The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during the month of June 2023. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb (if available) if the publication is a book, 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 June 2023!
Continue reading “June 2023 Publication Roundup”
by Rosalinda Alcala
Returning to writing seemed an insurmountable task, even with my abundant energy and my supportive husband. My twitch to write began somewhere between my children’s childhood and adolescence. Writing became my obsession in spare moments between the bedtime stories and the adolescent struggle for independence. Online spaces fit my busy lifestyle by providing rabbit holes of information and a burrow of my own.
I loved spending time with my children. Meanwhile balancing laundry, meals, and homework created a fog. In a parallel universe, I was devoted to creating and executing lessons for students. I was giving of myself. My time. My heart. In time, my soul craved a creative outlet. An expression in art.
In the classroom, writing was a trouble spot for my then sixth graders. So, I began searching for lessons outside our curriculum. My keystrokes for writing lessons opened a world of rabbit holes. An endless freefall. One article led to another. Then triplicate. Down I spiraled.
The free fall increased with each click. I grabbed and pulled at roots during my downward spiral until I landed firmly in the Writer’s Digest world. Like any good rabbit, all twitching aside, I was careful to examine my surroundings. Carrot seeds in the form of books dotted my underground burrow with promises: how to write a better novel, character development, and setting.
In the Writer’s Digest burrow, I took my first online writing class. One on character development. The instructor’s comments were so gentle, yet filled with savvy writerly advice. She provided beginning seeds of character, novel growth, and development. My high school newspaper writing days were decades in the past and I was now writing fiction–she fit my needs.
The experience provided me with so much confidence that I began writing the next great novel. One hundred pages later, I discovered information on common beginner mistakes. I made every-one.
I scratched out a new journey. Yet comparable to visiting a former neighborhood, I would return to the Writer’s Digest burrow for an occasional class or webinar.
Soon, I pulled back the spiny roots for a better view of the other tunnels and burrows. I considered an MFA, but some universities prohibited employment while enrolled in their program. Local commuter schools offered MFA programs without employment requirements. When I considered my predawn wake up, my children’s activities, my husband’s work schedule and our cooking–the thought of driving even fifteen minutes tired me. In the end, I couldn’t justify the cost or time. I tunneled through the universities, clicking and scratching.
Soon I found the perfect burrow, UCLA Extension. The program offers online writing certificates taught by published instructors. My classes taught conflict, novel elements, structure, and provided workshops. Graduating from the certificate program was bittersweet because I had left built in friendships and critique partners. Once again, I was on my own and I missed the comradery and comments from classmates about something writing related.
I worked on my novel or wrote short stories in bursts. My work remained on my desktop for months. Occasionally, I returned to the stories between life. One day during my time exploring new rabbit holes, I discovered Women Who Submit. I became a member while the pandemic still loomed and met with the Long Beach chapter virtually. Conversations entailed literary magazines, novel releases, and readings. The ladies in my chapter also suggested specific literary magazines for my stories. Upon further digging, I realized some of my amazing UCLA instructors inhabited this burrow. I had found my people.
As the world reopened from the Pandemic, I kept my predawn rising ritual to write before my students stumbled into my classroom. Weekends were filled with our children’s sports and my own workouts. At times, I would pop into Zoom meetings with Women Who Submit in my workout gear with my nose twitching, ready to visit and write. In this burrow, I have harvested the carrots of publication and workshop acceptance. Once again, despite my full life, a virtual burrow allowed me to find a writing community and flourish.
Rosalinda lives with her husband and two teenagers. A family of cottontails live in a burrow among the backyard flowers. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t pose for a photo. Rosalinda’s home is located where suburbia kisses the chaparral trails.
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during the month of May 2023. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb (if available) if the publication is a book, 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 2023!
Continue reading “May 2023 Publication Roundup”
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during the month of April 2023. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb (if available) if the publication is a book, 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 April 2023!
