You might be heading out of town for the long weekend. You might be firing up the grill. You might be taking a more sober approach, honoring fallen family members or distant soldiers of yesteryear. You might be wondering why your darling children have yet another day off from school.
Perhaps you are reading this newsletter from outside the U.S., in which case this is just another weekend in just another month as we tumble our way toward summer.
There is, however, one thing I know for sure that you are not doing. Something I know with absolute certainty that each and every one of you is definitely not doing. This is a thing that I am crystal clear on. Not a single one of you is doing it. Fact. No one. Not you, not here, not today, not this weekend.
Do you know what that thing is?
I know that if you have had something published in the past month, and you are reading this newsletter right now, you are not wondering where you can go to share the news of this wonderful win. Reason being, if you have had something published in the past month, we, right here, right now, want to hear all about it. We want to celebrate with you.
That’s right, pals. It’s the last weekend of the month. If you’re a regular reader of Lit Mag News, you know what that means.
If you’re new, then welcome to our monthly Lit Mag Brag.
This is the place for each one of you to share what you’ve had published this month. It’s the place to honor all of you—your hard work, your perseverance, your dedication and your driving stick-to-it-ive-ness.
Tell us. What is the piece? Where is its home? (Share the link!)
How many places did you submit before the piece got picked up?
Did you revise as you submitted or was it done and done?
How did you find out about the magazine where it finally landed?
Were you pleased with the editorial process?
Are you happy with the final product?
Don’t be shy. This is your time, and we want to hear all about it.
Step right up and go on and BRAG YOUR LIT MAG!
And, however you spend this weekend, have a great one.
I've had a great month of May. A story I loved dearly and had trouble finding a home for - I think editors didn't know what to do with it - is it horror (not really, even if there are monsters), is it a love story (definitely, but ...), it is a meditation on solitude (yes, and what a hunger that is)... - was published by Roi Faineant, a good place to be with odd literary objects. Here's "Mr. Nakamura" - https://roifaineantarchive.wixsite.com/rf-arc-hive/post/mr-nakamura-by-m-e-proctor
RF accepted something of mine right after it had been accepted at another journal and I'll be blogging on substack about a situation like that in a few weeks. Meanwhile, congrats!
Thanks. Publishing something always seems to trigger a new idea or new ideas: It's the contagion of excitement. I know it's a commonplace that being miserable is essential to being a writer, but I write from a different place than that most of the time.
Great title for your "Thin Sice of Anxiety" piece, Martine. Congrats on your persistence! Love the sound of Mr Nakamura too - you might want to check out "Lost Poetry Club" (see my entry) but it sounds like your work would be a fit for them too.
Congrats! Cody at Thin Slice took one of mine that I'd been sending off and on since 2002. Good man! (And then as I note in my post here, another story of similar "vintage" also finally found a home in the new mag Feign.) "Never Give Up" is as good a motto as any in this-here game.
Oh my! Seven years. I don't know if I have enough confidence to keep sending the same piece that long. I have many I have shelved after a few rejections. Perhaps I should put them back into circulation.
I didn't resend the exact same thing, lol. About once a year, I looked at it again and made changes, but I stuck to the initial idea - the doubt: did it really happen - the guilt: should I have said something. It took Cody at "Slice of Anxiety" to take a chance with it. I still wonder why editors didn't respond to it for so long... Now I can put it behind me, lol.
Well done! It's not easy continuing to put something out there in the face of multiple rejections (though the encouraging ones do help, don't they?). Congratulations on a stellar May!
Hi everyone— if you’ve never published with The Maine Review, I strongly reccomend it. They published me a few years back and again this month. Their editor A.J. Bermudez is TOPS professionally, creatively, respectfully !! I worked with editor Chelsea Jackson on some edits that ABSOLUTELY enhanced the piece in the ways only astute editors can. Here it is: https://www.mainereview.com/the-name-dropper/
Alberta — thank you! That’s extremely kind — and they are super small and limited on how much they can publish, but I suggest hitting them up again if you have something you think fits! Let me know if I can be of any help and thank you again for the time!
I love the voice of this story and also the reflections on changing one's name. That's a powerful thing to do and I have met many different kinds of people who dislike their names. "Change it!" is my advice.
I really respond to a strong voice in any genre. I'm reading Erik Larson's new book about Ft. Sumter and the Civil War and it's gorgeous without being showy.
This was not a story I had submitted to many places at all. It went through alot of drafts and I was never happy with it. I sent a much earlier version a few years ago to about five magazines and this round I sent it to Sewanee Review where it was rejected and Swamp Pink who accepted it. There were no revisions on their end, they were wonderful to work with, and it's always nice to get a check!
My novel, “Fay’s Men”, was published by Running Wild Press and launched at Honolulu’s Talk Kaimuki cafe. Check out the You Tube launch link here for a look at the celebration of my updated, feminist version of Cervantes’ classic, “Don Quixote.”
I highly recommend this journal. Submissions are free, turnaround time is under three months, it's been around since 2017, the EIC is very responsive, they send proofs before publication, they nominate for prizes, and they pay (I received $15 one week after publication). They read blind, so no cover letter and no bio allowed (although you can send a bio and photo upon acceptance). Also note that you can only submit one poem at a time, but to me that's a plus. :)
I placed a new creepy short story about academia with Mensa's magazine Calliope (membership isn't required for submissions). It was rejected by half a dozen lit mags and another half dozen never responded--but I was sure it was solid. It'll be out next winter. The editor let me know that if accepted, it wouldn't appear quickly and I was okay with that.
My method is the same: I check out mags on Duotrope and Submittable; read editor interviews if they're available; sample the journal; check their mastheads and mission statements. I do sometimes look at acceptance/rejection stats at Duotrope, but that can be misleading, so it's not my focus.
Incredible stats! But then, you definitely put in the work, constantly on the submitting path. I enjoyed your article and like the part about figuring out who your readers are. Thanks.
Congrats, Liz! "Gentian Violet" is a fine story (in a fine magazine); I so liked the way the last line drew the reader's eye into the larger present and future.
My story “Tresses,” a dark-ish Rapunzel reimagining, was published in the lovely UK magazine, Crow & Cross Keys. The editor chose a wonderfully hairy image to go with the text!
Well, I've already read your delectably dark story "Tresses", as you know, Donna - but just wanted to say "Congratulations" here. I loved how creative you were with the "hair" imagery and ideas - you showed you can take a well-established trope & do something astonishingly new with it.
PS: I can't "like" posts in this forum for some reason at the moment.Very strange! I'm going to email Becky.
Hi Melissa. I don't know why that is happening! I would recommend reaching out to Substack support. Support@Substack.com. They are actually excellent and respond very quickly.
Hi Becky, thanks for seeing this - yes, I will! I can "like" your actual whole post, but not individual comments. It only started happening recently. (So, it wouldn't have anything to do with being a free subscriber here?)
Thank you so much, Susan! The magazines which have published my flash and micro fiction are listed in my bio at the end of “Tresses.” Only two, Mom Egg Review and Best Microfiction, are print journals; the others are all online, so googling my name plus the magazine title should (hopefully) bring up the stories! 😊
Great piece. Enjoyed the way you started us reimagining: “Her hair swallowed combs, lusted after thorn bushes; reared up, sparking and spitting, to guzzle lightning.”
Donna-- Your imaginative retelling of the old story is amazing. Your language is so creative and wild, and the dark view is wonderful. So happy to read it and also to learn about Crow and Cross Keys.
In May, I had two acceptances for later in the year, but also have a poem in this wonderful new anthology, edited by poets I deeply admire and published by Small Harbor (who picked up the ball at the last minute when the original publisher decided to erase LGBTQIA+ identifies from contributors' bios and insisted that all pronouns be either "she" or "he". Yeah. That happened. In 2024. So thank goodness for Small Harbor!). Anyway, the anthology is titled Braving the Body, and I am proud to share space with an astonishing group of poets, including the fabulous Diane Seuss! https://www.smallharborpublishing.com/anthologies/braving-the-body
I haven't had anything published in a loooong time (other than my day job), but I did get a nice tiered rejection from The Kenyon Review (!!!!) saying they'd love to see more of my work. I'll take that as some pretty darned great encouragement.
Happy May Mag Brag All! I couldn't join in last month as it was my birthday weekend & I was busy. But both April & May have been good to me. Two of my fairy tale reimaginings (poems) were longlisted for Heroine's Anthology (Vol/5) in April. In May I found out both were shortlisted & will appear in the print anthology later this year. Very excited for this one as there's likely to be a live launch event (it's an Australian-based project, though open to international submitters). I also had a prose poem reimagining of Red Riding Hood accepted for NonBinary Review's "Heredity" Issue, out early June (via Zoetic Press). They're a super-professional crew, doing a thorough proofing process & there's also to be a printed interview - my first - yay! April also saw a 2nd poem accepted & published in "The Ekphrastic Review" - "In Blue Rooms" is about grief and my mother's death from cancer. (I have no actual publications for May yet, so I hope I can put April's up instead.)
My fabulist flash fiction was published in the lovely Crow & Cross Keys, where it's in good company with Donna Shanley's wonderful "Tresses". Elou is lovely to work with, & promotes well on Xitter.
May also saw a dark flash fic accepted for a new audible zine called "Lost Poetry Club" - to be podcasted in a few months for their (I think) second issue. They're a UK-based project. looking for "weird" /dark fic &poetry and they pay.
The last Sunday of every month has become my day to read people's work from the brag - as it's very late Sat night when it goes up here. Congrats to everyone for their acceptances & publications & I look forward to dipping in & reading tomorrow. :)
So beautiful Melissa- “In Blue Rooms: For My Mother” was deeply moving, and hauntingly beautiful imagery. I’m so glad to have discovered your work. And “The dream of…“ I can only say WOW!!!
