Tag: Women Who Submit

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Ten Small Presses Under $25

IMG_2016By Lisbeth Coiman

As if you didn’t gather enough information at the AWP, here is a bit more, a short list of publications to send your best work to. This time I rounded up ten small presses names with their contact information and a short review. They all have open reading periods. They all do exceptional work at bringing emergent voices on print.

1. 2Leaf Press
Reading Period: Opening date January 1.
Submission Guidelines
What They Like: NY-based nonprofit that promotes literature and literacy. They look for new voices, and produce quality work in a wide variety of genres by culturally diverse authors. Focus on literary fiction and cultural non-fiction.

2. Alternative Book Press
Reading Period: Not listed
Submission Guidelines
What they like: They are looking for work that can stand time, not just for a sale hit.

3. Cinco Puntos Press
Reading Period: Not listed
Submission Guidelines
What They Like: Although they have a focus on the US / Mexico border region, they also publish great writers from other parts of the countries with stories located in other settings. Submission starts with a phone call.

4. C&R Press
Reading Period: Now accepting
Submission Guidelines
Reading fee: $25
What They Like: They are interested in supporting authors whose thoughtful and imaginative contribution to contemporary literature deserved recognition and support.
5. Diversion Press
Reading Period: Opens May 1
Submission Guidelines 
Reading fee: 0
What They Like: Academic non-fiction, slice of life, how-to, history, and other non-fiction works. They also publish a poetry anthology and sponsor a poetry contest.
6. Outpost19
Reading Period: Not listed
Submission Guidelines
Reading fee: 0
What They Like: Looks for innovative projects and provocative reading. Uses submittable.
7. Pink Fish Press
Reading Period: Not listed
Submission Guidelines
Reading fee: $0
What They Like: Try to destroy the stigma of “poor quality work” that accompanies independent authors. They believe in talented voices, and gifted writers are the forefront of popular culture. Isn’t that nice?
8. Red Hen Press
Reading Period: Open till September
Submission Guidelines
Reading fee: $20
What They Like: Red Hen Press is committed to publishing work of literary excellence, supporting diversity, and promoting literacy in our local schools. They seek a community of readers and writers who are actively engaged in the essential human practice known as literature.
9. Wild Embers Press
Reading Period: Not listed
Submission Guidelines
Reading fee: $0
What They Like: Looking for experimental stories of love and liberation from marginalized place in all genres, fiction, creative non fiction, and poetry. Welcomes art included with narratives. Query via email at wildemberseditor@gmail.com. Only PDF files.

10. Willowbooks
Reading Period: Open from April 1 to September 1
Submission Guidelines
Reading fee: $0
What They Like: Their mission is to develop, publish, and promote writers typically underrepresented in the market, and the reading period is open to all writers from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Headshot 2Lisbeth Coiman is a bilingual writer standing (unbalanced) on a blurred line between fiction and memoir. She has wandered the immigration path from Venezuela to Canada, to the US, and now lives in Oakland. Her upcoming memoir The Shattered Mirror celebrates friendship among women and draws attention on child abuse and mental illness. She also writes short fiction and poetry, and blogs “irregularly” at www.gingerbreadwoman.org

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Women Who Submit at AWP

For those planning to attend AWP 2016 this week in Los Angeles, we do not doubt slogging through the list of scheduled events and managing the deluge of invites is making you short of breath. To help, we’ve created a cheat sheet of panels, readings, awards ceremonies, and cocktail parties where you can find the bright, shining women of Women Who Submit. And if our list doesn’t have a calming effect, there is always Lauren Eggert-Crowe’s piece, “How to Do AWP,” posted last week on the blog, for tips on self-care and success while getting your conference on.

So take a breath and dive in to the many wonders and amazements we have in store for you, and be sure to stop by booth #1504 to say hello and catch a glimpse of “The Amazing Submitting Woman.”

Monday March 28, 2016

The Instant. at 8pm (Not technically AWP, but a good warm up because… soup)
Ham & Eggs Tavern: 433 W 8th St, Los Angeles, California 90014
A monthly reading series that serves up local and visiting literary contributors, unique live music/performance and everyone’s favorite go-to food in a cup, Instant Ramen. Featuring Vickie Vertiz, Jervey Tervalon, Jade Chang, Jesse Bliss, & Toni Ann Johnson.

