Announcing the selections for the 2025 Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series

MWC Press, the publishing imprint of The Midwest Writing Center, announces the latest selections in its Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series, which features exciting poetry, prose, and hybrid work from around the Midwest. Two manuscripts have been selected for publication:

Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series Selections:

Caryatid – Colleen Abel

All Day Buffet – Avery Gregurich 

Finalists

Zugunruhe – Joseph Kerschbaum

Rogue Appetites – Bill Marsh

Glances – Jeffrey Wolf

The selected chapbooks will be released in the spring of 2027, and the authors will be invited to read at the SPECTRA Reading Series, date TBA. 

Starting in 2027, submissions for the Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series will be open for submissions year-round; MWC Press plans to select 1-2 manuscripts for publication every year. Updated guidelines will be available in December 2026.  

Bio for Colleen Abel:

Colleen Abel is a multigenre writer and the editor-in-chief of Bluestem magazine. Her poetry and prose have appeared in venues such as Lit Hub, Electric Lit, Cincinnati Review, The Southern Review, Colorado Review, Pleiades, The Stinging Fly, and in several anthologies of Disabled writers. Her first poetry collection, Remake, won the Editors Prize from Unicorn Press. Her chapbook, Deviants, is a hybrid work that won Sundress Publications’ Chapbook Prize. She has held fellowships from UW-Madison’s Institute for Creative Writing, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale, and numerous other organizations. 

Bio for Avery Gregurich:  

Avery Gregurich lives and writes in eastern Iowa, and organizes The Out Of Towners Reading Series.

For press Inquiries, Please contact Ryan Collins, 309-732-7330, ryan.collins@mwcqc.org.

The Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series is supported by the MWC Legacy Society, the estates of Mary Foster and Richard “Dick” Stahl, the Scott County Regional Authority, and the Illinois Arts Council.

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