Tag: creativity

Call for Submissions: Permafrost Magazine

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Permafrost Magazine is now accepting submissions.

Permafrost Magazine is the farthest north literary journal for writing and the arts.   Founded in 1977, Permafrost is housed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks MFA program and run by dedicated creative writing graduate students. We publish a winter print issue as well as a spring online issue, both of which feature compelling poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction by established writers and new voices alike.  In Alaska, our unique environment shapes our perspective, but Permafrost seeks original voices from all over the world.

Submit

Regular submissions for the print edition are read between September 1 and December 15. All pieces receive three independent readings from our staff of volunteer readers, all of whom are graduate students or faculty in the English Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The average turn-around for regular submissions is approximately three months.

If your submission arrives after our December 15 deadline, it will then be considered for the May online edition.  The deadline for submissions to the online edition is April 15.

You can submit by mail or online here: http://permafrostmag.submishmash.com.  Please note that we are charging a $3 fee for submitting online, which is comparable to the cost of postage and mailing materials and helps offset some of the journal’s expenses.

To submit by mail, send to:
Permafrost
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Department of English
P.O. Box 755720
Fairbanks, AK 99775-0640

ALWAYS ENCLOSE AN SASE.
Your work will not be returned or responded to without one.

Contributors will receive one copy of the issue in which their work appears. Additional copies can be purchased at the reduced price of $5.

Email submissions will not be read.

PROSE (FICTION AND NON-FICTION): Typed and double-spaced with author’s name, address, phone, and email at the top of page one, with each page after numbered with name at top. We welcome prose submissions of less than 8,000 words (more if it’s really great). Notify us if you’d like your manuscript returned. Always include an SASE.

POETRY: Typed with author’s name, address, phone, and email at the top of each page. Poetry does NOT need to be double spaced; please submit it as you would like it to appear. Poems of more than one page should have the author’s last name, along with page number, at the top of each following pages. No length maximums, as we like the idea of publishing something truly epic. Please do not submit more than five poems at once. Include an SASE.

ARTWORK: Photographs, drawings, cover art, etc. will be considered.

Don’t be discouraged if your first submission is not accepted, and please specify if your submission is simultaneous.Permafrost also sponsors literary contests for fiction and poetry.

Call for Submissions: The Round

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The Round is a journal of literary and visual arts based at Brown University in Providence, RI.

Published biannually, The Round accepts submissions in all mediums and from all sources, inside and outside the Brown community.

The Round is happy to accept submissions of both literary and visual art. In the past we have published prose, poetry, plays, and translations as well as paintings, drawings, prints, and photography.

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Typically, for the fall issue, we read through October, and for the spring issue, through March. Issues are published at the end of each semester in December and May.

To submit, please send us a brief bio and your mailing address, if not on Brown’s campus, along with your work. Written submissions should be sent in .rtf, .doc, or .docx format. Please send visual art as high quality .jpg images and include a piece’s title, medium, and dimensions.

 

Please email all work to theroundmagazine@gmail.com .

 

September Submission Bonanza Challenge!

Jaclyn13 Comments

September is here, folks and that means it’s time to celebrate Labor Day by expending a bit of my labor on my writing career.  All this month, I will be working on my second Submission Bonanza!

In my first Submission Bonanza! I racked up a few rejections, got some things published (more info to come on some of those things as the publications come out!), and learned a whole lot.  It was incredibly successful in more than just my initial idea that I would start racking up the rejections to get my work out there.  I am reading more critically and closely.  I found lots of new magazines.  I feel part of a larger literary conversation.  I am inspired to write more.  Also, I am inspired to keep up with submitting and submit more.

Like last time, I will be working on submitting to 30 magazines in a month.  I have my pieces picked out and edited.  I have a list of magazines that I want to submit to. And I have a cover letter and bio template ready to go.

Feel free to join me in this journey.  I loved doing this in July and I am excited about all the magazines opening their doors to submissions this month.  I would highly recommend that anyone who is wanting to grow and develop as a writer think about doing this in some form.  Maybe you don’t want to do one magazine every day.  Maybe you want to do one every other day, one a week, or even just one.  Maybe you want to do three a week or three a day.  Whatever the case may be, set a reasonable goal or yourself and get going.  Your work isn’t going to read itself.  If you do decide to join, please let me know.  I would love to be able to support and encourage each other as the months go on.  Good luck!

6 Tips for Perfect (Professional) Cover Letters for Literary Magazines

Jaclyn21 Comments

By now, if you’ve been following my Submission Bonanza! series, you should have picked the pieces you want to send to magazines and compiled a list of magazines that you want to submit to.  It’s time now to write a cover letter to send along with your submissions.  As Michael Nye, Editor of the Missouri Review says, sending a cover letter with your submission is “like wearing a suit to an interview.”  Don’t let your submissions to literary magazines show up naked!

