Vonnegut Advice: Writing Short Stories

Twelve Places Looking for your Fiction & Poetry

The Postcard press seeks prose of 100 words or less and 10-line poems (needs to fit on a postcard) of theme THAT'S NOT FUNNY.

Deadline: May 31st, 2011

Asymptote is looking for translations of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, we also take original English-language critical essays and book reviews, essays about relatively unknown authors writing in a language other than english.

Deadline: June 1st

Creative Nonfiction is currently seeking experimental nonfiction for their "Pushing the Boundaries" section

Postmark deadline: June 13, 2011

Insolent Aardvark is reading poetry, fiction, non-fiction submissions for their inaugural issue.

Deadline: June 24th

Blast Furnace is looking for poetry

Deadline: July 15th, 2011

Weave Magazine is looking for literary fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, and visual arts that transfix, transport, and inspire.

Submit via: http://weavemagazine.submishmash.com/Submit

Deadline July 31, 2011

Yeast of Eden, an anthology of stories inspired by beer, is looking for fiction and nonfiction submissions

Deadline: September 1, 2011

Fiction Fix seeks fiction and artwork

for their Fall 2011 issue

Deadline: August 1, 2011

Printer's Devil Review is currently seeking submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual art.

Reading period ends August 1

Valparaiso Fiction Review is seeking submissions of original short fiction for its inaugural issue.

Palooka is a print journal, seeking works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, plays, and graphic stories and essays.

Year-round submissions accepted.

Colorado Review is now reading nonfiction year-round. Submit essays via coloradoreview.submishmash.com

Go forth and submit.

The LA Writers Group blog doesn't publish contests or calls for submissions that charge writers a fee to read their work.

Call for Submissions: phati' tude Literary Magazine wants your stories from the 1960's

Call for Submissions:

phati’tude Literary Magazine announces its SUMMER SIXTIES SPECIAL, which takes a look at the 1960s through the lens of today’s art, culture and politics. We want poets and writers to share their stories from the 1960s or how they equate to contemporary experiences.

Deadline is June 27, 2011.

Pays 2 copies. phati' tude Literary Magazine is available on Amazon.com and other online outlets. Check out submission guidelines at http://tinyurl.com/phatitude-guidelines.

http://phatitude.org

phati'tude Literary Magazine, established in 1997, is a internationally-acclaimed magazine published by the Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc., a NY-based non-profit organization that promotes multicultural literature and literacy. A themed, quarterly publication, phati'tude Literary Magazine is an 8" x 10" perfect-bound book that ranges from 130-160 pages. It is a collection of the best poetry, prose, short stories, articles and interviews along with literary criticism, book reviews and biographical profiles by established and emerging poets, writers and artists with a focus on writers of Native American, African, Hispanic/Latino and Asian descent.

Follow phati' tude magazine on twitter: @twitforlit

Writer's Groups and Critique Workshops: What's in it for the Critiquer?

Aside from the obvious, "Because I get MY story critiqued," what exactly do the writers giving critique get out of a critique session?

While eating Mexican food at The Farmers Market other day pre-interviewing a potential writing workshop leader, we were talking about our approaches to our workshops and she said to me, "Well, that's the point of the writing workshop, to get to the point where you don't need it anymore and can self-critique." While I don't entirely agree with that statement, that is partly where where the value lies for the writers who are giving critique to another writer.

Critiquer

In the workshop (or writers group or critique group or whatever you name it) setting, when you are listening to other writers review someone's writing and point out a piece's strengths and weaknesses, you are not just sitting there biding time until it's your turn. You may not realize it, but you are learning how to improve your own writing.

For newer writers, this process is invaluable when it comes to understanding how to cohesively construct a story (structure and continuity). If it is a group like our writers groups, where all genres are welcome, reading a wide variety of genres and skill levels and listening to the feedback helps you to understand what is good and why it is good and what isn't working and why it isn't working so you can go home and apply what you've learned to your own stories or poetry. You learn why character and theme are the most important story elements, regardless of genre. You start to see how much the use of subtext adds to a description or a character, or how important it is that each scene move the story forward in some way. You begin to see the difference between a plot-driven story and a character-driven story. You will notice how another writer constructs beautiful, poetic prose, or you will notice when the writing is so ornate that it actually distracts from the story or feels out-of-sync with the character.

