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Happy New Year and happy writing! Congratulations to all the women who were published in January 2020!

From Mia Nakaji Monnier‘s “Netflix’s New ‘Goop Lab’ Needs More Normal People and Less Gwyneth Paltrow” at The Lily:

It’s easy to dislike Goop.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand sells a kind of self-care that appears effortless but actually requires a lot of effort and money. The contradiction makes even browsing Goop’s Instagram account — a grid of fresh produce, lush landscapes, and happy-looking white women with loose waves — an irritating exercise.

From “Stargazer” by Alana Saltz at Yes Poetry:

I roll my eyes back
to watch my personal astronomer
make marks in my sky
with clicks and lines.

From a review of Alana‘s book of poems, The Uncertainty of Light, published in Blanket Sea:

The Uncertainty of Light explores how it feels to inhabit a body that is misunderstood. Through lenses of the natural world, astronomy, science fiction, and pop culture, this evocative collection captures snapshots of a life with chronic illness while tapping into universal experiences of searching for meaning, seeking acceptance, and falling in love.

From Sakae Manning‘s “Michiko’s Waltz” at Blood Orange Review:

I knew about people touching me without asking long before the dry lipped, gap-toothed lizard man swooped around the corner of Coalman and Edgewater in a blue El Camino, all chrome and shine. I’d nearly cleared the half-way mark to the sidewalk. Two blocks from the market. A half block from home. He wanted directions and beckoned me to step closer on account of he couldn’t hear me over the engine. I scooted closer, hugging the carton of cold milk perspiring in my arms. He set his claws into my crotch and held on tight. 

From Kate Maruyama‘s “The Stories We Tell Ourselves: The Power of Narrative and Community Amid Chaos” at Entropy:

There is no good way to open this. I can only try to make sense of the summer of 2017 when my mother lost her mind and the country seemed to lose its. And the stories we told ourselves to find our way through.

*

“I think everyone’s really sad and feeling weird because of Trump. Like everyone I talk to is weird.” The argument was sound, but a little strange for my mom. She was worried, afraid. Not like herself.

From Ava Homa‘s “For Me, There’s No Escaping Iran: A Toronto Novelist on Terror, the Pain of the Ukraine Plane Crash and Glimpses of Defiance” at The Star:

The plane crash was only one of the incidents in a chain of events that have demoralized those of us who can’t find solace or prospect. We are aware that a dramatic change is not plausible or desirable, but a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel could help since day after day we receive tragic or terrifying news.

Congratulations to Margo McCall whose piece, “Into the Heart of the Storm,” was published at Blank Spaces!

Happy New Year and congratulations to everyone who was published in 2019! Cheers to these writers whose work was published in December.

From “Vanishing Twin Syndrome” by Rachael Rifkin at Pulp:

IVF produced three embryos and my doctor implanted one, leaving two on ice.

When that one didn’t take, I took a couple month break from fertility treatments. I let myself become so used to the appearance of single lines, I wondered if my body could ever overcome my disbelief. I let myself believe I wasn’t a person concerned with getting pregnant, and for a couple months I was.

Congratulations to Ashunda Norris who had four poems published at Dreginald! From “My Therapist Says I’m Mourning the Loss of An Undead Sister:”

& the grief wrecks me a bride of caskets stabbing
heated cotton fields my sister’s manic curses slice through
my father’s prayers mid request & what else is there for god to do

From Helena Lipstadt‘s “All By Myself,” at Glint:

I am having an affair
with you

you don’t care
you don’t know
ty lubie

From Soleil David‘s “Last Transit of Venus This Century Draws Stargazers Around the World” at Sinking City:

High noon & I trek out to a Gangnam playground with you,
sit on a swing, trace larger & larger arcs & you fit
your face over the pinhole projector you made, staring into
the haloed reflection of a sun as yet unblemished. Around me

Also from Soleil, “Mt. Mayon” at Mary:

It is not Pompeii yet. 
Not the stew of magma
& rainwater.

Congratulations to Romaine Washington whose poem, “1. Nuzzle and 2. Shrinking,” was published in Is It Hot In Here or Is It Just Me?: Women Over Forty Write on Aging!