Melissa, “In Blue Rooms: For My Mother” is filled with such haunting and beautiful images of your mother and her life as a work of art. My condolences on her passing. I loved “The shades of faded postcard oceans,” misty, as though seen through tears, and imbued with distance, both of the past and of the coming separation. And the way the summer sky, captured in the topaz ring, becomes a home for the gloriously transformed, winged sorrows: such a beautiful and moving ending.
Big congratulations on the two fairytale reimaginings forthcoming in Heroine’s Anthology, and for the acceptance to Lost Poetry Club. I’m looking forward, as well, to Red Riding Hood and your interview!
You know how much I admire “The Dream of Fly Agaric.” The birds concealing the wind in their feathers is an image that stays and stays.
Donna, thank you so much for reading & for ths wonderful feedback. I love how you linked the sky, topaz ring, wings together in your reading. For me, that let me see something new in what I wrote, or see it in a new way, at least.
Re Crow Cross & Keys, Elou clearly has loyal readers of her journal on Xitter - I actually got strangers tweeting what they liked about my story & new Followers. Can't recall the last time that happened there.
I'll definitely let you know when "GirlHood" (My RRH poem) is up in June. The interviews are posted a bit later, apparently. :)
Always a pleasure, Melissa--your images are so evocative. Congratulations on the positive tweets and follows from "Fly Agaric!" Looking forward to reading "GirlHood" (great title!)
They had a call for microfiction around the theme of Betrayal, which I heard from a writer I follow on Twitter. Over 60 stories were shared throughout May, and mine appeared on my birthday (a happy accident). The editor responded within the day and was very encouraging. I would recommend submitting any noir writing to this magazine—it has a highly engaged community of writers and readers.
I really enjoy hearing of so many successes! Way to go! This month my poem "Orcastration" appeared in Pato https://patojournal.wixsite.com/pato/copy-of-winter-2024. I wrote this poem many years ago and only recently submitted it because the orca whales attacking ship rudders off the coast of Spain made me think someone might be interested in a work that musically puns on these whales, the word "orchestration" and phrase "or castration" [which seems to be what anxiety does to many], and the need to hoist pianos to their homes in NYC high rises. Though it's unclear who edits Pato, it's located in NYC and states that it wants inventive verse, and after a dozen rejections that seem less urban vibe accessible, I decided the imagery might be more relatable to city dwellers. A week after submission, the editor expressed interest and asked me about the last word of the poem, and while musical notation was not able to be accommodated online here, I appreciate the question.
Happy bragging everyone! Three days ago, my story was published on Necessary Fiction. The editor was good at making the story snappy and it was enjoyable to work with her. In addition, I really like the story's first sentence that I wrote: "Before his death, my grandfather would repeat the story of the first time his grandfather, or my great-great-grandfather, met a white man."
My poem "Adoration Lite" came out yesterday in Braided Way Magazine https://braidedway.org/adoration-lite/. It was the first lit mag I submitted it to, and the editor accepted it before I had a chance to look for a fit somewhere else. The editor had a few small edits, and that was it. Very smooth process, and I'm happy with how the poem looks on the site and the image it's paired with.
Now I'm off to follow all the links you've shared. Congratulations everyone!
They put it out and then notified me. I know! We just had a discussion about this trend! For me, it was a quick end to a long process. I started a draft for this piece a year ago. I wrote from the first-person perspective of Sal. I thought I got his voice and place, but it was rejected a lot. Even after several redrafts. Maybe Sal was too toxic or made the end too ambiguous - it was originally different. I tried from a third person and from Joey's perspective, those didn’t work at all.
Then I got inspired from my playlist - ultimately this goes back to Nas’ I Gave You Power. I tried some other titles, but I wanted to pay homage to my inspo. I feel there are traces of all drafts, nothing was wasted in the final.
On the same day also without notice, I published my 100-word micro Situationships at Backwards Trajectory https://backwardstrajectory.com/
I wrote this in SmokeLong Quarterly’s March Micro Marathon. I wrote 24 micros in 24 days. I gave and received a ton of feedback. This micro was one of the better ones. I didn’t revise much or redraft. And honestly, I gave up on this piece. Now that it’s published it feels like the right kind of 90s grunge.
Wow, Dave. Love "I Gave You Power." I've seen a ton of stories told by pets, but never a gun and it works wonderfully here. Plus the voice of the gun is fab!
This month I have had a poem “Love of the Old” accepted for the inaugural summer issue of the Macrame Literary Journal. I’ll provide a link when it comes out. I came across this online journal through my subscription to Authors Publish. In addition, a satirical prose piece, “Wanted, Preferably Dead”, which I wrote for the Pure Slush Volume 11, “Older Lifespan“, has been published this month in print. A more prurient poem that recounts the problems endured by young men living in 1950s Spain under the repressive Franco regime, aided by a hypocritical National Catholic Church, when it came to satisfying their normal sexual needs, was published, as might be expected, by HST, an online magazine that always welcomes the more marginal as far as taste goes. :-) It’s not for the pearl-clutchers (as the Brits say) so I won’t provide a link.
Just had a short story published in Stand magazine in the UK. Its a dystopian tale of climate change when half the coast has disappeared and there's nass unemployment so everyone has to stand in a queue for a chance to go on a talent show and win lots of money https://www.standmagazine.org/
Always great to see everyone's successes. Thanks Becky, for the continuing forum of sharing.
My story “Almost to the Point” won the May flash fiction contest of Shooter Literary Magazine. The story came from seeing a man and young teenage girl, clearly a father and daughter, walking the beach together—and apart. It got some nice word-level tuning by the editor, Melanie Sykes-White.
I wasn’t going to send anything to a new fiction magazine named Feign… because, well, what are the odds they would take a story by someone named Fain? But I had a longer story that I first sent out in 2002 and had gotten close to 30 sporadically-induced rejections since, and it was time to throw it out there again. Why not, what’s to lose? And it’s now the second story they’ve posted on their site.
Then there is the case of a short essay I sent to Sport Literate a year and half ago, without response. I withdrew it on Submittable, after sending it somewhere else. At which point I heard back from the editor, who apologized for what he thought was a two year delay in responding (close enough) and offered to put it in his next newsletter to subscribers. Which just came out. And it will also be in their annual print issue later this year. He even agreed to put in a link to a published short story of mine that was inspired by what I wrote about in the essay.
I was delighted to have the same piece accepted twice! What I'd hoped would be an NYC Modern Love essay (sound familiar?) won third place in a love story anthology contest by Blue Cedar press, to be published 1 June. The same week my university's magazine asked to publish the same piece in the issue timed for our class reunion. Lesson: rejected Modern Love essays can find good homes!
Congrats. And yes, I agree. A rejected Modern Love essay became a slightly longer CNF piece that I'm quite proud of published in Caustic Frolic last December.
Congrats to everyone who's been published this month. I look forward to reading your work.
In April two of my poems appeared on the online journal Bloodroot Literary Magazine: "Beech Sapling in a Wood" and "Becoming." You can find them here on pages 6-7: https://www.bloodrootlit.org/2024/Bloodroot-2024.pdf.
Also, my poem "The Trap Door" appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, a Canadian print journal.
This month the audio files for my two poems in the winter issue of The Southern Review are available for listening:
My braided essay about anxiety was published by Under the Sun. I love working with them, and I love the essays they publish. They give you a lot of feedback. Even at a copy editing level. Just a great, thoughtful team there. This was declined at three other lit mags before I sent it to Under the Sun. https://underthesunonline.com/wordpress/2024/325-2/
Thematically: Having just spent several days helping my severely anxious step-sister move house, I realized that I, for my part, seem to experience next to no anxiety. This gave me great insights to how it feels.
Telaina, Thank you for writing this beautiful, moving piece. I have a stepson with paranoid schiz who is now in a mental hospital. It is such a painful situation. I wrote a nonfiction piece about him in a book "Into Sanity: Essays about mental health, mental illness, and living in between." Martha Nichols, ed. Mark Vonnegut (Intro) (Talking Writing Books, 2019)
Thanks for reading, Marianne. So sorry your stepson is also dealing with this difficult illness. I will definitely read that. Thank you for letting me know about it.
My poem 'an inebriated body lists to port' was published in Issue 4.1 of The Imagist Literary Magazine. Traverse the page a few scrolls and you’ll find it!
These craft essays are sometimes hard to sell—I submitted to nine markets before the essay was accepted here. Finding the right fit made all the difference. The editors asked permission to change the title, and I agreed. They were conscientious about a contract and staying on deadline. Overall, a great experience!
Thank you, Susan! I so admire the way you deliver truths in a deceptively lighthearted voice. “I’m Coming Home” is a moving story that captures so much that is painfully familiar in so few words, while “Jane Erred” is hilarious—a great take on one of my favourite novels! “Cataract” is both sweet and poignant—a true love-story--while “Stay” is heartbreaking. “The smell of sadness like a poorly buried bone.” Such a lovely and imaginative offering of the animal’s point of view. Brava!
Word came today that my novella has been accepted by Alien Buddha Press. "Drainman" is a short novel about a person in the middle of the climate crisis after it is already too late to fix, who is charged with keeping his drain clear to keep the streets from flooding, though half the country is already under water.
"There are children alive today who only know of shadows made by artificial light and have never seen their shadow made by the sun."
The Awakenings Review published my essay "House of Mirrors" in its Spring 2024 print journal. The piece is about my encounter with a man diagnosed with schizophrenia and what I learned from it. The journal isn't available online, but I want to spread the word about this amazing publication, which supports writers (of all genres) with mental illnesses and those who are close to people who deal with mental illness. You can find more about the journal and the Awakenings Project from which it came at https://awakeningsproject.org . I'll have "House of Mirrors" on my website soon - https://carolannwilson.info I learned about the Project and Journal from a call for submissions in Poets & Writers. I'd had five or so rejections on this one, but it found its perfect home!
