Friday, July 10, 2026 at 7pmjoin Women Who Submit for PUBLISHED! 2026 at the Democracy Center (100 N Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012). We’re celebrating literary publications from the last 12 months as reported through the WWS Monthly Publication Roundup edited by Team Member, Ariadne Makridakis Arroyo. Come for the stories and poetry, stay for the cake and music.
The night includes featured readings from Gabriella Contratto, Mahru Elahi, Stephanie Barbé Hammer, Jacqueline Lyons, Ronna Magy, Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley, Carla Sameth, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Audrey Shipp, and is hosted by Suhasini Yeeda.
Women Who Submit (WWS) is a literary organization empowering women and nonbinary writers to submit work for publication as an action for gender parity and wider representation of marginalized writers in literary publishing. WWS offers the following free services to women and nonbinary writers across LA County and to nearly 20 chapters both in the US and abroad:
Professional development panels and workshops with hybrid options
Individual grants of $400 for BIPOC writers for conference/residency travel fees
Individual grants of up to $100 for submission fees
Online publication opportunities and book reviews with the WWS Blog Series
Open mics and readings featuring WWS members
Outreach to conferences, festivals, and college campuses
Remote community circles and online discussion boards
By joining the WWS community, you support the expansion of what it means to be a writer and whose stories get told.
The WWS CERTIFIED list was first created for AWP-Los Angeles in 2025 by WWS Board member, Noriko Nakada. Of the list’s inception she said, “In 2019, I walked into the book fair at AWP Portland and into complete overwhelm. The enormous convention space held presses big and large, writing programs both esteemed and unheard of and writers, agents, and publicists everywhere. The whole place was so big and white and male. I had no idea where I might feel welcomed, where my stories may find a home.” The goal was to find the spaces that illustrated a clear appreciation for diverse voices. She combed through the Bookfair list of exhibitors looking for two criteria: an editorial board, board of directors, or masthead that was at least 50% women and 50% POC.
Using these same criteria, WWS Board member, Ashton Cynthia Clarke has curated a new list for AWP-Baltimore. Below are 32 (11 more than last year!) literary magazines, journals, organizations, and writing programs that have at least 50% women and 50% POC on their mastheads and/or Boards. Check them out. Chat them up, and then, after AWP, submit your words.
Each year Women Who Submit puts together a guide of all places you can find our writers, partners, and friends. See below for a list of panels, readings, and meetups where our writers are featured and use this list catch up with likeminded folks.
Features: Hosted by Kai Coggen and with readings by Ching-In Chen, Brenda Vaca, Dahlia Aguilar, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, and many others.
Location: United Methodist Church – 10 E Mount Vernon Place
Description: Start your AWP on Wednesday night at this historic former church with 32poems, Barrelhouse, and Smartish Pace a 5 min drive from AWP in beautiful Mt. Vernon. Part of the fun of this event is seeing inside an iconic historic space in Baltimore: a long-shuttered 19th-century church at the inception point of being reimagined and renovated for the future. It’s really beautiful, but it means the venue is not ADA accessible and has quirky bathrooms. Admission is free.
Features: Amy Raasch, Emma De Lisle, Erin O’Luanaigh, Grace Gilbert, and many others.
Location: Room 323, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 9:00am – 10:15am
Description: The X in Xicana is the vital confluence of past with future marked by our present voices. Eighty contemporary Xicana writers make up Somos Xicanas, an anthology that connects those represented with future generations in a call to liberate all. “Échale tu canto al viento, pa’ que llega más lejos,” writes editor Luz Schweig in the introduction. Join this panel with the anthology’s editor, publisher, and contributors to discuss from where those songs derive and just how far they can go.
Features: Dahlia Aguilar, Brenda Vaca, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, and Angela C Trudell Vasquez
Location: Room 329, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 9:00am – 10:15am
Description: Excavating the gritty literary landscape of sexual violence is scary. By sharing how we write our dark emotional terrains, this diverse panel of women will discuss how we create safe spaces to teach students ways to approach trauma such as rape, sexual harassment, and incest. What role do content warnings play? While acknowledging potential triggers and navigating Title IX requirements, how do we equip our students with the tools they need to overcome resistance, shame, and silence?
