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....

Weekly Writers Round-Up

 Go forth and publish.....

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Interrobang?! Magazine (http://interrobangzine.com) is a web and print 'zine for the arts based in Providence, RI. Our goal is to provide a formal venue for voices of all kinds, whether it be poetry, fiction, creative essays, photography and fine art, or experimental music and video. We want your stories, your pictures, your music, your oddball esoterica.

Submit online to gmail.com> (replace (at) with (@) with the genre of your piece in the subject line (for example, "POETRY" if you're submitting poetry). Please put your name, address, and preferred email address in the message body so we can contact you to let know that we've received your piece, and for follow-up if your work is accepted. See
http://interrobangzine.com/submissions.html for further details. The deadline for the spring 2010 issue is March 15, but we will be accepting rolling submissions for future issues.

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Glass: A Journal of Poetry (ISSN 1941-4137) seeks poems for its third year of publication.  Full information about Glass, including submission guidelines, can be found at our website: www.glass-poetry.com

Glass is an online poetry journal that appears two times a year (June and December).  We want to see poetry that enacts the artistic and creative purity of glass. We seek to promote new and established poets by publishing their work. We are not bound by any specific aesthetic; our only mission is to present high quality writing. All styles, forms and schools of poetry are welcome, though easy rhymes and “light” verse are less likely to inspire us. All will be judged on the quality of the content of the poem. We like poems that show a careful understanding of language, music, passion and creativity and poems that surprise us.

Previous contributors include Rane Arroyo, Jim Daniels, Louie Crew, Susan Deer Cloud, Dan Nowak, Lisa Fay Coutley, Joseph Hutchison, Glen Sheldon, Adam Houle, Brent Newsom, Kyi May Kaung, Katie Hartsock and Maw Shein Win, among others.

We accept submissions between September 1 and May 31.  Full submission guidelines can be found at http://www.glass-poetry.com.   Please read our submission guidelines carefully.

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Cottonwood, the literary review of the University of Kansas, is seeking submissions in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction for its next issue. We especially welcome work from new emerging writers. All styles welcome.

Cottonwood has been publishing high-quality literary writing since the 1960s. In the past it has featured such writers as Rita Dove, Robert Kelly, Wanda Coleman, Criz Mazza, and Connie May Fowler. Recent issues have published writers like Jesse Lee Kercheval, Virgil Suarez, Kim Chinquee, and Carol Lee Lorenzo.

Please send prose submissions up to 8,000 words or 3-5 poems to appropriate editor c/o: 

Cottonwood, 

Room 400 

Kansas Union, 

1301 Jayhawk Blvd.

University of Kansas

Lawrence, KS 66045.

For further information, please contact Tom Lorenz, Editor, atku.edu> (replace (at) with @).  Or see our website: http://www2.ku.edu/~englishmfa/magazines.html

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Exot Books, a high-quality chapbook press in New York City,  is publishing an anthology of sonnets in 2010.  Submit as many sonnets as you like to the editor, Mary Meriam, at  gmail.com> (replace (at) with @)
 

The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2010.

Weekly Writers Round-Up

A bit of poetry....

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Umbrella, the "supremely rereadable electronic journal," is now accepting submissions for our spring-summer issue, online May 1, 2010. Both general poetry subs and poems on the theme of "gall" are invited, as is poetry-related prose.

Please see the submit page for complete guidelines and specific needs and preferences.

On an ongoing basis we also read poems written in repeating forms for our sister publication, Tilt-a-Whirl. Guidelines at the bottom of theUmbrella submit page.

http://www.umbrellajournal.com/submit.html

Deadline: April 10, 2009

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Poppyseed Kolache seeks poetry for Issue No. 2.  Editor will consider any well written poem, but prefers not to see rhyming poetry, first drafts, erotica, or polemics.  Prefer poems 60 lines or shorter approx.  Prose poetry okay.  Previously published and simultaneous submissions okay with proper notification.  Send up to 5 typed poems (one poem per page) plus SASE to --