If you are a screenwriter, you learn how to enter and exit a scene efficiently, how to write for a totally visual medium, and how story structure works for a screenplay, which is a completely different and a mostly formulaic process and can be quite different than writing a novel or short story or even a memoir.

For more experienced writers, you gain exposure to new and interesting voices, unique prose, new story ideas. You find new ways to approach your new or existing stories. Your critique of the others' stories teaches them how to critique your stories. In a way, you are training someone to critique your stories the way you want to be critiqued. You may learn how to critique poetry even if you are an essayist. You might learn how to critique a novel if you are a screenwriter, which will come in handy when you try your hand at a novel, and you will one day. You also get the great pleasure of mentoring another writer.

The list is nearly infinite. The more you critique, the more you learn, the better writer you become, the better critiquer you become, the better the other writers become, the better the other writers become helpful critiquers. You elevate each other. Your learning process becomes their learning process.

Submitter

It doesn't matter how experienced writers are, they are frequently handing their work to someone they trust to look it over. Not all artists do this. I'm pretty sure that painters don't send first draft paintings around for critique, so does that mean that we as writer/artists should be able to judge for ourselves when our 'art' is finished? If you've read in your genre and are an experienced writer, you have to have faith that you will know when your story is its best possible version. Unlike painters, we can't just walk out of the room then walk back in with a fresh pair of eyes. We have to set it down for days, if not weeks, then we have to go back and read it all over again, pretending we're reading it for the first time, which takes a while if you've just written a novel or book-length memoir. We create entire beings and all their complexities (character), their world (description, genre), their life situations (crisis / situation) and their reactions to those situations (conflict) and attempt to transfer that epic inside our heads and put it into a readers' head exactly how we have envisioned it. It is our job to get that reader to see what we see, experience what our character experiences and sometimes that requires a fresh pair of eyes, yours or someone else's who can speak your literary language.

Evaluating our own writing is sometimes like being a therapist and evaluating yourself. It's usually better to get another person's perspective, because we're often too close to look at ourselves objectively. Writers, regardless of experience level, are sometimes too close to their own work to check for inconsistencies or to know when a reader might be pulled out of the piece while wondering how the main character seemed to magically teleport from one scene to another, or when a character is doing something 'out of character'. Some writers can pull off this kind of self-critique, but most can't.

You have sole creative control over your writing. You will know what critique advice to take and what not to take. Here's a hint: if you cringe a little when you hear it, it's probably something you need to reevaluate and your ego knows it, hence the cringing. Just give the feedback some time to marinate and soften your ego's automatic reaction.

I've had writers who've written for television, writers who've sold multiple screenplays, and writers who've had multiple stories and poems published ask me to review a new story. This isn't from a lack of confidence or experience, it's from wisdom. Wise not because they chose me, but because they are seeking several different perspectives, and have the wisdom to know that sometimes even the creator doesn't have all the answers. This is the value of a writing workshop or writers group. Several different third-party reader perspectives, readers who can talk your literary language and help you improve, and by asking them for feedback, you are helping them become better writers as well.

The critique workshop, especially in a professionally moderated environment with someone who is an experienced leader and experienced in giving positive and constructive feedback is an incredible learning opportunity. It may not be a writing class or a lecture environment, but you will be more learned for the experience.

If you'd like to participate in one of our creative writing and critique workshops, check out our schedule. We run our groups throughout Los Angeles, including Hermosa Beach (scheduled), El Segundo (new workshop coming soon), Miracle Mile / Koreatown (scheduled), West LA (scheduled), and Glendale / Glassell Park. Santa Clarita critique workshop coming soon!

photo © Michael Jastremski

for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-ShareAlike

West Los Angeles Writing and Critique Workshop starts Thursday!