Features: Nicole Walker, Karen Michelle Otero, Brooke Champagne, Sue William Silverman, and Jill Christman
Location: Room 328, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 12:10pm – 1:25pm
Description: House of Amal is in its sixth year of community programming, teaching, mentorship, and publishing. Amid an uptick in global Islamophobia, it is vital to create spaces centered on both craft and community for aspiring Muslim writers who require a unique kind of mentorship. Bridging the overlap between the spiritual, literary, and artistic identities, House of Amal will share the lessons learned while crafting and recrafting our twelve-month Writing Residency curriculum and membership programming.
Features: Sara Bawany, Safiya Khan, Amal Kassir, and Salma Mohammad
Location: Room 301, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 1:45pm – 3:00pm
Description: Writing has remained an essential practice for Levantine peoples, even during times of war. Spoken word poets from Syria and Palestine will perform powerful political poems inspired by their personal and familial experiences with loss through war, genocide, and settler colonialism. They discuss the intersection of their Muslim and Levant identities and the impact of the diaspora on their poetry, and further, how this influences their teaching of both craft and writing identity at House of Amal.
Features: Sara Bawany, Salma Mohammad, Amal Kassir
Location: Angie’s Seafood, 1727 E Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21231
Time: 5:30pm – 7:00pm
Description: Butterflies Over Land is an anthology co-edited by Jen Cheng and Camille Hernandez. Readers will be reading from the book and other work.
Come enjoy the world premiere and book launch party of a new immigrant rights anthology BUTTERFLIES OVER LAND: Voices and Visions Resisting Anti-Immigrant Terror. This book includes a mix of genres, from poetry to nonfiction personal essays and short fiction. This off-site event offers a conversation about immigrant rights from Southern California and nationwide.
Location: Angeli’s Pizzeria, 413 S High Street, Baltimore
Time: 5:30PM – 7:30PM
Description: We are really excited to introduce you all to our new poets and Joel Long‘s essay collection! Please join us in Baltimore for our #AWP26 offsite reading. Angeli’s is a short walk from the convention center and a chance to relax and enjoy great food in Baltimore’s Little Italy. We have reserved this great area all to ourselves, which is fully accessible.
Features: Krissy Kludt, Holly Johnsen, Natalya Sukhonos, VA Smith, and Joel Long
Location: Chesapeake Wine Company – 2400 Boston Street, suite 112
Time: 6:00pm – 7:45pm
Description: Join Alice James and Persea for a fabu offsite reading at the lovely Chesapeake Wine Company on Thursday March 5th, beginning at 6pm. Free appetizers, cash bar, and many memorable poems from new/recent books from both presses!
Features: Michelle Peñaloza, Carey Salerno, Cecily Parks, Elizabeth Bradfield, and others.
Location: Room 315, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 9:00am – 10:15am
Description: As cultural touchstones, fairy tales and myths provide fertile creative ground. Leveraging their known settings, characters, and story arcs, writers can slip into ekphrasis, persona, narrative, and more. This panel will offer examples and prompts from poets and prose writers of diverse cultural backgrounds who have used tales and myths to process grief; explore emigration and culture; and question gender, power, and neurodivergence, while using the familiar as a palimpsest to write something new.
Features: Emily Perez, Oliver de la Paz, Kate Bernheimer, and Jessica Q. Stark, and Elline Lipkin
Location: Ballroom II, Baltimore Convention Center, Level 400
Time: 10:35am – 11:50am
Description: When you are active in your local literary community, how do you carve out time to maintain a writing practice? After reading from their work, the poet laureate of Wisconsin, the cofounder of a vibrant reading series in Philadelphia, and the executive director of a community-based literary organization in California will share insights on the challenges of balancing their artistic practice while also serving their local communities.
