Mainstream Versus Literati

When I entered college as a graduate student in creative writing I had already spent a lot of my life writing. I finished my first novel at 15 and had completed four more after that. I had written over 200 poems the year before. I have always a wide variety of books. Still, I stuck…

7 Chapbook Publishers

We recently published an article about chapbooks, titled The Case for Chapbooks. If you have not read it already, you should before starting this article. When we published The Case for Chapbooks, I received a number of questions from writers about chapbook publishers and how to find them. Unfortunately most of listings of chapbooks publishers…

Persea Books: Accepting Book Manuscript Queries

Persea Books is an independent book publisher based out of New York that was established in the 1970s. Since then they have gained a reputation for publishing thoughtful books in a variety of literary genres. They have an extensive catalog and fairly good distribution. You can often find their books in bookstores, libraries, schools, and…

Quote of the Week

The Book That Changed Your Life

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week

Writing Prompt: Coffee Poem

The prompt this week is a little different. Your challenge is to write a poem about coffee. Although there is one tiny catch. You can never use the words coffee, beans, black, milky, cafe,  or caffeine in this poem. You must convey the idea of coffee, of drinking it, without ever mentioning these words. Obviously,…

8th House Publishing: Accepting Book Submissions

Updated December 2024: After taking more than two full years off publishing new books, they returned, and are actively publishing and accepting work again. They have been back for over around a year, so I’m adding this update. 8th House Publishing is a newer publisher based out of Montreal and New York. They publish poetry,…

Contest: The Best Character Introduction

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Quote of the Week

Writing Prompt: Secret Library

Many great modern novels are about the love of books and libraries. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store and The Shadow of the Wind are just two examples.  Both books are about imagined secret libraries. Your prompt today is to write about an imagined library that is for some reason or another a secret. Now this…

The Thirty Word Short Story Contest

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Writing Prompt: Stuck

Imagine that a character is trapped somewhere. It could be a small room, a well, a crashed car, a stuck elevator, or any number of small claustrophobic  spaces. They have been stuck there for at least thirty minutes when you start writing your story. This is important because they already have to be nervous at…

Quote of the Week