In late April, HerStry published my flash nonfiction piece, "Trust." https://herstryblg.com/true/trust-april-27 (sneaking this in since I missed my chance in April . . .)
I was thrilled to have a poem published by Birmingham Poetry Review (Spring 2024 Number 51). BPR is a beautiful journal, and they accept submissions only the old school way--in an envelope with no cover letter! The editorial process could not have been simpler-- no edits. I learned of the journal from Clifford Garstang's site: 2024 Literary Magazine Ranking. I submitted this poem (from a series of farm poems) to about 5 other places over a couple of years.
Poetry and featured essays in BPR appear both in book form and online.
The poem is about a frightening experience on a farm, and here it is:
A couple of lovely reprints in May! My ekphrastic poem "Girl on a Hill" from my 2022 collection Openwork and Limestone, originally published in Vox Viola, was republished in The Ekphrastic Review, this time paired with the great painting that inspired the poem: https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/girl-on-a-hill-by-frances-boyle . And my short story, "Stumble" that first appeared in the lovely print-only magazine Paris Lit up was republished by Eunoia Review: https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2024/05/24/stumble/. I also had a poem and a review in the Calgary-based print magazine Freefall, and reviewed the proofs of 3 poems that will soon appear in another wonderful Canadian magazine, The New Quarterly.
A few months ago, The Academy of the Heart and Mind notified me that they wanted to publish a CNF piece I wrote, "Nebula". It was published on their website about a week ago.
Congrats, Kim - glad to hear a journal didn't ghost you, & actually published you! That's an intriguing title - look forward to reading it tomorrow at a sane hour (it's midnight here).
Also, an essay near to my heart was accepted for publication in Virginia Writers Club print journal in August. It’s called “This Tiny Glass Globe and Thoughts of You”. It’s about my nephew who is in hospice right now. I hope it’s published before he’s gone.
Also later this summer, my essay “You Tried To Kill Me But I’ll Always Love You” will appear in Anodyne Magazine. It’s about recovering from Anorexia late in life.
In the midst of these acceptances, I received dozens of rejections. Several personal ones came from editors who said they want to see more of my work. Not a bad month.
Thrilled to have my short story "Fallmore" in The Common (https://www.thecommononline.org/fallmore/) this month! This piece went through a few drafts and rounds of workshopping, and once I was confident it was in the right shape, it got picked up about two months after submission. I had a wonderful experience working on final edits with editors Emily Everett and Olive Amdur.
I had two poems published in Spring Formal 19 this month. Many thanks to editor Jordan Stempleman and his staff. Here's a sonnet that I wrote last year during napowrimo (April 2003) and a longer piece.
My poem "The Kotel in Jerusalem is Filled with Cracks" was published in Abandon Journal after 5 rejections from other lit mags. I was very impressed with the editor who made one suggestion that I could have rejected but didn't. The poem has several Hebrew words which I haditalicized. He suggested not italicizing. He didn't share his reasoning but I liked the idea that not using italics made the language more inclusive. He also created original digital art for every piece in the issue. I love what he did for mine.
My hermit crab CNF "Take Two and Call Your Therapist in the Mourning" was accepted by Does It Have Pockets. The editor shared it was the first hermit crab CNF that had been submitted to them and their kind feedback told me they understood what I was trying to do and that the piece had found its proper home. (It had been rejected by 9 other lit mags.) No edits.
I got some good news in May, as well. I like any story I kick out of this nest, but this one was a particular favorite. It was wicked fun to write and also just flowed without any major re-writes. While a story usually takes me 3-4 moths to complete, this one took 3 weeks.
Strangely, I missed the notification it had been accepted (which makes this a little bit of a cheat); it was published in Killer Nashville (https://www.killernashville.com/issues/april-2024), but learned of it's fate in May. So please forgive me. I wrote it with the mordant sensibility off the great New Yorker cartoonist, Charles Adams, in mind. In fact, I pictured him illustrating it. And it was mentioned on the journal's front cover, which was an additional rush.
Like my last piece to be published, this one was rejected a lot (50 times), but 1/3 of them were positive, some very. So I kept going, figuring it's going to nose across the finish line sometime. There is a lesson there: don't give up if you have faith in a piece.
I had a short fiction story published this month by a lovely Icelandic (English language) magazine called The Mantlepiece. "Something's Up" is set during lockdown, and I wasn't sure anyone wanted to read pandemic stories anymore. It had been rejected 14 times, but I persisted. I believe I heard about The Mantelpiece in the Chill Subs newsletter - I'm not sure. The journal did a beautiful job with the layout and illustration. The whole issue is very impressive. https://issuu.com/themantelpiece/docs/themantelpiece_may_2024
I've had a couple of back-to-back publications this month ranging from sci fi to CNF. I think with the end of the academic year upon us, a lot of mags are busy putting together their last issues before summer.
My piece "Taking Flight as a Rare Bird" was selected as third place in nonfiction for the 2023-2024 issue of Hispanic Culture Review. In it, I reflect on my experience as a Latina completing a PhD in Spanish.
Speculative poems: I had fun writing video game based poems for Cartridge Lit https://cartridgelit.com/2024/05/23/four-poems-2/ and I'm pleased that my Latinx solarpunk poem "Bright Like Sarape" now appears in Solarpunk Magazine's Issue 15.
Usually speculative and science fiction are things that lit mags explicitly tell you not to send. Two years ago, before the hype of AI and all that, I wrote an speculative story about a woman shopping for a domestic android to replace the obsolete one they had and comes across what the store calls A Pleasure Model. I sent the story out expecting a lot of rejection. The story got some rejections last year, but lo and behold Saramac Review acquired the story.
I received this wonderful email letter of appreciation from their managing editor, Sara Schaff, who not only manages the magazine but is an associate professor at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. However, as I read the wonderful news, she ask of one specific edit that followed when the android asks the protagonist "What is your purpose." I didn't have to do the edit, if I did not want to, but that perhaps it would enrich the story.
For the next several weeks I was going crazy, rewriting and editing an editorial piece I was doing and then having to think about WHAT WAS HER PURPOSE. Everything that I wrote was too philosophical, existentialist, didactic, obtuse. I hated it. I hated it all. I passed the story with the letter to several members of my Zoom workshop and then had discussions about what her response should be. One of my fellow writers said that up until that point she had no idea of what her purpose should be, so in a way this is the pivot point of the complete story, so her reaction should be (I won't say here and spoil it). I wrote two versions and sent them to Sara, and after some incredibly profound exchanges agreed on the second one. This is by far the most rewarding experience I've ever had with an editor, exchanging ideas about the work not just from a plot point of view but the philosophical implications that would turn this little dumb story with an android to something perhaps more profound about what it is to be human. Check it out. https://saranacreview.org/issue19/fiction-lvocem
This month's piece is my translation from Chapter 1 of Colombian novelist Octavio Escobar Giraldo's bold literary noir novel "Every Dark Tomb" (Seix Barral, 2022). It was picked up by beautiful Consequence Forum magazine, available on paper and as an e-edition. (See here: https://rb.gy/99nca7) I am translating the whole novel, which is #SeekingAPublisher. I met the editor, Parisa Saranj, in November at The American Literary Translator Association's annual conference in Tucson. Separately, I workshopped the chapter in a group with some translators I deeply admire at that conference. I submitted to Consequence Forum and it was one and done, both because of the quality of the piece and my translation of it, but also because it is about the murder of citizens by the Colombian military in the 90s and early 2000's and was a perfect match for Consequence's mission to address "the consequences, realities, and experiences of war and geopolitical violence through literature, art, and community events." The editorial process was smooth and respectful. Also this is a paying venue with gorgeous design. I highly recommend Consequence Forum and am honored that Octavio's and my work is in Volume 16.1.
That is so awesome. I am looking for someone to do the reverse. That is, go from English to Latin American Spanish. I could translate it myself, but my Spanish is street Spanish. Do you know anyone, or is that something you as well?
Hello, L! I do translate from EN>ES and, indeed, also write in Spanish. However, I prefer to pass big literary projects (poetry, fiction, personal essay) to trusted LatAm colleagues. Contact me via dpsnyder.us and I will offer some suggestions. I am about to board an airplane to Madrid, so my response time may be a bit delayed. Thanks for asking!
Congrats to all for your successes. This month I received a very supportive rejection from Iron Horse Journal, with truly helpful feedback, for a story which began as a response to a photo prompt. Re-working it now.
The delightful team at Wild Greens published my poem 'Moving Memories' in their May edition, with its theme being Recognition. https://www.wildgreensmagazine.com/#h.u5swc8bt9mdk Then they followed up with a $30 share of their Tip Jar. :-)
Finally, I published a shareable list of 100+ Lit Mags accepting humour. Mags accepting humour.xlsx
Thank you very much, Donna. During its pre-release phase, "Apprenticed to the Night" earned more than a dozen rave reviews from various reviewers from magazines and from bloggers around the world.
My publisher decided NOT to add this praise under "Editorial Reviews" on AMZ.
That disappointment along with a few other hitches has drained the fizz a bit - - but, yes, it's a beautiful cover.
My publisher refused to let me use the painting by Remedios Varo that I really wanted for my cover - - her "Papilla Estelar" - - so I concocted my own version and hired an artist. I love it, too.
If Substack let us add attachments, then I could show you an animated version of the cover. Quite surreal, Donna. :-)
I see your cover's connection to the beautiful and powerful "Papilla Estelar." An animated version--how wonderful! Wishing you many more rave reviews now that the book has been released.
