October 2024 Publication Roundup

Hello everyone and happy November! The Women Who Submit members included in this post published their work in amazing places during October of 2024 (and three of our members heard about these wonderful opportunities either through WWS programming and/or another member, which is so great to see!).

I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available), along with a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety. Please take a moment to extend congratulations to our amazing members who had their work published this month, and happy submitting!

Please give a shoutout to Marya Summers for her poem “A Begrudging Nomad” being featured in Rise Up Review.

Every dawn is an invitation
to move on, every evening a surrender
to the rhythms that call to rest.
When I lived in foster homes, other
people decided when I moved,
who I lived with, whether I liked it
or not. The only thing truly fostered: a sense
of my own intrusion and impermanence,
a knack for packing light and quick.

Huge congratulations to Elizabeth Galoozis for her poem “Worn” being published in Thimble Literary Magazine!

When we buried you,
I didn’t know Jews don’t do
clothing after death,

or display bodies
without breath. You were buried
without your glasses.

Without shoes. Those clothes
are for the living, to guard
us from exposure.

Kudos to Michelle Otero for her publication of creative nonfiction piece “She Wants to Be a River” in the anthology collection Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth published by Torrey House Press. She published another creative nonfiction piece “In Search of Mexicans in Hollywood” in the anthology entitled Spark: Celebrities and our Decisive Moments with Chimera Projects.

Please join me in congratulating Laura Sturza for her latest publication of “90-Something Women Share the Secrets for a Long, Happy Life” in The Ethel.

Thelma introduced the film world’s first nonagenarian action hero. The movie’s star, June Squibb, age 94, brought an irrepressible character to life and captured the hearts of viewers of all ages, including this 63-year-old fan.

In the movie, Thelma is intent on reclaiming money she lost to a scam artist and takes her family, her friend and the audience on a low-speed chase through Los Angeles that has the thrills of a Mission Impossible film.

Thelma embodies the things I love most about my 98-year-old mom, Evelyn Sturza. Mom is adventurous, forthright, funny, optimistic, creative and has a never-give-up attitude. Like Thelma, my mom also believes she has no limits.

Big shoutout to Amanee Izhaq for her poem “The Stillness in September” appearing in The Markaz Review.

I remember the stillness in September
The whisper of a child on a swing
Back and forth
Back and forth
The North and South are one
Their shouts are eternal
The burial of a season
Ease is a long lost memory

The cemetery and majlis are one
Gone is the wind of laughter
The afterlife as cold as the dusk
What does the dove say to the cage after breaking its bones to escape?

Please join me in applauding Khamil Riley for participating in Tupelo Press’ 30/30 Project where she published 30 poems over 30 days.

Congratulations to Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera for her fiction piece “Tough as Faith” being published in the Cowboy Up anthology with WolfSinger Publications.

Big kudos to Diosa Xochiquetzacoatl whose poems “Brown” and “To the Daughter I Never Birthed” were chosen as a feature by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs in the Latino Heritage Month 2024 Calendar and Cultural Guide (see excerpt of the former poem below). Her book Conversaciones con los Difuntos / Conversations with the Dead has also been published with Desierto Mayor Editores!

Brown is the color of my eyes. Brown is the color of my skin.
Brown is the ground which I call home. Brown is the color of my seraphim.
As coffee is sweetened with creamer,
so too my pupils are sweetened by the sun.

Shoutout to Flint for her publication of her creative nonfiction piece “The Great Chicken God” in Muleskinner Journal.

The baby chick is the only non-chocolate thing in Finn’s Easter basket, and it’s awful what we did, and we knew it, kind of, when we were doing it, but we did it anyway, even though we didn’t mean it to turn out the way it did.

But The Great Chicken God saw. And like any God, The Great Chicken God is a terrible God. A good and terrible God.

Please join me in congratulating Noriko Nakada for her poems “MONSTER MAKERS” and “Tarot Eclipse” being featured in The Rising Phoenix Review. See an excerpt of the former poem below:

we keep putting genocide together
as if these words could ever make sense
aid posing as trap

flour and blood
pour from trucks idling
near invisible borders

massacre disguised as justice
transforms humanitarian into terrorist
shatters peace

Congrats to Hazel Kight Witham whose poem “Father Light” appeared in Issue 47 of Bellevue Literary Review.