It’s easy to feel stressed about this part of the process of submitting to literary magazines: the cover letter  (duh-duh dun….).  It’s understandable because this can be the first impression that you are giving to the editors of the magazine.  We definitely want to put our best foot forward and present ourselves as professional, competent writers.

But also, keep in mind that you are not being judged on your cover letter.  Editors want solid writing.  So make a nice, neat little cover letter and spend the majority of your time stressing about whether you should put that extra comma in your new creative nonfiction piece.

So here are some things to think about when writing a cover letter:

1.  Follow the guidelines of the literary magazine.

This seems self-explanatory, but a lot of literary magazines ask for different kinds of information in the cover letter.  Some of them want word counts or genre.  Others want a short bio about you.  Some even ask for no cover letter at all.  If you are submitting simultaneously, you’ll also need to note that.  Make sure you follow their specific guidelines.

 

2. Address the letter to a person.

This is not a “To Whom It May Concern” letter.  It’s pretty easy to find most of the staff at a literary magazine under their masthead.  Some magazines even tell you in the submission guidelines who to address it to.  Be as specific as possible.  If you’re submitting poetry, address it directly to Ms. Sally B. Poetryeditor.  If you can’t pinpoint a specific name, you can address it to the editor.

 

3. Keep it short and simple. 

Don’t forget, a lot of editors are reading hundreds or thousands of these.  This is not a query letter, so you don’t need to describe your piece to them.  You don’t need to tell them how you came up with the idea or list the twenty-seven other literary magazines you’ve been in.  For example, the Colorado Review suggests this cover letter:

Dear Editor,

Enclosed is my [fiction/nonfiction/poetry] submission “Title of Manuscript.” Thank you for considering it for publication in Colorado Review.

[*If submitting via mail] I’ve included an SASE for [response only/the return of my manuscript].

Your Name

Full Contact Info

 

 4. Keep it professional.

Naturally, you want to make sure that the grammar and punctuation are flawless and that it is in a professional format.  But also, you don’t need to be cute or catchy to get the editor’s attention.  Let your writing do that.  That’s what they are looking for.

 

5. Add a short bio (Optional).

Some magazines ask for a short bio or you may feel that it’s in your best interest to include one.  This should only be a line or two of relevant information. Don’t tell your life story, just one or two tidbits that are interesting or pertinent.  Don’t include a whole list of the hundreds of places you’ve been published.  Just pick 3-5.  Also, if you haven’t been published, don’t be ashamed to include that too.  As Nye suggests:

If you’ve never been published before? Say so. “If accepted, this would be my first published story.” All literary magazines love being the one to publish a writer for the first time, so acknowledging this possibility can only help.

 

 6. Add a note about what you read in the magazine or how you know the magazine (Also optional).

If you want to personalize it a bit for the magazine, some editors might like to know that you did actually take the time to read past issues or that you have had past correspondences with them.  But again, this step could be optional.

 

In the end, I really like this bit Nye’s advice really calmed me down:

A professional cover letter is all we ask, and even minus that, if the work is excellent, we don’t really care. We want to publish the best work we read, regardless of whether or not you’re an emerging writer or an established one.

So don’t stress too much about your cover letter.  Get it done, and make it professional, so you can get back to your craft.

 

So, the goal for this week:

Make a template of your cover letter and bio.  Have them ready and at hand when you want to submit.  I personally made a template that had all the information I could possibly want to send to and editor (word counts, genres, bio, etc) and then cut or edited from that for each literary magazine.  Once this work is out of the way, you’ll be nearly set to start submitting!

 

Need more help?

You can read Michael Nye’s article on The Art of the Literary Magazine Cover Letter.

You could also look at advice about what not to do by Michael Kardos at Writer’s Digest. 

Or take a look at this sample cover letter from The Review Review.

30 Litmags in 30 Days: Create Your Own Submission Bonanza!

Jaclyn72 Comments

I did it! I completed my self-imposed challenge, Submission Bonanza!  During the month of July, I submitted poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, and flash fiction to 30 litmags.  I’m not going to lie, it took work and it took time.  After so many years not submitting any work and not focusing on my writing, this was definitely a challenge for me.  But I can certainly say it was well worth it.  I would highly recommend that anyone looking to grow as a writer think about setting their own Submission Bonanza!   I’ve grown and learned so many things over the past month and I am excited to share them all with you.