I published one tanka and one haiku in May. Ribbons published my tanka “Your Gentle Words" in volume 20, issue1 (Spring/Summer 2024) on page 40. I wrote this poem over twenty years ago, did some revisions, and was happy that editor Susan Weaver liked it. She is very kind to authors and writes personal e-mails to us. The Tanka Society of America publishes Ribbons.
My haiku “Clouds and Ribs,” which is about a sunset, appeared in Blithe Spirit 34.2 (May 2024) on page 29. Blithe Spirit is the journal of the British Haiku Society, and Iliyana Stoyanova, who is also great to work with, edits the publication. "Clouds and Ribs" is another poem that I wrote decades ago and revised. I was pleased to finally see it in print.
I advise other writers never to give up: keep revising and sending out work until you find an editor who accepts your prose or poetry. One of my poems that I wrote in 1978 got published in 2018--that is forty years of sending it out and getting rejection notes.
Best wishes for the spring!
Sincerely,
Janet Ruth Heller
Author of the poetry books Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012) and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011); the scholarly book Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990); the middle-grade chapter book for kids The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016); and the award-winning picture book for kids about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; seventh edition 2022).
Thank you, Donna! I think that writers need perseverance to succeed. I could wallpaper my home with rejection notes, but I get a lot of acceptances also. Best wishes for your own creative writing! Janet
There was only one other journal I submitted this poem to and I waited to hear back from them before submitting it to The Ekphrastic Review. I am so grateful Lorette Luzajic, the Editor, chose it. It's the first time I've been published by them.
I have another poem that will be published tomorrow with Full House Literary (https://www.fullhouseliterary.com/) called Self Portrait as Make Believe. I submitted this poem to 24 journals before it was selected and I am happy it will be with Full House, though I understand this will be their second to last publication. They will be keeping the website live, but not accepting submissions any longer.
I want to make a plug for the submissions room that Becky runs every month. This month, during the hour, I submitted to two magazines that I would not have otherwise accomplished. It's great to be in community to do what can be a not-so-fun process.
No publications yet in May, but 2 acceptances with one issue coming out on Monday, which is still May! The journal from Agape Editions, Alice Says Go Fuck Yourself, accepted 4 poems for their 7th issue with the theme badass mothers. The other acceptance of 3 poems is from Does it Have Pockets? and will come out in June or July. After a long slump of many rejections, these acceptances brought me right up! I'm just back from a vacation and am eager to send more work out now.
I am thrilled to have my creative nonfiction essay "Most Non-Compete Clauses are Legally Unenforceable" published in Issue 16 of Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts, the Creative Writing Program of The University of Tennessee's literary magazine, as a ProForma Contest runner up. Almost 2 years to the date I first submitted my work to Grist, it has finally arrived in print and online. Thank you Julie Marie Wade for the honor. Enjoy! https://gristjournal.com/2024/05/most-non-compete-clauses-are-legally-unenforceable/
Cowboy Jamboree published their “covers” spring issue and they picked up my story that was inspired by Merle Haggard’s song, “It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad).” I wrote it specifically in response to the submissions call and was over the moon to have it accepted!
I had one of those dream experiences this month where I somehow found the perfect home for my work on the first try! They took all three pieces I submitted, and quickly. Here they are in 3:AM Magazine: https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/collected-poems/
I've had a great month of May. A story I loved dearly and had trouble finding a home for - I think editors didn't know what to do with it - is it horror (not really, even if there are monsters), is it a love story (definitely, but ...), it is a meditation on solitude (yes, and what a hunger that is)... - was published by Roi Faineant, a good place to be with odd literary objects. Here's "Mr. Nakamura" - https://roifaineantarchive.wixsite.com/rf-arc-hive/post/mr-nakamura-by-m-e-proctor
Then I submitted my 200 word contribution to the challenging call from Punk Noir Magazine. They took it. "Because the Baby" - https://punknoirmagazine.wordpress.com/2024/05/15/because-the-baby-a-betrayal-short-by-m-e-proctor/
A Thin Slice of Anxiety published a story I've been trying to get out there for 7 years. Tweaked it, changed the title, reworked and reworked. I'm glad it's finally out! "Weight Unsaid" - http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/2024/05/fiction-weight-unsaid.html ....
Never give up on these things that nobody seems to want, lol.
RF accepted something of mine right after it had been accepted at another journal and I'll be blogging on substack about a situation like that in a few weeks. Meanwhile, congrats!
Congratulations, Lev!
Thanks. Publishing something always seems to trigger a new idea or new ideas: It's the contagion of excitement. I know it's a commonplace that being miserable is essential to being a writer, but I write from a different place than that most of the time.
It's NOT writing that makes me miserable.
Great title for your "Thin Sice of Anxiety" piece, Martine. Congrats on your persistence! Love the sound of Mr Nakamura too - you might want to check out "Lost Poetry Club" (see my entry) but it sounds like your work would be a fit for them too.
Thanks Melissa, I'll look at Lost Poetry Club, sounds interesting!
Congrats! Cody at Thin Slice took one of mine that I'd been sending off and on since 2002. Good man! (And then as I note in my post here, another story of similar "vintage" also finally found a home in the new mag Feign.) "Never Give Up" is as good a motto as any in this-here game.
Going to make a cup of tea and read your horror story! I loved your Betrayal story - the last few lines were very lyrical (and a gut punch!).
Ah, thank you!
It was very good - I'm hoping you'll write about the outcome of their experiment in the future!
The mr. nakamura link seems broken for me. Is there an updated link? I'd love to read it.
Ah yes, the new issue of the mag took it's place, here is the new link: https://roifaineantarchive.wixsite.com/rf-arc-hive/post/mr-nakamura-by-m-e-proctor
Thank you!
Just read Mr. Nakamura. So well written. Interesting and thought provoking. Congratulations!! Really enjoyed it.
Thank you!
Oh my! Seven years. I don't know if I have enough confidence to keep sending the same piece that long. I have many I have shelved after a few rejections. Perhaps I should put them back into circulation.
I didn't resend the exact same thing, lol. About once a year, I looked at it again and made changes, but I stuck to the initial idea - the doubt: did it really happen - the guilt: should I have said something. It took Cody at "Slice of Anxiety" to take a chance with it. I still wonder why editors didn't respond to it for so long... Now I can put it behind me, lol.
I'm glad it found a home at long last.
Submit, submit, submit: https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/rejection-doesnt-have-to-hurt
I had one story rejected easily a dozen times and then sold it to a terrific lit mag. If we don't submit, we can't get our work out there.
What a terrific month! Congrats!
Well done! It's not easy continuing to put something out there in the face of multiple rejections (though the encouraging ones do help, don't they?). Congratulations on a stellar May!
So glad that Roi Faineant give "Here's Mr. Nakamura" a home.
Congratulations, Martine!
Hi everyone— if you’ve never published with The Maine Review, I strongly reccomend it. They published me a few years back and again this month. Their editor A.J. Bermudez is TOPS professionally, creatively, respectfully !! I worked with editor Chelsea Jackson on some edits that ABSOLUTELY enhanced the piece in the ways only astute editors can. Here it is: https://www.mainereview.com/the-name-dropper/
Great writing. I especially liked the way you added details like this: “unlike Peter Pan, my shadow doesn’t complete me; instead, it unravels me.”
It means so much when readers who are writers — like you — notice this work — really grateful!
I LOVE A.J. Bermudez, and I had no idea she was the editor there. She is a fabulous writer. I can't wait to read this one. Congratulations!!!
I LOVE that you know her work — yes she’s great! Thanks for taking the time to read it — it means a lot (time is scarce)
Terrific writing, J Brooke! Congrats! I've only received a favorable rejection from "The Maine Review," but admire the journal.
Alberta — thank you! That’s extremely kind — and they are super small and limited on how much they can publish, but I suggest hitting them up again if you have something you think fits! Let me know if I can be of any help and thank you again for the time!
Congratulations!
I enjoyed reading this
Gary — thank you for taking the time — REALLY!
I love the voice of this story and also the reflections on changing one's name. That's a powerful thing to do and I have met many different kinds of people who dislike their names. "Change it!" is my advice.
Thanks Lev. Enjoy your writing as well!
I really respond to a strong voice in any genre. I'm reading Erik Larson's new book about Ft. Sumter and the Civil War and it's gorgeous without being showy.
That’s cool Lev — I have a recent poem re that very same war… ;) Gorgeous without being showy is what we all should strive for.. no?
Amen!
I didn't know that about dentists and the mafia. Well, who would? but it sounds crazy enough to be true! And yes, what someone said, great writing.
I had a story published in Swamp Pink, the first that isn't behind a paywall!
https://swamp-pink.cofc.edu/featured/sharks/
This was not a story I had submitted to many places at all. It went through alot of drafts and I was never happy with it. I sent a much earlier version a few years ago to about five magazines and this round I sent it to Sewanee Review where it was rejected and Swamp Pink who accepted it. There were no revisions on their end, they were wonderful to work with, and it's always nice to get a check!
Oh, man. Congrats on scoring Swamp Pink!
Great story!
Congratulations, Susan!
My novel, “Fay’s Men”, was published by Running Wild Press and launched at Honolulu’s Talk Kaimuki cafe. Check out the You Tube launch link here for a look at the celebration of my updated, feminist version of Cervantes’ classic, “Don Quixote.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1RD5zFdvJLQ Thank you! Perle Besserman
Congratulations!
I watched your Youtube video. Fantastic. Great job. What a delightful event.
Hope everyone's enjoying the long weekend. I have a poem in Gordon Square Review ("While Awaiting Empathy's Overdue Arrival, I Tinker with an Idiom").
http://www.gordonsquarereview.org/colette-parris.html
I highly recommend this journal. Submissions are free, turnaround time is under three months, it's been around since 2017, the EIC is very responsive, they send proofs before publication, they nominate for prizes, and they pay (I received $15 one week after publication). They read blind, so no cover letter and no bio allowed (although you can send a bio and photo upon acceptance). Also note that you can only submit one poem at a time, but to me that's a plus. :)
Congratulations Colette. Wonderful work.
