Tag: submission calls

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SUBMIT 1: WWS Submission Drive & Fundraiser

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. 

DONATE HERE!

Your support also allows WWS to continue to provide the following free services: 

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. 

Eight women with laptops sit on either side of a long table, smiling at the camera
1st Annual Submission Drive – September, 2014

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Writing on a Budget: Compensating Circumstances Letter

By Lisbeth Coiman

There have been times in my life when I have gone through more than my heart could take. So much has happened to me. But I chose to brag about what saves me. In times of difficulties, I rely only on the moral support of friends and acquaintances who have expressed their encouragement to me. I take their words of wisdom, even a sympathetic smile, as the driving force to continue moving forward.

Continue reading “Writing on a Budget: Compensating Circumstances Letter”
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Writing on a Budget: Salve for the Tax Season

By Lisbeth Coiman

Taxes looming in the background
Technical support calls drowned
the hours reserved for a scene.
The uncooperative screen
Shows Deductions 1099 Schedule C
A foreign language to me
 
Go for a walk at the beach
escape the whole number siege
 
Expenses multiply
While the gains dissatisfy
In the spread sheet display
Not-enough teaching hour downplay
The effort to create a breadwinner
Out of the tepid words of the beginner
 
Groceries offer distraction
An easy task without extraction
 
Paying the bills is not the issue
Change a flat tire without a fissure
Fight an intruder
I can do without sudor
Taxes, a whole new fiend
I never esteemed.
 
Lavender salve on my hands
To tackle IRS demands.

The following publications are seeking work by emerging writers:

1. Los Nietos Press
Word limit: 48-100 pages
Genre: Poetry and Short Stories
Submission Fee: $0
Submission Guidelines

2. Coffee House Press
Word limit: full length manuscripts / collections
Genre: literary novels, short fiction, poetry, essays, and creative non-fiction
Submission Fees: $0
Submission Guidelines

3. Rabid Oak
Word limit: Under 1,000 words
Genre: Poetry, flash fiction, flash non-fiction
Submission Fees: $0
Submission Guidelines

Writer Lisbeth Coiman from the shoulders up, standing in front of a flower bush

Writer Lisbeth Coiman from the shoulders up, standing in front of a flower bush

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Writing on a Budget: Put on Your Oxygen Mask First

By Lisbeth Coiman

Most writers I know, including myself, are activists or behind-the-scenes supporters of several causes. When the political conjuncture we are living through in America threatens everybody’s sanity, writers struggle to focus before stepping up. Facing a myriad of social issues hurts these writers both emotionally and financially.

Vintage typewriter next to an iPad covered with pins and stickers from different social and political causes

      Creativity dilutes in the stream of  information/petitions/demonstrations, and the ordinary responsibilities of work. I can’t even come close to imagine what it is like to live through these times with children to take care of. The emotional load seems to grow by the minute. The writer feels like borrowing a “welder’s mask” to look at the blinding reality without hurting, without revealing tears.

      With the emotional burden of political activism comes the added weight of financial demands. Bills can pile up easily on top of donations and contributions. The line between urgency and necessary disappears in the mists of a stream of crisis. We wake up to news of mass shootings, racial violence, and sexual violations of immigrant minors in detention. At work, fundraisers and pot-lucks drain the bank account. Add to that a humanitarian crisis in a homeland and you wish going to sleep on the eighth day of the month and wake up on payday.

     When my budget became unbalanced, like a flight attendant, I told myself, “put on your own oxygen mask before helping others, even your family.” My livelihood depends on my mental health. Without money, I can’t write. Since writing is therapeutic for me, my sanity is at risk.

      That’s when I jumped at the opportunity to take a scholarship for a social consciousness poetry class online, Poetry for Survival taught by Xochitl Bermejo. Through this class, I’m learning that I can’t see the page through tears. By detaching myself emotionally from the issues dearest to me – Venezuela and immigration – I hope to bring my unique perspective of the devastating reality of which I’m both a witness and a subject.

      Perhaps  the only advise I have for my readers tonight is to take a social consciousness vacation before taking a stand. Disconnect, put the check book in a locked box and forget where you hide the key. Go for an extended walk by the beach. Only then, your voice will sound clear.

This month, the short list includes some free submission opportunities.

