One Piece

With the end of the academic year come a plethora of writing contests. Just about everything is represented this month: short stories, nonfiction, essays, poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction in every genre. A couple of these contests deserve a special mention. If you have written a mystery novel set in the Southwest, St. Martin's Press is offering publication with a $10,000 advance. St. Martin's is willing to consider all entries for publication, so this contest amounts to a call for submissions. Another contest that operates in similar fashion is the  Drue Heinz Literature Prize  which offers a $15,000 advance and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press to a writer who has published a minimum of 3 short stories (or novellas). If you qualify, this is a great opportunity. __________________________________ Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors . Created by the Missouri Humanities Council, the Warrior Arts Alliance, and Southeast Missouri State University Pres...

June is bustin' out all over! There are more than 40 conferences at the beginning of summer held all over the world. Below I have listed 29 conferences, workshops, and retreats in the US. Some have deadlines for registration that are fast approaching. So, if you see a conference you would like to attend, be sure to check the website for registration information. If you miss this year's June conferences, many of these are annual events. Some of the smaller workshops are given several times a year in different locations. Quite a few offer financial aid. (Aid applications are due 1 - 3 months in advance.) ______________________ Iowa Summer Writing Festival . June 1, 2015, Iowa City. Featuring 138 workshops with 72 instructors, including old friends John Dalton, Amber Dermont, Kelly Dwyer, Hope Edelman, Sands Hall, Katie Ford, Hugh Ferrer, Sabrina Orah Mark, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, and Michael Martone, as well as new friends Douglas Bauer, Melanie Braverman, Ashley Colley, Jennif...

Here are two new agents seeking clients. Eve Porinchak (Jill Corcoran Literary) is looking for edgy, psychological thrillers, gang-lit, and realistic contemporary. Penny Moore (Aevitas Creative Management ) is seeking picture books, middle grade, and young adult (especially fantasy, historical fiction, sci-fi, and contemporary stories exploring romance and the complications of growing up). In adult fiction: speculative fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, psychological thrillers, and select romance. She’s also open to nonfiction projects in the realm of pop culture, humor, travel, food, and pets. ____________________ Penny Moore of  Aevitas Creative Management   About Penny : Moore graduated from the University of Georgia with a double degree in Linguistics and Japanese Language & Literature. During her time as an undergraduate, she also studied comparative literature at top universities in Japan and South Korea. Penny joined Aevitas in 2018, starting in the industry as an ...

Some times love works better at a distance. Remove proximity from affection's equation, and live in the void left behind. Seed the field of absence with prayers, and harvest your heaven. Like wicked men know the way to redemption. Like silent monks hear with sharper clarity. Like celibates who feel midnight ecstasy. Like an orphan. Like a widow. Like a lost soul. Like perfection.

Update: Vook, re-launched as Pronoun,  was purchased by MacMillan in 2016. 18 months later, it shuttered the platform. Amazon may be in for some competition from Vook. Vook (founded in 2009) publishes digital books that combine text, video, links to the internet and social media. Vook’s publishing platform is used by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, and Thought Catalog. It has partnered with NBC Universal and Perseus Books, Charles River Editors and ABC News to produce ebooks that are distributed through Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Google, Kobo, and Blio. With its contacts in major media, and its expansion into worldwide distribution, Vook may offer a serious challenge to Amazon, Smashwords, and Book Baby. It is hoping to attract Indie authors by offering 100% royalties, and a free self-publishing platform. _______________________________ Vook Pivots, Becomes Self-Pub Platform Pronoun By Calvin Reid, May 19, 2015:  Publisher's Weekly ...

For earth, wind, fire, water are the four elements.  For once we banished the fifth we stopped 'knowing' in its tracks. For ether is the errant essence exiled by science. For the ethereal cosmic dust For black matter and zodiac beasts For the spinning spirits that enshroud this blue sphere. For ether is the fifth and forgotten element.  For prayers to your ancestors For quanta, for relativity, for karma For that thing that drives the elements is ether. For your birthday go to some place quiet For your soul, get away and think about this. For your friends and family depend on this contemplation For we live errant and incomplete For time will past too quickly For this brutal and short life. For your birthday  Jonas , I wish you the fifth For our lives are filled with four.

