My Poets & Writers article “Price of Submission: The Evolution of Reading Fees and Their Cost to the Community” has started some conversations regarding literary magazines submissions, funding, fees, and readership. In The Missouri Review‘s blog post, Why Literary Journals Charge Online Submission Fees, Managing Editor Michael Nye suggests that electronic submission fees might be […]

First, thanks to everyone for all the supportive and positive comments about my book cover. I appreciate it! In other good news, the November/December 2011 issue of Poets & Writers magazine includes my article, “Price of Submission: The Evolution of Reading Fees and Their Cost to the Community.” (Available in print only.) I spoke to […]

For reasons I can’t explain other than I must have really needed a distraction, I went through a few  of the literary journals on my shelf and compiled a list of the most unusual, notable, or bizarre professions the writers included in their contributor notes. Among the standard sea of professors, MFA program directors, doctoral […]

This is the first weekend in a long, long time that doesn’t involve any major commitments, traveling, retreats in the woods, out-of-town visitors, or a bunch of deadlines. I almost don’t know what to do with myself. Aside from one writing date scheduled with a friend, when I’ll work on my novel, I think my […]

“This has such a nice, creepy edge I’m surprised more lit mags didn’t snatch this one up.” A beta reader wrote this comment on an older story of mine that I recently submitted to our workshop. It made me kind of sad — not that the story hasn’t found a home (besides my collection) but […]

In continuing my recap of my presentation this weekend, I’ll briefly cover what I said about contests. (Janet Reid and I must be on the same wavelength, because she just did a post on contests, too.) Contests aren’t for everyone. I get it if you don’t want to spend money to submit your work. Everyone […]

If I could just say a few words…I’d be a better public speaker. But seriously, I had a great time presenting to West Side Writers over the weekend. Everyone seemed engaged and asked lots of questions, etc. While I don’t think I can recap everything I talked about, I’ll give a brief overview here. The […]

I will be speaking at the Cleveland West Side Writers general meeting this Saturday at 10:45am. The meeting is held in the Dover Room at the Westlake Porter Library and is open to the public. The topic of my talk is “Submitting to Literary Magazines and Entering Contests.” I’ll share some of my own submission […]

After the initial writing process, months or perhaps years of revision, the long lit mag submission process, and finally an acceptance, the short story publication process isn’t over yet. Even if the journal doesn’t require any major edits, you still (usually) have to proof your work before it appears in print. In theory, this is […]

My story “The Ballad Solemn of Lady Malena,” which I just referenced a few days ago here, was accepted for publication in the South Dakota Review. The issue with my story should be out in only 4-6 weeks. South Dakota…now there’s one state I’ve never visited. I’d love to, though. Peter and I took a […]