Good news for Latinx poets looking to publish their first poetry collection! The VersoFrontera series at TRP: The University of SHSU is the latest route towards publication specifically for debut Latinx poets. To learn more about the series, we talked to series editor, Octavio Quintanilla, about the new prize, its origins, and what he'll be looking for as he reads submissions.
The key details are that submissions are free and the deadline is December 15th, so don't delay in sending your manuscript in! Make sure to read the guidelines before submitting.
We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't encourage you to also keep the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize on your radar if you're sending your manuscript out.
About the Series Editor:
Octavio Quintanilla is the author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014) The Book of Wounded Sparrows (TRP, 2024), which was longlisted for the National Book Award, and of Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours, winner of the 2024 Ambroggio Prize given by the Academy of American Poets (University of Arizona Press, 2025). He served as the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of San Antonio, TX. His poetry and visual work has been exhibited in numerous spaces. Octavio is the Founder and Director of the VersoFrontera Literature and Arts Festival, and the Founder and Publisher of Alabrava Press. He teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the M.A./M.F.A. program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.
LLB2: In the submission guidelines it says: “In collaboration with the VersoFrontera Literature and Arts Festival, the VersoFrontera series seeks to publish one debut full-length collection per year by an emerging Latinx poet.” Perhaps we could start with a little background about the VersoFrontera Literature and Arts Festival. Could you tell us a bit about the festival? How did it start?
Octavio Quintanilla: VersoFrontera was founded in 2019, an initiative I started when I was San Antonio Poet Laureate. I wanted to create a space where San Antonio poetry communities could come together, share work, support each other. The vision was, and still is, for the festival to be a bridge between the different literary communities that exist in San Antonio and beyond. A place where the love for reading and writing, creativity, and fellowship are fostered. Our first event was just before the Pandemic in 2020 at Our Lady of the Lake University campus in the Rio Grande Valley. Since then, we have been hosting the festival at the San Antonio campus, and every year we bring together thirty-two writers, sometimes more, writers who make their way from different Texas cities, and also from various states including, New York, Illinois, California, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
LLB2: How did the VersoFrontera series come to be?
Octavio Quintanilla: Creating the VersoFrontera series was a conversation the Director of Texas Review Press, J Bruce Fuller and I had about a year ago. We discussed how VersoFrontera was the perfect platform to launch a poetry series, one that could focus on publishing Latinx poets, which to me meant that the series would help celebrate and give more visibility to Latinx poetry, in all its variations and forms, as well as help contribute in creating a more inclusive literary canon. Since 2022, J and Texas Review Press have been staunch supporters and sponsors of Verso, and so, what better literary press to publish the future of poetry than TRP.
LLB2: Although there are no formal restrictions and poetry of any style/form is welcomed. As the series editor, is there something that you look for in manuscripts?
Octavio Quintanilla: Well, I want to read a book of poems and not just a bunch of poems that could be a book. What I mean is I’ll be looking for manuscripts that envision themselves as books, that is, manuscripts in which you can tell the poet has thought hard about arrangement, resonance, the journey. As for how that poetic journey/experience is articulated: uncage imagination.
LLB2: Are there any recent debuts collections by Latinx poets that you particularly enjoyed?
Octavio Quintanilla: Some debuts I’ve read recently include Joshua Garcia’s Pentimento, Sara Daniele Rivera’s The Blue Mimes, Diego Báez’s Yaguareté White, and Amy M. Alvarez’s Makeshift Altar.
LLB2: What advice would you give those sending out their first book manuscript?
Octavio Quintanilla: Before sending, imagine the manuscript is already in book form. Imagine it has been printed. Then share it with a few readers you trust. See what they think. Maybe they’ll give you pointers for edits or revisions. Small edits matter. They make a difference. Maybe they’ll suggest to get rid of a word. Or break a line. Or take out a poem. Or move poems around. Or maybe they’ll notice something is missing. The quality of feedback will depend on the relationship you have with that person. Maybe they won’t have anything to say. Which is fine. But having others read the manuscript in a form that is as final as possible is part of the writing/publication process. You won’t always agree with the advice. But it might give you glimpses of how your audience will read it and respond to it once it’s out of your hands.