by Ramona Pilar
Who: Women Who Submit
Where: ONLINE In the comfort of wherever you, your computer and wifi wanna be.
L.A. METRO AREA: The Little Easy – 216 W. 5th Street, DTLA, CA 90013
What: Women Who Submit’s 2nd Annual SUBMISSION BLITZ (and L.A. Meetup)
When: Saturday September 12, 2015
ONLINE: Beginning at 12:01am – 11:59pm
L.A. METRO AREA: 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Why?
The channeling of writing is done in solitude. Whether alone in the quiet before dawn – a soundtrack of scattering the only rush hour you hear – or squished into a seat on a light rail train or subway at rush hour, a veritable contortionist, angling your writing arm, wrist and fingers however you can in order to transmute those stories, verses, and images into a collection of words.
But that channeling – that creativity – isn’t necessarily the whole of what it means to be a writer. As a storyteller, one is urged, pushed, cajoled or challenged by something inside of you to pluck those passing thoughts from the din of the thousands that flow through your mind on a daily basis and give them form, genre, emotion – voice. As a writer, you are further compelled to share these stories and contribute to the larger story of your community – however many you claim – tells about itself to itself.
Women Who Submit is just one of several groups of writers who have organized around supporting and amplifying the stories of people who have been bit players at best in the story contemporary literature and publishing tells about itself to itself.
WWS’s First Submission Blitz took place in a bar/restaurant at the deadest part of the day: early afternoon. As patrons trickled in and saw a group of women sitting around a table with laptops, they were curious. The more they drank, the bolder they got until they asked what we were doing. Each time we explained, the response was, “Oh, wow! That’s such a good idea!” And as each writer submitted her work, we cheered, and they cheered along with us.
This year’s Submission Blitz will take place at The Little Easy in Downtown Los Angeles. It’s reminiscent of a speakeasy, Parisian parlor and Disney’s Blue Bayou restaurant (without the old water smell from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride). There’s a wooden fenced mezzanine with ivy-strewn awnings and a gazebo-ed fountain in the main part of the restaurant. It’s the best kind of whimsical a restaurant/bar could be.
Writing can be serious work. Sharing that writing doesn’t have to be. At a submission party, your submission receives the amount of fanfare and hoopla your hard work deserves. At our annual Submission Blitz, we target the top five Top Tiered journals currently publishing work. Hell yeah it deserves a venue that features a 3 foot painting of the general manager dressed as Napoleon. Sharing your stories and celebrating your community(ies) sharing theirs is just as much a part of being a writer as the words on the page.
* * * * * * *
TO SUBMIT
Let’s inundate these top journals with our best work and shake up their slush piles.
Here are five tier 1 journals with current open readings. Be sure to check out their guidelines.
Agni
http://www.bu.edu/agni/submit.html
Georgia Review
http://garev.uga.edu/submissions.html
Gulf Coast
http://gulfcoastmag.org/submit/
Iowa Review
http://iowareview.org/content/writers-guidelines
Zyzzyva
http://www.zyzzyva.org/about/submissions/
TRANSPORT
TAKE METRO: to Pershing Square Station, exit 5th and Hill street side, walk one block east. Destination will be on the South side.
PARKING: There are some $5-$7 lots on Spring between 4th and 6th streets.