Lookout Books

06/21/2022

Lookout is excited to announce our first ever open submission window from July 1 to 15! Over our first decade, we’ve published a catalog of award-winning books, many by emerging and historically underrepresented voices. We’re especially proud of our work nurturing authors in the promising early stages of their careers and of our commitment to a more diverse and inclusive publishing industry. We're looking for fiction (novels and story collections), poetry collections, and nonfiction (essay collections and memoir, especially memoir that incorporates elements of research, history, or literary inquiry). We strongly seek submissions from people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and people with disabilities, voices from rural America, and the intersections of these points of view. So polish those query letters and proposals, and read the full guidelines here (https://bit.ly/39He4wg). We can’t wait to read your work.

02/14/2022

With the heaviest of hearts, we share the devastating news that brilliant and captivating Lookout author—and our dear and irreplaceable friend—Valerie Boyd has passed away. “I am especially saddened, as Valerie has not only been a mentor to me, but she has also long been a champion for the people,” said Lookout editor KaToya Ellis Fleming, “a visionary, creating space for so many, giving voice to those who deserve most to be heard.”

Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic, forthcoming in September, is an anthology born of Valerie’s vision to center Black writers and cultivate joy from crisis and loss. In her words, Bigger Than Bravery is “crafted in the now—sometimes in desperation, sometimes in joy—from our deepest moments of fear and wonder, of despair and hope.” Her own reclamation and benediction. As we move forward with its publication, we do so in her honor, that her vision may be realized.

11/09/2021

The UNCW Department of Creative Writing is hiring a new part-time administrative associate to support the Publishing Laboratory, Lookout Books, and Ecotone. Applications close November 12. https://jobs.uncw.edu/postings/22262

This part-time position supports the Director of The Publishing Laboratory/Lookout publisher and the Editor of Ecotone in coordinating administrative processes on behalf of the publishing-certificate track and affiliated programs in the Department of Creative Writing, as well as the day-to-day business operations of its in-house magazine, Ecotone, and teaching press, Lookout Books.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

For the Certificate in Publishing program:

–Supporting the Director in tracking programmatic data and building reports as assigned for the publishing program (Banner, Taskstream)

–Scheduling and sending reminders about publishing events, application deadlines, etc.

For Ecotone and Lookout Books:

–Creating and processing documents including author/contributor contracts, vendor invoices, and financial statements such as book and magazine sales and author royalty reports

–Quarterly budget reconciliation and other assistance

–Processing sub rights requests

–Maintaining databases (subscribers, submitters, donors, newsletters, media contacts, grants, etc.).

–Maintaining website and sales/tax support, using Wordpress and Touchnet

–Fulfillment of various bulk and individual orders, gratis copies, and publicity mailings

–Helping to coordinate the shipping/receiving of inventory

–Supporting faculty in preparing grant applications, including budgets, and collating data toward final reports

–Other assignments related to logistical, financial, technical, and programming functions for a thriving publishing program and accompanying literary imprint and magazine

This part-time position supports the Director of The Publishing Laboratory/Lookout publisher and the Editor of Ecotone in coordinating administrative processes on behalf of the publishing-certificate track and affiliated programs in the Department of Creative Writing, as well as the day-to-day busin...

10/13/2021

Help us welcome Lookout’s fall team! Alongside publishing faculty, students in UNCW Department of Creative Writing's MFA and BFA publishing-certificate programs power Lookout Books through their work in the Publishing Practicum. To introduce this semester’s staff, we asked each of them to share a book that offered comfort or served as a source of joy during the pandemic. Head to the blog we share with Ecotone to get to know this team and find links to all these incredible reads (https://bit.ly/3ACF1IM).

04/23/2021

Join us in celebrating this weekend! We helped our friends at CLMP compile a list of indie bookstores that support and promote publications from indie presses—including Wilmington stores Pomegranate Books and Papercut Books and other favorites across NC and the southeast! Find an indie bookstore near you at https://www.clmp.org/bookstores/ and show them some love by buying a book or two.

To celebrate on April 24, 2021, we put together a list of bookstores around the country that do an especially good job carrying and supporting the work of independent literary publishers. The 130+ bookstores on this list—each of them recommended by CLMP member presses and magazi...

04/08/2021

Join us in welcoming Papercut Books to the Wilmington book-lovers family! UNCW alum Holly Bader just opened up shop on Market Street; and we had the chance to talk to her about becoming a bookseller, her love of reading, and how Papercut sources new books and works to make them accessible to everyone in the community. Get to know her and Papercut on the Lookout- Ecotone blog:

Last week, Wilmington’s newest independent bookstore opened its doors on Market Street. You’ll recognize Papercut Books from the lush fern out front and the small shelf of books marked FREE. Offering a selection to the community at no cost is one of just a few ways Papercut Books owner Holly Bad...

03/17/2021

With the publication of our first book, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman, Lookout’s debut became one of the most “auspicious publishing launches in history,” in the words of Ron Charles of the Washington Post. Never before had a title been named a finalist for four of the country’s most prestigious literary awards: the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Prize, and the Story Prize. Binocular Vision went on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction.

We’re continuing to celebrate our tenth anniversary with our Lookout Labs series, which begins tomorrow, 2-3:15 p.m. ET, and we hope to see you there! Visit Lookout.org to register, and don’t forget to pick up a copy of Binocular Vision for 10 percent off, plus free shipping, with promo code ANNIVERSARY10.

03/15/2021

Supporting debut authors and books has always been a cornerstone of Lookout’s mission. Matthew Neill Null's debut, Honey from the Lion, is one of those projects. “The writing is exact and assured, the story complex and rewarding,” wrote Kirkus of his novel exploring deforestation and environmental degradation at the turn-of-the-century. It was shortlisted for the L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize, and Matt was subsequently named a winner of the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

This Thursday, March 18, as part of our first Lookout Lab, we’ll demystify the process of finding a publisher and bringing a debut book into the world. Please join us for From Agency to On Sale: Publishing Your Debut Book, from 2-3:15 pm ET. You can find more details and register at Lookout.org, where all our titles, including Honey from the Lion, are available for 10% off, plus free shipping, with promo code ANNIVERSARY10.