Continue reading “April 2023 Publication Roundup”
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference is just days away. People may have even started packing and scrolling Yelp for the best Seattle eats. Whether you go to the AWP Conference to promote your latest title, to catch up with friends, or to fangirl on your favorite author, between the panels, bookfair, and evening events there is enough for everyone. And if you’re like us and get overwhelmed by too many options, let WWS help you narrow down where to spend your time and money. Below is a list of events where you can find WWS members and some of our allies. Stop by one of these places and say hi!
THURSDAY, MARCH 9
PANEL: Too Small to Fail: The Indie Press Prerogative in Advancing Diverse Voices
10:35 AM – 11:50 AM
Rooms 431-432, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 4
Panelists: Krishna Narayanamurti, Marcus Clayton, Viva Padilla, AJ Urquidi, Amanda Orozco
Description: The Western US is one of the world’s most diverse regions, but the literary scene remains a “mainly white room.” In what ways is it the duty of West Coast indie journals and micro presses to find and publish writing that upends the norms of institutional gatekeeping? LA-based editors from sin cesar (formerly Dryland) and Indicia discuss their experiments with equity, intersectionality, and digital collaboration to publish crucial work that challenges hidden biases of audiences and the editors themselves.
PANEL: Demystifying the Application: Fellowships, Residencies and Grants
12:10 PM – 1:25 PM
Signature Room, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 5
Panelists: Julayne Lee, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Angela Franklin, Janice Sapigao, Amanda Galvan Huynh
Description: Have you ever applied for a fellowship, residency, or grant and wondered if your application has what it takes to be a top contender? This is a rare chance to hear from a diverse group of authors who’ve served on selection committees for state and national grants as well as fellowships and residencies. You will gain a better understanding of what judges are looking for, what goes into the selection process and how you might identify which fellowships, residencies, and grants are the best fit.
PANEL: Minding the Gaps and Mining Landscape in Linked Short Story Collections
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Rooms 343-344, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 3
Panelists: Toni Ann Johnson, Ramona Reeves, Rion Amilcar Scott, Leslie Pietryzk
Descrition: Linked short story collections have become more popular, perhaps in part because of their hybrid nature. They can employ recurring themes, characters, and settings to situate readers in worlds that move beyond the borders of many short stories while stopping short of the breadth and propulsion of a novel. Minding the gaps, or the spaces, is key in writing linked story collections. How does space function between and within linked collections, and what stories does one choose to tell and why?
READING: WWS Happy Hour & Community Mic Hosted by Noriko Nakada
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Clock-Out Lounge: 4864 Beacon Ave S, Seattle, WA 98108
Features: Suhasini Yeeda, Carla Sameth, Elizabeth Galoozis, Jamie Asaye Fitzgerald, Sakae Manning, Alixen Pham, Maria Caponi, Michelle Otero, Amy Shimhon-Santo, Jane Muschenetz.
READING: Storyknife AWP Reading & Gathering
5-7 pm
Vermillion Gallery & Bar, 1508 11th Ave
Features: Rowena Alegria, Jasmin An, Sandra Beasley, Jan Beatty, Kim Blaeser, Ching-in Chen, Lydia Conklin, Rebeca Flores, Minda Honey, Amanda Galvan Huynh, Casandra Lopez, Zenique Gardner Perry and others.
READING: #AWPSeattle Off-site Reading
6 pm
Seattle Public Library
Description: Join Veliz Books, Noemi Press, and BOA Editions at the beautiful Seattle Public Library for an in-person reading featuring 10 writers.