Updated 1/19/22 Finding a paying market for short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction is not easy if you are an emerging writer. The Poets & Writers database  includes 1135 markets, only 154 of which are listed as paying. (Some of those only pay if your work is selected as a "best of." Others pay a token amount that can be as little as $1.50.) In short, 90% of journals don't pay. The most a writer can expect from most literary magazines is a couple of contributor copies - provided the journal has a print version. After culling through the P&W database, I identified 22 journals that pay their contributors and don't charge a reading fee. All accept online submissions. If you submit to several journals at once, keep careful records . As soon as your story is accepted make sure to withdraw it immediately from the remaining journals, either through an email notification or directly on submittable. (If you have submitted through submittable, just click "wi...

In the immortal words of Bukowski, I fart better than I fuck now. It was only a matter of time, only a matter of digestive declaration, winning out over the cock's foolish pride. The pendulum swings toward a comedy of errors. Vigorous and loud splatter sonic boom wrinkling the sheets. My dark backside glamour, voluminous Papal puffs from a holy balcony of flesh wafting blessings to the crowd. Flatted fifth trumpeting.

I am always interested in self-publishing success stories, because "How did they do it?" is the first question every Indie author asks. I'd love to be able to answer that question, but each case is different. Sometimes, authors "get lucky" and their first book takes off. In most cases, however, it's a long hard climb. Jasinda Wilder is a case in point. Before signing up with Berkley Books, Wilder had self-published 28 ebooks. If you look back at her history, you'll notice that she did two things: 1) She identified her market and followed the trends, and 2) She wrote like blazes, churning out one book after another, until she built a following. (It also helped that she was writing in a genre that has 30 million dedicated readers.) Meredith Wild essentially employed the same strategy: She chose a popular genre, and produced a series. That's what publishers like, because that's what readers like. (It's called "brand loyalty" in the mar...

Updated 5/20/20 Here are two new agents actively building their client lists. Linda Camacho is seeking adult, middle grade, and young adult fiction across all genres (romance, horror, fantasy, realistic, light sci-fi, and graphic novels), and select literary fiction (preferably with commercial bent). Noah Ballard (Verve) specializes in literary debuts, upmarket thrillers and narrative nonfiction, as well as select YA and middle grade that breaks the mold. Always check the agency website and agent bio before submitting. Agents can switch agencies or close their lists, and submission requirements can change. You can find a full list of agents actively seeking new clients here:  Agents Seeking Clients . ______________________ Noah Ballard of  Verve Currently closed to queries About Noah : Noah Ballard received his BA in English from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and began his career in publishing at Emma Sweeney Agency where he sold foreign rights for the agency i...

NOTE: Oni is currently closed to submissions. Oni Press is an American independent comic book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. They have published well over 100 titles, with multiple books undergoing reprints. Several of their books have won the Eisner Award including: Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim , Rick Spear and Chuck BB's Black Metal , Hope Larson's Grey Horses , and Greg Rucka's Whiteout: Melt and Queen & Country , with many more receiving nominations. Oni is currently open to submissions directly from graphic novel writers. Be sure to read their complete submission guidelines before submitting.  ________________________________________ From the website: ONI PRESS OPEN SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES On May 1st, 2015, Oni Press will be opening submissions to the public. We are on the hunt for new stories from new creators, featuring characters that reflect the diversity of the world around us. Oni Press has always valued content and execution, and we are ...

1. Bushwick Starr Deadline: May 15th Website: http://thebushwickstarr.org/AlsoPlaying.html We are thrilled to announce that we are accepting submissions for our 2015-16 Starr Reading Series. Submissions will be accepted through May 15th. Please review our submission guidelines before submitting. The Starr Reading Series is a way for us to expand our community while we celebrate and explore the plays of the city's most exciting playwrights. In four Seasons, we have featured the work of a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers who are approaching writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. We are proud to continue to offer this ongoing series to our audiences FREE of charge! If you would like to submit a script for consideration, please DOWNLOAD THE GUIDELINES , then send your materials to SRS@thebushwickstarr.org by Midnight May 15th 2015. Chosen playwrights will receive a small stipend to support their project. We will announce the 2015-16 Series par...