Thanks so much, Dennis!
Enjoyed your piece and the title is great!
Thanks so much, Rebecca!
This a striking poem, Colette, in more senses than one: I love the way that “wait” comes to have the rhythm of a heartbeat. Congratulations!
Thanks so much, Donna!
Congratulations, Colette!
Thank you Liz!
You're welcome, Colette!
Congrats on another great piece. I always love reading your work. The title is fantastic and so original!
Aww, thanks so much Debbie. I love reading your work as well!
very cool piece, but wait...
Gary, your comment had me laughing out loud. Very clever. Thanks!
Congrats, Colette. This poem said so much!
Thanks so much, Dave!
I had my 73rd personal essay publication since the height of the pandemic! May was my birthday month and offered more good news.
Lit Mag News published another piece of mine with advice for writers, this time about rejection: https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/rejection-doesnt-have-to-hurt
I placed a new creepy short story about academia with Mensa's magazine Calliope (membership isn't required for submissions). It was rejected by half a dozen lit mags and another half dozen never responded--but I was sure it was solid. It'll be out next winter. The editor let me know that if accepted, it wouldn't appear quickly and I was okay with that.
A reprint of "My Health Club Blues," one of the first new essays I wrote during the pandemic, is here: https://sugarsugarsalt.org/2024/04/26/my-health-club-blues-by-lev-raphael/ It's about a hidden disability.
Syncopation accepted a story of mine with a mystery edge that's due out in June. It had a few rejections.
A new micro-memoir appeared in Heart of Flesh: https://heartoffleshlit.com/issue-11/lev-raphael/
My method is the same: I check out mags on Duotrope and Submittable; read editor interviews if they're available; sample the journal; check their mastheads and mission statements. I do sometimes look at acceptance/rejection stats at Duotrope, but that can be misleading, so it's not my focus.
Incredible stats! But then, you definitely put in the work, constantly on the submitting path. I enjoyed your article and like the part about figuring out who your readers are. Thanks.
Thanks! Writing is work--well actually for me, publishing is the work. Writing is the joyous part. :-)
Happy Birthday Lev! Congrats on the pubs!
Thanks!
Two of mine published this month, one my first humor piece. That one is in Defenestration and is called "Memory from Your Overworked P.R. Agent on How to Be Famous." (https://www.defenestrationmag.net/2024/05/memo-from-your-overworked-p-r-agent-on-how-to-be-famous-by-liz-rosen/).
The other is a flash called "Gentian Violet" in New Flash Fiction Review. (https://newflashfiction.com/gentian-violet-by-liz-rosen/)
Congrats, two tough markets to crack and good places. Like the coming of age awareness of pets recognizing us as food.
LOL. The worst.
I love defenestration and this piece
Thank you!
Congrats, Liz! "Gentian Violet" is a fine story (in a fine magazine); I so liked the way the last line drew the reader's eye into the larger present and future.
That’s kind of you to say so, Donna. Thank you.
My story “Tresses,” a dark-ish Rapunzel reimagining, was published in the lovely UK magazine, Crow & Cross Keys. The editor chose a wonderfully hairy image to go with the text!
https://crowcrosskeys.com/2024/05/15/tresses-donna-shanley/
Crow & Cross Keys on my "to get" list!
What a great opening paragraph, Donna.
Thank you so much, Liz! (Opening paragraphs can be difficult!)
Well, I've already read your delectably dark story "Tresses", as you know, Donna - but just wanted to say "Congratulations" here. I loved how creative you were with the "hair" imagery and ideas - you showed you can take a well-established trope & do something astonishingly new with it.
PS: I can't "like" posts in this forum for some reason at the moment.Very strange! I'm going to email Becky.
Hi Melissa. I don't know why that is happening! I would recommend reaching out to Substack support. Support@Substack.com. They are actually excellent and respond very quickly.
Hi Becky, thanks for seeing this - yes, I will! I can "like" your actual whole post, but not individual comments. It only started happening recently. (So, it wouldn't have anything to do with being a free subscriber here?)
Many thanks, Melissa! I value your comments so much.
Any time. I love your work!
This piece is amazing. The writing and imagery. I'd love to read something else you've written.
Thank you so much, Susan! The magazines which have published my flash and micro fiction are listed in my bio at the end of “Tresses.” Only two, Mom Egg Review and Best Microfiction, are print journals; the others are all online, so googling my name plus the magazine title should (hopefully) bring up the stories! 😊
Great piece. Enjoyed the way you started us reimagining: “Her hair swallowed combs, lusted after thorn bushes; reared up, sparking and spitting, to guzzle lightning.”
Thank you so much, Rebecca!
Donna-- Your imaginative retelling of the old story is amazing. Your language is so creative and wild, and the dark view is wonderful. So happy to read it and also to learn about Crow and Cross Keys.
Thank you so much, Marea. Crow & Cross Keys is a lovely magazine, and the editor is lovely too. I'll hope to see a story of yours there soon!
Congrats, Donna. I enjoyed this version of the tale.
Thank you, Dave!
Good month (and a half). Three poems in Roi Fainéant (https://roifaineantarchive.wixsite.com/rf-arc-hive/post/fruit-meal-this-was-california-to-alice-munro-by-alison-hicks), including "To Alice Munro," published a few weeks before her death; one in in inaugural issue of The Queens Review (print journal https://thequeensreview.org), one in The Phoenix (https://www.pfeiffer-phoenix.com/copy-of-magazine), and one an Editor's Choice Selection in the Philadelphia Stories National Poetry contest (https://philadelphiastories.org/article/painting-the-heart/). Love Roi Fainéant and encourage folks to check out this journal. The Queens Review and The Phoenix have lovely covers. It's always great when a magazine wants to take more than one poem. Roi Fainéant would have taken all five I sent if two hadn't already been picked up by Birdy, an arts and culture magazine out of Denver (https://www.birdymagazine.com/issue/123/). Best news of all, my fourth full-length collection of poems was finally selected for publication by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions (https://sheilanagigblog.com/sheila-na-gig-editions/). I've been sending this out for 20 months, 62 rejections.
In May, I had two acceptances for later in the year, but also have a poem in this wonderful new anthology, edited by poets I deeply admire and published by Small Harbor (who picked up the ball at the last minute when the original publisher decided to erase LGBTQIA+ identifies from contributors' bios and insisted that all pronouns be either "she" or "he". Yeah. That happened. In 2024. So thank goodness for Small Harbor!). Anyway, the anthology is titled Braving the Body, and I am proud to share space with an astonishing group of poets, including the fabulous Diane Seuss! https://www.smallharborpublishing.com/anthologies/braving-the-body
I haven't had anything published in a loooong time (other than my day job), but I did get a nice tiered rejection from The Kenyon Review (!!!!) saying they'd love to see more of my work. I'll take that as some pretty darned great encouragement.
That IS great encouragement, Polly. Congratulations!
Happy May Mag Brag All! I couldn't join in last month as it was my birthday weekend & I was busy. But both April & May have been good to me. Two of my fairy tale reimaginings (poems) were longlisted for Heroine's Anthology (Vol/5) in April. In May I found out both were shortlisted & will appear in the print anthology later this year. Very excited for this one as there's likely to be a live launch event (it's an Australian-based project, though open to international submitters). I also had a prose poem reimagining of Red Riding Hood accepted for NonBinary Review's "Heredity" Issue, out early June (via Zoetic Press). They're a super-professional crew, doing a thorough proofing process & there's also to be a printed interview - my first - yay! April also saw a 2nd poem accepted & published in "The Ekphrastic Review" - "In Blue Rooms" is about grief and my mother's death from cancer. (I have no actual publications for May yet, so I hope I can put April's up instead.)
https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/in-blue-rooms-for-my-mother-by-melissa-coffey
My fabulist flash fiction was published in the lovely Crow & Cross Keys, where it's in good company with Donna Shanley's wonderful "Tresses". Elou is lovely to work with, & promotes well on Xitter.
https://crowcrosskeys.com/2024/04/03/the-dream-of-fly-agaric-melissa-coffey/
May also saw a dark flash fic accepted for a new audible zine called "Lost Poetry Club" - to be podcasted in a few months for their (I think) second issue. They're a UK-based project. looking for "weird" /dark fic &poetry and they pay.
The last Sunday of every month has become my day to read people's work from the brag - as it's very late Sat night when it goes up here. Congrats to everyone for their acceptances & publications & I look forward to dipping in & reading tomorrow. :)
So beautiful Melissa- “In Blue Rooms: For My Mother” was deeply moving, and hauntingly beautiful imagery. I’m so glad to have discovered your work. And “The dream of…“ I can only say WOW!!!
Thank you so much for reading, Andrea - & for the wonderful feedback. Glad you enjoyed :). Links to some of my work can be found on my Chill Subs profile page: https://www.chillsubs.com/user/melissacoffey?source=about_page
Melissa, “In Blue Rooms: For My Mother” is filled with such haunting and beautiful images of your mother and her life as a work of art. My condolences on her passing. I loved “The shades of faded postcard oceans,” misty, as though seen through tears, and imbued with distance, both of the past and of the coming separation. And the way the summer sky, captured in the topaz ring, becomes a home for the gloriously transformed, winged sorrows: such a beautiful and moving ending.
Big congratulations on the two fairytale reimaginings forthcoming in Heroine’s Anthology, and for the acceptance to Lost Poetry Club. I’m looking forward, as well, to Red Riding Hood and your interview!
You know how much I admire “The Dream of Fly Agaric.” The birds concealing the wind in their feathers is an image that stays and stays.
