April goes on record as the top month of the year thus far for WWS members receiving acceptances. The list is sure to inspire! Here is a brief look at the work published and awards won this month.
From Melissa Chadburn‘s “Who Gets to Break the Rules in America” on Jezebel:
Foster care, two weeks—that’s all I thought I was signed up for. But I wound up living in group homes and various foster placements throughout Los Angeles for the next four years. I call this portion of my adolescence The Time of The Rules.
From Melissa‘s “The Girl in the Cabinet (I Read What You Wrote and I Hate You)” on Electric Lit:
Last summer a friend sat on my kitchen counter and said, “You just always make things about you.” The feelings that followed…I so hated myself at that moment. I was ashamed to be there, taking up space, too much space in a friendship, in a workspace, at a meeting, in the board room, in the classroom, in the bedroom, at the party. A montage of myself just talking and talking and talking…
Ashaki M. Jackson published two poems, “A Deputy Chief Recommended Dismissal Long Ago” and “How It Happens” at The Rumpus. From “A Deputy Chief Recommended Dismissal Long Ago:”
He cited The child’s hidden hands
A report from a firearms instructor: warranted fear
Vickie Vértiz published four poems – “Fábrica,” “Wren,” “The Speed Above,” and “Portrait as a Couple [México, Distrito Federal]” – at OmniVerse. From “Portrait as a Couple [México, Distrito Federal]:”
I love you like you are the only one. Between smog-soaked trees, city of vaseline side-steps, you tower over. A clean-shaved head, as close to tough as you will ever be. Behind me, the Mexican flag: colossal. Beneath: full metros shake, pyramids settle. I am no virgin.
From “Love in the Time of Foreclosures” by Carla Sameth at Angels Flight Literary West:
“Did I tell you I’m in love with your soul?”
It’s from our leasing agent. Picture-pretty, Cuban-Mexican, always made-up and buttoned-up. She uses a perky realtor voice that I soon learn hides both her sadness and her passion. She’s 36; I’m almost 50. She was a homecoming queen; I was a hippie girl.
Without thinking, I text back immediately: “I don’t know what that means, but I can’t stop thinking about you.”
From Carla‘s “Donor X” on Mutha Magazine:
The first time I set out to have a baby solo, before I decided to try it with the person who would become my son’s dad and my husband, (and later my ex-husband), I attended two different groups for perspective moms.
After multiple tries, Carla also received an acceptance from Brain, Child for her piece, “Feed Me, Fund Me, Leave Me Alone.” Keep an eye out for it!
From Li Yun Alvarado‘s “His Thumb on My Belly” at The Practice of Creativity:
To the right of my belly-
button: purple-black
oval print on sun-kissed flesh.
A spirit pinching
while I sleep. Is it
him? A hint? Here,
he whispers. Singed meat.
Li Yun was also interviewed over at Centro Voices. Check out the interview here.
From “My Father as a Hologram” by Ryane Nicole Granados in The Manifest-Station:
My son’s concern for how I might receive his statement, is simultaneously sweet and alarming.
“Just tell me. I won’t be mad.”
“I don’t think you’ll be mad, but you’ll be sad.”
“I’ll be okay. You can trust me.”
Suddenly I began to see an older version of my little boy staring back at me. What was left of his baby cheeks had disappeared. What remained was a sharp jawline met by a strong, square chin. He was being valiant for me. He didn’t trust I could handle what he had to share.
“Mom, I think your dad may be a hologram.”
From “Tips and Tits: Self Care for Stripper” by Antonia Crane at Tabú:
2. Drink Water
Ignore the shot girl. Seriously, those shots are disgusting and over-priced and being a drunken stripper is an embarrassment to our gender. Drink less Red Bull. It will never give you wings. You already have them.
Erin Michaela Sweeney‘s poem “Double Chime” was accepted for publication in the anthology Shattered, edited by A. J. Huffman of Kind of a Hurricane Press.
Mona Alvarado Frazier had three inter-connected pieces of flash fiction – “The Proposal,” “Ragdoll,” and “A Purse Full of Secrets” – accepted to Basta! Latinas Against Gender Violence upcoming from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Special congratulations to WWS co-founder and superwoman Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo who won a fellowship from the Martha Heasley Cox Center Center for Steinbeck Studies, which offers new writers of any age and background a $10,000 fellowship to finish a significant writing project while in residency at San José State University.
Many congratulations to all the women who have won acceptances to upcoming writing retreats and residencies:
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo – Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellowship (finalist)
Melissa Chadburn – The Sun Magazine Writer’s Retreat & Aspen Summer Words
Laura Warrell – Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop
Siel Ju – The Vermont Studio Center
Tisha Reichle – Macondo Writing Workshop
Vickie Vertiz – Macondo Writing Workshop & University of Arizona Poetry Center Residency
Carla Sameth – The Los Angeles Writing Project Summer Institute at Cal State LA
Kelly Shire – HippoCamp 2016: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, sponsored by Hippocampus Magazine
*Kelly won a full scholarship to the conference based on her essay, “Watching the Clock,” which will appear in a future issue of Hippocampus!
What a banner month!