innovative. daring. beautiful.
Rockwood Press makes right-sized poetry chapbooks for people who need poems.
We believe chapbooks are an art form as much as a literary form, perfectly suited for revolution, protest, political change, and social critique. They can be both haunting and hauntingly beautiful.
We believe in emerging and established poets and aim to make room for all kinds of mighty voices in teeny books that might not otherwise find their way into the world.
We believe that a work doesn’t have to be full-length to have a full life. That’s why almost all of our releases are open editions.
Hachi Chuku is one of the best, most brilliant, most versatile, and most distinctive writers I have ever come across, and this chapbook marks the official start of what will no doubt be a wildly successful career. Thoughtful, intimate, expansive, and beautiful, Masquerading as a Gastropoda is a true treasure and an absolute pleasure to explore.
Jennifer Croft, author of The Extinction of Irena Rey
Masquerading as a Gastropoda is a gutsy examination of a young poet’s longing for parental connection as they journey through the transformation of child to surviving adult. Hachi Chuku is exceptional at their craft, balancing each line with generous vulnerability and ferocious syntax, allowing readers an opportunity to not only climb inside the shell of Chuku’s becoming but bear witness to their own. What a gift to the planet of poetry.
Rachel McKibbens, New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and author of Pink Elephant
In this powerful debut collection, Masquerading as a Gastropoda, Hachi Chuku reveals how trauma rewrites the mind and body. The chapbook examines how romantic relationships and familial bonds serve as both cause and remedy and how survivors undergo a process akin to carcinization, acquiring a crab-like armor as a coping strategy. Chuku’s lyrics of somatic vulnerability and endurance—“in riddles, / rhymes, metaphors”—become a guide for recognizing the transformation and reclaiming ownership of one’s life.
Kaveh Bassiri, author of 99 Names of Exile and Elementary English
Title: Masquerading as a Gastropoda
Author: Hachi Chuku
Publisher: Rockwood Press
Released: 2026 - March
Format: chapbook, acid-free paper, silk cover
Pages: 36
Price: $10
ISBN: 978-1-59498-226-2
Masquerading as a Gastropoda
Masquerading as a Gastropoda
Recent titles
HEAVY: poems that count by Megan Hollingsworth, coming April 7!
by-the-wind-saylor by Maya Cheav, coming March 31!
Paradise by Stephan Antoine Viau, coming March 28!
Masquerading as a Gastropoda by Hachi Chuku
Off to War, Daughter by Trapper Markelz
Secrets she has saved by Rachel R. Baum
Different With Him by mk zariel
my mother is a mixed metaphor by Shivani Gupta
The Biology of Leaving by Candice M. Kelsey
Sky Over by Lana Hechtman Ayers
Lavender Stones by Kenneth Pobo
From the Bowels of Molluscs by Carlie Daley
View all our available chapbooks
submissions
We select manuscripts through an open submissions process that occurs year-round.
Manuscripts should be tightly linked collections of ten to thirty poems or up to forty pages, submitted in .rtf, .doc, or .docx formats only. All submissions should be made via email. We do not accept unsolicited paper submissions.
Eligibility: Poets writing in English are eligible. Previous book publication is not a consideration. Simultaneous submissions are permissible, but entrants are asked to notify Rockwood Press immediately if a manuscript becomes committed elsewhere.
There is no open submission fee.
We do our best to reply to submissions within one month, but the time can vary depending on submission volume. If your work has not been accepted or declined, it’s still under consideration. Every submission is considered thoroughly before a response is made.
All submissions are eligible for publication by Rockwood Press with a standard royalty contract.
submissions at Rockwood Press dot com
If we seem familiar
That’s because, Rockwood Press, a not-for-profit literary imprint, is a project of Fernwood Press and its parent company, Barclay Press. For years, we’ve made our books and full-length poetry collections available through POD services, but we wanted to produce more books in-house where we have control over color, texture, paper quality, and the overall shape each project takes.
We’ve also seen a ten-fold increase in poetry submissions over the last year and sensed from our conversations with writers that it’s getting harder and harder to find homes for good work.
The project of Rockwood Press is to bring more great poetry into the world in smaller, focused collections that can be produced locally, quickly, and beautifully.
