As we near the end of Spring and the midpoint of 2021, our WWS members continue to thrive in the publishing world. May was an especially productive publication month for our members. I’ve included in this publication roundup an excerpt from the published pieces (if available) of members who published this month and a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.
Congratulations to all those in WWS who published work during the month of May!
Maybe you’ve heard, but in case you haven’t, Women Who Submit is celebrating 10 years! I mean, even Poets & Writers took notice of this badass organization and the women and nonbinary writers who are pushing against the patriarchy by supporting one another in our creative journeys.
As part of our first decade anniversary, we invite you to submit to our second anthology: Gathering. The first Women Who Submit anthology, Accolades highlights previously published work by Women Who Submit members, while Gathering celebrates how, in 2020-2021, “we continue to gather across the country, support one another, and find joy in the midst of our trauma.”
Gathering “welcomes submissions of both unpublished and previously published poems, essays, stories, plays, and hybrid work from all WWS members. Our goal is to gather work in response to the current conditions of our world. It is an opportunity to share the trauma and celebrate the joy.”
If you have already submitted, claps, claps, claps!
If you are still looking through your drafts for the right piece to submit, keep the May 31st deadline in mind.
If you don’t think you have anything written yet, here are some prompts for each of our genres. Go for it! You have a whole three-day weekend to draft, revise, re-read, revise, edit again, and submit something for Gathering. Or, just write to the prompts because it’s like improv and a fun exercise to jump into a different genre and write for fun for a bit.
PROMPTS
DRAMA: Write a scene between characters with an unresolved past who find themselves unexpectedly stuck in line together.
POETRY: Using recycled lines from poems you’ve drafted throughout the pandemic, write a new poem and incorporate specific flora and fauna. Maybe try a villanelle or a duplex!
FICTION: Capture a scene of post-pandemic bacchanalia where a character gets lost.
NONFICTION: Write three different brief scenes capturing various points of a relationship or a place. Weave them together into an essay.
Remember to read the submission guidelines and then, we hope you will breathe and push submit.
Noriko Nakada writes, parents, and teaches middle school in Los Angeles. She is the author of the Through Eyes Like Mine memoir series. Excerpts, essays, and poetry have been published in Kartika, Catapult, Meridian,Hippocampus and elsewhere. She edits Breathe and Push for Women Who Submit.
Hello Everyone, this is Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley, I am the Chapters Liaison for Women Who Submit, I also host the Long Beach Chapter via the Long Beach Literary Arts Center.
As the Chapters Liaison, I support our Chapters Director Ryane Nicole Granados and WWS Leadership to provide resources for our members and Chapter Leads and to connect those looking to join our community with chapters in their area. Our collective goal is to empower women and non-binary writers to submit their work to literary magazines for publication
I am happy to see a heightened interest from women and non-binary writers looking to join our organization. The Pandemic has affected all of us in different ways including some of our chapters. While some chapters continued meeting virtually since last March, a lot of them have not.
The Los Angeles chapter shifted their programing in 2020 and 2021 to online events and started hosting weekly check-ins for their members. Below is a list of chapters that continued meeting online during the pandemic as well as our newest chapters.
California:
Bay Area
*Long Beach Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley
*Pasadena Michelle Semrad Barrera
*West Los Angeles Alix Pham
Chicago
New York City
Portland
New Chapters:
Twin Cities
New Jersey
Wilmington, North Carolina
* Chapters hosting members virtually until in person meetings resume regardless of location.
If you have questions or inquiries about joining a chapter or starting your own, Ryane and I are here to help. We hosted an orientation meeting for new Chapter Leads in March and look forward to hosting the next one.
If you are a Chapter Lead looking to restart your chapter, we are here for you.
Lucy Rodriguez-Handley is a creative non-fiction writer, filmmaker, and mother of two. A Dominicana via Washington Heights now living in Long Beach, California. Her film, The Big Deal, won the Imagen Award for Best Theatrical Short. She is a VONA fellow and is on the board of the Long Beach Literary Arts Center. Her films and writing samples can be found at https://www.lucyrodriguezhanley.com/
Know that you will consider questionable sources of income
But you will decide to rent a room instead
Know that if you move
IRS might misplace your stimulus check
Know that submissions, workshops, books, and literary events
Can become luxury items on a limited budget
Know that your feet will hold you
Know that you will write anyway
Lisbeth Coiman is an author, poet, educator, cultural worker, and rezandera born in Venezuela. Coiman’s wanderlust spirit landed her to three countries—from her birthplace to Canada, and finally the USA, where she self-published her first book, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (2017). Her poetry and personal essays are featured in the online publications: La Bloga, EntropyAcentos Review, Lady/Liberty/Lit,Nailed,Hip Mama Magazine, Rabid Oaks,Cultural Weekly, and Resonancias Literarias. In print media Spectrum v.16, The Altadena Literary Review, and Accolades: A Women Who Submit Anthology. An avid hiker, and teacher of English as a Second Language, Coiman lives in Los Angeles, CA.