MaryAnka Press, P.O. Box 102, Huffman, Texas 77336.  Sample copy of Issue 1 available.  Full guidelines and ordering information can be found at
www.maryanka.com

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Glass: A Journal of Poetry (ISSN 1941-4137) seeks poems for its third year of publication.  Full information about Glass, including submission guidelines, can be found at our website: http:// www.glass-poetry.com

Glass is an online poetry journal that appears two times a year (June and December).  We want to see poetry that enacts the artistic and creative purity of glass. We seek to promote new and established poets by publishing their work. We are not bound by any specific aesthetic; our only mission is to present high quality writing. All styles, forms and schools of poetry are welcome, though easy rhymes and “light” verse are less likely to inspire us. All will be judged on the quality of the content of the poem. We like poems that show a careful understanding of language, music, passion and creativity and poems that surprise us.

Previous contributors include Rane Arroyo, Jim Daniels, Louie Crew, Susan Deer Cloud, Dan Nowak, Lisa Fay Coutley, Joseph Hutchison, Glen Sheldon, Adam Houle, Brent Newsom, Kyi May Kaung, Katie Hartsock and Maw Shein Win, among others.

We accept submissions between September 1 and May 31.  Full submission guidelines can be found at http:// www. glass-poetry . com.   Please read our submission guidelines carefully. 

Writers Weekly Round-up

 Something for every genre & specific inspirations this week!

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Folio, a nationally recognized literary journal published out of Washington, D.C., is looking for well-crafted poetry and prose for its Spring 2010 issue. Past issues of Folio have included work by Michael Reid Busk, Billy Collins, William Stafford, and Bruce Weigl, and interviews with Michael Cunningham, Charles Baxter, Amy Bloom, Ann Beattie, and, most recently, Walter Kirn. Submit three to five poems or prose pieces up to 5,000 words (fiction and nonfiction accepted). Submissions must be mailed with a brief bio and SASE by March 5 to:

FOLIO
Department of Literature
American University
Washington, D.C. 20016

Please visit our website
(http://www.american.edu/cas/literature/folio/index.cfm) or see the
attachment for more information. We look forward to reading your work.

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The Village Pariah, a bi-annual literary journal sponsored by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum, is accepting submissions for its inaugural issue. We are interested in publishing poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction inspired by the writings and life of Mark Twain, his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, the Mississippi River, the Midwest, and small town or rural life in America.
 

Each issue will also include an introductory essay by an established author, poet, artist, songwriter, etc who speaks of Twain’s influence on his or her art or life.
 

Electronic submissions only.
Entries should be emailed as an attachment to
(replace (at) with @)
 

Please include name, contact information, and a short bio along with your submission. Our reading period is now open and entries will be accepted until March 15, 2010.

Visit our website (http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/) for more information. 

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The fiction editor (Metta Sama) at ragazine invites you to submit short stories to ragazine for their upcoming issues. The current reading period is 1 March – 30 April 2010, for work that will appear in the July/August or later issue.

Please read the Fiction Submission Guidelines prior to submitting work:
http://ragazine.cc/submissions/

ragazine is an on-line journal of arts, information, and entertainment. 

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Stymie Magazine, a journal of sport & literature, is seeking submissions for their upcoming 2010 issues (Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter). Past contributors and those already slated to appear in the near future include: Matt Ferrence, Daniel Orozco, Brian Oliu, Lee Gruenfeld, Ben Loory, Dawn Corrigan and many others.

In terms of what we’re about, our magazine is focused on sport in literature, be it through fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction or essay. We love the sport themed work (i.e. baseball) published at places like Hobart and The Southern Review, and other places like Golf World (in their annual fiction issue). We're partial to the essays of David Foster Wallace. We'd be ecstatic to get an essay on 1986's Double Dribble for the NES.