1.The Booklist – seeking reviewers of diverse backgrounds
The Booklist is part of the American Library Association.
Genre: All
Languages: English and Spanish
Application Fee: $0
Submission Guidelines

2. Green Linden Press
Genre: Poetry, interviews and reviews
Submission fee:       Up to $12.50
Deadline:                    March 20, 2019
Submission Guidelines

3. Catapult
Tiny Nightmares: An Anthology of Short Horror Fiction
Genre:                         Short Horror Fiction
Payment:                    $100
Submission fee:      0
Deadline:                    May 1, 2019
Word count:              Under 1200 words
Submission Guidelines

4. Ripples in Space: Flash Fiction for Weekly Podcast
Gener:                         Flash Fiction
Submission fee:     $6
Deadline:                   Open
Word count:             Max 1500 words
Submission Guidelines

5. Dusk and Shiver Magazine
Genre:                         Fiction, Poetry, Artwork
Submission fee:     $0
Deadline:                   April 13, 2019
Word count:    5,000 to 7,000 words (Fiction)
Submission Guidelines

Writer Lisbeth Coiman from the shoulders up, standing in front of a flower bush

Lisbeth Coiman is an emerging, bilingual writer wandering the immigration path from Venezuela to Canada to the US. She has performed any available job from maid to college administrator, and adult teacher. Her work has been published in Hip Mama, the Literary Kitchen, YAY LA, Nailed Magazine, Entropy, and RabidOak. She was also featured in the Listen to Your Mother Show in 2015. In her self-published memoir, I Asked the Blue Heron (Nov 2017), Coiman celebrates female friendship while exploring issues of child abuse, mental disorder, and her own journey as an immigrant.
She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches at Harbor Occupational Center and speaks for NAMI about living with a mental disorder.

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Writing on a Budget: Support Fellow Writers

By Lisbeth Coiman

For a cost-conscious person, I have little self-control when it comes to books. I browse bookstores inhaling the sweet aroma of the unread pages; then, I bring out my credit card at the counter to pay for two or three books. At literary readings, I listen to the writers carefully, and then choose one or two books to bring home with me. It’s my way to support fellow writers, but also a form of self-indulgence. As the cost of my rent increases, and the stack of unread books keeps piling up on my bedside table, I am aware that I need to do something about my book-buying habit.

Because it is that time of the year when we set goals and decide, mostly without success, to break old habits, I’ve resolved to find a solution to this conundrum: how to support emerging writers while minding my small writing budget. Observing my peers at readings and bookstores, I noted some writers using one of the following three strategies

1. Request and borrow books from the library.

My friend Shelly never buys books despite expressing a life long love for words and all things lit. I used to see her at readings, in the city where we met, her eyes closed to recreate in her mind the stories or poems she heard. She took time to chat with the writers, and then left without spending a cent.

“It’s not for you. We must support each other,” I told her once.

“I don’t have space, and I move frequently. Instead of buying, I request the book at the local library, then borrow it.”

“Clever and inexpensive,” I admitted.

2. Exchange books with fellow writers

At one particular reading, I observed another friend, Cruz, approach another writer and ask if she was interested in exchanging books. “What a creative notion,” I thought. Both women are well-known and respected in their own communities and were interested in reading each other’s work. They signed copies, promised to read, and presented their business cards. The whole experience lasted a few minutes, with pleasantries and all. And they saved at least $20

3. Look out for review requests

Mary never buys books either. She browses FB groups searching for review opportunities. Mary submits the reviews to magazines and journals. When she can not land a submission, she posts a shorter version of her review in Goodreads, and Amazon, helping the writer with the promoting efforts. Not a bad idea if the reader is also trying to build her own name.

Submission Calls
The new year is bursting with submission opportunities. These are only a few for writers on a budget.

1. Waxwing Magazine
Genre: Poetry, short fiction, literary essays, translation of poetry or prose, and art.
No payment
Submission Fee: 0
Deadline: May 1
Word count: up to five poems, 3 short-shorts, or micro-essays, up to three images
Submission Guidelines

2. Brain Mill Press: 2018 Driftless Unsolicited Novella Contest
Genre: Fiction
Prize: $250 and Publication
Submission fee: $0, but they appreciate $12 will give the writer a copy of the winning novella.
Deadline: 01/23/19
Word count: 20 to 45,000 novella or novella-length collection of short stories.
Submission Guidelines

3. City Lights Booksellers and Publishers
Genre: Memoir
Submission fee: $0
Word count: Sample of 10-20 pages, book proposal, outline and table of contents, letter with summary and resume.
Submission Guidelines

Writer Lisbeth Coiman from the shoulders up, standing in front of a flower bush

Writer Lisbeth Coiman from the shoulders up, standing in front of a flower bush

headshot of Lisbeth CoimanLisbeth Coiman is an author, poet, educator, cultural worker, and rezandera born in Venezuela. Coiman’s wanderlust spirit landed her to three countries—from her birthplace to Canada, and finally the USA, where she self-published her first book, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (2017). She dedicated her bilingual poetry collection, Uprising / Alzamiento, Finishing Line Press( Sept. 2021) to her homeland, Venezuela. An avid hiker, and teacher of English as a Second Language, Coiman lives in Los Angeles, CA.

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Writing on a Budget: Time Management

By Lisbeth Coiman

The first hard truth I learned as an emerging writer is that it will take years of dedication and hard work before I can live off my writing. Whether through my established career as a teacher, or through a series of small gigs, as an emerging writer I must make a living outside of writing, while seeking every opportunity to write and submit my work. Therefore, effective time management stands out in my writing tool box.

Continue reading “Writing on a Budget: Time Management”