You can see my halfway post, Notches on the Bedpost, to see some of the benefits I’ve gained and ways I’ve been developing by doing this exercise.  There are so many ways in which I have grown.  I’ve become a better reader. I’ve started editing more seriously.  I’ve learned so much more about contemporary writers and writing.  I feel like I am getting familiar with literary magazines in way I wasn’t before.  Most importantly, I’ve been motivated to write more than I ever have before.

Also (spoiler alert!) I have received a few replies already and it’s not just rejections I am racking up.

Because I felt like this exercise was so successful in my growth and motivation as a writer, I am planning on doing it again for the month of September and I would love for anyone who is interested to join me.

All this month, I will be posting a practical guide on how to create your own Submission Bonanza! Once you lay the groundwork (finding magazines, choosing your pieces, writing your cover letter) this month, you will be ready by September 1st to start submitting to the many, many litmags which will be opening their mailboxes for submissions.

After I did the prep work of looking for magazines, editing my work, and writing a template of my cover letter and bio, it took me about an hour to submit to each magazine.  Decide for yourself a reasonable goal for your Submission Bonanza!  I am fortunate to have an hour a day to submit to magazines and also still have time for my writing.  What kind of time can you make for it?  Can you do an hour a week?  Three hours a week?  An hour a day? Three hours a day?  You want to challenge yourself, sure.  But you also want to make a Submission Bonanza!  that you can stick to.

I am really excited about doing this again and getting into gear for another flurry of submissions.  If you’re excited too, let me know!  I would love to share lessons learned, tricks and things to consider, and just general motivation and support with anyone who’s game!

 

Notches on the Bedpost: Unexpected Lessons Learned from Submitting Writing to LitMags Every Day

Jaclyn70 Comments

Notches on the bedpost - scratches on the back.

Earlier this summer, I was inspired by the devilish number 66 on a list of The 100 Best Ways to Become a Better Writer.  Rack up rejections.  The phrasing and sentiment behind the idea played over and over in my mind and I was captivated by it.  I started imagining pieces of my writing marching out into the world dressed to the nines in their Saturday night best, and returning home (accepted or not) to put another notch on the bedpost.  Perhaps they would have short-lived flirts with editors who didn’t want to take them home, or one night stands with litmags where they weren’t accepted but, hey, at least they were being read, even if only ephemerally.  Or maybe they’ll find the editors of their dreams and fall in love together, being read again and again, put into print to show the permanence of their mutual devotion.  In any case, they were going out, having a good time, and meeting some new people.

So, I encouraged myself to bring these absurd reveries to fruition by setting a challenge for myself.  In the month of July, I would submit work to one literary magazine every day.  I called it Submission Bonanza! (and yes, the exclamation point is quintessential – I’ll take it as one of my five) because it was by far the most submitting I’ve done, ever.  I’m a little more than halfway through my challenge and I’ve learned quite a bit from it. I’ve learned some basic, practical, and incredibly necessary skills, like how to write a cover letter for my work or what to include in my author’s bio (look out for posts on these in the future).  But I’ve also learned some things that I didn’t quite expect to learn.

1. I’ve been introduced to more contemporary writers and magazines.

In trying to decide which pieces to send to which magazines, I’ve been doing a lot of reading.  In this digital age, a lot of literary magazines have either full issues or teaser bits and pieces of issues on their websites.  Thankfully, I’ve not had to buy year-long subscriptions of every magazine I’ve submitted to (I am a poor grad-student-to-be, after all) in order to see what kinds of writing might be a good fit for the magazines.  The interesting thing about all of the reading I’ve been doing is that it is very contemporary.  It’s very now.  Though I love me some Pablo Neruda or Sylvia Plath, they have become quite canonized.  It’s incredibly interesting to read what people are writing now.  It’s also really useful to get to know the magazines and publishers that are working with these things.  You can see the magazines I’ve been submitting to at the original post about the challenge and read what they’ve been publishing.

2. I’ve become a better reader.

All of these pieces I’ve been reading, I’ve been reading incredibly closely and critically.  I don’t think “Gee, that poem makes me feel… (warm, angry, fuzzy, whatever).”  Because I am reading to find out what editors might like in my own writing, I have to ask myself a myriad of questions about everything I read.  What did the editors like about that piece?  What does it have in common with the other pieces that were chosen? How does it compare to pieces I’ve written?  Reading critically like this has forced me to turn the same discerning eye back on my own writing, which brings me to…

3. I’ve been motivated to edit more.

We’ve all heard the mantra again and again about how important editing is.  And yeah, I know it’s important.  But usually when I write, I become inspired and it takes off on it’s own.  It’s like I’m being filled with some spirit that’s vomiting words on the page that are beautiful and make me cry and the muse has me speaking in tongues and finally when I finish I am exhausted.  I feel good, sure.  But I also feel done.  Reading the works published in some of the magazines I’ve read feel so polished, though, so purposeful.  In some ways very different than the literary upchuck that I produce in my frenzied first drafts.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my writing as if it were my little children, but children need to be raised and tended, nurtured and loved.

