for all contests are waived for writers of color.