Congratulations to Li Yun Alvarado whose essay, “Literatura, Música, y (Huracán) María: A Puerto Rican Poet’s Reflection After the Storm,” was published in Boricua en la Luna, a collection of work written by Puerto Rican authors!

Congratulations to Lituo Huang whose chapbook, This Long Clot of Love, was published this month!

As 2019 comes to a close, we are excited to share another great roundup of publications from Women Who Submit members. Congratulations!

From Désirée Zamorano‘s “Our Collective History: An Interview with Michael Nava” at the Los Angeles Review of Books:

MICHAEL NAVA: It’s a very common story. I’m about to turn 65. I’ve been out since I was 17. I’ve had hundreds of conversations as a gay man and realize that Bill’s story is just not that uncommon. I think it’s changed a little since 1971, where the opening is set. It has improved for the LGBTQ community in those intervening 40-plus years, so I have some emotional distance from the rawness of the story. That’s what protects me from not being able to write about it.

Also from Désirée, “Scarification” at Acentos Review:

One evening in July, in San Antonio, a group of us fled the stiff air conditioning of our rooms and gathered  impulsively at the outdoor seating of the college dorm at Texas A & M University. People brought beer, bottles of Topo Chica water, bottles of wine. Others brought hummus, potato chips, brownies. I glanced around the crowd of mostly women, and wondered, how many novels, memoirs, chapbooks, essays, present and future, did we all represent?

Congrats to Deborah Edler Brown who had two poems published in poeticdiversity, one of which, “Buddhi” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize! From “Buddhi”:

I know my wings when they show up
I feel their heft on my scapula,
on the wingspan between shoulder blades
I feel their stretch and the shadow
they draw across the ground. 

From “We’re Losing Generations of Family History Because We Don’t Share Our Stories” by Rachael Rifkin‘s at Good Housekeeping:

Most people don’t know much about their family history. This is because people usually don’t become interested in genealogy until they’re in their 50s and 60s, when they have more time to reflect on their family identity. The problem is that by that time, their grandparents and parents have often already passed away or are unable to recount their stories.

From Lisbeth Coiman‘s “El Guaire” at Acentos Review:

Before born,
El Guaire provided Caracas
With fresh water streaming down from tributaries.

Citizens proud of
First source of constant energy
In the subcontinent.

Congratulations to Helena Lipstadt whose poem, “First Light June, was published in A Dangerous New World: Maine Voices on the Climate Crisis!

Congratulations to Bonnie S. Kaplan who had two poems published in the Northridge Review!

Congratulations to Tanya Ko Hong whose book, The War Still Within, was published at KYSO Flash!

Congratulations to Romaine Washington whose poems “Br’er Boombox,” “Childman in the Motherland, Saguaro,” and “All-American Pastime,” were published in Cholla Needles 36!

Congratulations to Mareshah “MJ” Jackson whose story, “Too Nice,” was published at the Citadel!

October has shaped up to be one of the busiest months for WWS publications! Congratulations to all the women who were published in October.

From Ryane Nicole Granados‘ “Home-Schooling Away from Home” at LA Parent:

Picture a child working on lessons at the kitchen table and you’ve pictured just a tiny sliver of the home-schooling landscape in SoCal.

From “Mimesis” by Maylin Tu at Exposition Review:

I have decided to become my father, to put on his body like a second skin.

I practice rolling my head back and forth around on my neck, like a bobblehead. I put my hands on my hips and shake one finger up and down in front of me. My face tightens into an exaggerated grimace as my finger picks up speed.

From Laura Warrell‘s “I Gave Up on Love, and It Was One of the Best Decisions I Ever Made” at Huffington Post:

At the end of our date in August 2018, Justin escorted me to my car, where he nervously kissed me. When I kissed him back, he cheered, pumping his fists in the air like he’d won something. I walked from the curb to my car, and when I turned around, he was watching me, beaming.

From “documents of light” by Helena Lipstadt at About Place Journal:

when the knock comes on the door
what do we take with us?

do we carry everything in one thin suitcase?
are we walking are we running?

From “The Coyotes of India Street” by Whitney Easton at Animal:

I wake to the sound of yipping in the night. Yipping turns to howling and a chorus of coyote song ensues, echoing throughout the ravine below. My chihuahua perks his ears to stand guard. The pitch and frequency intensify as more join in.