Kudos to Carla Sameth whose San Gabriel Valley Poetry Collage assembled from Nextdoor posts by residents of Altadena and Pasadena, CA was featured in the latest issue of American Poets Magazine.

Lastly, please join me in giving a shoutout to Joy Notoma for her fiction piece “Uncle Jimmy” being published in Ploughshares Fall ’24 Longform Issue.

*Feature image credit to Margaret Gallagher*

September 2024 Publication Roundup

🌰 As with the beginning of a new season, there are new publications to share! 🍂 The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during September of 2024. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available), along with a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.

Please take a moment to extend congratulations to our wonderful members who had their work published this month, and happy submitting!

Huge congratulations to Laura Sturza for her humor/opinion piece “Cats Are Ready to Cast Their Votes for Kamala Harris” published in Medium and her story “Pedal Power” published in Unfolding: A Market Street Writers Anthology. See excerpt of the former below:

Our cats are frustrated that they have previously been denied the right to support a candidate who will advocate for their rights as members of an interspecies family. While Republican candidates have yet to comment on the sanctity of interspecies families like ours, I think their position can be guessed. On the other hand, Harris is an animal rights advocate endorsed by the Humane Society. Walz’s interspecies family includes orange tabby Afton, who is prepared to move to the vice-presidential mansion.

Big shoutout to Désirée Zamorano for her latest novel Dispossessed and a blog post for the novel entitled “Peeling Away Decades of Whitewashing Our History: On the Writing of the Novel, Dispossessed” in La Bloga (see below for an excerpt). What a huge accomplishment!

From the 1930s to the 1950s an estimated 2 million people, Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals, were expelled from this country. Few of us know about this essential American history. The famous line, “A single death is a tragedy, million deaths is a statistic,” informed me that that’s how our history would have to be portrayed, through the life of someone buffeted and impacted by this historical event. I kept waiting for someone to write that novel. I looked around and waited some more. I waited long enough to realize that someone was me.

Please join me in congratulating Rachael Rifkin for the publication of her article “Non-Nuclear Families — Out of Necessity — Are Sought After, and on the Rise” in Good Housekeeping.

Amidst changes in the economy, urbanization, immigration, caregiving burnout, rising loneliness and marriage and reproduction rates, however, there’s been a shift away from the self-reliant nuclear family as the center for family life. In fact, there is no one predominant family form anymore. Instead, people are returning to the idea of having a strong support network and living with or near the people we’re closest with, just like we did for most of humanity. In fact, it’s become such a ubiquitous desire that if you’re having a conversation with someone of millennial age or younger, it’s only a matter of time before they wistfully bring up their dream of getting a plot of land with their friends and living in a more communal way.

Kudos to Monica Cure for translating and publishing three poems by Adela Greceanu in Romanian poetry anthology Cigarettes Until Tomorrow and in The Dial. Excerpt from “Goose” below:

Words are also a province
when it comes to the lively meanings beneath them,
meanings unimaginable there, above.
However
tartine, quasi-unfamiliar, and to handle a relationship
are words spoken with such power
that they yanked up from underneath them
a meaning that made them synonyms.
Though only for me, to be fair.

Please give a shout out to Deirdre Hennings whose poem “Life after Transplant” (among others) was featured in Volume 17:Issue 2 of Ars Medica.

I cringe when the car peels out
I’d rather not be here
you’re so moody again, so often angry now—

Kudos to Diana Radovan for publishing her creative nonfiction piece “Oh, My Friend, How Is Your Blue?” in Humans of the World.

I’m on my way to the Berchtesgaden National Park. It is Friday afternoon and between seasons. The trees still have red, old leaves. Winter catches me on the way. A snow blizzard takes over the roads, slowing all the cars down.

I’m stuck at the top of a mountain road in the middle of a snowstorm, just 10 km before my final destination of the day in Berchtesgaden National Park.

Let’s give a big congratulations to Jesenia Chavez whose poem “Pictures of You” was featured in the Latino Book Review Magazine.