READING: Queerly Beloved: An Evening with Foglifter Press
7:00 PM
Corvus and Company, 601 Broadway E, Seattle, WA 98102, USA
ASL interpretation and live-streaming provided
Features: Michal ‘MJ’ Jones, author of HOOD VACATIONS, Joy Priest, author of HORSEPOWER, Miah Jeffra, author of American Gospel, Kazim Ali, author of Inquisition, Dior Stephens, author of CRUEL/CRUEL, Xan Phillips, author of Hull
READING: Nightboat Books Reading
9:00 PM
The Rendezvous Theatre: 2322 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA 98121
Features: Allison Cobb, Andrew Abi-Karam, Dior J. Stephens, Douglas A. Martin, Emily Lee Luan, Gillian Conoley, Gillian Osborne, imogen xtian smith, Janice Lobo Sapigao, Joyelle McSweeney, Kay Gabrial, Kevin Holden, Lindsay Turner, Ronaldo V. Wilson, Rosie Stockton, Samiya Bashir, Tiff Dressen, Wo Chan
FRIDAY, MARCH 10
Panel: Inlandia social justice literature reading
10:35 AM – 11:45 AM
Bookfair Stage, Sponsored by the Dramatists Guild, Exhibit Hall 1 & 2, Summit Building
Panelists: Nikia Chaney, James Coats, Stephanie Barbé Hammer, Juanita E. Mantz, & Cati Porter
Description: Inland Southern California, aka Inlandia, is a sprawling geographic region, the logistics capital of the west, and one of the few majority-minority regions. As writers, we have a responsibility to take an active role in addressing the most pressing social justice issues of our time. Listen to works confronting issues of LBTQ rights, racial inequities, the criminal injustice system, mental health discrimination, and more.
BOOK SIGNING: Imagine Us, The Swarm with Muriel Leung
12 PM PST
Nightboat Books Table: 1024
PANEL: Languages of Belonging: Transcending Borders in Life and on the Page
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
443-444, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 4
Panelists: Sehba Sarwar, Torsa Ghosal, Emmy Pérez, Tameka Latrece Cage Conley, Gemini Wahhaj
Description: Five women writers of color incorporate personal and global histories—of India, Pakistan, and the Netherlands, and within the U.S., California, Louisiana, and the Texas-Mexico border—into their prose, poetry, and hybrid texts. Each writer will discuss her process of transcending literal and figurative borders separating nations, generations, and identities. How do we resolve the conflicts that arise from having histories in multiple places? Where are we traveling from and to in our writing?
PANEL: Writing the Land: Inspiration and Perspiration to Create Poetry
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Room 337, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 3
Panelists: Catalina Marie Cantú, Erica Reid, Leona Sevick, Diana Raptosh, CMarie Fuhrman
Description: What if you were paired with a conserved land for a year to visit and create three poems inspired by place and preservation? In this panel, five diverse, emerging, and established poets from east, central, and northwest regions will share their writing process and poems. Their protected lands ranged from protected habitats, sanctuaries, farms, and ranches, to ecosystems and wilderness preserves. Their poetry and the methodologies used to create their poems will challenge and inspire you.
PANEL: BIPOC Women/Nonbinary Writers Cultivating Community and Safe Writing Spaces
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Seattle Convention Center, Level 3, Room 327
Panelists: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo (she/her), Janaka Bowman Lewis, PhD (she/her), LaCoya Katoe Gessesse (she/her), and Mahtem Shiferraw (she/her), Sakae Manning (they/them)
Description: Panelists share modes and methods towards creating safe space through considering intention as liberatory groundwork for BIPOC women and nonbinary writers, creating intersectional spaces beyond physical boundaries, identifying and becoming part of a writing community, and understanding how intergenerational racial and gender-based trauma impacts amplifying our own work. Join Janaka Bowman-Lewis, PhD, LaCoya Katoe Gessesse, and Mahtem Shiferraw, as we navigate writing and sustaining writing communities.
READING: Feminist Press Presents: Readings by Louise Meriwether First Book Prize Winners
3:20 PM – 4:35 PM
Room 430, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 4
Panelists: YZ Chin, Cassandra Lane, Claudia D. Hernández, Melissa Valentine, Annell Lopez
Description: The Louise Meriwether First Book Prize seeks to honor the groundbreaking legacy of Meriwether’s Daddy Was a Number Runner by creating debut publication opportunities for women and nonbinary authors of color. The 2022 winner of the prize will be joined by past winners YZ Chin, Claudia D. Hernández, Melissa Valentine, and Cassandra Lane to read from their work, including a reading from the 2022 Prize winner’s manuscript in progress.
