This is No Joke: Humor Journals Worthy of Your Submissions

Writing Expenses Ledger

By Anita Gill

Recently, I came across Olga Kazan’s article from The Atlantic entitled “Plight of the Funny Female.” According to a mess of studies with smart people writing on notepads, women are not seen as funny.

Many women don’t consider themselves funny. Humor is for men. When going to a comedy club, you’ll see the mostly male line-up of comedians and one woman shoved in there so they seem inclusive.

Part of the problem is that men have made women think they aren’t funny. But according to Kazan’s article, men are more aggressive when it comes to being funny. They try and fail and try again. And with that, they have a higher success rate of scoring a laugh.

Gee, why does that sound familiar? Oh right! Because it’s the same thing men are doing in the publishing world.

As you probably already know, there are loads of literary journals available for your poetry, prose, and other creative media projects. But if you’re like me, and you occasionally write the snarky satiric piece, something that you feel deep down can’t be put out in the world, you may feel lost. It’s a bit more challenging to find a journal or website that showcases funny writing. The hits are old and contain several sites with broken links or closed journals.

It’s like nobody sees humor as quality writing here.

Continue reading “This is No Joke: Humor Journals Worthy of Your Submissions”

A WWS Publication Roundup for January

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 year in publications has gotten off to a great start for Women Who Submit! Congratulations to everyone who had work published in January.

From Soleil David‘s “Seoul in October” at Cleaver:

If I could be anywhere
………..in the Fall
it would be Korea

walking rubberized pavement
………..to the top of Namsan Tower
surprised by snow in October

From Melissa Chadburn‘s “The Wounded Parts of People” at Shondaland:

Nobody needs to warn me about the wounded parts of people. There was that time I worked at a Level 12 residential treatment center for adolescent boys. It was called Mid-Valley Youth Center — a home for boys who stopped smelling like children. Some of us were fooled by this change in scent, by the wild sprites of hair off their face. Some days, we thought they were men. Their crude gestures, or refusals to eat, or to follow direction — we thought we were in a power struggle with them. Some judges even forgot they were boys, and gave them sterner sentences in places for men. The deal was, they could do more time at the treatment center with less restrictions, or less time at juvenile hall. Continue reading “A WWS Publication Roundup for January”