Tag: Women Who Submit chapters

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How to Join a Chapter During the Pandemic

By Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley

Hello Everyone, this is Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley, I am the Chapters Liaison for Women Who Submit, I also host the Long Beach Chapter via the Long Beach Literary Arts Center. 

As the Chapters Liaison, I support our Chapters Director Ryane Nicole Granados and WWS Leadership to provide resources for our members and Chapter Leads and to connect those looking to join our community with chapters in their area. Our collective goal is to empower women and non-binary writers to submit their work to literary magazines for publication

I am happy to see a heightened interest from women and non-binary writers looking to join our organization. The Pandemic has affected all of us in different ways including some of our chapters. While some chapters continued meeting virtually since last March, a lot of them have not.  

The Los Angeles chapter shifted their programing in 2020 and 2021 to online events and started hosting weekly check-ins for their members.  Below is a list of chapters that continued meeting online during the pandemic as well as our newest chapters. 

California: 

Bay Area

*Long Beach
Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley  

*Pasadena
Michelle Semrad Barrera

*West Los Angeles
Alix Pham 

Chicago

New York City

Portland

New Chapters:

Twin Cities

New Jersey

Wilmington, North Carolina

* Chapters hosting members virtually until in person meetings resume regardless of location. 

If you have questions or inquiries about joining a chapter or starting your own, Ryane and I are here to help. We hosted an orientation meeting for new Chapter Leads in March and look forward to hosting the next one. 

If you are a Chapter Lead looking to restart your chapter, we are here for you. 

This July, the organization celebrates its tenth year, with twenty-seven chapters across the United States and Mexico, more than one hundred fifty successful book and magazine publication credits by its members in 2020, and a devoted community of writers, editors, and publishers.

head shot of writer Lucy Rodriguez-Handley

Lucy Rodriguez-Handley is a creative non-fiction writer, filmmaker, and mother of two. A Dominicana via Washington Heights now living in Long Beach, California. Her film, The Big Deal, won the Imagen Award for Best Theatrical Short. She is a VONA fellow and is on the board of the Long Beach Literary Arts Center. Her films and writing samples can be found at https://www.lucyrodriguezhanley.com/

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Final Workshop of 2020

Join us Saturday, November 14th at 10am for our final workshop of 2020, “How To Boost Your Literary Citizenry By Writing and Placing Book Reviews” with Melissa Chadburn. Chadburn has placed book reviews in such prestigious publications as The LA Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, New York Times Book Review, and the New York Review of Books. Help in our mission for gender parity in publishing by learning how to write and place book reviews and bring visibility to historically marginalized voices.

Women Who Submit is a supportive community for women and non-binary writers submitting work for publication. To become a member, you can register and participate in this month’s new member orientation. EDIT: NEW MEMBER REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED DUE TO BEING OVER CAPACITY. * There is no fee to join.

The Schedule for the Day:

10am-11am – “How To Boost Your Literary Citizenry By Writing and Placing Book Reviews” with Melissa Chadburn and hosted by Lauren Eggert-Crowe

11am-12pm – New Member Orientation with Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

11am-12pm – Returning Members Checkin with TBD

12pm-1pm – WWS Submission Party

This workshop is over Zoom. Those admitted to the orientation will receive the Zoom link through email a week before. To participate, you’ll need a laptop or desktop computer, personal research on magazines, journals, and open calls, and crafted poems/essay/short story ready to submit.

* Orientation is limited to 20 participants and preference will be given to LA writers, BIPOC writers, LGBTQ writers, and writers who’ve tried to attend a previous orientation.

WWS is a grass-roots, volunteer organization. Though online workshops have made us more accessible to writers outside of Los Angeles, we do not have the funding or support to serve people beyond the LA area.

But don’t worry! We have chapters all across the country including three chapters in the greater Los Angeles area in Long Beach, West Los Angeles, and Pasadena. If you do not make it into our November orientation, you can connect with a chapter lead near you. And if you don’t have a chapter in your area, we can help you get one started!

Connect with chapters here.

About our workshop facilitator:

Melissa Chadburn’s work has appeared in The LA Times, NYT Book Review, NYRB, Longreads, and dozens other places. Her essay on food insecurity was selected for Best American Food Writing 2019. She is the recipient of the Mildred Fox Hanson Award for Women in Creative Writing. She is an Atul Gawande mentee with the Solutions Journalism Network. Her debut novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, is forthcoming with Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. She is a PhD candidate at USC’s Creative Writing Program. She loves your whole outfit right now.

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Highlight on WWS-Pittsburgh: An Interview with Chapter Lead, Jenny Ruth

How would you describe your city and your local literary community?

Pittsburgh is a literary destination! Historically the poster child for America’s industrial revolution, we’re reinventing ourselves through an economy with education at its core. We nurture an inordinate amount of literary ventures like reading series, literary magazines, MFA programs, indie bookstores, read & critique groups, etc… If you’re a writer looking for a writing community, you’ll find many options.

How did you hear of Women Who Submit, and why were you drawn to start a WWS chapter in your area?

I happened to see a tweet from the main WWS account in my feed in the spring of 2015 shortly after attending a writing conference in D.C. It was at this conference that I heard a panel of lit mag editors discuss gender disparities in submission rates and the VIDA Count. I immediately connected to the idea and recognized the need to support women in their submission efforts. Seeing that WWS tweet was a great example of “right place, right time.” I started tweeting at it every time I submitted work!

In spring 2016 my family moved to Pittsburgh. I asked WWS HQ to put me in touch with the Pittsburgh chapter only to discover we did not have one. Totally surprised me because PGH seemed to have everything else. So I started the chapter here. Continue reading “Highlight on WWS-Pittsburgh: An Interview with Chapter Lead, Jenny Ruth”

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Highlight on WWS-San Francisco: An Interview with Chapter Co-Lead, Dominica Phetteplace

12 women with laptops sit around a long, wooden table in a small room with a long, wide window

Women Who Submit: Where does the San Francisco chapter meet?

Dominica Phetteplace: Our chapter meets every other month at Borderlands CafĂ© in the Mission District of San Francisco, which is adjacent to Borderlands Bookstore, one of my favorite independent bookstores in the world. Borderlands Bookstore specializes in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mystery fiction. They also have a great magazine section with lots of cool literary journals for sale. I draw a lot of inspiration from this place. The cafĂ© has been very supportive of our mission. They set aside tables just for us! Look for us in the back, we’re the group of hardworking women with laptops. Continue reading “Highlight on WWS-San Francisco: An Interview with Chapter Co-Lead, Dominica Phetteplace”