READING: Macondo Writers Meetup & Readings
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Anxestral Gallery, 1302 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101
READING: Antioch’s MFA: A Night of Reading Hosted by Tim Cummings
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Graduate Hotel: 4507 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Features: Jazmine Aluma, Andrea Auten, Semaj Saint Garbutt, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Diana Hardy, Scott LaMascus, Malia Márquez, Ari Rosenschein, Kim Sabin, Mireya Vela
READING: Anaphora Arts & Pacific University Oregon Reading
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Little Saigon Creative, 1227 S. Weller St, Suite A, Seattle, WA 98144
Reading: Sundress Publications Reading
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Old Stove Brewing Co 600 W. Nickerson St. Queen Anne Seattle, WA 98119
Features: Barbara Fant, Kimberly Ann Priest, Stacey Balkun, Atena Nassar, jason b. Crawford, Sunni Wilkinson, Nicole Arocho Hernández, Amanda Galvan Huynh, Cynthia Guardado, Dani Putney, Donna Vorreyer
READING: Texas Review/DIAGRAM/Apogee Reading
7:30 PM
Alley Mic: 1922 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98101
Features: Katie Jean Shinkle, Ginger Ko, PJ Carlisle, Ander Monson featuring Ananda Lima, Bryan Byrdlong, Angela Penaredondo, Mihee Kim, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Caridad Moro-Gronlier, Kanika Agrawal, Elizabeth Gonzales James, Danielle Pafunda, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, Dao Strom, Eric Burger, and more.
READING: AWP ’23 Offsite: Coffee House Press, Feminist Press, and The Rumpus
7:30 PM – 10:00 PM PST
Structure Cellars 3861 1st Avenue South Seattle, WA 98134
$14.88 – $23.45
Features: Courtney Faye Taylor (CONCENTRATE), Eleni Sikelianos (YOUR KINGDOM, WHAT I KNEW, MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY), Joe Vallese (IT CAME FROM THE CLOSET), Marcelo Hernandez Castillo (CHILDREN OF THE LAND, CENZONTLE, DULCE), Tom Comitta (THE NATURE BOOK, 〇, AIRPORT NOVELLA), YZ Chin (THE AGE OF GOODBYES, EDGE CASE, THOUGH I GET HOME)
SATURDAY, MARCH 11
PANEL: Beyond Writing Well: Making Space for Professional Development in the Workshop
12:10 PM – 1:25 PM
Room 447-448, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 4
Panelists: Kathie Bergquist, Sheree L. Greer, & Sarah Browning
Description: While developing writing skills is justifiably central to workshop practice, students often emerge from the workshop with little practical knowledge of the praxis and processes necessary for establishing a viable writing career. Professional development can and should be an important component of creative writing workshops. This discussion will feature strategies and exercises you can easily integrate into your workshop to better prepare your students for the professional life of a writer.
PANEL: Double-Dipping? You Bet! Promote Your Book with Short Articles and Literary Essays
12:10 PM to 1:25 PM
Rooms 431-432, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 4
Panelists: Melissa Hart, Juanita Mantz Pelaez, George Estreich, Tanya Ward Goodman, Andrea Ross
Description: What if we told you that instead of spending thousands on a publicist, you could promote your books and find your ideal readers while building your writing portfolio and earning a paycheck? In this panel, we’ll talk about how we’ve perfected the art of identifying key themes and topics in our published books and writing about them for newspapers, magazines, and literary journals. We’ll teach you how to do the same with personal essays, book reviews, profiles, how-to pieces, and feature articles.