Wednesday March 30, 2016

Hello Los Angeles: An AWP Kickoff Party at 4pm-6pm
barcito: 403 W 12th St, Los Angeles, California 90015
An L.A. literary cocktail party benefitting 826LA with Special Guests Luis Alberto Urrea, Michael White, Robin Black, Desiree Cooper, Fabienne Josaphat, Bethanne Patrick, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Teka Lark and Dan Smetanka.

AWP Offsite: Coiled Serpent Publication Reading with Luis Rodriguez at 6pm-11pm
Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles: 929 S Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90015
Beyond Baroque Books and Tia Chucha Press present a publication reading for Coiled Serpent: Poets arising from the cultural quakes and shifts of Los Angeles edited by Luis J Rodriguez, Neelanjana Banerjee, Daniel A. Olivas, and Ruben J. Rodriguez. Featured readers include Don Campbell, Marisa Urrutia Gedney, Yago S. Cura, Jessica Ceballos, traci kato-kiriyama, William Archila, Sophie Rivera, Trini Rodriguez, Terry Wolverton, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo and more!

Shipwreck Presents: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a Literary Erotic Fanfiction Competition at 7pm
Bootleg Theater: 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90057
Shipwreck, the San Francisco-based literary erotic fanfiction competition, is coming to LA for the first time, and we’re taking on Sherlock—yep, the whole f*cking canon with featured writers: Carmiel Banasky, Nina Bargiel, Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Nate Waggonner, Zoë Ruiz, and Matt Young.

AWP16 Offsite Event: “IX LIVES” Launch Hosted by Exposition Review at 7pm
Hennessey + Ingalls Bookstore: 300 S Santa Fe Ave, Ste M, Los Angeles, California 90013
Come kick off #AWP16 with the editors of Exposition Review as we celebrate the launch of our new volume “IX Lives”!

Thursday March 31, 2016

From the Drudges: Sustaining a Writing Life from Outside of Academia at 12pm-1:15pm
LA Convention Center, Room 408 A, Meeting Room Level
The lion’s share of prizes, grants, fellowships, and accolades originates in academia and is awarded to academics. Does this mean we have to teach in order to sustain a writing life? Five panelists discuss how a meaningful and successful writing career can be established and sustained from outside of the university cycle. Moderated by Jen Fitzgerald with panelists Rodrigo Toscano, Alyss Dixson, and Ashaki M. Jackson.

From New Wave to Punk: Musical Influences on Latino Literary Aesthetics at 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm
Room 505, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
From all corners of Los Angeles and across this country, punk and New Wave music have influenced Latino writers for decades. This multigenre panel is equal parts reading, discussion, and listening party with special guest Michelle Gonzales author of The SpitBoy Rules, Daniel Chacon, Carribean Fragoza, musicologist Marlen Rios, and Vickie Vertiz.

Mistaking Planes for Stars: Writing from Los Angeles Flight Paths and Freeways at 3pm-4:15pm
AWP Conference, Room 410, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Working-class writing in Los Angeles has a long-standing tradition, from Bukowski to Viramontes. This read-ing highlights cutting-edge poetry, story, and performance by working-class and queer Latinos from southeast Los Angeles with with Steve Gutierrez, Melinda Palacio, Aida Salazar, and Vickie Vertiz.

Does America Still Dream? Depictions of Class, Poverty, and Social Im/mobility in Literature at 3pm-4:15pm
Rm 503, L.A. Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Authors writing across genre and form hold an interracial conversation about rendering American class and poverty on the page. Moderated by LA-based writer and educator Dawn Dorland, featuring Jodi Angel, Teka-Lark Fleming, Jaquira Díaz & Melissa Chadburn.

Never on Your Own: Creating Community When Writing Is Done at 4:30pm-5:45pm
Gold Salon 1, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor
Members of Booklift, Los Norteños, Seattle 7 Writers, the Shipping Group, and Women Who Submit—groups that focus on promotion, networking, and sending work out—share strategies on how to start and run such a group, how to partner with local bookstores and writing centers, and how to foster community both online and offline. Moderated by Waverly Fitzgerald with panelists Kathleen Alcalá, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Josephine Ensign, and Kelli Russell Agodon.

Incarcerated Juvenile? Veteran? Senior? Teaching and Reaching the Writer Hidden Within the Underserved at 4:30pm-5:45pm
Diamond Salon 6&7, JW Marriott LA, 3rd Floor
Five veteran teachers of the underserved discuss strategies and best practices to bring the power of writing into the lives of those often discounted in our culture. Panelists discuss the challenges and rewards of working in unusual classrooms and delve into how to best engage unique populations. Moderated by Monona Wali with panelists Robert Fox, Esché Jackson, Ashaki M. Jackson and Leslie Diane Poston.