I wonder what my grandfather’s hands were like,
Playing clarinete, what did he sound like?
Where did he practice? What were his botas and
huaraches like?

How did the músicos travel from town to town?
On horseback, on foot?
How did you request them?

Please join me in giving a shoutout to Dilys Wyndham Thomas whose poem “a ghazal for Doggerland” was picked up by Ink Sweat & Tears (see excerpt below). She also published her poems “Channel Seascape” and “still lives” in The Passionfruit Review.

we walk through the exhibition hall lost
amongst water-logged bones, a sunk haul lost

grave-deep underwater, newly unearthed
as North-Sea fishing boats treasure-trawl lost

Congratulations to Heather Pegas who published fiction piece “I Did Not Die” in Weird Lit Magazine.

Since he’s been gone, she has dodged thirty-seven calls from her sister and been forced to answer eighteen. Gloria, her astrologer friend, has called twenty-two times, been spoken to twelve. For twenty-nine meals in a row she’s eaten a lump of cottage cheese with a handful of Goldfish crackers on top. She has gone through thirty cartons of Tillamook ice cream, but only nine liters of vodka. It has been ninety-two days since he’d gone, so she considers this restraint.

On one of those days, she made it to the gym and swam four complete laps before the weight of her body sank her. She’d come home and thumbed through thirteen old copies of The New Yorker. Why were they even still here? 

Kudos to Stephanie Yu whose fiction piece “A Knock at the Door” was picked up by Wigleaf.

Larry and Susan are sitting arms folded at opposite ends of the couch when their elderly neighbor knocks at the door. She is holding a measuring cup and asks if they have some flour for an apple cake she is making. Susan takes the cup, sifts the flour, taking care not to leave air pockets. Larry makes terse conversation with their neighbor at the front door, his fingers tightening reflexively against the knob whenever she leans forward to speak. Weeks later, their neighbor slips while getting out of the shower and dies. Susan will discover her when she checks on her three days later, having noticed the smell.

Last and certainly not least, please join me in giving a resounding congrats to Ronna Magy who published her poem “Distance” in The Cost of Our Baggage Anthology from Gnashing Teeth Publishing.

At least three of our members published in September heard about these opportunities through Women Who Submit. Thank you for your wonderful community and encouragement! Happy Fall! 🎃

*Feature image credit to Margaret Gallagher*

August 2024 Publication Roundup

The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during  August of 2024. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available), along with a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.

Please take a moment to extend congratulations to our wonderful members who had their work published this month, and happy submitting!

Huge kudos to Donna Spruijt-Metz for her poem “Crow Comes Back” being featured in the latest issue of the Alaska Quarterly Review.

Please join me in congratulating Lisa Eve Cheby for her publication of a review of Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo’s second poetry collection Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites at Terrain.org.

Bermejo reminds us each joy, each life celebrated is fragile. She refuses to let us forget that Black and Brown bodies, even in their joy, are always under threat by oppressive colonialist systems—and individuals acting in service to those systems—that seek to erase these people, including women, children, immigrants, and anyone who does not conform to colonialist, patriarchal, racist narratives. More importantly, Bermejo depicts the richness of the lives behind the litany of the names in news reports, names too easily anonymized and dehumanized. 

Lastly, we have Dilys Wyndham Thomas whose poem “as you light up” was featured in Scooter Literary Magazine ‘s 18th issue entitled “Nightlife.”

Everyone included in this monthly publication round up found out about these opportunities either through another WWS member or our programming. Thank you all for this extraordinary and sustaining literary community! Stay cool for this last bit of summer.

*Feature image credit to Margaret Gallagher*

SUBMIT 1: WWS Submission Drive & Fundraiser

Saturday, September 14, 2024 Women Who Submit (WWS) hosts our 11th annual SUBMIT 1 Submission Drive & Fundraiser. This marks the one day a year we encourage woman-identifying and nonbinary writers across the globe to send one of their most beloved pieces of writing to tier one journals as one community. 

As an act of solidarity, SUBMIT 1 dares to connect marginalized writers to top tier editors and publishers, widening the spectrum of voices reaching audiences and influencing arts and culture across the world. And you can help! 

