Word Pirates

I hate coming up with a title for something I’ve written! I hate it, and I am really terrible at it. Of course, a title isn’t more important than your writing. However, I think the title is an important part of the work.
So I am completely amused and surprised by the, well, terrible titles F. […]

More controversy over VQR’s airing of nasty comments its editorial folks made over submissions. This time, Howard Junker, editor of Zyzzyva, is speaking out against the blog post, asking, “Since when are Genoways and his minions entitled to Righteous Indignation while winnowing the infinite chaff from the most rare wheat?”
Now Ted Genoways from VQR […]

I enjoyed what Stephen Corey at Georgia Review had to say about the short story in the most recent issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
If you are truly serious about doing distinctive work that will make its mark, slow down.

A great poem or story or essay is not a line on a vita, a selling […]

One of the core beliefs of Word Pirates is that writing should be entertaining. It should have a pace, avoid being self-indulgent, and keep the reader’s attention span in mind. I think the reason so few people read lit journals and anthologies these days is because so much of them are frankly boring. I mean, […]

Petaluma’s Word Pirates put on a show to entertain and scintillate your senses… with literature!
Petaluma, Calif., May 15 – Word Pirates, a professional writing group, will host its second annual reading on May 15. True to their name, the Word Pirates will commandeer the Phoenix Theater to tell tales that could […]

Librarything is a site where you can catalog your books. There’s a group on the site, titled “I See Dead People’s Books,” that collected the collections of some famous dead folks.
Always wonder if Tupac Shakur and Marie Antoinette read the same books? Now you can find out! (I’ll spoil this one for you … […]

I like how Virginia Quarterly Review has changed in the last few years, and perhaps that’s why I think this post is beneath them. Their blog has a list of comments their editorial readers made on rejected submissions. Here are some of their “brutal” thoughts, which they journal thinks should be on the web […]