La Pachanga 2016! at 5:30pm-8:30pm
Avenue 50 Studio: 131 N Avenue 50, Los Angeles, California 90042
An award ceremony & celebration honoring Francisco X. Alarcón, RIP, Juan Felipe Herrera, Lucha Corpi, Luis Javier Rodríguez, Odilia Galván Rodríguez as well as celebrating the release of the new anthology Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice (University of Arizona Press).

The Lulus at 5:30pm-7:30pm
The Palm Restaurant: 1100 S Flower St, Los Angeles, CA 90015
Lulu will present its first annual awards, the Lulus, in recognition of writers and organizations who actively support racial, gender and class justice. Honorees include Garth Greenwell, Saeed Jones, and Wendy C. Ortiz.
$10 per ticket

Word of Mouth offsite reading AWP 2016 at 6pm
Casey’s Irish Pub: 613 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, California 90017
Featuring David James Poissant, Tammy Delatorre, Tom Hunley Ron Salutsky, Leona Sevick, Tania Runyan, Susan Browne, Scott T. Starbuck, Martha Silano, Dave Essinger, CC Perry, Cindy Rinne, Brendan Kiely, and Tom Bligh.

Best of the West Reading at Villains Tavern at 6pm
Villains Tavern: 1356 Palmetto St, Los Angeles, California 90013
Join The Los Angeles Review, Pacifica Literary Review, and CutBank for a Best of the West Reading at Villains Tavern in the LA Arts District featuring Siel Ju, Madgalawit Makonnen, Jeff Walt, William Camponovo, Corinne Manning, Catherine Pond, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, and Caleb Tankersley.

Best of the Net / Political Punch / Sundress / Agape Reading at 7pm-10pm
The Lexington: 129 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, California 90013
Join Sundress Publications for a night of three celebratory readings for our new poetry anthology, Political Punch, the 10 year anniversary of the Best of the Net Anthology, and Sundress’s Sweet 16 with readings by Timothy Liu, Cam Awkward-Rich, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Chen Chen, Traci Brimhall, Matt Hart, Emily Jungmin Yoon, Alix Olin, Nicole Walker, Sarah Einstein, Fox Frazier-Foley, Amorak Huey, Letitia Trent, Jill Khoury, Saba Syed Razvi, Jessica Rae Bergamino, and M. Mack!

Friday April 1, 2016

The Flash Sequence: A Reading and Discussion at 9am-10:15am
LA Convention Center, Room 406 AB, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
For 20 years, the Marie Alexander Series has published hybrid work: prose poems, flash fiction, lyric essays, and books that mix all three and defy categorization. For our 20th anniversary, we decided to publish an anthology of flash sequences—that is, pieces comprising short prose segments.Each participant will read and discuss his or her contribution to the anthology. Moderator, Debra Marquart with panelists, Irena Praitis, Siel Ju, Jenn Koiter, and Sonia Greenfield.

Through the Closet: Writing Human Complexity in Queer Characters at 10:30am
Los Angeles Convention Center, Room 404 AB, Meeting Room Level
The typical “coming out of the closet” narrative is a fantasy of a starkly contrasted before-and-after, of complete disclosure and consequence. Through the lens of their works of fiction, the panelists discuss the limitations of this oversimplified account of the queer experience and explore their varying approaches in writing queer characters in all of their human nuances and differences across genres and time periods. Moderator, Catie Disabato with panelists Thomas McBee, Marcos L. Martinez, Seth Fischer, and Kate Maruyama.

“Once, I Was That Girl”: Creative Writing Pedagogy for Tween and Teen Girls. at 10:30am
LA Convention Center, Room 505, Meeting Room Level
“Empowering girls” has become a catchphrase that can be relatively meaningless. Yet, single-sex environments have been proven to be productive spaces in which creativity is nurtured and young writers can grow. Four educators and writers who have founded organizations that serve tween and teen girls speak to the practical challenges and the reverberations of success they have witnessed while mentoring girls, as well as the inspiration this has brought to their own creative work. With panelists Elline Lipkin, Allison Deegan, Nancy Gruver, Margaret Stohl, and Marlys West.