Features: Raina Leon, Brenda Cardenas, Karla Cordero, and Cloud Delfina Cardona
Location: Room 318-319, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 10:35am – 11:50am
Description: Moving off the page and through the body, five multigenre writers activate possibilities for witness, solidarity, and transformation through performance. The panel celebrates performance as a vital leap from the public literary reading, a meeting of form and content that builds community through practices of ritual, generative discomfort, and care. Panelists within and outside the academy will share and discuss their work to provoke writers toward expansive, liberatory creative practices.
Features: Crystal Odelle, Ching-In Chen, Gabrielle Civil, Joss Barton, and Ali Gali
Location: Room 315, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 12:10pm – 1:25pm
Description: It is imperative that our social justice novels live anew on stage. This panel explores the stage adaptation of Keenan Norris’s award-winning novel The Confession of Copeland Cane, examining social realism as an enduring genre and the systemic inequities limiting such works by Black authors. Featuring authors, playwrights, and educators and casting audience members as “spect-actors,” this panel will model the transformative power of collective performance in bringing social justice narratives from page to stage.
Features: Tommy Mouton, Deborah Mouton, Toni Ann Johnson, Keenan Norris, and Timmia DeRoy
Location: Baltimore Brewhouse 511 W Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21201
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Description: There are moments when stories are not just read but truly shared. Where Our Voices Meet is one of those moments. Each poet carries their own rhythm and lived experience, and each voice reflects a different way of seeing the world. When they come together in the same space, something meaningful happens.
Features: Stella the Poet, Peter Lechuga, Hope Cerna, Jefferey Martin, Cherice Cameron, Donato Martinez, and Erica Castro
Location: Baltimore Convention Center – Room: 308, Level 300
Time: 10:15am – 11:30am
Description: Writer’s block is a perpetual problem. Confronted with an ominous blank page, what is a writer to do? This craft panel explores the ways in which creative practices outside of writing—film, painting, dance, and performance—can bring us deeper into writing. Books are not born from vacuum. The panel seeks to uncover how engagement with media outside of text can, in fact, be a powerful gateway into writing books and beyond. A presentation of each writer’s work concludes the craft panel.
Features: Cathy Linh Che, Elisabeth Houston, Serena Chopra, Jackie Wang, and Gabrielle Civil
Location: Bookfair Stage, Hall A-D, Level 100, Baltimore Convention Center
Time: 12:10 PM – 1:25 PM EST
Description: “It’s Not Okay” is a poetry event featuring powerful voices speaking out against injustice. These poets will share work about the impact of immigration policies on families, the violence in Gaza, and the pain and frustration so many are feeling. Poets will read about the injustices of our current administration in order to bring light and connect with the audience regarding these issues. Published poets: Cherice Cameron, Peter Lechuga, Clara Roque-Wagner, Erica Castro, and Jeffery Martin.
Features: Peter Lechuga, Jeffrey Martin, Cherice Cameron, and Erica Lopez
Location: Wet City Brewing, 223 W Chase Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Description: A reading celebrating FlowerSong Press authors.
Features: John Compton, Tatian Figueroa Ramirez, Eddie Vega, Michelle Otero, Luivette Resto, Sarah Browning, Natalia Treviño, Genevieve Betts, and Joseph Ross
Description: Hosted by the WWS-DMV chapter, come and meet up with other Women Who Submit members throughout the nation and the world. Say hello, debrief with other writers on your conference experience, and share publication goals!
Description: Join Daxson Publishing for an essential after hours reading exploring liberation in a changing landscape. Featuring a diverse lineup of West Coast voices, this event explores the intersection of identity, geography, and the navigation of a rapidly changing world.
Features: Cherice Cameron, Donator Martinez, Erica Castro, Jeffery Martin, Hope Cerna, Peter Lechuga, and Stella the Poet
Saturday, September 13, 2025 Women Who Submit (WWS) hosts our 12th annual SUBMIT 1 Submission Drive. This marks the one day a year we encourage women and nonbinary writers across the globe to submit 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 be apart of the movement!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
1. Before September 13th, study this list of “Top Ranked Journals of 2025” with current open calls to find a good fit for your work. BE SURE TO READ AND FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES.