Donna, thank you so much for reading & for ths wonderful feedback. I love how you linked the sky, topaz ring, wings together in your reading. For me, that let me see something new in what I wrote, or see it in a new way, at least.
Re Crow Cross & Keys, Elou clearly has loyal readers of her journal on Xitter - I actually got strangers tweeting what they liked about my story & new Followers. Can't recall the last time that happened there.
I'll definitely let you know when "GirlHood" (My RRH poem) is up in June. The interviews are posted a bit later, apparently. :)
Always a pleasure, Melissa--your images are so evocative. Congratulations on the positive tweets and follows from "Fly Agaric!" Looking forward to reading "GirlHood" (great title!)
Thanks, Donna! I finally downloaded the Substack app. I can "like" here to my heart's content!
My microfiction, A Fox in the Hen House, was published in Punk Noir magazine: https://punknoirmagazine.wordpress.com/2024/05/11/a-fox-in-the-hen-house-a-betrayal-short-by-olivia-mcneilis/
They had a call for microfiction around the theme of Betrayal, which I heard from a writer I follow on Twitter. Over 60 stories were shared throughout May, and mine appeared on my birthday (a happy accident). The editor responded within the day and was very encouraging. I would recommend submitting any noir writing to this magazine—it has a highly engaged community of writers and readers.
Hey, Congrats, we both scored one there!
I really enjoy hearing of so many successes! Way to go! This month my poem "Orcastration" appeared in Pato https://patojournal.wixsite.com/pato/copy-of-winter-2024. I wrote this poem many years ago and only recently submitted it because the orca whales attacking ship rudders off the coast of Spain made me think someone might be interested in a work that musically puns on these whales, the word "orchestration" and phrase "or castration" [which seems to be what anxiety does to many], and the need to hoist pianos to their homes in NYC high rises. Though it's unclear who edits Pato, it's located in NYC and states that it wants inventive verse, and after a dozen rejections that seem less urban vibe accessible, I decided the imagery might be more relatable to city dwellers. A week after submission, the editor expressed interest and asked me about the last word of the poem, and while musical notation was not able to be accommodated online here, I appreciate the question.
Happy bragging everyone! Three days ago, my story was published on Necessary Fiction. The editor was good at making the story snappy and it was enjoyable to work with her. In addition, I really like the story's first sentence that I wrote: "Before his death, my grandfather would repeat the story of the first time his grandfather, or my great-great-grandfather, met a white man."
http://necessaryfiction.com/stories/what-cometh-out-of-the-mouth/
My poem "Adoration Lite" came out yesterday in Braided Way Magazine https://braidedway.org/adoration-lite/. It was the first lit mag I submitted it to, and the editor accepted it before I had a chance to look for a fit somewhere else. The editor had a few small edits, and that was it. Very smooth process, and I'm happy with how the poem looks on the site and the image it's paired with.
Now I'm off to follow all the links you've shared. Congratulations everyone!
I so enjoyed the bright sense of discovery in this poem, LA!
Love this poem, LA!
Yes, definetly not doing that! This month, I published my flash I Gave You Power at Short Story Me.
https://short-story.me/stories/flash-fiction/1726-i-gave-you-power
They put it out and then notified me. I know! We just had a discussion about this trend! For me, it was a quick end to a long process. I started a draft for this piece a year ago. I wrote from the first-person perspective of Sal. I thought I got his voice and place, but it was rejected a lot. Even after several redrafts. Maybe Sal was too toxic or made the end too ambiguous - it was originally different. I tried from a third person and from Joey's perspective, those didn’t work at all.
Then I got inspired from my playlist - ultimately this goes back to Nas’ I Gave You Power. I tried some other titles, but I wanted to pay homage to my inspo. I feel there are traces of all drafts, nothing was wasted in the final.
On the same day also without notice, I published my 100-word micro Situationships at Backwards Trajectory https://backwardstrajectory.com/
I wrote this in SmokeLong Quarterly’s March Micro Marathon. I wrote 24 micros in 24 days. I gave and received a ton of feedback. This micro was one of the better ones. I didn’t revise much or redraft. And honestly, I gave up on this piece. Now that it’s published it feels like the right kind of 90s grunge.
Love "I Gave You Power," Dave! So creative and memorable.
You found the perfect narrator for “I Gave You Power”, Dave. So unexpected! We don’t expect to feel any empathy for it and yet, at moments, we do.
Thanks, Donna!
Wow, Dave. Love "I Gave You Power." I've seen a ton of stories told by pets, but never a gun and it works wonderfully here. Plus the voice of the gun is fab!
Thanks, Liz!
My story ‘Stay’ is on 101Words.org - posted May 21.
Ah I remember this conversation all too well. Great piece, Susan
Thank you!
This month I have had a poem “Love of the Old” accepted for the inaugural summer issue of the Macrame Literary Journal. I’ll provide a link when it comes out. I came across this online journal through my subscription to Authors Publish. In addition, a satirical prose piece, “Wanted, Preferably Dead”, which I wrote for the Pure Slush Volume 11, “Older Lifespan“, has been published this month in print. A more prurient poem that recounts the problems endured by young men living in 1950s Spain under the repressive Franco regime, aided by a hypocritical National Catholic Church, when it came to satisfying their normal sexual needs, was published, as might be expected, by HST, an online magazine that always welcomes the more marginal as far as taste goes. :-) It’s not for the pearl-clutchers (as the Brits say) so I won’t provide a link.
Just had a short story published in Stand magazine in the UK. Its a dystopian tale of climate change when half the coast has disappeared and there's nass unemployment so everyone has to stand in a queue for a chance to go on a talent show and win lots of money https://www.standmagazine.org/
This sounds so up my street! Congrats!
Thanks
Always great to see everyone's successes. Thanks Becky, for the continuing forum of sharing.
My story “Almost to the Point” won the May flash fiction contest of Shooter Literary Magazine. The story came from seeing a man and young teenage girl, clearly a father and daughter, walking the beach together—and apart. It got some nice word-level tuning by the editor, Melanie Sykes-White.
https://shooterlitmag.com/2024/05/13/shooter-flash-almost-to-the-point/
I wasn’t going to send anything to a new fiction magazine named Feign… because, well, what are the odds they would take a story by someone named Fain? But I had a longer story that I first sent out in 2002 and had gotten close to 30 sporadically-induced rejections since, and it was time to throw it out there again. Why not, what’s to lose? And it’s now the second story they’ve posted on their site.
https://www.feignlit.com/featured/theonesthatgetaway
Then there is the case of a short essay I sent to Sport Literate a year and half ago, without response. I withdrew it on Submittable, after sending it somewhere else. At which point I heard back from the editor, who apologized for what he thought was a two year delay in responding (close enough) and offered to put it in his next newsletter to subscribers. Which just came out. And it will also be in their annual print issue later this year. He even agreed to put in a link to a published short story of mine that was inspired by what I wrote about in the essay.
https://sportliterate.org/2024/05/bring-me-the-stats-of-biff-pocoroba/
I was delighted to have the same piece accepted twice! What I'd hoped would be an NYC Modern Love essay (sound familiar?) won third place in a love story anthology contest by Blue Cedar press, to be published 1 June. The same week my university's magazine asked to publish the same piece in the issue timed for our class reunion. Lesson: rejected Modern Love essays can find good homes!
Congrats. And yes, I agree. A rejected Modern Love essay became a slightly longer CNF piece that I'm quite proud of published in Caustic Frolic last December.
Congrats Nancy! I wonder if @Becky Tuch should do a post on " Where did your rejected Modern Love essay wind up?"
Congrats to everyone who's been published this month. I look forward to reading your work.
In April two of my poems appeared on the online journal Bloodroot Literary Magazine: "Beech Sapling in a Wood" and "Becoming." You can find them here on pages 6-7: https://www.bloodrootlit.org/2024/Bloodroot-2024.pdf.
Also, my poem "The Trap Door" appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, a Canadian print journal.
This month the audio files for my two poems in the winter issue of The Southern Review are available for listening:
"The Used Harpsichord"
https://soundcloud.com/lsupress_and_tsr/the-used-harpsichord-by-jane-mckinley
Late October in a Bird Sanctuary"
https://soundcloud.com/lsupress_and_tsr/late-october-in-a-bird-sanctuary-by-jane-mckinley?in=lsupress_and_tsr/sets/tsr-winter-2024-audio-gallery
I really enjoyed reading and listening to your poems, Jane. Fabulous works!
Thanks very much, Kathi!
Wow, 48 posts already! May was a mediocre month for me. A poem published in The Prose Poem https://theprosepoem.com/the-polar-vortex/ and a CNF memoir piece in Bookends Review https://thebookendsreview.com/2024/05/22/sustenance/ and three poems accepted by Medusa's Kitchen. Lots of poetry rejections, maybe 5 or 6.
I enjoyed "The Polar Vortex," Gary. Some very funny lines and an interesting ending. Plus, I learned a great deal about Georgia! :)
Thanks so much Colette!
My braided essay about anxiety was published by Under the Sun. I love working with them, and I love the essays they publish. They give you a lot of feedback. Even at a copy editing level. Just a great, thoughtful team there. This was declined at three other lit mags before I sent it to Under the Sun. https://underthesunonline.com/wordpress/2024/325-2/
It was a beautiful essay.
Thematically: Having just spent several days helping my severely anxious step-sister move house, I realized that I, for my part, seem to experience next to no anxiety. This gave me great insights to how it feels.
Telaina, Thank you for writing this beautiful, moving piece. I have a stepson with paranoid schiz who is now in a mental hospital. It is such a painful situation. I wrote a nonfiction piece about him in a book "Into Sanity: Essays about mental health, mental illness, and living in between." Martha Nichols, ed. Mark Vonnegut (Intro) (Talking Writing Books, 2019)
Thanks for reading, Marianne. So sorry your stepson is also dealing with this difficult illness. I will definitely read that. Thank you for letting me know about it.