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1. Before September 14th, study this list of “Top Ranked Journals of 2024” with current open calls to find a good fit for your work. BE SURE TO READ AND FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES. 

2. On September 14th, submit one of your most beloved pieces of writing to at least one tier one magazine from wherever you are in the world at any time of day.

3. Join one of the following SUBMIT 1 Meetups to submit as a community: 

WWS-Los Angeles
Saturday, September 14, 2024, 11am-2pm
Highland Park Brewing: 1220 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Bring computers and money for beer and snacks
Masks recommended & provided
Contact: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo (admin@womenwhosubmtilit.org)

WWS-Long Beach
Saturday, September 14, 2024 10am-12pm
The Hangar at LBX: 4150 McGowen St, Long Beach, CA 90808
Contact: Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley (lucy@lulustuff.com)

WWS-West Los Angeles
Saturday, September 14, 2024, 2pm-4pm 
West Hollywood Library: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood
Contact: Angela Franklin (afrankone@gmail.com)

WWS-Bay Area
Saturday, September 14, 2024, 1-3pm
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94104
Contact: wwsl.bay.area@gmail.com

WWS-Austin, TX
Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 9:30am
Central market Cafe, Austin, TX
Contact: Ramona Reeves (ramona.reeves@gmail.com)

4. Tag @WomenWhoSubmit on Twitter (or X) and Instagram and use the hashtag #SUBMIT1, to share when you’ve submitted, so we can celebrate with you! 

5. After submitting, log your submissions with THIS FORM to help WWS track how many submissions were sent out as a community. 

HOW TO SUPPORT: 

In conjunction with SUBMIT 1, WWS is raising $5,000 to support projects like purchasing new technical equipment to ensure our hybrid workshops and panels are offering the best quality of online programming making professional development accessible to any writer in need and growing writers funds to help more writers offset the costs of starting and maintaining a writing career. 

By donating to the SUBMIT 1 Submission Drive & Fundraiser, and by sharing the fundraiser link and flier on social media and with your communities, you help spread the word on WWS’s mission to push the needle in publishing toward equity and inclusion as one

DONATE HERE!

Your support also allows WWS to continue to provide the following free services: 

WWS HISTORY: 

Inspired by the 2009 VIDA Count from VIDA, Women in Literary Arts, which published quantitative evidence illustrating the dearth of women’s voices in top tier publications, Women Who Submit was founded in 2011 to empower women writers to submit work for publication and help change those numbers. In September 2014, a group of writers gathered at Hermosillo Bar in Highland Park, CA for a day of beers, cheers, and literary submissions. It was the first time we called on our WWS community to submit to tier-one literary journals en masse as a nod to the original VIDA Count. SUBMIT 1 continues today as an annual event and call to action for equity and wider representation in publishing with submission drives hosted at public places across Los Angeles. From 2020-2023, we moved our annual gathering to the @WomenWhoSubmit Instagram, and this year we return to a focus on public meetups with online support. 

Eight women with laptops sit on either side of a long table, smiling at the camera
1st Annual Submission Drive – September, 2014

July 2024 Publication Roundup

The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during July of 2024. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available), along with a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.

I attended Women Who Submit’s conference, Beyond the Writing: Building Community, Advocacy, and a Literary Career, this past Saturday where I sat in on a panel centered around community as bridges and keys to supporting our potential as writers. When I shuffled into the room, exhausted from the heat, someone handed me a flower with a small piece of paper attached to the stem containing a poem. One of the panelists mentioned how we all deserve our flowers, and I hope this rings true for you this month whether or not you’ve been published (or have sent work out to journals).

Please join me in celebrating our members who published in July of 2024! And do take a moment to celebrate the bloom of your flowers.

Big congratulations to Lisa Eve Cheby whose book Contract Tracing has been published by dancing girl press.

Please join me in congratulating Brenda Vaca for publishing her poem “Anointed” in the Latino Book Review Magazine for their 2024 issue.

Huge congratulations to Tisha Reichle-Aguilera whose fiction piece “Mi Culpa” appeared in Angel City Review’s thirteenth issue.

“Teresita!” Abuela’s cry from the back bedroom wafts out, beckons me to her side.

If Mamá doesn’t hear the first request for my assistance, I can wait for the commercial.