2. On September 13th, submit your 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:
***BE SURE TO CHECK TIME ZONES***
WWS-Los Angeles Saturday, September 13, 2025, 5pm-8pm Pacific Blossom Market Hall 264 S Mission Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776 2nd Floor Meeting Room Elevator access, ADA bathrooms, and free parking available Hosted by Luivette Resto Contact: admin@womenwhosubmtilit.org
WWS-Austin, Texas Saturday, September 13, 2025, 9:30am-11:30am Central Central Market (Upstairs) / 38th Street Location Contact: ramona.reeves@gmail.com
WWS-Bay Area - In person with Carrie Saturday, September 13, 2025, 1pm-3pm Pacific San Francisco Public Library – Main 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 Mary Louise Stong Conference Room, 1st Floor https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/rooms/mary-louise-stong-conference-room 415-557-4400 https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library
WWS-Bay Area - Virtual with Joyce Saturday, September 13, 2025, 2pm–4pm Pacific Check in with members between 2pm-3pm Pacific Via ZOOM To register for link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGUMN8aUPSTUdAyn5FvzOqArrHIj9xyNlMFUBwegBryjLOhg/viewform
WWS-Europe Saturday, September 13, 11am-12pm Central European Via Zoom with Joy Notoma Contact: joy.notoma@gmail.com
WWS-Long Beach Saturday, September 13, 2025, 10am-12pm Pacific Wrigley Coffee 437 W. Willow Street, Long Beach, CA 90806 Contact: lucy@lulustuff.com
WWS-San Antonio, Texas Saturday, September 13, 2025, 11am-4pm Central Archie's Coffee 9630 Huebner Rd, San Antonio, TX 78240 Contact: Queenviktory@yahoo.com
WWS-West Hollywood Saturday, September 13, 2025, 11am-1pm Pacific WeHo Library 625 N San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069 Contact: jasmine.vallejo.love@gmail.com
4. Tag @WomenWhoSubmit on Facebook or 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.
6. Consider donating to WWS to support more women and nonbinary writers submitting their work for publication.
HOW TO PREPARE A SUBMISSION:
READ AND FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES: It may sound obvious, but editors can receive thousands of submissions a year. If you don’t follow their guidelines, they won’t bother with reading your work and automatically reject it. Don’t make it easy for them!
READ A SAMPLE OF THE JOURNAL: All journals ask that submitters read the journal before submitting. You don’t have to read the whole journal or even more than one, but do read a few sample pieces in the genre you’re submitting in to see how your work may fit in.
PERSONALIZE YOUR COVER LETTER: Address your letter to the genre editor by name and be sure to include a sentence that details something you like about the journal, a previously published piece, or how you see your work fitting in. This will show you’ve read ahead of time and you’re choosing them specifically. For more on cover letters, check out this article from Adroit Journal.
CHOOSE A PIECE YOU LOVE: If you want your writing to stand out to readers and editors, make sure it’s a piece of writing you’re excited to share or something you feel must be shared. You can’t expect others to love something you’re only lukewarm about.
GIVE IT TO A READER: Before submitting, see if you can exchange pages with a friend for notes and then revise it to the best of your ability. No writing will ever be perfect, but a second set of eyes can do wonders. Finally, make sure to read it aloud to catch any errors before hitting send.
MANUSCRIPT SUPPORT:
WWS Board member, Noriko Nakada is hosting a Submission Q&A on Saturday, September 6, 2025 from 9:30am-10:30am Pacific / 12:30pm-1:30pm Eastern / 6:30pm-7:30pm Central European. This event is on Zoom and is an opportunity to meet with an experienced published author, editor, and indie publisher. Come with all your submission-related questions.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
If you are a WWS member, either locally in Los Angeles or with a WWS Chapter, you are invited to apply for financial support through the Ashaki M. Jackson No Barriers Regrant. WWS members can request between $20 – $100 to be used toward their submission fees for SUBMIT 1 and other submission goals during the month of September. Applications are due September 10th.
To request an application form, email admin@womenwhosubmitlit.org.
