A WWS Publication Roundup for November

A laptop computer with an article titled "Submissions Made Simple" on the screen and a stack of literary journals sits on top of the laptop base, titles facing out

November was another banner month for Women Who Submit publications! Congratulations to all the writers.

From Ryane Nicole Granados‘ “Helping Out in L.A.” at L.A. Parent:

My children have taught me that, if you look close enough, you’ll see tiny flowers breaking through their concrete and waving their tenacious petals in the breeze. That’s the beauty of children: they can see brilliance in the bleakest situations. With guidance, they can also harness their vision and use their innocence to change the world. As we embark on these holiday season, here are some family-friendly organizations making a difference…

From Désirée Zamorano‘s “Austin” at Moria:

After two weeks of a dull rage, the rage turned into despair, then confusion, then transformed gloriously into a plan.
Things made no sense, they made no sense, and sometimes it was up to the individual to turn the inside out all right side out again.  That’s what Austin would do.
Make it all right. Continue reading “A WWS Publication Roundup for November”

Behind the Editor’s Desk: Tisha Reichle

Note: This interview is a repost that originally appeared in January, 2017.

by Lauren Eggert-Crowe

On my first visit to a Women Who Submit submission party in 2015, I ended up sitting across from Tisha Reichle, who was deliberating on a hiring announcement from BorderSenses. They were looking for a Fiction Editor. Even with her busy schedule, she decided to take a shot. It was a perfect example of the WWS spirit. She has now been Fiction Editor for a year.

From their website: “BorderSenses is a non-profit organization located in El Paso, dedicated to promoting the literary arts through various community projects and an annual print journal publication. Our mission is to provide a voice to visual artists and writers of this region and beyond and to promote cross-border exchange in the arts. We provide a venue for artistic growth that helps improve the quality of life for our communities.” Continue reading “Behind the Editor’s Desk: Tisha Reichle”

Spilling the Beans on Macondo Magic

by Natalia Treviño

I wake up each day and begin assessing. Did I get enough sleep? I do math, guessing at total hours without waking up fully. It is the first thing that comes to mind. I want to live. Sleep, I have learned, will help me do that. I tell myself a lot of things in order to calm down the monsters that are always at me, always wanting me to give up, stop trying hard, and hide under a rock for the rest of my life. I reason away the monsters as best I can by way of dreams, concoctions, stories, alternate realities, television, statistics, oppositional thinking, lectures, readings, creativity. Community. Comunidad is the one brain, heart, and soul medicine that sticks, that works, that helps create something out of all the muck and beauty that I see. I grew up with a lot of fear, as a Mexican girl told by her father not to make waves, to always stay under the radar, and eke out a living if possible. He also trained me to understand that death was around every corner, that predators surround every public space, and the goal is not to get fired or divorced again. I had to make this work for me, make my fear be the catalyst for living despite it. Writing is my act of hope against fear, and hope is what my writing mentors have given me over the years, but the unstoppable hope I have now I can only attribute to Macondo Magic. Continue reading “Spilling the Beans on Macondo Magic”

A WWS Publication Roundup for October

A laptop computer with an article titled "Submissions Made Simple" on the screen and a stack of literary journals sits on top of the laptop base, titles facing out

Happy Halloween and Happy publications! Congratulations to all the Women Who Submit who were published in October.

From Arielle Silver‘s “Mother” at Matador Review:

Mother: [Noun] a woman who has borne a child.

    1. First came love.

                       Father: Spring break she took a road trip down from Georgia for the weekend. Ended up at my frat party.

                                   Where are you from? I asked.
                                   New York, she said.
                                   Your name sounds Jewish, I said.
                                   I am, she said.
What’s that on your finger?
I asked.
                                   I’m engaged, she said.
                                   Why don’t you break up with your fiancé and go out with me, I said.