Book signing of The Amado Women by Désirée Zamorano at 2pm-3pm
Bindercon table, exhibit space #1936

¡Chicana! Power! A Firme Tejana-Califas Reading at 3pm-4:15pm
LA Convention Center, Room 410, Meeting Room Level
With a brown fist in the air, chanting “¡Sí Se Puede!” these mujeres bring la palabra. This is a reading by fierce Chicana poets stemming from Texas and Califas. Moderated by Dr. Guadalupe Garcia Montano with panelists Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Anel I. Flores, Emmy Pérez, and Laurie Ann Guerrero.

Poetas in ONE-derland (An AWP offsite reading) at 7pm
Self Help Graphics & Art: 1300 E 1st St, Los Angeles, California 90033
A Poetry evening featuring eastside and east coast sisters of the
historical Nuyorican Poets Cafe featuring Cynthia Guardado, Ashaki M. Jackson, reina alejandra prado saldivar, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Maria Rodriguez-Morales, and Vickie Vértiz.

AWP 2016 Offsite: The Rumpus and Rare Bird Present PICK YOUR POISON at 7pm-9pm
Lethal Amounts: 1226 W 7th St, Los Angeles, California 90017
The Rumpus and Rare Bird proudly present PICK YOUR POISON, an AWP 2016 offsite event. With readings from Cornelius Eady, Rich Ferguson, Ashley C. Ford, Erika Krouse, Anna March, and J. Ryan Stradal! Hosted by Antonia Crane!

AWP Offsite: Kundiman & Kaya Present LITERAOKE at 8:30pm-11pm
Kapistahan: 1925 W Temple St, Ste 103, Los Angeles, California 90026
Come out and get down with Kaya Press & Kundiman at our AWP offsite event as we combine readings and Karaoke into a never-before-attempted experiment of entertainment and enlightenment! Features include Vidhu Aggarwal, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Sam Chanse, Leticia Hernandez, Ashaki M. Jackson, Janine Joseph, Teka Lark, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Ed Lin, R. Zamora Linmark, Kenji Liu, Rajiv Mohabir, Angela Peñarendondo, and more!

VIDA Dance-a-Thon at AWP at 10pm-2am
Ace Hotel Los Angeles: 929 S Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90015
Don’t worry, it’s not a competition, we just want to have a good time! Come party with VIDA at our AWP offsite event, and support another year of amplifying women’s voices with features Charlie Jane Anders, Sheila Black, Wendy C. Ortiz, Gregory Pardlo, Christopher Soto (aka Loma), Michelle Tea.

Saturday April 2, 2016

The 3rd Annual Rock and Roll Reading at 4 PM – 7:30 PM
The Echoplex: 1822 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90026
Rapid-fire readings followed by live music from Frances Gumm featuring Alice Bolin, Stephen Burt, Melissa Chadburn, Jerry Gabriell, Eleanor Henderson, Micah Ling, Nate Marshall, Adrian Matejka, Emily Nemens, Elena Passarello, Jim Ruland, Ethan Rutherford, Amy Scharmann, Amy Silverberg.

AWP: Thanks for Visiting! at 6pm-8pm
Espacio 1839: 1839 E 1st St, Los Angeles, California 90033
Los Angeles Poet Society and The Writers Underground present a showcase of Los Angeles Poets that bring it! With: Iris De Anda, Jessica M. Wilson, Jeffery Martin, Gloria E. Alvarez with Musical accompaniment from Greg Hernandez, Steve Abee, and Cynthia Guardado.

FLORICANTOS UNCOILED: Afterdark Whispers of Passion at 10pm-1:30am
Medford Street Studios: Los Angeles, California 90033
An late night reading co-hosted by Las Lunas Locas with Karineh Mahdessian and Sophia Rivera celebrating POETRY OF RESISTANCE: VOICES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, published by the University of Arizona press and co-edited by Francisco X. Alarcón (RIP: Rest in Poetry) and Odilia Galván Rodríguez and COILED SERPENT: POETS ARISING FROM THE CULTURAL QUAKES & SHIFTS OF LOS ANGELES, published by Tia Chucha Press.

For those not attending AWP 2016 or looking to take a break from the Los Angeles Convention Center, be sure to attend a panel or two at THE REJECTED, an alternative mini-convention brought to you by Lauren Traetto, Writ Large Press, and CIELO featuring panels and speakers rejected by “stupid ass AWP16 for no damn good reason.”