We are currently reading submissions, our complete guidelines can be found at:
http://www.stymiemag.com/2007/01/guidelines.html

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The long-awaited second installment of Tammy, a print journal of poetry and prose, has arrived! Tammy II has excerpts from Alice Notley’s Eurynome’s Sandals, Jena Osman’s Financial District, Danielle Pafunda’s The Desire Spectrum Is Dead to Me, and Jenny Boully’s Not Merely Because of The Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them. It also features new work from Kiki Petrosino, Joyelle McSweeney, Zach Savich and David Trinidad, among others.  

More importantly, we've started reading for our third issue and we'd love to read your work!

Please send poetry to gmail.com>  and prose to gmail.com>  (replace (at) with @) 

Writers Round-Up

This week it's all about higher education.  

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SAKURA REVIEW is reading poetry, fiction, and nonfiction submissions for its next print issue.

http://sakurareview.blogspot.com/

About Sakura Review:
Situated in the District of Columbia and run by graduate students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland, Sakura Review publishes poetry and prose; we are particularly interested in – though not limited to – work that in some way satisfies or reflects our own preoccupation with a city embodied in location temporary; the new surrounded by collections and artifacts; what is documented alongside what is ultimately forgotten.

Submission Guidelines:
The submission deadline for our Spring 2010 issue is February 28th. Any submissions received after the deadline will automatically carry over to our next reading period.

· Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are fine, if noted (but please notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere).

· For prose, please submit only one manuscript at a time. The preferred maximum length is 2,500 words. For poetry, please submit no more than five poems, a maximum of 10 pages, at one time. Include all poems within one document.

· Please submit your work as a Word attachment to (replace (at) with @). Your genre – poetry or prose – and your name should appear in the subject field.

Contributors receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears.

Our first issue is now available for purchase at our website. We encourage you to read it before submitting.

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L I M E S T O N E
A Journal of Literature and Art

Department of English

1215 Patterson Office Tower 

University of Kentucky

Lexington, KY 40506

www.uky.edu/AS/English/Limestone/index.htm

Call for Submissions: We are requesting original and unpublished poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual art.

Limestone: A Journal of Literature and Art
Limestone publishes original and imaginative writing from established and emerging writers and artists from across the nation. Over the last quarter century, we have printed short stories, essays, formal poetry, free verse, photography, and other fine art. We are looking for quality work unrestricted by form. 

Submission Information:
Poetry
Submissions should be limited to five poems or fewer, typed and single-spaced. We will not consider electronic submissions, but will require an electronic version of the work upon acceptance for publication. Simultaneous submissions are accepted with notification.

Fiction
Submissions should be limited to no more than twenty typed, double-spaced pages. We will not consider electronic submissions, but will require an electronic version of the work upon acceptance for publication. Simultaneous submissions are accepted with notification.

Art
Submissions should be 5x7 or smaller on CD or sent via email. Please do not send originals. Simultaneous submissions are accepted with notification.

Submissions must reach us by March 12th, 2010. 

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Booth, Butler University's literary magazine, is putting out a call for submissions. We're looking for fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, literary comics, and quirky lists.

Simultaneous submissions are welcomed as long as we are notified immediately if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere. No multiple submissions, and we do not accept previously published work. Booth reads nine months a year,  from September to May.

Poetry: up to 5 poems

Fiction: up to 7,500 words

Literary Comics: up to 20 pages, JPEG, width: 850-900px, Landscape preferred

Art: JPEG, width: 850-900px, Landscape preferred

Please include with your submission a brief cover letter.  Electronic submissions can be sent to butler.edu> (replace (at) with @)

Hard copy can be submitted to the address below. Please include a SASE for return response. (Manuscripts will not be returned.)

Booth

c/o English Department

Butler University

4600 Sunset Avenue

Indianapolis, Indiana 46208

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Vanderbilt University's new national literary magazine, Nashville Review, is currently accepting submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and comics. Contributors are offered up to $100. Work in Issue One will be featured alongside interviews with Maira Kalman and Salvador Plascencia.

For submission guidelines, please visit www.vanderbilt.edu/english/nashvillereview/guidelines

Starter Blocks v. Writer's Block

Last night Nicole and I were guest speakers at the monthly Ventura County Writers Club meeting. It was great to get out and mingle with so many writers! We want to thank Tysa Goodrich, the club's Vice-President, for inviting us out.