    2. Then came marriage.

From Arlene Schindler‘s “The Night I Became a Gift from Cary Grant to One of His Friends” at Purple Clover:

The party was in a fancy restaurant in New York City attended by 75 rich and famous types. The entertainment preceding me were five different -grams. I had to follow a singing Yankee Gram, a gift from party guest George Steinbrenner. Shortly after I got into my costume, a guest who was an infamous nasty person—Roy Cohn—walked up to me and said, “If you are not funny, kid, your friend loses her job.” No pressure there. Continue reading “A WWS Publication Roundup for October”

Writing on a Budget: Time Management

By Lisbeth Coiman

The first hard truth I learned as an emerging writer is that it will take years of dedication and hard work before I can live off my writing. Whether through my established career as a teacher, or through a series of small gigs, as an emerging writer I must make a living outside of writing, while seeking every opportunity to write and submit my work. Therefore, effective time management stands out in my writing tool box.

Continue reading “Writing on a Budget: Time Management”

A WWS Publication Roundup for September

A laptop computer with an article titled "Submissions Made Simple" on the screen and a stack of literary journals sits on top of the laptop base, titles facing out

The September roundup is one of the biggest yet for Women Who Submit members. Congratulations to all!

From Lisa Cheby‘s “War Lessons from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spoilage” at the Rising Phoenix Review:

He didn’t mean to suggest
the harvest would be easy.

We have to get all the skeletons out
of the graves.

From Soleil David‘s “Book of Transnational Feminist Prayer: On Barbara Jane Reyes’ Invocation to Daughter” at Post No Ills:

Barbara Jane Reyes’ fifth poetry collection Invocation to Daughters (City Lights, 2017) is a missal for Filipino women, one that uses Western poetic forms to utter an unapologetically transnational feminist poetics. In this collection, Reyes pushes against Spanish and American influences, the two patriarchs that have kept the Philippines abject for much of its history. The poems subvert Western tradition through the use of those same Western traditions, all while bringing in multiple languages, as well as ruminations on Filipino and Filipino-American culture.

From Arlene Schindler‘s “I Chose a Career Over Babies” at Living the Second Act:

I don’t have regrets about not bearing children. It was a conscious decision. Some parents may see my life as empty, unfruitful, or even immature.

From Désirée Zamorano‘s “Adelanto” at Cultural Weekly:

It starts with pain and outrage.

You’re out of the country when you hear about a Supreme Court Justice stepping down, and the caged children. You want to keen and wail, but you don’t. You want to never return to your country of origin, but you do. You return to daily life at home. Continue reading “A WWS Publication Roundup for September”

Reportback from the 5th Annual Submission Blitz

On Saturday, September 15th, WWS held our 5th Annual Submission Blitz!

The Blitz is a nationwide virtual celebration of Women Who Submit’s work. It’s a day when we invite women and non-binary writers to submit to at least one Tier 1 journal. The idea is to have a coordinated effort on one day in which the slush piles of Tier 1 journals get flooded with submission by underrepresented writers. Anyone can join from anywhere!

We also host a local Blitz meetup in Los Angeles, because what would Women Who Submit be without a party? Our first WWS Submission Blitz was in September 2014 at Hermosillo Bar in Highland Park. This year, we gathered at The Faculty Bar in East Hollywood at 12:30, with plenty of food and drinks to fuel our furious fingers as we typed away! (There was even a beer on tap called Submission.)Screen Shot 2018-09-18 at 9.35.30 PM

Continue reading “Reportback from the 5th Annual Submission Blitz”

A WWS Publication Roundup for August

A laptop computer with an article titled "Submissions Made Simple" on the screen and a stack of literary journals sits on top of the laptop base, titles facing out

As the summer wraps up, we are pleased to share good news from Women Who Submit members who had work published in August.

From Mia Nakaji Monnier‘s “Keiko Agena On Life After ‘Gilmore Girls,’ Her New Book, and How She Copes with Anxiety” at The Lily:

For anxious artists held back by perfectionism, “No Mistakes” provides 150 pages’ worth of interactive pep talks inspired by Agena’s experience doing improv, where there’s no such thing as a mistake, only creative choices for team members to build on collaboratively.