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, but we’re excited to continue the tradition of gathering in public places to share our work and our joy as one community.
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.
Remote community circles and online discussion boards
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.
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!
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during May 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 join me in celebrating our members who published in May of 2024!
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during March and April 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 join me in celebrating our members who published in March and April of 2024!
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during February 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 join me in celebrating our members who published in February 2024!
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference is next week, and Women Who Submit is here to help you maneuver through the mayhem. If you’re unfamiliar with the AWP conference, it is the largest writers conference in the nation that lasts four days. It’s typically in the winter, and it moves around the country each year. Next year, AWP 2025 will be in Los Angeles! We’re already thinking about what fun event we can do to celebrate.
If you are attending AWP Kansas City, WWS hopes to help you with a list of events from our members as well as from writers, presses, schools, and orgs we love and support. Look through the listing and find the folks you’d like to link up with. My favorite thing to do at AWP is attend a couple of panels featuring my friends. It’s always nice to support your community, and seeing friendly faces at the front of the room is calming. Plus, I know I’ll never be disappointed (there’s a reason they’re my friends).
If the bookfair is where you like to spend your time, be sure to visit Women Who Submit at the Kaya Press table #838. We will be selling copies of our newest anthology TRANSFORMATION, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9am-12pm. Come say hi!
A quick list of dos:
Drink water
Carry snacks
Take breaks outside the convention center
Say yes to invitations to coffee, lunch, or dinner
Panelists: Maria Maloney, Carolina Monsiváis, Elisa Garza, Katherine Hoerth, Laura Cesarco Eglin
Description: Throughout our lives, we encounter various health challenges and gender expectations on our bodies that test our physical and emotional well-being. However, there is beauty to be found in celebrating our bodies. This panel of poets shares and discusses poetry of resilience and celebration of our bodies to find meaning and perspective. The panel explores the transformative power of writing that honors the courage it takes to embrace the diversity of our bodies.
This virtual event was prerecorded. It will be available to watch on-demand online starting on Wednesday, February 7, 2024 through Thursday, March 7, 2024.
Room 2209, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Juanita Mantz, Toni Ann Johnson, Hannah Sward, Nikia Chaney, and Laurie Markvart will read from their work and discuss writing about difficult topics based on themselves and their families.
Description: How do you write your tale with compassion and love when it is a hard story to tell? These five writers will read from their works of memoir and autobiographical fiction touching on their own stories and their family stories of addiction, mental illness, trauma, neglect, and chaos. After, they will talk about how they were able to navigate the choppy waters of truth telling in their books, and how they use their voices for change and to highlight their own stories of redemption and forgiveness.
Room 2215A, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Viktoria Valenzuela, Cloud Delfina Cardona, Carlos Espinoza, Maria Maloney, Edward Vidaurre
Description: As the United States continues to diversify, state legislatures advance bills that target people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. Publishing is one of the only industries that gives a truer representation of the richly complex Latine populations in the U.S. and their contribution to culture, history, and literary landscape. This panel of independent publishers from the U.S.-Mexico border discusses the importance of publishing Latine, including LGBTQ+ Latine authors in Texas and the U.S..
Description: Accustomed to wielding multiple perspectives, many BIPOC, queer, and neurodivergent writers are drawn to fragmented or hybrid forms: multimodal cross-genre mosaics of personal experience, and cultural, social, political, or natural history. Our panelists work across poetry, performance, nonfiction, and folklore, and will explore the craft and challenges of fragmented forms, offering inspiration and motivation to embrace hybridity as a way to claim space for historically marginalized communities.
BOOK SIGNING: Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press 2023) by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo
Description: Four writers will discuss decolonizing American literature through the examples of literary works in the colonial languages of English and French from Black, brown, and Asian writers across the world, as well as literature in Indian languages, including Urdu and Bengali. Panelists will discuss the goals of decolonial anglophone literature and consider the challenges and strategies of writers confronting imperial patterns in American Literature.