BOOK SIGNING: Light Skin Gone to Waste with Toni Ann Johnson
1:00 PM
University of Georgia Press: 928
PANEL: The ART of Infertility: Writing About Reproductive Choice, Loss, and Family
3:20 PM – 4:35 PM
Rooms 431-432, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 4
Panelists: Jennifer Berney, Robin Silbergleid, Carla Sameth, Cheryl Klein, Krys Malcolm Belc
Description: How do infertility memoirs rewrite the dominant family narrative? How do they grapple with issues of gender, sexuality, race, and the body? Reading from published memoirs about infertility, miscarriage, reproductive choice, and queer family building, panelists explore the emotional, practical, and legal complexities of infertility and family building outside cisgender and heteronuclear families, such as in vitro fertilization, third party reproduction, blended families, and adoption.
TABLES
Antioch University Los Angeles – 807
Apogee Press – T1203
CALYX, Inc. – T128
Cave Canem Foundation, Inc. – 929
Feminist Press – T405
Kaya Press – 1309
Kundiman – 728
Lambda Literary – 908
Mouthfeel Press – T1122
Nightboat Books – 1024
Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP) – 1202 (Monica Prince will be selling advanced copies of her next book, Roadmap: A Choreopoem, along with other authors. Come say hi!)
Sundress Publications – T500
University of Georgia Press – 928
World Stage Press – 1309
This year, February flew by so quickly that I only just realized it ended. Our amazing Women Who Submit members, however, have been working hard, as always, and their efforts have paid off with more amazing publications.
The WWS members included in this post published their work during the month of February. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb (if available) if the publication is a book, 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!
Continue reading “February 2023 Publication Roundup”
By Rebecca Gomez Farrell
At the end of 2022, I stepped down from leading the long-running Bay Area chapter of Women Who Submit (WWS). Over the five years that I organized the chapter, I noticed that the same questions came up time and time again. Our answers to those questions illustrate what makes WWS submission parties so encouraging and productive. The positive reinforcement they provide turns the drudgery of the submission process into inspiration.
When we meet, our members ring a call bell whenever they hit “send” on a submission and everyone bursts into cheers. Doing so fulfills an important purpose by providing an easy way to inject excitement into the room. You might even call it Pavlovian: endorphins surge once the bell rings, bringing affirmation with them and a smile on all the faces as we celebrate the person who submitted a manuscript or query, or fellowship application. Everyone else is energized to earn their turn to ring the bell by submitting again. It’s so simple, yet such a beautiful way to support each other.
Like ringing the bell, WWS members encourage each other through useful and uplifting answers to those common questions that crop up at each submission party. Through reframing the submission process as part of a writer’s work, rather than something to dread, each click of a “submit” button becomes something that validates, rather than dulls, our creative dreams.
Here are the common questions and answers I’ve encountered at Bay Area chapter submission parties over the years.
1. My short story doesn’t quite fit this magazine’s guidelines. I shouldn’t send it, right?
Yes, you should! It’s one thing to submit a novel-length work to a submission call for 5,000 words (don’t do that), but if a market lists a flash fiction limit of 1,500 words and you’re at 1,610? Send that manuscript. Or maybe an anthology’s theme is surrealism, and your piece feels closer to abstract and you’re not sure it qualifies. The worst an editor can do is reject it, and the best? Well, you may just make it into one of your top markets! All because you had a slightly different understanding of those styles than the editor did. It’s their job to decide what submissions fit their call, and it’s your job to give them your piece to consider.
2. Does anyone know what markets might take a funny novella about cello-playing vampires?
Many of our Bay Area chapter members are seasoned writers and quite willing to share their experiences with newer ones. They also dabble in multiple forms, from speculative fiction to personal essays to haiku memoirs. Part of the value of our submission parties is learning that we are each other’s greatest resources! Nearly every time this question is asked, another writer in attendance will have a suggestion. And it’s almost assured that another member will then also submit something to that market they just learned about. Everybody benefits from asking questions and taking the leap.
3. I can’t take another rejection. How do you deal?
By celebrating them! Or at least contextualizing them. Inspired by another member’s suggestion, I offered fifty-rejections stamp cards to our members, redeemable for a free beverage on me once those cards were filled. That’s a fun, tangible motivation, but the real one is this: rolling with rejection is part of a writer’s work, or at least the work of a writer who wants to be published.
