NUP — 🪓

Hi, writers.

The submission process can be intimidating, I know, and I’ve been grateful to editors who are clear about what they’re looking for and how to connect, like a hand reaching out from the clouds.

Here I am, reaching out.

I joined Northwestern University Press as an acquisitions editor in January 2023. I’ll update this doc periodically with what I’m looking for and will also talk about it occasionally on Twitter until that site goes up in flames and I head somewhere elseBluesky.

NUP.

A lifetime ago, a friend handed me Viola Spolin's Improvisation for the Theatre. My love for that book put a spotlight on Northwestern University Press—and university presses as a whole—in lifting the local voices that shape our communities and the international voices that drive our cultural and political conversations. I read Angela Jackson because of NUP. I read Dostoyevski’s diaries because of NUP. I read Nikki Finney and Patricia Smith and Meena Alexander. Martin Espada. Herta Müller. Mary Zimmerman. Bluebirds Croon in the Choir, my favorite Joe Meno collection. neckbone: visual verses by avery r. young, whose live performances take my breath away. In 2021 I joined NUP as an author, and the care given to my books (mid-pandemic! world on fire! etc.!) made me want to be a part of this team.

I am so proud to be a part of this team.

I’m telling you why I came here in the hope that you consider why you want to come here. Give a look to our recent publications. I cannot emphasize this enough—a solid half of the submissions in my inbox are not a fit for our lists or what I acquire specifically (here’s the wonderful Rebecca Colesworthy on how acquisitions editors assess this).

What should I submit to you?

Great books.

That said: I’m the senior editor for trade. Right now I’m acquiring regional nonfiction and am very much interested in history, film, pop culture, food, architecture, and photography with a focus on the Midwest, specifically tapping into the heartbeat of Chicago. I’m also signing select literary fiction.

Please note that we’re currently closed to unsolicited memoir and essay collections, as well as plays and performance works. We’ll update the submission guidelines when that changes.

At this stage in my game, I’m interested in manuscripts that are complete.

How should I submit to you?

There is a lot going on in my inbox so keeping things brief is the way to go. Our submission guidelines are here (pretty please read them!) but in a nutshell, here’s what I need.

Email me at megan.stielstra@northwestern.edu with “Submission:” in the subject line, followed by the title of your book.

The email should include the following:

A paragraph-long description of the work, a total word count of the work, a short list of comparable books in print, whether you are agented, a summary of any previously published material included in the manuscript (if applicable), and a paragraph-long, third-person professional biography.
Attach a single Word doc with an excerpt of at least 10 and no more than 30 double-spaced pages. Please do not send the full manuscript unless I request it.

The end. :)

If it’s useful, here is Jane Friedman’s guide to writing query letters, and Eric Smith has a great resource section on his website with examples of letters that worked. I also learned a great deal from the Successful Queries series at Writers Digest.

Follow-up

If you haven’t heard from me within six weeks, feel free to follow-up on your original submission. I do my best to respond to all queries, but *gestures wildly at the world*.

Due to the volume of submissions in my inbox, I’m not able to give personal feedback.

Questions?

Email me at megan.stielstra@northwestern.edu.

I’m trying this wild thing where I keep my personal and work lives separate, so please send publishing-related questions to my work email, as opposed to the email where I talk with my son’s orthodontist.

Also: I won’t respond to submissions on social media. That’s where I go to look at screenshots from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.