Room 2103A, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, Deb Olin Unferth, Elline Lipkin, Mihaela Moscaliuc, and Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Description: “I’m not good at writing,” “I don’t know what to write,” and “My English isn’t good enough”—working with creative writers outside English departments requires shifts in expectations, approaches, and consciousness. This panel gathers those working in a variety of nontraditional settings: libraries, prisons, hospitals, and teacher certification programs. Each panelist addresses challenges they’ve encountered and strategies for success to teach with courage, creativity, and care.
Room 2215C, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Cesar De Leon, Sehba Sarwar, Emmy Perez, Carolina Monsivais, Celina Gomez
Description: Poets Against Walls anthology/handbook features poetry and hybrid writings from the geopolitical spaces of the borderlands, along with a history of the collective’s social actions, discussions on craft, and writing prompts. In addition to reading short selections of their work and speaking on the value of writing directly about communities under attack, panelists will provide tips and strategies for writing what some may feel dissuaded from in workshop spaces: crafting work for social change.
Room 2105, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Jacqui Morton, Erika Meitner, Carla Sameth, Maria Novotny, Robin Silbergleid
Description: How do writers use poetry and nonfiction to explore reproductive choice, health, and loss? What are the unique challenges and risks raised in the act of writing about reproductive topics, including infertility, miscarriage, and abortion? How does the stigma of discussing the intimate emotional and bodily aspects of reproduction carry over to the page? How do these issues change across genre? Writers with a range of experiences and backgrounds will read from their work and engage these issues.
Room 2104B, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Sarah A Chavez, Ever Jones, Ching-In Chen, Rochelle Hurt
Description: This panel explores inclusive innovations in creative writing workshop learned from remote instruction during the pandemic. Since “getting back to normal,” an assumption has been made that we can and should return to previous pedagogical models. But should we? Has the traditional workshop model successfully served the growing diversity in classrooms? From varied subject positions and range of courses taught, panelists will elaborate on ways that workshop practices can and have shifted toward equity.
BLK + BRWN.: 104 1/2 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO 64111
Featured readers: Stephanie Niu, m. mick powell, mónica teresa ortiz, cloud deflina cardona, Bianca Alyssa Pérez, lily someson, Ae Hee Lee, Jae Nichelle, and Ashley-Devon Williamston.
Description: Host Publications proudly presents “A Feminist Reading at AWP Kansas City’’ featuring nine women & non-binary authors. A special opportunity to celebrate our 2023/2024 chapbooks, threesome in the last Toyota Celica and Survived By at the independently owned Kansas City Bookstore BLK+BRWN.
READING: AWP Offsite Reading with Co•Im•Press, Green Writers Press, Mouthfeel Press, and Noemi Press
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Café Corazón: 110 Southwest Blvd
READING: Macondo Open Mic
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Mattie Rhodes Cultural Center: 1701 Jarboe St, Kansas City, MO 64108
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2024
BOOK SIGNING: Breaking Pattern (Inlandia Books 2023) by Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera & Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press 2023) by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo
Description: These Chicana/x feminist poets, memoirists, artists, administrators, and professors have invested a collective ninety years on projects that lingered long past their anticipated finish dates. Because we represent communities whose stories might not otherwise be heard, the writing process can be especially daunting. We’ll talk about how we got it done, the communities that supported us, how we handled rejection, how we navigated this long relationship, or how we finally let go and moved on.
BOOK SIGNING: Catastrophic Molting by Amy Shimshon-Santo
Room 2104B, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Luivette Resto, Adrian Cepeda, Vincent Cooper, and Edward Vidaurre
Description: FlowerSong Press and Mouthfeel Press are just a small representation of the Latinx-owned independent presses creating vibrant work in the Borderlands. Both founded in Texas, these presses publish new, emerging, and established writers who’ve historically gone underrepresented, but whose words hold the power of resilience and transformation. This poetry reading celebrates contemporary Latinx poets and their books of struggle, truth, and hope as a call to elevate diverse voices and spread cultura.