Our West Los Angeles Writing and Critique Workshop begins on Thursday!

LAwritersgroup.com has been running writers groups and creative writing workshops throughout the greater Los Angeles area since 2003. We hire moderators to run these groups who have years of experience giving writers feedback on their novels, screenplays, essays, children's books, short fiction stories, memoirs and even on poetry. Our moderators are chosen because they have experience working directly with creative writers and they understand how to give supportive cross-genre feedback that will leave you excited by the possibilities of your story and hungry to go home and rewrite your project, if it needs rewriting.

We also create new stories / writing in our groups through improvisational writing exercises given as writing prompts by our group moderators that are hand-picked by that moderator based on the needs of individual writers in the group to help elevate your prose, theme, dialogue, character development and much more. Because of this, no two groups are the same, which is why we have so many people who repeat group after group (plus returning writers get the returning member discount!). Our rules for the critique process have been developed over years of working in this group setting in order to keep the critique process constructive and positive.

Critique is not only good for the person receiving critique. It also benefits the critiquer. Listening to our moderators and other members give feedback on various writing styles, stories, and genres, helps those listening elevate their level of critique and their ability to critique their own stories as they write them. While our groups are not writing classes per se, and we have no lecture portion of the evening, a great deal of experiential learning, often customized for the individual group, takes place during our workshops. Even if a writer never brings in a story for feedback, they grow from a craft perspective just by listening and participating in the process.

Please visit http://www.lawritersgroup.com or email lawritersgroup@gmail.com for information or questions about our writers groups.

Call for Creative Writing Submissions: Sunsets and Silencers

Call for Submissions for innovative short fiction, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, essays, paintings, photography, and comic strip:

Sunsets and Silencers," an online magazine, is now accepting submissions for our new issue.

"Sunsets and Silencers" is open to a wide variety of styles and wants to publish only the most innovative and creative work. We are careful about the work we publish, and we read and consider every submission, carefully. S&S publishes short fiction, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, essays, paintings, photography, and comic strips as a platform for emerging and established artists to showcase their work. On promising work, we may offer feedback, even if the piece didn't work for us. Please, keep in mind, however, that we do not respond to every piece, mostly because of the volume of submissions received. We want to provide exposure to artists and writers who create
out of a restless fever, and who are fearless in their choice to submit. So, send what you have, but please pay attention to our submission guidelines.

More detailed submission guidelines can be found at: http://sunsetsandsilencers.com/home/archives

The current issue of Sunsets and Silencers can be found at: http://sunsetsandsilencers.com

Call for Submissions: Diverse Voices Quarterly

Diverse Voices Quarterly is celebrating its third year of publishing online! Issue Eight is now available for download on our website.

For Issue 9, we are now accepting online submissions for poetry, short stories and personal essays/creative nonfiction. Please use the form on our website to submit your work: http://www.diversevoicesquarterly.com/submissions.

• For poetry: You may submit 3-5 poems. Please send in one file, separated by a page break between poems.
• For short stories: Submissions must be 3,000 words or less. You may submit up to two short shorts that add up to 1,000 words.
• For personal essays/creative nonfiction: Submissions must be 3,000 words or less. Send only one essay at a time.

Artwork, which is especially requested, must still be sent directly to submissions[at]diversevoicesquarterly.com.

For full submission guidelines, please visit our website: http://www.diversevoicesquarterly.com/submission-guidelines/

Call for Submissions: Pegasus

Pegasus, the literary journal at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, invites submissions of poetry, short fiction (flash fiction is welcome), creative nonfiction, artwork and photography for the upcoming spring 2011 issue. The submission deadline is January 31, 2011.

Pegasus is an award-winning regional journal, focused only on Georgia writers who are of high school age or who are currently enrolled as undergraduates in Georgia colleges and universities. All other writers should talk to editor Jeff Newberry before sending any submissions. Jeff Newberry can be reached at jnewberry[at]abac.edu. Past issues have included invited features by Mark Leidner, Janisee Ray, Patrick Phillips, Amy Blackmarr and Janice Daugharty.