From Mia Nakaji Monnier “What My Name Says about Who I Am” at Zora:

I became Mia Nakaji Monnier in college. I didn’t change my name so much as reveal more of it. While I’d always gone by Mia Monnier before then, the rest of my name appeared on all of my official documents: Mia Gabrielle Nakaji Monnier, a combination of Japanese and French, reflecting both of my parents. In college, I learned that my face alone rarely said enough about who I was.

From Lisbeth Coiman‘s “De Mujer a Mujer” at Lady/Liberty/Lit:

To Venezuela.

Mujer, I talk to you without hair on my tongue
As clear as this blue sky over our heads
Here is a mojito
Take a sip
I don’t have a drawer inside to hold unspoken truths

From “Prayer for a Sunday Morning” by Deborah Edler Brown at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Divine wisdom,
Please show me how

To breathe
When the smell of hatred
Is hot and dank against my cheek

From Lindsey Skillen‘s “Labor Day” at Cosmonauts Avenue:

I’m not the kind of woman who would participate in a threesome, which is exactly why I went. I’m lately trying to be a different sort of woman—one who can pull off an edgy haircut. A sort of Brooklyn-blonde pageboy kind of haircut. I’m Jean Seberg from Breathless in my mind.

From “We are our own Multitude: Los Angeles’ Black Panamanian Community” by Jenise Miller at Boom California:

On a Saturday morning in late October, public workers in downtown Los Angeles block off the stretch of Broadway from Olympic Boulevard to Hill Street. Around 10 am, a crowd gathers, donned in blue and red garments, shirts embroidered with mola, white polleras with bright-colored pom-poms, or Panama flags draped across their backs, to celebrate the Annual Panamanian Independence Day Parade. 

From “An Immigrant Mom’s Push for Understanding” by Tanya Ko Hong at LA Parent:

My children bring magic into my life. However, there is no map to navigate being a parent in a multicultural society, especially when you are an immigrant parent.

Congratulations to Diana Love for having two poems published at Kelp Journal! From “Thrown Back in the Surf:”

Before the sense of self
there must be some surroundings.
In my green blue days of youth
the Valley was a smog-wrapped bubble,
a satellite apart, a cushion-edged suburban haze

Congratulations to Peggy Dobreer for having her poetry published in Aeolian Harp Series, Vo. 5!

Congratulations to Désirée Zamorano whose story “Bobby’s Leave 1968” was published in ¡PA’QUE TU LO SEPAS! edited by Angel Luis Colón!

Congratulations to Liz Harmer whose story, “Decisive Action,” was published at PRISM International!

The leaves are turning as the writers from Women Who Submit continue to get their words into the world. Congratulations to all the women who were published in September!

From Erika Schikel‘s review of Patti Smith’s memoir Year of the Monkey at Book & Film Globe:

It begins on the first morning of 2016, at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz. Patti has just played a gig at the Fillmore, celebrated her birthday, and visited Sandy, a lifelong friend who has suffered a brain aneurysm and lies unconscious in the hospital. She wanders outside the motel and takes a Polaroid of its googie sign and says to it, “Thanks, Dream Motel.”

From Ja’net Danielo‘s “The Fact of Things” at Frontier Poetry:

I am staring out the bus
window, watching
trees spin green
down a suburban
street. I am looking
for poetry in the blur
of leaves, in the lavender-
blue smear of jacarandas,
which is to say, I am
trying to hold something
without touching it

From “Venus” by Lituo Huang at goodbaad:

I am hungry for you, brown girl.
Spider-like you crawl,
your eyes are milk.
Do not gaze upward with your mouth
open, red.

Also from Lituo, “I Knew a Cat Once” at Recenter Press:

I knew a cat once.
Kitten-yellow
eyes it had.
Egg yolks against the edge of its tongue
purled with hooks
split and released daylight
onto a cooling plate.

From “I Do Not Know Where the Children Are” by Désirée Zamorano at the Los Angeles Review of Books:

I do not know where the children are. I do not know where their parents are. I do not know how our government supports this horror. I do not know what I can do.

