VersoFrontera

About

Series Editor: Octavio Quintanilla

In collaboration with the VersoFrontera Literature and Arts Festival, TRP’s VersoFrontera series seeks to publish one debut full-length collection per year by an emerging poet.

Submissions open each year on August 1 and close on September 30.

Books in this series:

• No. 001 – Victoria Buitron – Unburying the Bones

Series Editor: Octavio Quintanilla

Octavio Quintanilla is the 2025 Texas Poet Laureate and the author of the poetry collections, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014), The Book of Wounded Sparrows (TRP, 2024), which was longlisted for the National Book Award, and Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours, winner of the 2024 Ambroggio Prize of the Academy of American Poets (University of Arizona Press, 2025).

Octavio is the founder and director of the literature & arts festival, VersoFrontera, publisher of Alabrava Press, and former Poet Laureate of San Antonio, TX. His Frontextos (visual poems) have been published and exhibited widely. He teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University and was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.

About the VersoFrontera Literature and Arts Festival

Established in 2019, VersoFrontera is an independent literary festival intended as a platform for writers and artists to showcase their creative work in an inclusive and community-oriented environment. Approximately thirty-two local, national, and international writers participate every year. Since 2022, the festival has occurred at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

Submission Guidelines

Submit to VersoFrontera

General Guidelines

• Submissions are open August 1 – September 30.
• There is no fee to enter.
• Open to any poet writing in English, or a combination of English and Spanish, who has not yet published a full-length collection of poetry. The author may have published chapbooks or books in other genres.
• There are no formal restrictions, we welcome poetry of any style/form.
• Poems may have been published individually in magazines or anthologies, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. Please notify TRP immediately by withdrawing the manuscript via Submittable if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
• Current and former students and faculty of Sam Houston State University and Our Lady of the Lake University are not eligible.
• Current and former TRP authors are not eligible.
• Submissions are accepted through Submittable only.
• The selected author will receive publication with TRP, and 10 copies of the published book.

Manuscript Guidelines

• Manuscripts must be between 50 and 100 pages in length.
• Please include a table of contents, title page, acknowledgments page, and page numbers.
• No more than one poem per page. (Poems may exceed one page in length.)
• Submit as a .pdf, .docx, or .doc file format.
• No revisions will be accepted once the manuscript is uploaded.

Submit to VersoFrontera