Creative pursuits are emotional minefields, for sure, but if you’ve decided you want your masterpiece to appear in the pages of an esteemed publication? You have to keep sending it out. Making the publication happen is a numbers game. If the piece hasn’t been accepted yet, then you haven’t pulled the right number yet. What’s that number? The right editor reads your piece for the right publication on the right day when they are in the right mood. All that has to come together for an acceptance to come in, and none of it is controllable. So control what you can: the quality of your writing and placing it in that editor’s hands in the first place by submitting a rejected manuscript out yet again.
If you think of rejection as part of a writer’s work, it becomes routine, just another task to be managed. Another rejection? Another opportunity to send that manuscript out into the world. Then…Ding! Ding! Ding! Ring that bell! You’re doing the work of a writer. And you totally deserve that extra scoop of double-chip mint, too.
4. Is it okay if I don’t submit anything and just work on this poem?
Absolutely. Yes, WWS submission parties run on peer pressure to submit our pieces. When eyes light up, applause breaks out, and another member gets their deserved praise, it’s infectious! But sometimes, you don’t have the emotional reserves to keep hitting those “send” buttons. Sometimes, you need to refill your well first, and allowing yourself to do that is also the work of a writer. Sometimes you just want to bask in the presence of other women taking those leaps and use it as motivation to get that poem into shape. Even if you’re not taking part in the submission process right now, you’re taking part in the creation of that supportive atmosphere at the party. Maybe next time will be the one when you hit the send button and finally ring that bell.
5. Yes, you did it! You submitted! Now, where will I read that essay once your acceptance comes in?
I admit it, I’m the one asking this question whenever someone rings the bell. Sure, we need to harden our exteriors to deal with all the noes that writers accrue. But it’s okay to let ourselves dream of yesses, too. Ringing that bell generates happy feelings, and so does allowing ourselves that glimmer of possibility, welcoming the potential that this time this piece is going to win the numbers game. I’ve seen it happen for so many chapter members over the years, with a lengthy list of credits to their names. I’ve had at least twenty publications of pieces I’ve sent out during a submission party. If we control what we can—the quality of our writing and our willingness to risk acceptance—sometimes the magic comes together in just the right way and our number is pulled.
Making the choice to step down from the Bay Area WWS chapter was hard. But I’ve been neglecting a different part of the work of a writer in recent years: the writing itself. With the pandemic and a new day job, and the life changes that came with both, I stopped prioritizing writing new fiction. So I need to reclaim that writing time first before I’ll have submissions to send out again.
I know that when those new pieces are ready, my local chapter of Women Who Submit will be too, ready to welcome me back and cheer me on as I ring that bell.
Rebecca Gomez Farrell’s Wings Rising epic fantasy duology, Wings Unseen and Wings Unfurled, is published by Meerkat Press. Her short works have appeared over 30 times in magazines, websites, and anthologies such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, It Calls From the Sky, PULP Literature, and A Quiet Afternoon 1 & 2. Website: RebeccaGomezFarrell.com. Social Media: @theGourmez.
“Who’s got next?” Noriko Nakada asked in her last post as the blog managing editor. The week after I read it, I ran into her at a party. With a glimmer in her eye, she asked me, “You thinking about applying?”
“Kind of,” I said with my shoulders up to my ears telegraphing doubt.
” You should.”
I have written several times for the WWS blog series. Each experience was gentle, kind, and nurturing. The idea of holding space for other writers’ work, accepting submissions, soliciting voices I admire, and running a series close to my heart were too tempting to forgo.
So I applied. And…
I got next, but to be honest, I am more of an artist than a jock, but I will gladly take the court from the talented and compassionate Noriko Nakada and turn it into a found object sculpture of a new series called Intersect. Let’s see where we meet.
