SUBMIT 1 is the one day out of the year WWS encourages women and nonbinary writers across the globe to send one of their most beloved pieces of writing to one top tier journal as one community. This is an act of solidarity, not only with our writers, but with editors and publishers as well. SUBMIT 1 dares to connect the literary publishing community as a whole.
In its 9th year, thanks to an Impact Project grant from the California Arts Council and the support of our fiscal sponsor, Avenue 50 Studio, WWS has expanded this event into the WWS Summer Series. This program includes the Summer Writers Workshop in July, the Submission conference in August, and Submit 1 in September.
The submission drive was created in 2014 for WWS’s five-year anniversary and to honor Vida, Women in Literary Arts, and the Vida Count. It was the 2009 Vida Count that inspired the co-founding of Women Who Submit in 2011. While the event celebrates our history and the importance of gender equity in literary publishing, over the years, we’ve questioned if we were doing enough to help prepare our writers to send their work to the top journals of the nation and world.
The WWS Summer Series is our answer to this question. In July, 36 writers were given the opportunity to participate in month-long workshops with our faculty, Melissa Chadburn (CNF), Muriel Leung (Poetry), and Colette Sartor (Fiction). In August, over 150 writers registered for the Submission Conference, a one-day, online event that featured 18 writing professionals sharing their best tips and strategies (For recordings of the 2022 panels with closed captions visit the WWS Youtube page.). So then, SUBMIT 1 is not only an act of solidarity, but an act of faith in our writers and the writing process.
How to Participate:
1. Before September 10th, study THIS LIST of “Top Ranked Journals of 2022” with current open calls to find a good fit for your work. Links to guidelines are included. BE SURE TO READ AND FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES.
2. On September 10th, 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. Notify us on Twitter or IG. Be sure to tag us @womenwhosubmit, so we can celebrate you with lots of claps, cheers, and funny gifs.
4. Hang with us on IG Live at @WomenWhoSubmit from 7am to 10pm PACIFIC for a full day special guests, support, and resources. Here is where you can ask WWS members for tips on submitting, get encouragement, or receive LIVE claps for when you hit send.
SUBMIT 1 IG Live Schedule (all times are PACIFIC):
7am-8am: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo (@xochitljulisa), WWS Director
8am-9am: Joy Notoma (@joywriteshermedicine), WWS-Europe Lead
12pm-1pm: pm Suhasini Yeeda (@suhasiniwrites), WWS-LA Member
2pm-3pm: Toni Ann Johnson (@treeladytoniann), WWS Board Member
3pm-4pm: Desiree R. Kannel (@rwwrites), San Antonio Lead
5pm-6pm: Lituo Huang (@thelmerfudd), WWS-LA Member
6pm-7pm: Jessica Ceballos y Campbell (@alternativefield), WWS Board Member
8pm-9pm: Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley (@lucyrodriguezhanley), WWS-Long Beach Lead
9pm-10pm: Juanita E. Mantz Pelaez (@lifeofjem1), WWS-Inland Empire Member
5. After submitting, fill out THIS FORM to help us track how many submissions were sent out, which will help us in our continued mission towards gender parity and wider representation of marginalized voices in literary publishing.
Submission Drive Origins:
After the first VIDA Count was published in 2009 illustrating the dearth of women’s voices in tier one publications, members of VIDA, Women in Literary Arts, began asking the editors of these journals why they thought the numbers were unbalanced. The most common answer was women don’t submit as often as men. In response, Women Who Submit and the monthly submission party was created in 2011 to support women and nonbinary writers in submitting their work for publication in order to raise the number of such voices coming across editors’ desks.
Our annual submission drive is a call to writers to submit their well-crafted and cared for work en masse to tier-one literary journals that historically have shown gender disparities in their publications. It is a call to action. Our first WWS submission drive was in September 2014 at Hermosillo Bar in Highland Park, CA.
