About Us

Mission Statement

We publish literary fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and art based in contemporary urban (and sometimes sub-urban) settings. Our goal is to support the independent publishing process and to promote urban-themed writing.

Follow @CurbsidePress

Publication Process

We publish a free e-zine periodically, about four times a year, at our E-Zine section. Work that is published online will be communicated to our readers via our social networks and our monthly e-newsletter. We publish a few different journals. We also publish books from time to time. We're the publisher of Another Chicago Magazine. Please visit our store to purchase one of our titles. Our titles typically ship within one week of order, unless otherwise noted on the product page. If you are a bookseller, or would like to purchase our books via check or money order, please see our contact info below.

Submission Guidelines - E-Zine/Curbside Journal

We accept submissions of short fiction, poetry, and photography/art for our e-zine and the Curbside Splendor semi-annual print journal at our Submission Manager ONLY. Submissions sent to any other address will not be reviewed.

Submission guidelines:

For the print journal we consider longer pieces, between 3,000 and 8,000 words. Include work as a .doc / rtf file attachment. Double space and provide your contact info along with a short bio. Please also let us know where you heard of Curbside Splendor. We're pretty open as to genre, though we're fond of gritty urban stories. We like realism that is slightly off-balance. Urban fantasy is welcome here. We do not consider previously published work. We'll try to respond as soon as possible, though generally within 3 to 6 months. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please inform us immediately if you need to withdraw your work.

E-zine - same as above except pieces should be betweeen 100 and 3,000 words.

For poetry, include work as a .doc / rtf file attachment. Do not include more than 5 poems. Please let us know where you heard of Curbside Splendor. We're pretty open as to genre / style, though we're fond of gritty urban work. We like realism that is slightly off-balance. We do not consider previously published work. We'll try to respond as soon as possible, though generally within 3 to 6 months. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please inform us immediately if you need to withdraw your work.

For photography, we feature a new photographer in our e-zine, for the cover and about five photographs for the inside. We also use photography for the interior of our semi-annula print journal. If you would like to be considered for either the e-zine or the semi-annual journal, please send us 5 photos / pics of art in a single document. Please provide a short bio with your submission and let us know how you know Curbside Splendor. We're fond of gritty urban work. We like realism that is slightly off-balance. We do not consider previously published work. We'll try to respond as soon as possible, though generally withing 3 to 6 months. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please inform us immediately if you need to withdraw your work.

Submission Guidelines - Books

We accept book submissions by invitation only. If you have a book that may fit our vision, please send us a one or two page query letter by email to info@curbsidesplendor.com summarizing the finished work, yourself, and why you think we may be a fit.

Events

We like to sponsor, present, co-present literary friendly parties at places like Beauty Bar Chicago and Empty Bottle. If you have something in mind, would like to work with us somehow, send us a note at info@curbsidesplendor.com

Curbside Splendor YouTube Channel

We periodically publish videos of us or our contributors reading their work on YouTube. Visit and subscribe to our channel: Curbside Splendor

Payment / Fees / Writing Contests

We do not charge a reading fee. We do not pay for submissions accepted at the present. Payment for books we publish is established separately with the author.

Legal Stuff

Curbside Splendor Publishing accepts no liability arising from the publication of an author’s work. Authors retain copyright on all works. We request one-time electronic rights and the right to publish your work in the print journal. Work published will be archived indefinitely. Submission to Curbside Splendor Publishing constitutes acceptance of these conditions. We do not accept returns or exchanges of books purchased from us.

History

Curbside Splendor was conceived in the early 1990's at an apartment in Urbana, Illinois. Officially, it was founded in the fall of 2009 and is located in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.

Staff

Victor David Giron is publisher, editor-in-chief, publicist, head-of-distribution, web editor, and accountant. He's a CPA who can't let go of his desire to be a philosopher. He started Curbside Splendor originally to publish his first novel Sophomoric Philosophy, but then was like "dang, publishing is fun", and so here we are. He lives in Chicago.

Jacob S. Knabb is senior editor of Curbside Splendor, focusing on Book Acquisition, Event Planning, & Editorial, and also Senior Editor of our imprint Another Chicago Magazine. He also likes to take photographs. He's sometimes known as Harold Ray, a ruinous West Virginian janitor who secretly longs to become a famous country singer but has no discernible talents other than an ability to drunkenly croon.

Lauryn Allison Lewis is managing editor, focusing on books acquisition and editorial. She writes fiction, essays, interviews, and bakery reviews. Her writing has appeared at a variety of places. She regularly hosts all-night dance parties in her kitchen and is working on her first novel, The Beauties.

Ben Tanzer is publicity officer, and books acquisition editor. He's a daddy-cool author of many, many books and short stories and runs This Zine Will Change Your Life and This Blog Will Change Your Life.

James Tadd Adcox is editor-in-chief of our imprint Artifice Books. He's a smarty pants author guy who's finishing his PhD at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Traci Kim is managing editor of our imprint Concepción Books. Her background in creative fiction and Spanish Literature makes Concepción is the perfect marriage of her interests. You can often find her dancing and/or bumping into things. She writes short fiction, nonfiction, and essays.

Leonard Vance is managing editor, primarily in charge of our Curbside Splendor semi-annual journal and the e-zine. You’ve probably seen him reading a book as he crosses the busy streets of Chicago. He writes fiction and essays, and works a web copywriter at Vivid Seats.

Joey Pizzolato is our reviews / interviews editor. He's an MFA candidate at Spalding University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of journals, websites, and magazines. He lives in Austin, TX, and currently serves as the literary editor of Composite {Arts Magazine}(www.compositearts.com )

Garett Holden is our resident videoagrapher. He's a multi-faceted artist, a man of many talents, who does his magic out of Brooklyn, NYC.

Karolina "Koko" Faber is a contributing designer and overall fashion director. She's a transglobal party girl, and one hell of a photographer, painter, designer, everything. She grew up in Poland, came to Chicago in her teens, and now lives in Berlin.

Heather Leigh Maher is a junior editor. She teaches writing and literature at several Chicagoland colleges, inducting students into the mysteries of the formal research essay. She is currently researching the integration of contemporary social media into the college classroom, as it is an excellent excuse to get students writing weekly blogs. She currently lives in Chicago's southwestern suburbs in a house with an unusually high cat-to-human ratio.

Sarah Bradford is a junior editor. She’s a craft lover and can often be found with her hot glue gun in hand. Since her Bookmobile days, she’s been obsessed with getting her hands on stories and editing them to perfection. She was assistant editor on a project with Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, editing Lauryn Allison Lewis’ novella, Solo Down, through which she then came to learn about us.

Seamless designed and manages our website. They rock.

Contact

For general questions, contact us at:

victor@curbsidesplendor.com or info@curbsidesplendor.com

Other

Some of our favorite sites:

www.anobiumlit.com

www.emptybottle.com

www.featherproof.com

www.karolinafaber.com

www.jerseydevilpress.com

www.clubvadim.com