Also from Désirée , “Angel Luis Colon: On Writing Violence” at CrimeReads:

My first loves were horror and literary fiction. Being a kid from the Bronx it never really struck me that you could write about the Bronx. I don’t know why; I imagine because when things are too close to home you just don’t see them from that perspective. When I really discovered the newer wave of crime fiction in the last ten years, I got exposed to that from places like Beat to a Pulp, Needle Magazine. So it’s kind of funny to realize, oh, people like this? I can write stories about this?

From Margo McCall‘s “Riverbed” at Pomona Valley Review:

Carrie’s last client of the day was a surprise, although she already sensed that
after a few more weeks in this job, nothing would surprise her. As she viewed the
latest personification of human need slumped in the worn chair beyond her desk,
she saw a guy her own age—and not bad looking either.

Congratulations to Jenise Miller who had two poems published at Cultural Weekly! From “Dolphins:”

Yolanda “Yo-Yo”
Whitaker whipped crimped,
blonde braids and bragged
the earrings I wear are called dolphins
and I became bigger

From Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera‘s “Swirling Debris” at Citron Review:

She stands on the corner, only one young man next to her.
His headphone bass vibrates the air.
The signal changes to walk.

Congratulations to Helena Lipstadt whose poem, “Everybody Knows” was published at Free State Review!

Congratulations to Lindsey Skillen whose story, “Labor Day,” was published at Cosmonauts Review!

Congratulations to Colette Sartor whose story collection, Once Removed, debuted this season!

Congratulations to Desiree Kannel whose story, “Running Man” was published in Running Wild Press’ Anthology of Stories!

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!

What is a Tier 1 journal, you may ask? While the title *can* be a little subjective, and the definitions can be slippery, in general, Tier 1 means the journal pays its contributors, has a wide distribution, often features writing that gets nominated for awards, holds contests, and is widely known. We have more information about submitting to Tier 1 here in this blog post written by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo.

Continue reading “Reportback from the sixth annual Submission Blitz”

The summer has come to an end but that hasn’t stopped Women Who Submit writers from getting their words into the world! Congrats to everyone who had work published in August.

From Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo‘s “Ghost Interview with a Soldier in the Peach Orchard” at Rivard Report:

Gettysburg National Military Park

In your final moments, whom did you think of?
Was this someone waiting for you to return? 
I worry I will never find that someone waiting

behind a thick front door of a home we made together. 

From Désirée Zamorano‘s “Memento Mori: On Angel Luis Colón’s ‘Hell Chose Me‘” at Los Angeles Review of Books:

Set in contemporary Bronx, moving between the past and the present, it’s a tense and intriguing thrill ride. Sure, we’ve met mordant, conflicted assassins before, like Lawrence Block’s Keller, Barry Eisler’s John Rain, or Bill Hader’s Barry. In Colón’s hands, Walsh hits familiar notes, but in a key all his own…

From Kate Maruyama‘s “Traces” at Magnolia Review:

Seven months after we lost our father to cancer, we were meeting again, Roger, Janey and I, to sort through the arrangements for our mother’s funeral. Who loses both of their parents so close together? Who loses both of their parents so young? I thought they’d at least be around to see a grandkid or two.

From an interview with Carla Sameth about her debut memoir One Day on the Gold Line at Points:

I think that writing as a family member of those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction (both my wife and son are in recovery) provides a unique perspective. I write a lot about the process I went through understanding addiction as a disease, and looking at my own shit (including addictive behavior) and how I interacted with my son who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction in his teens.

Read an excerpt of Carla‘s memoir at Angels Flight Literary West!

From Danielle Mitchell‘s “Not Wolf” at Poets Reading the News:

Not red, not Mexican, not lowland.
                      No bonnet, no white-tailed, bighorn.

Forget black foot, leave the beach
                      the brow-antlered, San Joaquin, San

Miguel, no woodland, no salt marsh.

From “Visit to Makon” by Bo Hwang at wildness:

After a winter of droughts, my childhood friend—my only kind of sweetheart—moves back to Makon. The city we grew up in; the city we all left. She’s there now, in a house with twelve women, only one her age, a high school teacher from another island, the rest are medical students.

“Seven balconies,” she boasts. “You can see the hospital.”