“Te-Re-Si-Ta!” Even though Abuela’s body is weak, her voice is still strong as ever.

Before I can reply, Mamá steps out of the kitchen, my sister on her hip, my brother at her ankle, and a spatula in her free hand. She glares at me.

Amy Raaschs two poems “Why I Am Not a Gravedigger” and “Ashes” were also featured in this wonderful issue!

When I turn the card over, the armoire opens to a library
of birch tree-sized books. A pinemarten
claws a spine tattooed with my sister’s name,
gnaws its pressed flowers. The ocean forgets

the secret the lake told.

Big shoutout to Kate Maruyama whose new novel, The Collective, has been published with Writ Large Press.

Kudos to Valerie Anne Burns for publishing “Reconstruction,” an excerpt from her memoir in LIGHT Magazine.

My life, and possession of my body began to feel like it was slowly slipping away. A powerful feminine essence I achieved through decades of spiritual practice, therapy, and relationship experiences began to drain through my toes and tips of my fingers—a power I’d come to inhabit flowed down a long drain to the Santa Barbara ocean. An ending. 

And lastly, please give a shoutout to Elizabeth Galoozis whose poem “My Wife Asks Me Why I Keep Touching Her Leg in Bed” was featured in Rogue Agent Journal.

in the night, I press
my foot to your hot bare calf.
surreptitiously

so I don’t wake you
into kicking me away.
how can I explain.

my body needs to
know your body is alive.
that my body is.

Feature image credit to Margaret Gallagher

June 2024 Publication Roundup

The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during June of 2024. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available), along with a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.

This is my last post as publication roundup editor. I started as editor in July of 2020, when the pandemic was still in its infancy. Women Who Submit became a lifeline for me with our weekly Zoom check-ins and Writing Alone Together sessions. I’m so grateful to be part of this organization and will miss editing the roundup. I look forward, however, to continuing to read updates about our members’ publishing accomplishments under the editorship of Ariadne Makridakis Arroyo.

Please join me in celebrating our members who published in June of 2024!

Continue reading “June 2024 Publication Roundup”

WWS Chapters – A Farewell & Welcome

Women Who Submit is proud to serve woman-identifying and nonbinary writers across the nation and the world through our Chapters program. Started in 2017 by cofounder, Ashaki M. Jackson, WWS Chapters has continued to grow under the leadership of Chapters Director, Ryane Granados with support from Chapters Liaison and WWS-Long Beach Chapter Lead, Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley. We thank Ryane and Lucy for their last four years of service. Together they have been essential in making WWS resources available and accessible to countless writers and community members.

Women Who Submit is excited to share that Ryane Granados’ first book, The Aves, won the 2023 Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize and is slated for publication in fall 2024! As she takes on this new chapter in her writing career, she bids farewell to WWS Chapters. WWS thanks Ryane for her commitment and grace and sends many claps and cheers for what’s to come! As we like to say in orientation, once a WWS member, always a WWS member!

Women Who Submit is proud to welcome our new Chapters Team! We happily announce as Chapters Director, our former Chapters Liaison, Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley, and introduce as Chapters Liaison, WWS member and collaborator, Thea Pueschel.

Please read below for a farewell message from Ryane and an introduction from Lucy and Thea.

Literary Play Cousins: A Farewell Message From Ryane Granados:

Black woman writers sitting in the sun, with her hand to her cheek and a smile on her face.

Recently my inquisitive middle son asked me why he had so many cousins. I only have one sister, so when I married my husband, I was drawn to his familial bonds that came with multiple siblings through biology and marriage. In addition to the cousins who carry the same surname, my son also has the privilege of play cousins. These enduring connections defined my childhood, and in turn they are enriching his. Play cousins are a mainstay in the Black community and they are bonds born from chosen family. These relationships transcend ancestral ties and date back to slavery when families were often torn apart. In my son’s case, his play cousins are the kids of our closest friends. The arrangement is best described as a braid with a group of threads crossing over and under each other into one. 