I read for Under the Sun. You're right - they are wonderful, caring people!
They really are. It's such a great publication. ♥️
My poem 'an inebriated body lists to port' was published in Issue 4.1 of The Imagist Literary Magazine. Traverse the page a few scrolls and you’ll find it!
https://theimagist.wixsite.com/theimagist/archive
Love these monthly recaps. Even if I don't have a "brag" it's always a great place to discover new literary markets.
I did place an essay with The Artisanal Writer—"Wood Shedding Sound and Story." (https://artisanalwriter.com/2024/05/22/wood-shedding-sound-and-story/).
These craft essays are sometimes hard to sell—I submitted to nine markets before the essay was accepted here. Finding the right fit made all the difference. The editors asked permission to change the title, and I agreed. They were conscientious about a contract and staying on deadline. Overall, a great experience!
I had two stories (micros) published by Macqueen’s Quinterly and also one on 50 Word Stories.
Macqueen's was great to work with. Congrats!
Yes, definitely! Thank you!
Congrats, Susan! Can you share the links to the stories?
Thanks! Here you go.
http://www.macqueensquinterly.com/MacQ23/Israel-Coming-Home.aspx
http://www.macqueensquinterly.com/MacQ23/Israel-Jane-Erred.aspx
https://fiftywordstories.com/?s=Susan+Israel
https://101words.org/ (My story posted on 5/21)
Thank you, Susan! I so admire the way you deliver truths in a deceptively lighthearted voice. “I’m Coming Home” is a moving story that captures so much that is painfully familiar in so few words, while “Jane Erred” is hilarious—a great take on one of my favourite novels! “Cataract” is both sweet and poignant—a true love-story--while “Stay” is heartbreaking. “The smell of sadness like a poorly buried bone.” Such a lovely and imaginative offering of the animal’s point of view. Brava!
Thank you so much! ❤️
They were all enjoyable, but I was especially entertained by "Jane Erred." Hilarious (as Donna mentioned)!
Thank you! I had fun writing that too!
Word came today that my novella has been accepted by Alien Buddha Press. "Drainman" is a short novel about a person in the middle of the climate crisis after it is already too late to fix, who is charged with keeping his drain clear to keep the streets from flooding, though half the country is already under water.
"There are children alive today who only know of shadows made by artificial light and have never seen their shadow made by the sun."
The final edit part now begins.
The Awakenings Review published my essay "House of Mirrors" in its Spring 2024 print journal. The piece is about my encounter with a man diagnosed with schizophrenia and what I learned from it. The journal isn't available online, but I want to spread the word about this amazing publication, which supports writers (of all genres) with mental illnesses and those who are close to people who deal with mental illness. You can find more about the journal and the Awakenings Project from which it came at https://awakeningsproject.org . I'll have "House of Mirrors" on my website soon - https://carolannwilson.info I learned about the Project and Journal from a call for submissions in Poets & Writers. I'd had five or so rejections on this one, but it found its perfect home!
In late April, HerStry published my flash nonfiction piece, "Trust." https://herstryblg.com/true/trust-april-27 (sneaking this in since I missed my chance in April . . .)
I was thrilled to have a poem published by Birmingham Poetry Review (Spring 2024 Number 51). BPR is a beautiful journal, and they accept submissions only the old school way--in an envelope with no cover letter! The editorial process could not have been simpler-- no edits. I learned of the journal from Clifford Garstang's site: 2024 Literary Magazine Ranking. I submitted this poem (from a series of farm poems) to about 5 other places over a couple of years.
Poetry and featured essays in BPR appear both in book form and online.
The poem is about a frightening experience on a farm, and here it is:
https://www.uab.edu/cas/englishpublications/bpr/latest/in-the-silo
Congrats, Marea. The poem voices the child's fear so strongly and well!
Thanks very much, Donna!
A couple of lovely reprints in May! My ekphrastic poem "Girl on a Hill" from my 2022 collection Openwork and Limestone, originally published in Vox Viola, was republished in The Ekphrastic Review, this time paired with the great painting that inspired the poem: https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/girl-on-a-hill-by-frances-boyle . And my short story, "Stumble" that first appeared in the lovely print-only magazine Paris Lit up was republished by Eunoia Review: https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2024/05/24/stumble/. I also had a poem and a review in the Calgary-based print magazine Freefall, and reviewed the proofs of 3 poems that will soon appear in another wonderful Canadian magazine, The New Quarterly.
A few months ago, The Academy of the Heart and Mind notified me that they wanted to publish a CNF piece I wrote, "Nebula". It was published on their website about a week ago.
https://academyoftheheartandmind.com/2024/05/18/nebula/
Congrats, Kim - glad to hear a journal didn't ghost you, & actually published you! That's an intriguing title - look forward to reading it tomorrow at a sane hour (it's midnight here).
Nebula was my mother's childhood home. What I wrote was memories of my childhood spent there during summers and weekends.
I had my first funny piece published by The Ravens Perch:
https://theravensperch.com/charles-my-hero-i-hope-i-never-see-your-face-again-by-tracie-adams/
Also, an essay near to my heart was accepted for publication in Virginia Writers Club print journal in August. It’s called “This Tiny Glass Globe and Thoughts of You”. It’s about my nephew who is in hospice right now. I hope it’s published before he’s gone.
Also later this summer, my essay “You Tried To Kill Me But I’ll Always Love You” will appear in Anodyne Magazine. It’s about recovering from Anorexia late in life.
In the midst of these acceptances, I received dozens of rejections. Several personal ones came from editors who said they want to see more of my work. Not a bad month.
Congrats, Tracie--not a bad month indeed! "Charles my Hero" made me laugh--and squirm. I do hope that "This Tiny Glass Globe" will be published soon.
Thank you, Donna!
Thrilled to have my short story "Fallmore" in The Common (https://www.thecommononline.org/fallmore/) this month! This piece went through a few drafts and rounds of workshopping, and once I was confident it was in the right shape, it got picked up about two months after submission. I had a wonderful experience working on final edits with editors Emily Everett and Olive Amdur.
I had two poems published in Spring Formal 19 this month. Many thanks to editor Jordan Stempleman and his staff. Here's a sonnet that I wrote last year during napowrimo (April 2003) and a longer piece.
https://www.sprungformal.kcai.edu/writings-anthonyrobinson-abjuration-2
Hey I’m in this issue too! Loved your piece “The New Poetry”, it’s 🔥
Thank you! I liked your conference piece too! Very nice. 🙂
My poem "The Kotel in Jerusalem is Filled with Cracks" was published in Abandon Journal after 5 rejections from other lit mags. I was very impressed with the editor who made one suggestion that I could have rejected but didn't. The poem has several Hebrew words which I haditalicized. He suggested not italicizing. He didn't share his reasoning but I liked the idea that not using italics made the language more inclusive. He also created original digital art for every piece in the issue. I love what he did for mine.
https://abandonjournal.com/debbiefeit/the-kotel-in-jerusalem-is-filled-with-cracks/
My hermit crab CNF "Take Two and Call Your Therapist in the Mourning" was accepted by Does It Have Pockets. The editor shared it was the first hermit crab CNF that had been submitted to them and their kind feedback told me they understood what I was trying to do and that the piece had found its proper home. (It had been rejected by 9 other lit mags.) No edits.
https://www.doesithavepockets.com/cnf/debbie-feit
Thanks Becky for giving us all a place to share our work!
Beautiful and haunting poem, Debbie, and you already know I love the CNF piece!
Thank you Colette. Means so much coming from you.
I don't know how to send emojis on this, but please envision a heart emoji!
Debbie, these are both such powerful, poignant pieces. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much Erika--for your kind words and for taking the time to read my work!
I got some good news in May, as well. I like any story I kick out of this nest, but this one was a particular favorite. It was wicked fun to write and also just flowed without any major re-writes. While a story usually takes me 3-4 moths to complete, this one took 3 weeks.
Strangely, I missed the notification it had been accepted (which makes this a little bit of a cheat); it was published in Killer Nashville (https://www.killernashville.com/issues/april-2024), but learned of it's fate in May. So please forgive me. I wrote it with the mordant sensibility off the great New Yorker cartoonist, Charles Adams, in mind. In fact, I pictured him illustrating it. And it was mentioned on the journal's front cover, which was an additional rush.
Like my last piece to be published, this one was rejected a lot (50 times), but 1/3 of them were positive, some very. So I kept going, figuring it's going to nose across the finish line sometime. There is a lesson there: don't give up if you have faith in a piece.
Addams would have loved this one.
I had a short fiction story published this month by a lovely Icelandic (English language) magazine called The Mantlepiece. "Something's Up" is set during lockdown, and I wasn't sure anyone wanted to read pandemic stories anymore. It had been rejected 14 times, but I persisted. I believe I heard about The Mantelpiece in the Chill Subs newsletter - I'm not sure. The journal did a beautiful job with the layout and illustration. The whole issue is very impressive. https://issuu.com/themantelpiece/docs/themantelpiece_may_2024
My story is on page 25. You can scroll through, or read it directly here https://www.barbararidley.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Somethings-Up-in-Mantelpiece.pdf
I've had a couple of back-to-back publications this month ranging from sci fi to CNF. I think with the end of the academic year upon us, a lot of mags are busy putting together their last issues before summer.