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Women Who Crawl: Laura Warrell on Reading at Lit Crawl L.A.

by Laura Warrell

Women Who Submit rocked this year’s Lit Crawl L.A., an annual street festival where thousands of book lovers hustle from one North Hollywood venue to the next to hear local authors read their work. As a new member of WWS, I was honored when group co-founder Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo invited me to read at the event this year, a feeling that deepened as I listened to the powerhouse line-up of women writers with whom I shared the stage. Lit Crawl gave me the opportunity to once again hear Lisa Cheby read from her chapbook, Love Lessons from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including a poem nominated for a Pushcart prize. Iris De Anda’s delicate delivery of her poems only heightened their intensity, while Ashaki M. Jackson’s poems were as bracing as they were profound. The prose writers, Tisha Reichle and Vicki Vertiz, rounded out the line-up sharing poignant and compelling stories that captivated the audience. I read a brand-new essay–one I had never shared–but knew the safest place to make a debut was among friends of WWS.

In an effort to emulate WWS meetings, each reader began by listing the publications to which she had submitted her work and was immediately cheered on by the audience (at meetings, each member announces the moment she presses “send” and submits her work to literary journals and contests as everyone in the room applauds). Unlike WWS meetings, we cheered with plastic hand clappers, which made a normally subdued event feel more like a celebration. Though the reading took place on the patio of the Eclectic Restaurant, the noise from the busy dining room and street could not overpower the readers’ voices or the audience’s applause. Passersby stopped to listen, snap pictures and join an already packed house.

The Lit Crawl reading was one of the best of my writing life. At first, I was nervous to take part because my essay explored one of the most difficult moments in my failed marriage. Not only did I feel vulnerable sharing such a personal story, especially a painful one, but I also worried whether the new piece was “working.” The rousing applause after I finished reading was encouragement enough. But even more fantastic was the support I received from my fellow WWS members, like Tisha who beamed at me when I walked off the stage and said, “You killed it.”

Which brings me to what is most special about Women Who Submit: community. All writers need places where they can feel supported to take chances in their work and brave the challenges of an artistic life. But for women writers, who tend to be less assertive in building their careers, the support may be even more crucial. For that, WWS is priceless.

-1A recent transplant to Los Angeles from Boston, Laura Warrell has been published in Salon.com, Racialicious.com, The Writer and other publications. She spends most of her days hustling to one of three adjunct teaching positions to fill amazing young minds with literature and writing prompts. The other days, she thanks God for never having to endure another New England winter.

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Celebration Blitzes

by Ramona Pilar

Submit!

Who: Women Who Submit
Where: ONLINE In the comfort of wherever you, your computer and wifi wanna be.
L.A. METRO AREA:  The Little Easy – 216 W. 5th Street, DTLA, CA 90013
What: Women Who Submit’s 2nd Annual SUBMISSION BLITZ (and L.A. Meetup)
When: Saturday September 12, 2015
ONLINE: Beginning at 12:01am – 11:59pm
L.A. METRO AREA: 12:00pm – 4:00pm

Why?

The channeling of writing is done in solitude. Whether alone in the quiet before dawn – a soundtrack of scattering the only rush hour you hear – or squished into a seat on a light rail train or subway at rush hour, a veritable contortionist, angling your writing arm, wrist and fingers however you can in order to transmute those stories, verses, and images into a collection of words.

Purple Lady Metro
La Viejita Morada – 2013

But that channeling – that creativity – isn’t necessarily the whole of what it means to be a writer. As a storyteller, one is urged, pushed, cajoled or challenged by something inside of you to pluck those passing thoughts from the din of the thousands that flow through your mind on a daily basis and  give them form, genre, emotion – voice. As a writer, you are further compelled to share these stories and contribute to the larger story of your community – however many you claim – tells about itself to itself.

Women Who Submit is just one of several groups of writers who have organized around supporting and amplifying the stories of people who have been bit players at best in the story contemporary literature and publishing tells about itself to itself.

WWS’s First Submission Blitz took place in a bar/restaurant at the deadest part of the day: early afternoon. As patrons trickled in and saw a group of women sitting around a table with laptops, they were curious. The more they drank, the bolder they got until they asked what we were doing. Each time we explained, the response was, “Oh, wow! That’s such a good idea!” And as each writer submitted her work, we cheered, and they cheered along with us.

1st Annual Submission Blitz - 2014 Somewhere in Northeast L.A.
1st Annual Submission Blitz – 2014

This year’s Submission Blitz will take place at The Little Easy in Downtown Los Angeles. It’s reminiscent of a speakeasy, Parisian parlor and Disney’s Blue Bayou restaurant (without the old water smell from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride). There’s a wooden fenced mezzanine with ivy-strewn awnings and a gazebo-ed fountain in the main part of the restaurant. It’s the best kind of whimsical a restaurant/bar could be.