Perhaps we have already met, online through the WWS Open Mic (I hosted from April 2020-February 2023), or other areas I stepped in to support or take part in WWS programming, or you may not know me at all. If that is the case, I’m Thea. Like many members, I was financially and emotionally impacted by the pandemic. The WWS weekly online meetings in 2020 assisted me in becoming more resilient and adventurous in writing, submitting, and putting myself out there.
WWS also provided me with community and a culture of support. Something I desperately needed when the shutdown impacted me professionally, and I had to adapt and change. The business I spent over a decade building was not sustainable. Since I joined WWS in 2019, I saw my writing practice flourish and my publication numbers increase exponentially. With my newly found confidence in writing, I applied and accepted a contract to write ESL readers (the first time I was paid for my fiction). After writing 20, I realized the company, and I were not a good fit. I then went back to technical writing to supplement my lost income from my business and, of course, continued my literary writing to feed my soul.
Thanks to the WWS community, I have been able to access resources and knowledge bases that I never knew existed. Including scholarships, financial support, and other opportunities. As someone who wrote solitary for most of their adult life, I felt blocked from many opportunities. Primarily, because of lack of access, connections, and information. I didn’t have resources for letters of recommendation for residencies or fellowships. I wasn’t familiar with how to apply for personal grants. The list goes on. In my short time with WWS I learned much, and I am excited and honored to be named the WWS Blog Managing Editor for a paying market and help provide further information, context, and experience through your words to our members and the literary community at large.
The Road to Joy and Advocacy
February 8th, 2023 I found myself in one of the many places that WWS, and the literary and arts communities intersect. Cody Sisco invited me to read in person along with WWS board member Luivette Resto, WWS members Lisbeth Coiman, Hazel Knight Wittman, Carla Sameth, Flint, Traci Kato-Kiriyama and eleven other writers and poets at the WeHo Reads: Mindful Journeys Toward Better Futures event. It was held at the West Hollywood Public Library and included a tour of a photo exhibition led by West Hollywood Arts Coordinator Mike Che. WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood, produced by Bookswell and supported by UCLA Extension Writers’ Program with media partnerships with Bookshop.org, Book Soup and Los Angeles Review of Books. Find out more about WeHo Reads here and how it intersects to resilience, justice, legacy, motherhood and more.
The Beginning
Women Who Submit was born through the lens of intersectionality in the literary landscape with a vision to bring parity to women and nonbinary writers in publishing who experienced rejection, limited access to opportunities, limited representation, bias, and barriers due to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. The goal of the organization is to submit as much as much possible as a community to gain parity and visibility. Find out more about the beginnings of WWS here.
The Intersection
Let’s sculpt something beautiful together in my year as blog managing editor. In this series, I invite you to submit work regarding where we intersect. I’m looking for articles/essays about (but I am open to other topics as well):
On top of personal essays and articles, I am also looking for book reviews of marginalized and underrepresented voices.
The Facts
I look forward to reading your words and serving as a resource to this amazing community. Intersect will publish bi-monthly on the first and third Monday of the month. Familiarize yourself with the WWS Core Values prior to submitting, only work that adheres to them will be accepted.
Thea Pueschel is a nonbinary, neurodivergent, emerging writer and artist, the managing blog editor for Women Who Submit, a facilitator for Shut Up & Write, a California Arts Council Panelist 2022, and a Dorland Arts Colony Resident. Thea’s first solo mixed media exhibition “44: not dead, just invisible” ran at The Center of Orange from September 2021-December 2021. Thea has been published in Short Edítion, and Perhappened, among others.
It’s hard to believe how quickly the first month of 2023 has flown by. While many of us are still trying to comprehend that we’re officially one month in to the new year, these Women Who Submit members have already been out there publishing their work in amazing places.
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during the month of January. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb (if available) if the publication is a book, 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 January!
Continue reading “January 2023 Publication Roundup”
The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during the month of December. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb (if available) if the publication is a book, 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!
Continue reading “December Publication Roundup”