Room 3501 EF, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 3
Panelists: Chaiti Sen, Toni Ann Johnson, Rose Smith, Magdalena Bartkowska, and Natalia Sylvester
Description: Who has the right to grow up in American literature? On this panel, authors discuss the joys, challenges, and importance of writing and publishing diverse narratives about American girlhoods. Getting these stories past the gatekeepers, who often misunderstand and reject them for being “too quiet” or “too small,” requires courage and persistence. When our own inner critics tell us such stories don’t truly matter, how do we push beyond our doubt and continue writing on a path to publication?
Room 2104A, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Noriko Nakada, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, Nikia Chaney, Sarah Rafael Garcia, Ryane Nicole Granados
Description: Inspired by Helena Maria Viramontes’s 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. By focusing on generosity and collaboration, shared leadership and mentorship, and inclusive partnerships, panelists discuss how Women Who Submit makes this change a reality not just in the writing they publish but in the ways they edit, publish, and promote their writers.
READING: A Dozen Nothing AWP Offsite Reading
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Vulpes Bastille: 1737 Locust St, Kansas City, MO 64108
Featured readers: César de León, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Michelle Otero, and Eddie Vega.
Description: Friday, February 9, FlowerSong Press will be teaming up with CavanKerry Press, Acre Books, and Perugia Press for an AWP 2024 offsite reading at Habitat Contemporary. A big shout out to Dimitri Reyes for putting this together.
Room 2104B, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Olga Garcia, Karleen Pendelton Jimenez, Amelia María de la Luz Montes, Myriam Gurba
Description: tatiana de la tierra (1961–2012) was a Latina lesbian writer and trailblazer. In the nineties, she cofounded Esto No Tiene Nombre and Conomoción magazines featuring Latina lesbians in the United States and abroad. She later authored her iconic For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology. In 2022, Redonda y radical: antología poética de tatiana de la tierra was published in Colombia (Sincronía Press). This panel features some of tatiana’s literary coconspirators to discuss her dangerously delicious life and works.
Room 2103A, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Meg Day, Oliver Bendorf, Donika Kelly, Ching-In Chen, Melissa Crowe
Description: Given our nation’s latest investment in suppressing both bodies and books, what is at stake—newly, historically—in the teaching of queer and trans poetics? Five seasoned poet-educators, working inside the classroom, libraries, and community centers, gather to discuss navigating threats on the poems they teach, the poems they make, and the bodies they occupy as they do both. Panelists will offer experiential commentary and strategies for protecting, generating, and sustaining queer and trans people and poems.
Room 2211, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: James Ducat, Melissa Ford Lucken, Mary Lannon, Phoebe Reeves
Description: This panel explores ways to shepherd a community college literary magazine with diverse, high-risk, low-income students. Topics of discussion include: staff recruitment, pedagogy, editing, layout, budget, advertising, submissions, course credit, and technological tools. The panelists reflect on obstacles—some common, some unique—and equity-minded solutions. Faculty advisors share experiences producing print and online student journals and fostering a vibrant literary community.
Room 2104B, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level
Panelists: Karina Muñiz-Pagán, Minal Hajratwala, Randy Winston, Maceo Nafisah Cabrera-Estevez, & Juanita E. Mantz (JEM)
Description: Community is essential to a writer’s growth, but what do you do when spaces are inhospitable to your community? Build your own! These innovative authors share how they’ve built thriving programs for diverse NYC fiction writers, global Muslim writers, women/nonbinary writers, domestic workers, and BIPOC+ authors. We share strategies and tools to empower anyone eager to create a nurturing space that centers writers of color, language justice, disability justice, and voices at the intersections.
TABLES & BOOTHS
Antioch University Los Angeles #825
Cave Canem Foundation, Inc. #719
Copper Canyon Press #1223, #1225
Feminist Press #737
FlowerSong Press #T1051
Kaya / Women Who Submit / Blaft #838
Kundiman #1330
Letras Latinas #830
Mouthfeel Press #3021
Noemi Press #1449
Santa Fe Writers Project #3124
Sundress Publications | Sundress Academy for the Arts | Best of the Net Anthology #1111
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during December 2023. 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 join me in celebrating our members who published in December 2023!
