For information about the
James Baker Hall Book Award please
see below.
Results from the 2025 Open Reading Period
Dear writers, readers, supporters, and friends of Accents Publishing,
We are happy to announce the results of our 2025 Open Reading Period.
The following books have been selected for publication during the remainder of 2026 and throughout 2027. We look forward to bringing each of these outstanding books into the world and to working closely with these talented authors.
Please join us in congratulating them.
We were humbled by the large number of high-quality manuscripts we received. The selection process took longer than expected, and we had to make a number of very difficult decisions, but we feel we selected the titles that most closely reflect where Accents Publishing hopes to grow and evolve over the next eighteen months.
We deeply appreciate everyone who submitted work to us. Thank you for trusting us with your writing, and we sincerely hope to have the opportunity to read your work again in the future.
With appreciation,
Katerina Stoykova
and the team at Accents Publishing
- The Double-Souled Son, a novel by Mary Louise Hill
- Languages of Birds, a short story collection by Geraldine Ann Marshall
- The Water Collection, a short story collection by Bill Carman
- True Bias, essays and sketches by Melita Schaum
- Alert the Oracle, poetry by Tabitha Dial
- Alien Mother, poetry by Kristina Erny
- Animals, poetry by Rumen Pavlov
- Birds of Thunder, poetry by Jessica D. Thompson
- Catching a Ride in the Gizzard of a Bird, poetry by Sujata Lakhe
- Flotilla: A Family Memoir in Verse, poetry by Melissa Jørgenrud Helton
- From Field to Fable, poetry by Richard Taylor
- My Father, the Water Bird, poetry by Sean Corbin
- My Life as a Cricket, poetry by Linda Bryant Davis
- Neighborhood Watch, poetry by Bill Brymer
- Orchestra of Belonging, poetry by Marianne Peel
- Orfeito, poetry by Ricardo Nazario y Colón
- Places You Must Not Go, poetry by Flora K. Schildknecht
- Stare on Paper, poetry by Stuart Horodner
- Tendril, poetry by Amy Le Ann Richardson
- This Set Down / This, poetry by Libby Falk Jones
- Think. Pray. God, poetry by Wendy Jett
- Your Curious Guidebook to Climate Change, poetry by Vivian Faith Prescott
James Baker Hall Book Award for Creative Nonfiction
Accents Publishing is pleased to continue the partnership with the
James Baker Hall Foundation for the prestigious yearly James Baker Hall Book Award. The 2026 edition of the award will honor an unpublished, book-length manuscript of Creative Nonfiction by a Kentucky author at any stage of their career. Creative Nonfiction may include memoir, personal essays, biography, travel writing, and other forms grounded in factual storytelling. We define Kentucky author as someone who lives in Kentucky, has lived in Kentucky, has strong ties to Kentucky or whose work features a prominent Kentucky theme. The author of the winning manuscript will receive a $3000 award and the manuscript will be published the following year by Accent Publishing, with the standard Accents Publishing contract.
The winner of the inaugural James Baker Hall Award was Wesley Houp for his poetry book,
Strung Out Along the Endless Branch, which was selected by
Greg Pape.
The 2025 award went to the short story collection
Honeysuckle Season by Willie Davis, selected by
Toni Ann Johnson.
Fees: None. There is no submission fee.
Eligibility: Writers 18 or older. Current students of the judge, as well as personal friends and family may not submit.
Manuscript preparation: The submitted manuscript must be anonymous. The author's name should not appear anywhere in the text.
Deadline: Manuscripts can be submitted between April 1
st and June 30
th. Winner and finalists will be announced in the Fall.
Award: $3000 plus publication with the standard Accents Publishing contract.
Submission: Only electronic submissions will be considered. Email your anonymous manuscript to
accents.publishing@gmail.com. Include a brief bio in the body of the email.
Judging: Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame inductee
Richard Taylor will be the final judge.
The James Baker Hall Foundation
The mission of the James Baker Hall Foundation is to preserve and protect our legacy of past great Kentucky writers by investing in future great Kentucky writers.
Following the James Baker Hall Book Award each year, our Kentucky On-The-Road program offers the winner and finalists ongoing opportunities to promote their work across the Commonwealth while helping to nurture the next generation of Kentucky writers. Need based grants are available to support travel and mentoring.
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Richard Taylor is the author of numerous collections of poetry, two historical novels, and several books relating to Kentucky history, including
Elkhorn: Evolution of a Kentucky Landmark. A former Kentucky poet laureate, he has received two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as an Al Smith Award from the Kentucky Arts Council. He has received publication awards from the Kentucky Historical Society and the Thomas C. Clark Medallion for his Elkhorn book as well as receiving a Distinguished Professor Award at KSU. Recently retired after fourteen years from Transylvania University as Keenan Visiting Writer, he is co-owner of Poor Richard's Books and lives on a small farm outside Frankfort, Kentucky.