4. I feel part of the writing community.

Ok, I know. My work is not being published alongside Billy Collins and I am not sharing martinis and discussing themes of displacement in literature with Salman Rushdie (yet).  But there’s something about just having your writing out in the world (even if it’s not being published – just having it out), that makes me feel like I am part of the community of authors trying to make sense of the world in words.  If all literature is in conversation, I feel like just by submitting work to magazines, I am becoming part of the conversation.

5. I am more inspired to write.

Perhaps most importantly, the more I read and submit, the more I want to write.  In this exercise of trying to get something out there every day, I find myself wanting more writing that I can put out there.  It’s been like a soaring spiral on updrafts of wind.  I am reading more, I am editing more, I am thinking more, and I am writing more.

I haven’t heard back from the literary magazines yet.  That should come as no surprise as some of them have reading periods of up to six months and so far, it’s been a measly seventeen days since my first submission.  So, I don’t know yet if this Submission Bonanza! will be a successful endeavor in terms of getting published.  But I do know it has been incredibly successful in furthering my development as a writer.

And to think, I’m only halfway through.

Thanks so much to http://debitch.tumblr.com/ for the incredibly apropos photo.

Submission Bonanza!: Racking up Rejections, or 30 LitMags in 31 Days

Jaclyn122 Comments

I found this thought-provoking post the other day about The 100 Best Ways to Becoming a Better Writer on thecopybot.com.  Some of them are interesting ways to meet characters, such as “74. Sell insurance, cars or newspapers face-to-face for two months.”  A lot of them are imaginative and funny.  Some of them are just things you know you need to do, like “3. Write over a thousand words a day.”

But the one that really stood out to me and inspired me most was Number 66.

Rack up Rejections.

I haven’t been doing a lot of this.  I haven’t really been doing any of it.  In the past 10 years, I’ve maybe submitted work to 5 literary magazines.  At this rate, all my writing will sit quietly on my computer and collect digital dust until I die or my computer dies, and either way it will be lost forever. (Note to self: remember to back up hard drive.)

That’s not really how I’d like it to go.

I write because I care about inspiring people, about connecting with people in a more meaningful way than normal day-to-day conversation allows.  That’s not gonna happen if everything I write remains for-my-eyes-only-on-my-measly-little-laptop.

So, I’m challenging myself to rack up rejections this month.

So, self:

Put yourself out there, knowing that you will get lots of rejections.  Not everyone likes to read what you like to write and that’s ok.  Think of each rejection as a battle scar, a symbol that you’re fighting the good fight, getting closer to being who you want to be.

So here’s the plan:  I’ll be submitting work to 30 LitMags this month, one for each day (with one day off, just to make the number round!).  To try to keep myself honest, I’ll be posting them here as I go.  Feel free to join me!

Aaaaaaaand, we’re off!

1: Fourteen Hills

2: Flash Frontier

3: The Round

4: Bat City Review

5. Swine Magazine

6. The Minetta Review

7. Camroc Press Review

8. Black Warrior Review

9. smoking glue gun

10. The Journal

11. The McNeese Review

12. Mid-American Review

13. Front Porch Journal

14. Exegesis

15. Columbia

16. Yemassee

17. Clarion

18. The Southeast Review

19. Silk Road

20. The Portland Review

21. Reed Magazine

22. The Louisville Review

23. The Coachella Review

24. Rio Grande Review

25. Saw Palm

26. Switchback

27. Camera Obscura

28. Northwind Magazine

29. Slice Magazine

30. Post Road Magazine

Writing Challenge: When the Goddesses Come Out

Jaclyn12 Comments

 

 

Nymphs, goddesses, apsaras, maenads!  It’s May.  There’s a fresh exhilaration in the air.  Mother’s Day is coming up.  I have been incredibly inspired by all those bloggers who did the A-Z blogging challenge in April.  These things all fit together nicely in a little challenge that I am setting for myself.  This month, I am endeavoring to write about 26 strong, creative women from mythology.  So, the goal is to write 26 short stories, one based on a female mythological figure for each letter of the alphabet.  Feel free to join me, or to set your own goal for this month.  New growth and new beginnings are in the air!

 

A special Creative-Commons “Thanks!” to itjournalist from flickr for the photo!