From Liz Harmer‘s “Right to Grapple” at the Malahat Review:

Let me give you an idea of the sorts of discussions we get into here. On the first Sunday afternoon, just after the little blue VW bug scraped out of here on the gravel road with my mom inside it, I managed to get into an argument about rocks. I was standing near this old tetherball post with my three sacks—my backpack, my rolled-up sleeping bag, and my garbage bag full of clothes—waiting for one of the H______s to escort me to my cabin and halfheartedly hitting the ball. Blam. Blam. Blam in one direction, blam in the other. Then this guy whose real name I cannot reveal comes up to me. 

From Cori Bratby-Rudd‘s “Puppyelectric” at Nailed:

I want Indian food, urgently, intensely, the cream of the tikka masala, the flaked fluffed naan, and so I order it because I remember desperation and I refuse to feel it again. I don’t just order it, I order it delivered and I feel something like royalty, for wanting something and then for having it. Strange to want and then get, as though desires can actually happen for someone like me.

From Li Yun Alvarado‘s “Poe Park” at Aster(ix) Journal:

From this cottage,
where he heard
his young cousin
bride, Virginia

Congratulations to Tanya Ko Hong whose poem, “The Crying Game” was published at Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea!

Congratulations to Amanda L. Andrei whose script, Waiting for a Birthday, was published in The First Five Years Anthology from Thinking in Full Color!

July has been one of the most prolific months for WWS writers with a long list of publications. Congrats to all!

Congratulations to Carla Sameth whose memoir, One Day on the Gold Line, was released this July! Check out this interview of Carla in LitFest Pasadena!

From “I Bow to the Lessor Teacher” by Thea Pueschel at Medium:

I’ve noticed a tendency in life at studios and online of this idea that some teachers are more worthy of students, of classes or calling themselves a teacher. This little box has been around since I can remember. We’ve all heard the dismissive tone “oh, that’s not yoga” or “they’re not a real teacher.”

From “A Quarrel with the Village of My Birth” by Helena Lipstadt at Porter House Review:

which is not a village but
a shivering capital
of Europe, may she rot and be
reborn with heart. Even her
birthday song is martial. Even
her avenues are lined with
pikes. 

From Jacquelyn Stolos‘ “Wide-Shot” at Bodega:

There’s been something going on with the cat’s left eye for about a week now, this cloudy gray ooze leaking out of her tear duct. I’ve been swabbing it away with a cotton ball, once in the morning before I leave for work and once in the evening when I get home. She doesn’t let Owen do it. We’ve been trying to hold off on another trip to the vet. Poor thing is already on five daily medications, and at some point you’ve just got to consider quality of life.

From Noriko Nakada‘s “Threatened Abortion” at SFWP:

I didn’t realize I was pregnant until we were moving out of the duplex and into our new condo. After a long day of hauling boxes, I collapsed on the new hardwood floors and tried to understand my exhaustion. It was a new kind of tired—like I couldn’t get up off the floor—and I tried to remember the last time I had my period. That was when I asked my partner to pick up a test. It was New Year’s Eve. The test came up positive.

From Lituo Huang‘s “Lemonade” at Bethlehem Writers Roundtable:

Lanie looked over the table at her little sister. Cherie was having a fit, ripping her pink sundress, stomping her bare feet on the grass, pulling her frizzy braid. “I hate chocolate cake!”

From Deirdre Hennings‘ “Making Her Night” at Pulse:

In Central Park twilight,
we drop our holiday mood
like a heavy sweater in the heat
when that call sends us reeling
as leukemia sucks us
into its bell jar, rings
    our ears, jangles
          minds, reverberates 
              into bone.

Congratulations to Natalie Smith Parra whose essay “Eviction Blues,” Sakae Manning whose poem “Oakland” and Jenise Miller whose poem “Ode to the Mamas Who Make Language Beautiful” were all published in Dryland!

Congratulations to Sabrina Im who had 3 poems – “Love Letter for a Lotus,” Body Memory,” and “An August Musing” – published in Angel City Review!

Congratulations to Victoria Lynne McCoy whose poem “Dispatched from Home” was published in Tahoma Literary Review!

Congratulations to Gerda Govine Ituarte whose poem “Temple of Courage Chance Change” was featured in the Bahvna Mehta exhibit catalog!

And, finally, congratulations to Arielle Silver who launched Tidal Journal!