When we were first asked to speak, Nicole and I got together and realized that one of the main things LAwritersgroup.com helps writers overcome is the dreaded writer's block, so it was a natural subject for our topic last night.  Then driving home together after the event, we realized we should really share our insights with you! So, here's what we've come up with over the years:

Basically, there are three types of writer's block:  1) the "I can't make myself sit down at the computer"; (2) the "I've sat down and now I'm just staring at the screen / blank page"; and (3) the "I'm full of anxiety and have a fear of judgment."

1. The "I can't make myself sit down at the computer"

• Find a new location to write:  When we step out of our usual environment with a specific purpose, the purpose wins the day.  Instead of staring at the dishes that need to be done, we're fully attentive to the computer screen / blank page.  Why do you think there are so many writers in your local coffee shop?
• If you have a 9-5 job and when you get home, you just feel too bushed or too distracted, stop somewhere on the way home.  Go to the library or the coffee shop or yes, even to that dark bar to write and then go home.
•  Finally, set a dedicated time for writing and stick to it!

2.  The "I've sat down and now I'm just staring at the screen / blank page."

• Here's where writing prompts come in handy.  Start by googling "writers prompts" and you'll come up with 100s.  Even better, you can keep track of your own.  This is a tip that we picked up from David Hunter at The Writer's Den. Look, we're writers, we carry a little notebook around with us everywhere (and if you don't, then start). Maybe, while we're out and about or even at home chopping up some onions for dinner, we come up with a cool character idea or a sudden phrase, pull out the notebook and write it down. And then, instead of keeping it in your notebook, tear out the page and put it in a box on your desk or near your writing area.  Now when you sit down to write, reach in your little writer's box and draw your inspiration.
• Commit to at least 15 minutes of writing. That's it. Just 15 measly minutes. Trust us, you'll go over
• If you're really stuck, review your old work and revise it.  Then get online and come up with at least 3 places to submit.  (Or check into this blog once a week for our Writers Round-up.)

3. "I'm full of anxiety and have a fear of judgment."

•  First of all, we all know where that judgment is coming from and it's not the writer at the next table over.  It's you. Here's where we do something new with that 15 minutes of writing time. Freewrite. Freewrite. Freewrite. That means, set your timer, put pen to paper and keep it going, no stopping, no crossing-out, no revising. If you get stuck, write "I feel stuck" or even better, start the piece with a phrase like "I wish someone had told me..." and when you get stuck, repeat that phrase until you can move on.
•  Write as if no one will ever see it. So what does it matter? And this is when you will discover your writer's voice and it will feel free to speak above a whisper.
• Long term solution? Learn some form of meditation. I've been meditating for over 3 years now. It revolutionized my writing. My husband, also a meditator, who never wrote prior to his practice, has now written 1 and 3/4 (2d nearly finished) screenplays in the last year. I practice and teach Vedic Meditation but there are many options. Meditation stills the inner critic but even more important than that, it drops you to the state of being, the source of thought, and you would be amazed what's milling around just waiting to be pulled to the surface by your writer mind.

 

Most writers have faced writer's block at some point so we'd love to hear from you - did we leave anything out? Let us know what works for you!

Writers Round Up

This week we're featuring poetry & fiction requests - the first two deadlines are coming up quickly (February 15) but note that they may also accept submissions year round for other issues:

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Mandala Journal celebrates diversity by publishing diverse voices, experiences, and aesthetics.
2010 Theme: Cosmopolitanism

Call for submissions: previously unpublished and original poetry,
nonfiction, fiction, and art for its first online issue to be published in
late spring 2010.