Inspiration: Creativity as Play

Jaclyn20 Comments

Amidst a series of “How many … does it take to screw in a light bulb?’ jokes John Cleese brings up particularly poignant points about creativity.  He gives an actual recipe for its formation and hope to those of us suffering from creative block.

He asserts that “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.”  People are not born creative.  It is not a high IQ or a muse on your shoulder.  Instead, it is finding a mode of working that allows for the creative which sits inside each artist to come out.

He cites studies and research which define creativity as “an ability to play.”  Creatives are childlike and have the ability to explore and frolic with ideas for no specific purpose other than play itself.

As I try to be more disciplined and determined in my writing practice, I find that this is something that I am missing lately.  If I’m not producing, I feel that I am not writing.  There isn’t room for play when deadlines and due dates are looming.  And yet, this is exactly what is needed for creativity: time and space.

“Creativity is not possible in the closed mode,” Cleese asserts.  But he also shows that working in both ‘open’ modes and ‘closed’ modes are necessary.  When we are working with a problem, we must examine it in the open mode.  However, once we find a solution, we must work in the closed mode to be effective at bringing it about.

For me, I have been getting better at the closed mode.  I have been developing my discipline and ability to sit down and write as if it is work, as if it is necessary.  But I have forgotten how to play with my writing.  I have forgotten to give myself the time and space to sit and play with my ideas, to let them be silly and run free.

The most useful part of Cleese’s speech comes in his practical advice for creating the ‘open’ mode necessary for creativity.

“You need five things:

1. Space (Away from the ‘real world’ so you can play!)

2. Time (Time blocked off especially for play!)

3. Time (The more time you spend playing, the more creative your solutions are!)

4. Confidence (Play means not being frightened of failure!)

5. A 22-inch waist.. Sorry, humour.”

He asserts that your creative play needs to be distinct from your everyday life in both the time and the space that you give it so that you can be free from the pressures (and ‘closed’ mode) that we usually operate under.  “Otherwise, it’s not play.”

“The most creative professionals always play with the problem for much longer before they try to resolve it.”

“While you’re being creative, nothing is wrong and any drivel might lead to the breakthrough.”

Of course, as he says in the beginning, “Telling people how to be creative is easy. Being creative is difficult.”

http://youtu.be/VShmtsLhkQg

Oh, and also…

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, but the light bulb has really got to want to change.

Inspiration: Look Up More: The Shared Experience of Absurdity

Jaclyn8 Comments

I’ll just come out and say it, I love the absurd.  There’s something magical and beautiful about frivolity that’s not tied down to reason and rationality.  Absurdity has this detachment from the material world which makes me remember that I am not only a physical body that needs to eat and shit, but also a mind that needs to be stimulated and awed.  There’s some sort of wizardry that the ludicrous possesses which can turn even the most mundane of situations and surroundings into a wonderland.

Take for instance Christo and Jean-Claude’s outdoor art, The Umbrellas.  It instantly turns a brown, barren California landscape into a fairyland. And that’s exactly what’s amazing about absurdity.  It’s play for adults.  It’s a time when we are pulled out of daily routine and everyday life and invited to immerse ourselves in imagination and wonder.  It invites us to see the world around us not as a hard, material setting but as a playground ripe with beauty and ready for exploration.

The magic and wonder of the ridiculous is never so powerful as when it is shared.  In the TED Talk below, Charlie Todd, founder of ImprovEverywhere, discusses the power of sharing absurd experiences.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the video:

“I love this moment in the video, because before it became a share experience, it was maybe a little bit scary, or something that was at least confusing to her.  And then once it became a shared experience, it was something funny and something she could laugh at.”

“There is no point and there doesn’t have to be a point.  We don’t need a reason, as long as it’s fun.”

[ted id=1269]

This video really inspired me because it made me think about how something just a little bit absurd lends itself to an entire story.  The people who witnessed the no-pants subway ride (and all the previous ones that followed!) will forever have that story to tell — and to share.  It will be something to connect over and an experience that they can give to others through the telling of that story for the rest of their lives.

All storytelling should have an element of this.  Stories should leave you wanting to retell them, to share them.  Good stories are instant bridges between people.  They bring us together and link us in common experience.

And for me, I always want a little bit of the absurd.  I want a little bit of play, a little wink at my reader.  I want that moment when my reader and I are both frolicking in the playground of wonder and imagination and beauty that is the world we live in.

Because it’s really fun to play by yourself, but it’s even more fun to play with others.*

*Sexual innuendo absolutely intended.  I’m sorry.  I couldn’t resist.

Creative Commons love to Jon Delorey for the photo and, of course, to TED for the video!