This same braided image comes to mind when I think of my role as Chapters Director for Women Who Submit. I accepted the role at a crossroads both professionally and personally. I had stepped down from a tenured teaching position to manage the medical needs of another one of my children, and I found myself in search of an identity that encompassed retired professor, overwhelmed mom, artist, activist, author, and hopeful community builder. This braid had a lot of threads, but what it was missing was the cultural continuity of close-knit networks. This is what I liken the development of our WWS chapters to be. Expanding our organizational reach was a worthy endeavor, but for me, it wasn’t purely altruistic. In all sincerity, I was in search of literary play cousins and as our chapters grew, I found them. In New Chapter Lead Orientations, I would often joke about the idea of meeting chapter leads all across the globe; a kindred connection of cousins with the shared mission of encouraging women and non-binary writers to submit their work for publication. 

I am grateful for my time as Chapters Director and after 4 plus years and 35 plus chapters, I find myself at a new crossroads. My gratitude for this journey is matched only by my appreciation for the partnership formed with my longtime Chapters Liaison, Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley. In the ongoing spirit of leadership development, another unexpected byproduct of WWS, I am excited to hand over the role of Chapters Director to Lucy. Additionally, she will be working in collaboration with Thea Pueschel, our new Chapters Liaison. Together they are exceptionally suited to help usher the chapters direction of Women Who Submit into a new and exciting season. 

As for me, I am stepping down to focus once again on family, professional commitments, and the launch of my forthcoming novella. I am also stepping out with an identity fortified by my braided connections and my multitude of literary play cousins. In my season as Chapters Director, I was given as much as I gave, and I hope that my interactions will leave a lasting impression on our ground-breaking artistic community. 

In Solidarity, 

Ryane Nicole Granados 

Outgoing WWS Chapters Director

WWS Member

Welcome

Q & A with the Chapters Team: Introducing Chapters Director, Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley and Chapters Liaison, Thea Pueschel

How and when did you first hear about Women Who Submit and how did you first become involved?

head shot of writer Lucy Rodriguez-Handley

LUCY RODRIGUEZ-HANLEY: In 2013 I took a memoir workshop with writer/editor Seth Fischer. He encouraged the women in the class to join Women Who Submit. At the time, I had no idea the positive impact this community would have in my life. I’ve gotten published by my sheroes; Vanessa Martir, Reyna Grande and Myriam Gurba. I have benefited from mentorship and a myriad of resources that have helped develop my voice as a writer. I have two young children and have found solidarity with other moms in the community. The people I’ve met have become favorite people and/or the most fantastic friends.

THEA PUESCHEL: I first heard about WWS from the Airing out Your Dirty Laundry Workshop I took at the 1888 Center in Orange, CA. The facilitator asked me if I had been submitting my work. I responded maybe once or twice a year just to validate that I am not a literary writer. She told me I needed to join the WWS. This was before the Lockdown times, and so I had to wait 6 months to attend an in-person orientation. The first time I submitted with WWS was May 11, 2019, according to Submittable.

What excites you about working with WWS Chapters?

LRH: I love community building and encouraging women and nonbinary writers to submit their work to publications. I am an optimist, every month I see the change this organization is making when our members get published, even the rejections count. Facilitating opportunities, spreading our mission and sharing resources with our chapters, like our upcoming 2024 Summer Workshops or soliciting submissions to our anthology or grants is very gratifying.  

TP: Helping others facilitate the magic of bringing more voices to the literary landscape.

What is something you wish people knew or understood about the WWS Chapters?

LRH: A chapter can be as simple as two writers getting together to submit their work to publications. You don’t need big numbers to be a successful chapter. As a Chapter Lead your sole duty is to host the gathering and cheer submissions on (most of us clap when a submission has gone out). You are not there to read someone’s work, facilitate a workshop or provide feedback. You can have multiple people leading a chapter, you can also have multiple chapters in the same region (Los Angeles and the Bay area both have multiple chapters).

TP: Each WWS chapter is a support network. A net to catch us when we get those hard-hitting rejections. A cheering squad for when we get those hard-won yeses. An audience to clap when we put our big kid chonies on and submit. For those of us humans that have come up as creative lone wolves for years and decades because we may not have the creative connections or known how to maneuver the literary world the WWS Chapters offer support. A village for us to walk on our two legs, to transform from lone wolf creatives to writers with a community. I think additionally, it’s such an important space particularly for those of us who grew up working class without connections whether we were the first generation to go to college or were bitten by the creative bug without formal education. WWS chapters bring experience, and resources.