Pegasus accepts electronic submissions only. Please visit http://www.abac.edu/pegasus/submit.hmtl for full submission guidelines.

Call for Submissions: Apple Valley Review

Apple Valley Review will be reading submissions of short fiction, essays and poetry for its Spring 2011 issue (Vol. 6, No. 1) until Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

We prefer writing that has both mainstream and literary appeal. All work must be original, previously unpublished, and in English. Please do not submit genre fiction, explicit work, or anything particularly violent or depressing. Also, please note that we do not accept simultaneous submissions. All published work is considered for our annual editor's prize.

To submit, please send 2-6 poems or an essay/short story pasted into the body of an e-mail to our editor at editor[at]leahbrowning.net.

The current issue, previous issues, subscription information and complete submission guidelines for the Apple Valley Review are available at http://www.applevalleyreview.com/

Writers Group Starts April 1st - No Joke

Hey all you wonderful writing peeps, this is just a reminder that Sanora has a new writers group starting on Thursday, April 1st.

So if you live in Glendale, Los Feliz, anywhere on the Eastside of Hollywood or LA, or out the Alta Dena/Pasadena/La Canada way, this group is for you!

In fact, Sanora's groups are fabulous and creatively inspirational so even if you don't live in those areas, her group is truly worth the drive. It's a Thursday, man, so you can do the drive, because driving home is no problem traffic-wise after group and then you just have to make it through Friday and voila! the weekend is there, ready for you to channel all that creative inspiration you got from Sanora's group and finish up those stories or poems or essays or scenes you wrote on Thursday....

Wednesday Writers Round-Up

December deadlines that keep you from Christmas shopping! (No need to thank us....)

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Call for Ten-Minute Plays, Fiction, and Poetry
Deadline: December 15th, 2009

Grist: The Journal for Writers is accepting unpublished ten-minute plays (8-12 pages) for their third issue. Note that this is an opportunity for publication only, not production. Grist is also accepting poetry and fiction for the third issue. All submissions are due by December 15th to be considered for the third issue. Please send submissions to the appropriate editor: George Pate, Drama Editor; Joshua Robbins, Poetry Editor; Adam Prince, Fiction Editor at Grist: The Journal for Writers, University of Tennessee, 301 McClung Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996.

For more information, go to the web site:
http://www.gristjournal.com

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A Little Girl Called Pauline, a print journal excited about the possibility of an experimental and diverse poetic landscape, is seeking submissions for its first issue. Poetry is our activism.

Our deadline for submissions for the first issue is December 15, but poems received after that date will be considered for later issues. Please visit our abysmal website if you are so inclined (http://alittlegirlcalledpauline.webs.com/) to witness our slow fertilization process.

Submissions of 3-5 poems (preferably as an attachment) should be sent to
alittlegirlcalledpauline@gmail.com

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The Mom Egg, an annual journal, seeks flash fiction, prose, poetry and art for its Spring 2010 issue, which will be a print issue on the theme of "Lessons". The Mom Egg publishes work by mothers about everything, and by everyone about mothers and motherhood. Details on the site ("Submit"); you can also download a special online issue free ("Current Issue") and see samples from back issues. Deadline Dec. 31, 2009. http://themomegg.com

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Fifth Wednesday Journal is accepting submissions for the Spring 2010 issue. Submissions for this issue will close on December 31, 2009. We publish poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and black and white photography.

All work must be submitted with our online submissions manager. Please visit the website for complete guidelines and instructions. www.fifthwednesdayjournal.org

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Bayonet, a print DIY art and literature magazine, is looking for submissions for its first issue. Poetry, flash fiction, and short non-fiction attached in .doc format will be considered, as well as any type of visual art in a jpg or pdf format.

Please e-mail the co-editor, Charlotte at charlotte845@gmail.com

Include a short cover letter and contact information (e-mail and mailing address). please put in the subject line "bayonet submission". Deadline for submissions is January 1, 2010. Thank you!