2018 comes to a close with another impressive roster of publications from the writers of Women Who Submit. Congratulations to all!

From Noriko Nakada‘s “Not Your Job” at Mutha Magazine:

When the doctor went to pierce
the flap of skin under your nose
with his sterile silver hook
I told you to squeeze my hand
and said, “You are so brave”

From Mahin Ibrahim‘s “Hollywood and Representation” at Nina Sadowsky:

I would not be Muslim if it weren’t for my father.

To combat “intellectual” Islamophobes, I’d like to say it is science and my own rigorous search for the truth that keeps me a believer, but it’s not.

It’s my father.

From Antonia Crane‘s “California Barbers Are on the Front Lines in the Fight for Labor Equality” at Mel Magazine:

In short, the ruling allows millions of workers — from barbers to Lyft drivers to strippers — legal protection and clout where they previously had none or were considered disposable. After all, for employers, the economic incentives to misclassify workers is colossal. 

Also from Antonia, “The Sign Flashes ‘Girls, Girls, Girls,’ and It Reminds Me that I Exist” at The Establishment:

I never told anyone about the man who punched me on the 22 until now. This is the quiet violence sex workers face every day because of gender discrimination, stigma and whorephobia. It’s easier if we stay silent and pretend it’s not happening. But it’s also easier for us. Because if we speak out about violence against sex workers, we will be blamed for living a “risky” lifestyle. We will be fingered the Whore.

From Julayne Lee‘s “Don’t Tell Me to Be Thankful for Being Adopted to a ‘Nice’ Country” at ILDA South Korean Feminist Journal:

What began as a humanitarian gesture had evolved into the reinforcement of the stigma of unwed mothers in South Korea and the intentional division of families. It is because of my desire to seek justice that I joined the planning committee for the Dual Citizenship Act, served on the ASK Steering Committee, joined the coalition to secure retroactive U.S. citizenship for all intercountry adoptees, co-founded Adoptee Solidarity Korea – Los Angeles (ASK – LA) and launched a writing workshop for adopted people of color. If we want equality and access, we have to create these opportunities and keep these spaces accessible.

Congratulations to Lisa Eve Cheby whose poems “Still Life” and “yoga for the too much alone” were published in the Santa Barbara Literary Journal and whose poems “Exorcism of My Father” and “Kitchen Closed” were published in Tipton Poetry Journal!

Congratulations to Mona Alvarado Frazier whose short story, “Lucky,” was published in Palabritas!

Congratulations to Andrea Gutierrez who reported and edited on the feature, “At Home,” at The California Sunday Magazine!

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”

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”

Saturday December 3, 2016 Wendy C. Ortiz will lead the 3rd installment in the WWS Fall Workshop Series: Public Notebook to Book. Ortiz is the author of two memoirs, Excavation (Future Tense Books, 2014) and Hollywood Notebook (Writ Large Press, 2015) and has her third book, Bruja, being release October 31, 2016 from Civil Coping Mechanisms.

Ortiz has used journals and public notebooks throughout her career. In fact, “Hollywood Notebook, a prose poem-ish memoir, and Bruja, a dreamoir, both began as public notebooks and eventually found their way to becoming print books,” and in her workshop, Ortiz will share strategies for keeping a notebook and how to shape it into a piece of writing intended for an audience.

But first, Ortiz, who has been a contest judge for Blue Mesa Review, and a reader for Hedgebrook and Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange, among others, shares her thoughts on confidence, submission, and community.

Women Who Submit: How have Notebooks been in important to your work?

Wendy C. Ortiz: I’ve been carrying notebooks all my life and still do, whether it’s a physical notebook meant for a specific subject or my phone’s Notes app. Notebooks and journals have always been a necessary part of my work.

WWS: When did you choose to take your writing seriously, and what or who helped you in that pursuit? Continue reading “Public Notebook to Book: An Interview with Wendy C. Ortiz”

Saturday, November 5th  Jay O’Shea, a martial artist and Dance Studies professor at UCLA, will be leading the second workshop in the WWS Fall Workshop Series: On Movement and Writing with Jay O’Shea. She recently offered a Ted Talk on the benefits of physical play and games with a focus on process versus winning, and of course fun.

With a unique point of view, O’Shea’s workshop is sure to shift participants’ stories and characters from the mind to their hands and feet. As O’Shea describes, “In this workshop, we treat movement as central, seeing it as a place where character, narrative arcs, and imagery can emerge in a different, sometimes more vivid, way than they do through dialogue and description.”

O’Shea writes fiction, non-fiction, and academic pieces, and below she shares with our WWS community some strategies for revision, submission, and rejection.

WOMEN WHO SUBMIT: How has movement been in important to your work?

JAY O’SHEA: Like most writers, I’ve always been a scribbler, and I couldn’t say when I started writing. I’ve also always had a physical practice: dance, yoga, rock climbing, martial arts. I spent much of my young adult life trying to figure out whether I most wanted to write or to dance. I found a way to join my passions, becoming a dance scholar and writing about dance in its historical, cultural, and political contexts. Only after finishing my PhD did I realize that I was different from other academics in that writing was not only a means to an end but a craft that I cared deeply about in itself.

Continue reading “On Movement and Writing: An Interview with Jay O’Shea”

The summer has not slowed down the members of Women Who Submit who have accumulated yet another impressive list of literary awards and publication acceptances.

Lauren Eggert-Crowe had three poems published in Angels Flight Literary West. From “Never Shop Thirsty:”

My heart is a hole I want
to stuff with bread

so I go to our Trader
Joe’s for the first time

since you left. Rearranged
shelves are enough to bring it on.

Continue reading “A WWS PUBLICATION ROUND UP FOR JULY”