Not all WWS Chapters are the same, but they are all worthwhile and community based.

If someone was interested in starting a chapter in their area, how might they begin that process and what does it look like?

LRH: If possible, I suggest attending a meeting to make sure it is something you want to take on. Ask yourself why you want to lead a chapter and what you’d like to gain from the experience. Do you want to lead alone or co-lead with one or two people? The process is simple, after filling out an application, we schedule an orientation where we share information, resources and best practices about the organization and the submission process. We also have a social media manager that can help you spread the word when you are ready to launch your chapter.

TP: It’s pretty easy peasy… 1. Check the WWS website for orientation dates, 2. Follow the direction and guidelines on the WWS website and submit your packet of interest to start a WWS Chapter, 3. Patiently wait while we analyze the materials, 4. Once you get your invite attend a WWS orientation, 5. Ask us questions!

We’re all writers and creatives first at WWS, what are you working on these days? Do you have any exciting news to share?

LRH: I am writing 500 words per day. The last six months have been hard for me on the creative front. I started a writing challenge this month led by fellow mom and WWS member, LiYun Alvarado. It’s a lot of shitty first drafts but I’m writing again! The goal is to get back to my memoir in May. I’m really happy about this and celebrating every day that I write a new page.

TP: Right now, I am in the process of having rehearsals for two plays that I am directing for the Short + Sweet Hollywood 10-minute play festival. I haven’t directed in a decade, so I am extremely excited about this.

In 2021, I had a solo exhibition of mixed media work at the Center in Orange. I realized that once the triptych of large format paintings stood next to each other I wasn’t pleased with how they looked. Separate I felt that the intention was clear, but when the series was lined up, I realized they just didn’t work. I like the foundation of the original paintings but feel that more is missing than my desired effect which is about displacement. I’ve been in the process of making smaller concept mockups and playing with color and design in my studio.

Monday, June 17th 6pm-7:30pm I am leading a FREE workshop Discovering Your Subconscious Thematic at the Cerritos Library in the Skylight Room. It’s a journey of personal discovery for writers. It provides a safe space to sift through the stories that attract us and analyze our own work. By discovering our personal theme, we are able to connect on a deeper level with our own work and create more generative flow.

TRANSFORMATION: A Women Who Submit Anthology

Join Women Who Submit in celebrating the publication of our third anthology, TRANSFORMATION! Thanks to the work of Managing Editors, Ryane Granados and Noriko Nakada, Advising Editor, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, eight Genre Editors, Lorinda Toledo, Erin Anadkat, Flint, Laura Sturza, Luivette Resto, Hazel Kight Witham, Aruni Wijesinghe, Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley, and publisher Nikia Chaney and Jamii Publishing, our third anthology features poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama from 42 women and nonbinary writers from around the world.

“Given these perilous times of great global and local humanitarian
failures, cruel objectives cemented by morally repugnant mindsets,
and given the history of violence which has proven all too
predictable, I know my words may appear hugely insufficient in
protecting the most vulnerable, may prove never to be enough to
diminish the sorrow and suffering of others, and yet as a writer,
I continue to write.”

Inspired by these words by Helena Maria Viramontes, shared at her AWP 2020 keynote address, Women Who Submit’s third anthology, TRANSFORMATION, centers work that speaks to the ways writers and other artists can promote change in the world.

To order a copy, visit our partner and bookseller, Libromobile.

TRANSFORMATION BOOK RELEASE PARTY WITH WEHO ARTS

Saturday April 13, 2024, 2pm-5pm

Plummer Park: 7377 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046, at the Great Hall patio

Readings by liz gonzález, Erika Ayón, Lisa Cheby, Sandy Yang, Aruni Wijesinghe, and Monona Wali

Hosted by Angela Franklin

Music by DJ Langosta

And now with a welcome from special guest, WeHo Poet Laureate, Jen Cheng.

The party will include snacks, book cake, and expo of LA literary orgs and booksellers.

This is a free event and open to all!