Backwoods Literary Press

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Knoxville, TN
Backwoods Literary Press

We are a q***r, rural-led publisher dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized writers.

We create space for storytelling that honors resilience, identity, and place.

08/06/2025

✨ Backwoods Literary Press at Josephine Sculpture Park ✨
Join us Friday, August 22 for an evening of poetry, music, and community under the stars.

📍 Josephine Sculpture Park, Frankfort, KY
🕢 7:30–10:30 PM (Backwoods program at 8:15 PM)
🎶 Poetry + Live Music + Outdoor Installations
💫 Free & open to all – bring friends & family!

We’ll share 45 minutes of intimate readings and music before the audience explores JSP’s sound and video installations throughout the park. Our lineup will feature: Belle Townsend, Jeri Howell, Willie Carver Jr., Bayley Amburgey, Trish Gibson, and Grace Rogers!

Come celebrate creativity, connection, and the voices of Backwoods Literary Press! 💛

07/19/2025

🚨 DEADLINE EXTENDED 🚨

We’ve heard from folks who needed a little more time—so we’re extending submissions for “Testament: A Rural Anthology” through Friday, July 26 at midnight.

We’re seeking writing and art that wrestles with belief, memory, q***rness, land, and the nuances of rural place.

Send us your work via the link in our bio!

07/02/2025

What’s your ghost town? A place you can’t return to—but that never fully left you?

Join us for a generative writing workshop led by the brilliant and rooted Appalachian poet and facilitator Olivia Dudding Rodriguez, where we’ll explore the people, places, beliefs, and moments that haunt us, shape us, and stay with us.

Ghost Towns: A Writing Workshop
Sunday, July 6 from 4–6 PM on Zoom. $20 suggested donation.

Originally created for the Smithsonian, this workshop invites participants to write into their own “ghost towns”—anything from your grandmother’s kitchen table to a faith you no longer hold, a vanished town, or a favorite song that now stings.

This event is part of a fundraising effort for Testament, the next rural anthology from Backwoods Literary Press. We suggest a $20 donation, which helps us print the book and pay our contributors, many of whom are BIPOC, q***r, working-class, and from rural communities. But, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

✨ Donate at backwoodsliterarypress.com/support or via the link in our bio.

Come write with us, and help keep rural stories alive. Sign up here so that we can send you the Zoom link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-ghtHwUR40CMKkNGhTZWXOrnCWh7r4gOnM3FoeYEEg5vDRw/viewform

06/16/2025

SUBMISSIONS OPEN

!!! Calling rural artists, storytellers & memory-keepers !!!

Submissions are now open for “Testament: A Rural Anthology” from Backwoods Literary Press.

You don’t have to be a “writer” or say it fancy—just speak from what you know, what you love, what you’ve lived or fought for. If it’s true to your life, it has a place here.

What do we carry, pass down, rewrite, or refuse to let slip away? What truth do you keep alive in your body, your bloodline, your day-to-day?

In a time of book bans and backlash, Testament is a gathering of what endures—across kin, culture, grief, joy, q***rness, faith, work, and resistance.

- Poems, stories, essays, and hybrid work welcome
- Priority to q***r, BIPOC, immigrant, and disabled voices
- Especially from rural, Southern, and Appalachian communities—but we welcome rural voices from everywhere to provide a fuller depiction of rural life
- Deadline: July 19th

🔗 Submission link: https://forms.gle/TfvzDu7Dd5yr3ZVX7

04/10/2025

We had a powerful afternoon at Jefferson Community and Technical College’s downtown campus discussing creativity, rural storytelling, and what it means to reclaim what’s been discarded. Students showed up, engaged deeply, and reminded us why these conversations matter— especially when they center marginalized voices. Thank you, JCTC! Jefferson Community & Technical College

04/01/2025

🌿 Welcome to Backwoods Literary Press!

We’re a q***r, rural-led literary press amplifying the voices of voices often pushed to the margins. Our mission is to carve out space for the stories that are too often discarded—stories of resilience, love, rebellion, home, erasure.

Since 2024, we’ve published our first anthology, hosted events from Louisiana to Kentucky, and fostered important conversations in the face of censorship and attacks on our communities.

This is just the beginning. Follow us to stay updated on upcoming submission openings, events, publications, and opportunities to get involved. Let’s keep building something beautiful together!

Address

Knoxville, TN

Website

http://Backwoodsliterarypress.com/

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