An autumn chill is in the air but it won’t slow down Women Who Submit who have had a record number of acceptances this month. Congratulations to everyone who had work published in October!
From “Leilani Squire on Veteran’s Writing and ‘The Storytellers,’” an interview at bookscover2cover:
I have been facilitating a weekly veterans writing workshop at Wellness Works in Glendale, California (a veterans resource center that focuses on holistic methods of healing) since March 2013. I have witnessed the veterans’ commitment to the writing process, with a growing sense of focus and writing ability. I felt it was time to take them to the next level: publication.
From Sandy Yang‘s “Quid Pro Quo” at Juked:
One night when he was home, news broke that several women had accused one of the presidential candidates of sexual assault. The candidate said these women were coerced by the opposing side to make up stories. We were in bed and I asked my husband what he thought.
He was still typing on his laptop when he said, “They’re probably lying.”
Congratulations to Sandy whose story “Superfood” was published in the St. Petersburg Review!
From Melissa Chadburn‘s “Discovering the Radical Possibility of Love” at Shondaland:
It was in this small group home in Santa Monica, up past “lights out” under a small blanket by flashlight, that I read Alice Walker’s “The Temple of My Familiar” for the first time. The novel portrays three main relationships, deftly weaving between characters and time to tell a story about womanhood, colonialism, racism, spirituality, and the trauma we carry with us in our blood.
Also from Melissa, “Becoming Background” at Lenny Letter:
It finally happened, just like the dream, when I was sixteen. I was walking past the Beverly Center, and some friends and I got stopped — asked if we wanted to do a music video. Emily, Athena, and I were play cousins. Light-skinned girls with curves. The guys were Artemus and Colin. Artemus was a tall, chocolate dreamboat with short dreads and a nose ring, a poet. Colin was the Player, light eyes, a gentle voice; he smoked beedis and was endearing like a guy being raised by a single mother.
From “A Review of The Quarry Fox and Other Critters of the Wild Catskills by Leslie T. Sharpe,” by Rachel Sona Reed at The Literary Review:
To enter Leslie T. Sharpe’s narrative world is to consent to view the Catskills ecosystem through a lens of wonder and attention to modest detail. In The Quarry Fox and Other Critters of the Wild Catskills, Sharpe proffers the magical in the mundane, tracing her affinity for nature to childhood encounters with crustaceans.
From Andrea Guevara‘s “Social Media for Writers: 5 Quick Fixes to Build Your Brand” at The Write Life:
Even though social media can sometimes feel like an intimidating snowball of doom, it can also be a great way to connect with other writers, editors, agents, and readers. Today I’m going to melt that snowball down a bit by sharing some quick fixes to vastly improve your writer brand social profiles in a just a day (or heck, even a few hours).
From “Home” by Toni Ann Johnson at Serving House Journal:
Mallory sat at the red Formica table, leaned down, and dug a forefinger behind her heel into the back of one of her new shoes. She yanked at the black patent leather. The Mary Janes remained stiff; no give. She was ten. Her feet were still growing, and she knew the shoes would never fit.
From “The Storm Between Us” by Hazel Kight Witham at Lunch Ticket:
My grandmother died six years before I was born. She never knew it, but she left me her old-fashioned name —Hazel—and an old-fashioned rose-cut diamond that became my engagement ring. She also left me an unfortunate sliver of DNA that has me traveling this two-lane road to Galveston.
From “Groomed” by Ryane Nicole Granados at Lady Liberty Lit:
Some people are born to enter the world and others are born to change it. The enterers, also known as the imposters, are needed to distract the Governments of the World from realizing that the changers are being groomed. Grooming came about in response to the Government’s total criminalization of key populations. As a result, God eventually determined that chosen children needed to be groomed.
From “The Sleeping Porch” by Arielle Silver at Under the Gum Tree:
The converted second story deck with three walls of windows overlooked a vegetable garden, pie cherry tree and a row of lilacs whose blooms fell like snow at the furthermost edge of the backyard. The petals perfumed the summer breeze that wafted through the room. I moved in.
Also from Arielle, “The Promise of Purpose” at Lunch Ticket:
Authority is a complicated dynamic, even for a forty-year-old. Most daunting for me in this leadership position was that I would be tangential, at the least, and at times, perhaps, central to my colleagues’ MFA experience. As chief in a top-down structure, what good could I do? What harm?
From “Winter Ball” by Noriko Nakada at Sky Island Journal:
Thank god, it’s basketball season. In the gym, everything is certain: the bounce of the ball, the height of the basket, the width of the rim, the waxy stick of the gym floor. My older sister recently committed to playing ball at a small college, so I know someday I could too. If I focus and work harder than everyone in our small town, harder than everyone in Portland or Los Angeles, harder than everyone, basketball could get me out of here.
Also from Noriko, “A Short History of Insanity” at Lunch Ticket:
Maybe it all started when my brother first went mad and if that’s when it started, then it started with that little girl dying. At her funeral her family asked my brother to film the church service. Years later the little girl’s mother told us that they couldn’t watch the footage, that all you could hear was my brother crying.
From Lauren Eggert-Crowe‘s “from ‘Estivation Offerings’” at Dum Dum:
Put a little hunger in it, would you?
I don’t have all day to be capsized
I uncoil in summer
waiting for boys to roll a barrel of watermelons my way
From “Still Life” by Sharon Venezio at BODY:
It’s not the mystery of your disappearance.
It’s not the grasping to remember
our last conversation. It’s not even the bones
or the animals that sniffed and scattered them.
It’s the eleven months between death
and discovery, each day a lie
Congratulations to Ashley Perez who was Writer of the Month at Drunken Monkeys and had three pieces published – “The Iridescence of Our Sins,” “The Deception of Ordinary Objects” and “All That Yields: An Ode to Bettie Page.” From “The Iridescence of Our Sins“:
The children appear from the edges. Their faces set. Their bodies are covered in iridescent powders that shimmer in hues that could only be seen in dreams. We have been gathered in the square to wait. Our kin have been gathered to watch. The children walk around us in a pack, sniffing, running towards us and back again to their circle. Worn, brown leather pouches hang around their necks, swaying with their movement.
Congratulations to Désirée Zamorano whose piece “Deep State” appears in The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir!
Congratulations also go out to Deirdre Hennings whose piece “Like a Wary Anhinga” was published in The Healing Muse Fall 2017!
Congratulations to Flint who had two poems, “Homemade Recipe to Become the Slut You Are So Bent on Becoming” and “those slow virginia rivers,” published at Sinister Wisdom!