From Jay O’Shea‘s “Beyond Protection: Perceived Threat, Criminalization, and Self-Defense” at IMPACT Chicago:

As I approached the cash machine, another person walked up from the opposite side, a few paces before us. A slim, white woman whose expensive casual wear and designer sunglasses marked her as one of our Westside neighborhood’s more affluent residents, she turned and looked at me instead of giving her attention to the ATM. I offered a smile, acknowledging that she had reached the cash machine first and had dibs on it. When she returned my smile with a scowl, I expected the snappish disdain that well-off women in West LA so commonly project toward other women, but not the question she asked.

“Can you come back?” she said.

From Ava Homa‘s “Graduation” at apt:

I am counting the cracks on the ceiling. My lawyer is presenting some documents to the judge. It is hard to breathe here. This room stinks as if the walls were made of corpses. The judge leaves his seat and is walking to the door that convicts cannot use. It is only for him. The attached light-brown desks divide His Honor’s space from that of the non-honored ones.

Congratulations to Ava who also had her piece, “Nameless Stones,” published in Room!

From Melissa Chadburn‘s “This Wanting Business: On the Cost and Labor of Writing” at LitHub:

I often say that whenever I feel the urge to complain about the work of writing, I think about a woman who has to take five buses to work. The truth is I’m likely thinking of my younger self. She’s always at my heels. In college, I sold Herbalife, called people to refinance the mortgage on their homes, worked as a data entry clerk on campus, and telemarketed selling timeshares. Struggling to get by at school, I eventually dropped out, moved back to Los Angeles, and worked the switchboard at a large law firm in Century City.

From Tanya Ko Hong‘s “Mother Tongue” at First Literary Review-East:

Sophistication isn’t damn good to drink
So why don’t you untie my tongue
like you undress me in the dark, don’t
let my ego ruin our night, don’t scan betrayal
in your mind—life’s not so bad if you don’t pay attention.

Congratulations to Tanya who was the first winner of Run Doon-ju Korean American Literature Award and was interviewed in The Korea Daily!

From Marnie Goodfriend‘s “Finding My Unsolvable Mother in Her Left-Behind Crossword Puzzles” at Ravishly:

As a child, I remember Mom’s stack of crossword books with Velveeta-orange Bic pens holding her place on the current one she was trying to solve. A flimsy card table stood awkwardly in the middle of our living room where she sat in a folding chair carefully separating the edges from the middles of a “Mastermind Impossible to Solve” 1,000 piece puzzle. We often visited a stationery store on Main Street where I ran up and down the sticker aisle inhaling pizza and popcorn scratch and sniffs while she fingered large boxes with display photos of crayons, confetti, stars, and circles. Even at my age, I knew that she didn’t choose a puzzle for its pretty or interesting design but by which sequence of objects was more difficult to finish.

From Li Yun Alvarado‘s “Literatura, Música, y (Huracán) María: Reflections from the Diaspora” at VIDA:

My parents separated when I was twelve years old, and divorced when I was in college.

By some telenovela magic they reconciled two decades later, the summer before Hurricane María roared through their hometown, Salinas, Puerto Rico.

My one comfort during that week of silence was that they were together: through worrying about reaching my brother in New York and me in California; through negotiating with siblings and caring for their elderly parents with whom they each lived; through negotiating this post-Hurricane María world.

Li Yun also saw her poems “Momentos de Maria“and “Zika” published in Hinchas de Poesia and Acentos Review, respectively, and an essay, “Retro Row Helps New Yorker Adapt to Long Beach” published in L.A. Parent!

Congratulations to all!

Getting into the Top Tier

Illustration of a woman sitting in an orange floating tub in an overflowing bathtub.

by Désirée Zamorano

First off, you can’t get into a top-tier magazine unless you submit. You can’t submit unless you’ve got work, and you won’t have the work unless you sit down to write. Let’s talk about this.