My piece "Taking Flight as a Rare Bird" was selected as third place in nonfiction for the 2023-2024 issue of Hispanic Culture Review. In it, I reflect on my experience as a Latina completing a PhD in Spanish.
https://issuu.com/osmgmu/docs/2023-2024_hcr_web?fr=xKAE9_zU1NQ
I have another identity based poem in Carolina Muse, "My Grandfather Was No Sailor":
https://simplebooklet.com/carolinamuseivii#page=17
Speculative poems: I had fun writing video game based poems for Cartridge Lit https://cartridgelit.com/2024/05/23/four-poems-2/ and I'm pleased that my Latinx solarpunk poem "Bright Like Sarape" now appears in Solarpunk Magazine's Issue 15.
https://solarpunkmagazine.com/shop/solarpunk-magazine-issue-15/
For transparency, of these pieces I received payment for my poem in Solarpunk Magazine.
Usually speculative and science fiction are things that lit mags explicitly tell you not to send. Two years ago, before the hype of AI and all that, I wrote an speculative story about a woman shopping for a domestic android to replace the obsolete one they had and comes across what the store calls A Pleasure Model. I sent the story out expecting a lot of rejection. The story got some rejections last year, but lo and behold Saramac Review acquired the story.
I received this wonderful email letter of appreciation from their managing editor, Sara Schaff, who not only manages the magazine but is an associate professor at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. However, as I read the wonderful news, she ask of one specific edit that followed when the android asks the protagonist "What is your purpose." I didn't have to do the edit, if I did not want to, but that perhaps it would enrich the story.
For the next several weeks I was going crazy, rewriting and editing an editorial piece I was doing and then having to think about WHAT WAS HER PURPOSE. Everything that I wrote was too philosophical, existentialist, didactic, obtuse. I hated it. I hated it all. I passed the story with the letter to several members of my Zoom workshop and then had discussions about what her response should be. One of my fellow writers said that up until that point she had no idea of what her purpose should be, so in a way this is the pivot point of the complete story, so her reaction should be (I won't say here and spoil it). I wrote two versions and sent them to Sara, and after some incredibly profound exchanges agreed on the second one. This is by far the most rewarding experience I've ever had with an editor, exchanging ideas about the work not just from a plot point of view but the philosophical implications that would turn this little dumb story with an android to something perhaps more profound about what it is to be human. Check it out. https://saranacreview.org/issue19/fiction-lvocem
Hope you guys like it.
This month's piece is my translation from Chapter 1 of Colombian novelist Octavio Escobar Giraldo's bold literary noir novel "Every Dark Tomb" (Seix Barral, 2022). It was picked up by beautiful Consequence Forum magazine, available on paper and as an e-edition. (See here: https://rb.gy/99nca7) I am translating the whole novel, which is #SeekingAPublisher. I met the editor, Parisa Saranj, in November at The American Literary Translator Association's annual conference in Tucson. Separately, I workshopped the chapter in a group with some translators I deeply admire at that conference. I submitted to Consequence Forum and it was one and done, both because of the quality of the piece and my translation of it, but also because it is about the murder of citizens by the Colombian military in the 90s and early 2000's and was a perfect match for Consequence's mission to address "the consequences, realities, and experiences of war and geopolitical violence through literature, art, and community events." The editorial process was smooth and respectful. Also this is a paying venue with gorgeous design. I highly recommend Consequence Forum and am honored that Octavio's and my work is in Volume 16.1.
That is so awesome. I am looking for someone to do the reverse. That is, go from English to Latin American Spanish. I could translate it myself, but my Spanish is street Spanish. Do you know anyone, or is that something you as well?
Hello, L! I do translate from EN>ES and, indeed, also write in Spanish. However, I prefer to pass big literary projects (poetry, fiction, personal essay) to trusted LatAm colleagues. Contact me via dpsnyder.us and I will offer some suggestions. I am about to board an airplane to Madrid, so my response time may be a bit delayed. Thanks for asking!
That would be awesome. I am looking for someone that is well aware of Venezuelan slang and colloquialism. I will contact you soon.
Okay!
Congrats to all for your successes. This month I received a very supportive rejection from Iron Horse Journal, with truly helpful feedback, for a story which began as a response to a photo prompt. Re-working it now.
The delightful team at Wild Greens published my poem 'Moving Memories' in their May edition, with its theme being Recognition. https://www.wildgreensmagazine.com/#h.u5swc8bt9mdk Then they followed up with a $30 share of their Tip Jar. :-)
Finally, I published a shareable list of 100+ Lit Mags accepting humour. Mags accepting humour.xlsx
In 2022 I wrote this full-length poetry book under contract. My British publisher just released it. It's in hardcover and paperback.
"Apprenticed to the Night"
https://www.amazon.com/Apprenticed-Night-Lindaann-Loschiavo/dp/1915025788/ref=sr_1_1
Congratulations, LindaAnn! The book looks beautiful; you must be thrilled.
Thank you very much, Donna. During its pre-release phase, "Apprenticed to the Night" earned more than a dozen rave reviews from various reviewers from magazines and from bloggers around the world.
My publisher decided NOT to add this praise under "Editorial Reviews" on AMZ.
That disappointment along with a few other hitches has drained the fizz a bit - - but, yes, it's a beautiful cover.
My publisher refused to let me use the painting by Remedios Varo that I really wanted for my cover - - her "Papilla Estelar" - - so I concocted my own version and hired an artist. I love it, too.
If Substack let us add attachments, then I could show you an animated version of the cover. Quite surreal, Donna. :-)
I see your cover's connection to the beautiful and powerful "Papilla Estelar." An animated version--how wonderful! Wishing you many more rave reviews now that the book has been released.
Dear Colleagues,
I published one tanka and one haiku in May. Ribbons published my tanka “Your Gentle Words" in volume 20, issue1 (Spring/Summer 2024) on page 40. I wrote this poem over twenty years ago, did some revisions, and was happy that editor Susan Weaver liked it. She is very kind to authors and writes personal e-mails to us. The Tanka Society of America publishes Ribbons.
My haiku “Clouds and Ribs,” which is about a sunset, appeared in Blithe Spirit 34.2 (May 2024) on page 29. Blithe Spirit is the journal of the British Haiku Society, and Iliyana Stoyanova, who is also great to work with, edits the publication. "Clouds and Ribs" is another poem that I wrote decades ago and revised. I was pleased to finally see it in print.
I advise other writers never to give up: keep revising and sending out work until you find an editor who accepts your prose or poetry. One of my poems that I wrote in 1978 got published in 2018--that is forty years of sending it out and getting rejection notes.
Best wishes for the spring!
Sincerely,
Janet Ruth Heller
Author of the poetry books Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012) and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011); the scholarly book Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990); the middle-grade chapter book for kids The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016); and the award-winning picture book for kids about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; seventh edition 2022).
My website is https://www.janetruthheller.com/
Congratulations, Janet! That's a lovely story of success after a long wait.
Thank you, Donna! I think that writers need perseverance to succeed. I could wallpaper my home with rejection notes, but I get a lot of acceptances also. Best wishes for your own creative writing! Janet
Yes, perseverance is the key! Thank you for the good wishes, Janet.
Hi everyone, I am enjoying your work as I read through all that has been published this month, which is quite a lot. Congratulations!!
My Ekphrastic Erasure poem, Snail Ashtray, was accepted by The Ekphrastic Review:
https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/snail-ashtray-by-kathi-crawford
If you'd like to read about my process for writing this poem, I have outlined on my blog:
https://adventureinbeingcom.wordpress.com/2024/05/22/snail-ashtray-by-kathi-crawford/
There was only one other journal I submitted this poem to and I waited to hear back from them before submitting it to The Ekphrastic Review. I am so grateful Lorette Luzajic, the Editor, chose it. It's the first time I've been published by them.
I have another poem that will be published tomorrow with Full House Literary (https://www.fullhouseliterary.com/) called Self Portrait as Make Believe. I submitted this poem to 24 journals before it was selected and I am happy it will be with Full House, though I understand this will be their second to last publication. They will be keeping the website live, but not accepting submissions any longer.
I want to make a plug for the submissions room that Becky runs every month. This month, during the hour, I submitted to two magazines that I would not have otherwise accomplished. It's great to be in community to do what can be a not-so-fun process.
Congrats Kathi!
Congratulations on "Snail Ashtray," Kathi! So evocative!
Thanks, Donna!
My poem on Full House Literary has been published. Here is the link:
https://www.fullhouseliterary.com/spring-issue-2024-p1-pieces/self-portrait-as-make-believe-by-kathi-crawford
No publications yet in May, but 2 acceptances with one issue coming out on Monday, which is still May! The journal from Agape Editions, Alice Says Go Fuck Yourself, accepted 4 poems for their 7th issue with the theme badass mothers. The other acceptance of 3 poems is from Does it Have Pockets? and will come out in June or July. After a long slump of many rejections, these acceptances brought me right up! I'm just back from a vacation and am eager to send more work out now.
I am thrilled to have my creative nonfiction essay "Most Non-Compete Clauses are Legally Unenforceable" published in Issue 16 of Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts, the Creative Writing Program of The University of Tennessee's literary magazine, as a ProForma Contest runner up. Almost 2 years to the date I first submitted my work to Grist, it has finally arrived in print and online. Thank you Julie Marie Wade for the honor. Enjoy! https://gristjournal.com/2024/05/most-non-compete-clauses-are-legally-unenforceable/
Great piece, and the title is fantastic. :)
Cowboy Jamboree published their “covers” spring issue and they picked up my story that was inspired by Merle Haggard’s song, “It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad).” I wrote it specifically in response to the submissions call and was over the moon to have it accepted!
http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/are-you-sure-merle-done-it-this-way.html
Congratulations. Being a Merle fan, I'll have to check you story out!
If you love country, you will love Cowboy Jamboree! They have done calls for Willie Nelson, John Prine and Townes Van Zandt themed pieces.
I had one of those dream experiences this month where I somehow found the perfect home for my work on the first try! They took all three pieces I submitted, and quickly. Here they are in 3:AM Magazine: https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/collected-poems/
love these, especially the burning haibun! congrats.