GUIDELINES
1) 3-5 poems or up to 2500 words of prose, attached as an MSWord .doc w/
³[Genre] Submission: [your name]² as the subject (for example, Poetry
Submission: Gwendolyn Brooks) or art, attached as a .jpg file w/ ³Art
Submission: [your name]² as the subject (for example, Art Submission:
Basquiat)

2) in the body of your email, include: name of your attachment, name of
your work, your contact info., and a brief bio

3) do not include your name on the work in your attachment

4) send your submission to gmail.com> (replace (at) with @)

5) no more than one submission per genre per reading period

Email Deadline: 11:59 p.m., February 15, 2010

Mandala Journal is an online student-run multicultural journal for poets, writers, artists, and thinkers published by the Institute for African American Studies at The University of Georgia. 

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Subject: Call for creative writing submissions for Milk Money, a literary journal
http://www.milkmoneymag.com/

Entry Deadline: Feb. 15, 2009 for the next issue
Milk Money, Volume Seven: Vile Pile

They say print is dead. But who are “they” to say such a thing? The editors of Milk Money Magazine in Cincinnati, Ohio think otherwise, and they can back it up with the very real existence of their mechanical duplicator. It’s not alive – it’s a machine – but the quarterly literary magazines it mass-produces are evidence of a very alive scene for printed works of fiction, prose, and poetry from national and international writers.

Milk Money is accepting submissions for its latest edition, Volume Seven: Vile Pile. They are looking for exceptional works of literary and experimental fiction and poetry. Works should be no more than 5,000 words whether it's fiction or poetry. Please only submit one short story per issue, but feel free to submit several works of poetry. We accept submissions year round, but the deadline for our next issue is February 15th.

If a work has been published outside of the United States or published in an online-only journal, Milk Money will consider it; please specify in the body of your e-mail if this is the case when you are submitting. All other previously published material will not be considered.

Milk Money only accepts work submitted via e-mail at milkmoneymag.com> (replace (at) with @). Please attach your work in the form of .doc, .rtf or .txt files. Any submissions received otherwise cannot be considered for the magazine. Please do not paste the text in the body of your e-mail. A formal cover letter is not necessary. However, we do like to read a little bit about our contributors so please include a short bio in your e-mail.
 
Visit www.milkmoneymag.com for previous issues and more information regarding submissions.

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Submissions Now Open

The Redheaded Stepchild only accepts poems that have been rejected by other magazines. We publish biannually, and we accept submissions in the months of August and February only. We do not accept previously published work. We do, however, accept simultaneous submissions, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted somewhere else. We are open to a wide variety of poetry and hold no allegiance to any particular style or school. If your poem is currently displayed online on your blog or website or wherever, please do not send it to us before taking it down, at least temporarily.

Submit 3-5 poems that have been rejected elsewhere with the names of the magazines that rejected the poems. We do not want multiple submissions, so please wait for a response to your first submission before you submit again. As is standard after publication, rights revert back to the author, but we request that you credit Redheaded Stepchild in subsequent republications.

We do not accept email attachments; therefore, in the body of your email, please include the following:

· a brief bio

· 3-5 poems

· the publication(s) that rejected the poems

Send your submission to redheadedstepchildmag (at) gmail.com. Change at to @.

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(Reposted with corrected e-mail address for submissions)

Crab Creek Review Call for Submissions
(www.crabcreekreview.org)

Special Editor's Portfolio edited by Guest Editor, Susan Rich
Theme: Ekphrastic Poetry

We begin with the visual. Ekphrastic poetry is a response in words to a painting, photograph, dance, building, sculpture, Ikea catalogue, child’s drawing, or bumper sticker. An ekphrastic poem begins with inspiration from another piece of art and with the intuitive understanding that art begets art. In a sense, the art object becomes the rough draft of the poem.

We are looking for the best ekphrastic poems, 30-lines (or less) to showcase in an upcoming issue of Crab Creek Review.

For this project, we are accepting email submissions to the email address below. To submit to this special portfolio of ekphrastic poetry, write your name and title of the submission in the subject line and then send your previously unpublished poems in the body of an email to Editor, Susan Rich at:
yahoo.com> (replace (at) with @)

Please send 3-5 poems at the most.
Also, include a short bio and contact info as well.

Deadline is May 31, 2010