My bookshelves are filled with texts, some popular, some academic, on how to be a better person, partner, parent, educator, writer. To help you close the gap, I’m not going to talk about all those writerly texts, as marvelous as they all can be. (Personal favorites: Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See, and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass). I’m going to go old school here, and talk about The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Yes, I realize Stephen Covey turned into an industry himself. But I’m going to talk about the two habits that I have carried forward once I read this classic. The first habit involves a Venn diagram with one circle labeled “Area of concern” and the other circle labeled “Area of influence.”

Concerned about your writing? (You should be)

Do you have influence over your writing? (You are the only one).

Where those two circles overlap is where you have your most powerful impact. Continue reading “Getting into the Top Tier”

A WWS Publication Roundup for July

A laptop computer with an article titled "Submissions Made Simple" on the screen and a stack of literary journals sits on top of the laptop base, titles facing out

As the summer winds down, we are happy to share the great news from Women Who Submit members who were published in July.

From Melissa Chadburn‘s “Who Is Anna March?” at the Los Angeles Times:

…Anna March first appeared around 2011, when she started publishing online. Before that, she was known by different names in different cities. In researching this story, The Times found four: Anna March, Delaney Anderson, Nancy Kruse and Nancy Lott.

In three places — Los Angeles, San Diego and Rehoboth Beach, Del. — March became a part of the literary community. She won over new friends, even accomplished authors but especially writers trying to find a way into that world, with her generosity, her enthusiasm and apparent literary success — only to leave town abruptly.

From Désirée Zamorano‘s “The Upholsterer” at the Kenyon Review:

Enrique looked at his cousin and at the sofa that had just landed in his workshop.

The couch was a sodden mess covered in food stuffs, and Enrique really didn’t want to know about it, nor did he have any expectations of what he would find underneath the fabric. Probably a factory-assembled piece of cheap teakwood with low-grade stuffing and springs.

Also from Désirée , “Therapy Saved Me as a Writer,” at Read Her Like an Open Book:

I think therapists hold a particularly profound attraction for writers. So much content, from petty to profound: the stories of grief, menace, abuse and mourning. So many ways to lie, to yourself, to your therapist. So much fun with being an unreliable narrator, as we recreate our biography for an audience of one. So much rapt attention and focus, on our words.

From “Hechizo Para Congelar” by Li Yun Alvarado at UnMargin:

Ingredients:
1. Names
2. Pencil
3. Paper Bag
4. Freezer

Spell:
Pencil names onto
pieces of brown
paper bag.

Let’s say:

donald john trump

From Noriko Nakada‘s “Late Night Phone Calls” at SFWP:

When the phone rang, I knew it was either Laura (Yukiko), or my boyfriend (soon to be the ex-boyfriend) and his calls usually resulted in him coming over to spend the night and me not minding, because I was alone and lonely in this new city.

But when it was Yukiko (Kiko), those conversations jolted me wide awake, There was a frantic, frenetic, frequency in my sisters’ phone calls.

Also from Noriko, “Marbles” at The Rising Phoenix Review:

My father turns eleven just before
he’s told “take only what you can carry.”
He chooses marbles, polished glass spheres, smooth
and cold in his jacket pocket. Six in
all: a shooter, a cats eye, two aggies,
two comets, in swirls of yellow and blue.

Also from Noriko, “Gaps,” at The Rising Phoenix Review:

Your baby teeth
and the baby teeth of all ten
of your siblings were not
included in what
you could carry

when stripped down
to two bags each.

From Natalie Warther‘s “Vinegar” at Drunk Monkeys:

The child had a birthday. People came. They ate the cake. People went home. And once again Dolly was alone, staring at a single slice of cake. Of course, the child was there, precious, soft, aloof, which is company, but it’s different. The windows needed washing.

From Arlene Schindler‘s “The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of” at Purple Clover:

Shortly after I got married in 1982, I learned that my husband had lied about everything. He disappeared for hours on end after making large cash withdrawals from our joint account and deceived me about many other things, including how many times he’d been married. I grew to hate him and myself.

Congratulations to Flint who read her poem “I Call Queer” at ACE/121’s art show, “QUEER!”