Coming Soon …

Coming Soon from Dithering Chaps Press

Dithering Chaps press is an independent UK poetry chapbook publisher.

This page showcases the poetry chapbooks at various stages in the production process, offering a preview of the new voices and poetry sequences we’ll be bringing into the world soon!

We remain open for submissions all year round. You can find out more here.

Check out our published chapbooks here.

  • Calling previously unpublished poets...

    For anyone who has not had a collection published before, you might be interested in our ‘First Collection’ submission category.

    We strongly champion new voices and are proud to offer this opportunity. We reconsider all submissions received in this category during each calendar year, and then choose our favourite and publish their First Collection the following year.

    We announced the shortlist of five poets and a highly commended list of ten from 2025, and have selected Bridgette James for publication in 2026.

    Don’t worry if you have missed our end of December 2025 cut-off for this opportunity. We are committed to publishing at least one poet in this category each year, so we’ll run this exercise again at the end of 2026, and, of course, your submission will also be considered for publication in the relevant reading period.

    Please see our submissions page for more details.

  • Wimborne Literary Festival

    We’re delighted to hear that our publication ‘Poems from the Old Squash Court Café’ will be featured at the Wimborne Literary Festival in May this year.

    Wimborne Minster, which is Dorset’s Town of Culture 2026, is right on our doorstep and the publication features poems from members of the local Wimborne Stanza group. (Lead Editor DG Herring is a member.)

    Details, dates and times to follow…

    PS If you are a member of a Stanza group and you’d like us to consider a similar publication for your group, please get in touch!

  • The Window is Open!

    We are now accepting submissions throughout the year. For more information, please go to our Submissions page.

    Our next cut-off for submissions will be the end of March 2026, at which point we will select our longlist for this reading period. We'll announce our shortlist of five poets by mid-April, one of whom will be published in November next year.

    NEW!! Due to our desire to give a voice to previously unpublished poets, we now operate a further cut-off at the end of each calendar year. We will choose the best previously-unpublished poet from all the submissions each year for publication in the following Summer. See our submissions page for more details on this. Anyone who submits to us in 2026, and meets our criteria, will also be considered for this publication slot.