What is a chapbook?

Traditionally a small form or European street literature—think tales, ballads, poems, art. The modern-day chapbook is a brief collection of poetry. Our chapbooks are up to 36 pages. They are either narratively structured or loosely themed.

We only print 40 copies of our chapbooks, so they go quick! We have done a couple of second-runs on the more popular ones. All of our chapbooks are available through UVM’s Archives where they are preserved.

What chapbooks has Zig Zag published?

• Harriet Tubman Killed My Chicken by Beth Christian | a collection of poems about death surrounding a cabin in the woods

• Paul in the Park by A. Jay Dubberly | a narrative collection of poems about a man struggling to find human connection at the height of the pandemic

• Such Beautiful White Trash by Ed Webbley | a collection of poems about the poor & well-educated

• Choral Collage by the Otter Creek Poets | a collection of poems from 25 voices in Addison County’s longest-running writing workshop

• Love & Death & Cats by Karen Moses Miller | a collection of humorous poems about the three titular subject

• Absence & Presence by Carolyn Crowley, A. Jay Dubberly, Justin Northup, Bailey Sneed, & Korri Wass | Absence is a mixture of Carolyn’s photography & Dubberly’s poetry | Presence is a mixture of Justin’s collage & Bailey’s stamp poetry | the book was hand-sewn by Korri

• All the Grief by Alice Eckles | a collection of poetry written in the year after losing her mother

• The Inscrutable Meanhile by William A. Nelson | a collection of coming-of-age poetry that spans the 1950s to the 2020s

• Home Where I’ve Never Been by Heidi Schulman Greenwald | a loose-narrative collection about what it means to grow up on the east coast, move to the west coast for decades, then return to a place that no longer recognizes you

• Me, Mothself, & I by Phineas Knowles | a collection of brief personal essays all originally rendered on the Moth StorySLAM stage

• I Have to Start Killing Again by Beth Christian | a collection of poems about psychic meditations and political strife

How can I submit?

Have an idea? A collection? A group of poems you think go together? A whole draft? Whatever it is, reach out & we’ll take a look. submit@zigzaglitmag.org