Writing can be serious work. Sharing that writing doesn’t have to be. At a submission party, your submission receives the amount of fanfare and hoopla your hard work deserves. At our annual Submission Blitz, we target the top five Top Tiered journals currently publishing work. Hell yeah it deserves a venue that features a 3 foot painting of the general manager dressed as Napoleon. Sharing your stories and celebrating your community(ies) sharing theirs is just as much a part of being a writer as the words on the page.

* * * * * * *

TO SUBMIT

Let’s inundate these top journals with our best work and shake up their slush piles.

Here are five tier 1 journals with current open readings. Be sure to check out their guidelines.

Agni
http://www.bu.edu/agni/submit.html

Georgia Review
http://garev.uga.edu/submissions.html

Gulf Coast
http://gulfcoastmag.org/submit/

Iowa Review
http://iowareview.org/content/writers-guidelines

Zyzzyva
http://www.zyzzyva.org/about/submissions/

TRANSPORT

TAKE METRO: to Pershing Square Station, exit 5th and Hill street side, walk one block east. Destination will be on the South side.

PARKING: There are some $5-$7 lots on Spring between 4th and 6th streets.

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Women Who Host: Ashley Perez on Hosting a WWS Submission Party

AP WWS Submission Party

By Ashley Perez

What a blast it was to host a WWS party at my home on July 11, 2015. I had only been to one WWS meeting before and due to a constant conflicting schedule, I knew the only way I would get to another one would be to host it. I have also had little chance to have people over to my new digs so it served a dual purpose.

The main things I took out of hosting are the two primary words out of this group: WOMEN and SUBMITTING. It felt really good to be among a group of women who are amazingly smart, talented, and funny. It was an amazing atmosphere of solidarity and encouragement.

The second part is submitting. I was working on a huge grant application so I did not submit any stories but a friend of mine who came to the meeting, who had only ever submitted once before, ended up submitting to four different journals. We had over 16 (I think) submissions that day and that made me feel like this amazing group of women were kicking all of the asses and taking over the world.

It also reinforced the fact that I need to get to work. I am not always very productive with my writing (and therefore not submitting) and to hear a round of thunderous applause every time a submission was done helped kick my creative determination up another notch.

That is what is at the heart of this group and their mission and what was made abundantly clear to me during this meeting. It doesn’t matter what my own personal insecurities were (i.e. I suck, I am not a writer, I’ll never submit) because there was a strong group of women surrounding me who would kindly tell me I was wrong, to shut the fuck up, and get back to it, so they too can cheer for me.

* * *

Ashley Perez photo

Ashley Perez lives, writes, and causes trouble in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She runs the literary site Arts Collide and does work of all varieties for Bleed at Jaded Ibis Press, The Rumpus, The Weeklings, and Midnight Breakfast.

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BLOG LAUNCH 2015!

Women Who Submit has had one robust year so far! We’ve been featured in Poets & Writers, Arts Collide and Lunch Ticket, and have been invited panelists/workshop leads at the L.A. Writer’s Conference, UC Irvine’s School of Humanities, About . . . Production’s Post-Salon Series, and at our alma mater Antioch University, LA.

And now, we’re blogging!

We’ll be posting weekly digests of the calls for submissions from our Facebook Page as well as info on our upcoming events, workshops and submission parties, digital press clippings about and by the WWS players, and photo evidence of all the scandalous WWS happenings (and snacks)!

But wait! There’s MORE NEWS: Women Who Submit is getting into the receiving game and we want to hear from YOU! From our Submit . . . to Us! page:

We are looking for nonfiction pieces written by women for women that are instructive, supportive and celebratory, and in the tradition of chisme often shared at our submission parties. Who recently won a major award? What journal has changed its editorial team? How did you get over your anxiety of submitting?

We are looking for advice, reviews, recommendations, interviews, and questions in the following categories:

Submission in Review: reviews and recommendations of literary journals, fellowships, residencies, current open calls, and contests

Closing the Gap: practical submission strategies, holistic exercises, or personal reflections on the battle for self-confidence

Behind the Editor’s Desk: interviews with editors and publishers

Claps and Cheers: celebrating women’s organizations and individual women making strides around the world

Dear Submission Mistress:  submission advice based  on your submitted questions

It’s exciting times over here at WWS Headquarters. Share the joys of submission with us, yourself, your friends and colleagues et al.!