Transfer Literary Magazine, distributed throughout Bay Area local bookstores, would love to receive your submissions of poetry, drama, fiction, creative nonfiction, exciting somethings… BY SEPTEMBER 5th–FRIDAY. You can pick up a cover letter and instructions outside 372 or 380 Submit up to three pieces–NO NAME ON MANUSCRIPTS Four copies double spaced, single sided, one inch margins cover letter (all contact info, grad or undergrad, titles of work) WE WELCOME YOUR STRONGEST STORIES POEMS PLAYS ETC.

More here.

~ Joy

Narrative Magazine is looking for first-person fiction or nonfiction, 8,000 words or less. The magazine hopes “find the most necessary, most intimate, most personal stories made universal.”

Entries will be accepted through the end of July. Do it! I know you have a first-person story, so send it already. First prize is $3,000. All entrants get a six-month subscription.
Link

According to the Million Writers Awards nominations received in the last five years, the top 12 online literary journals are:

• Eclectica (31 nominations)
• Pindeldyboz (26)
• Agni (16)
• Strange Horizons (16)
• Word Riot (16)
• Narrative Magazine (15)
• Fiction Warehouse (13)
• The King’s English (12)
• Mississippi Review (12)
• Blackbird (11)
• Blithe House Quarterly (11)
• Storyglossia (11)

Check them out. (Via)

~ Joy

This month, the Word Pirates are studying literary journals. At the next two meetings, we will be reading stories from them and talking about them as writing markets. If you’re having trouble finding one, Lit Scribbler has a nice little list of some journals of interest. Check it out.

~ Joy

Two places seeking your submissions:

Dossier Journal is a new independent arts and culture journal bringing together writing, photography, fashion and art in one publication. We are a bi-annual publication with a circulation of around 5,000 copies with worldwide distribution. Our format is a bit different than traditional literary magazines as we are incorporating other varied disciplines, but we hope that inclusion allows creative writing to reach a wider audience than normal.

Our first issue, which will be released May 8, includes contributions from artists Robert Longo, David Armstrong, Nan Goldin and James Welling, a short story by Dan Pope, interviews with Alice Waters, artist Francesco Clemente, writer Yiyun Li, producer Mark Ronson, along with creative writing, essays, art, fashion and photography from lots of emerging talents.

We are currently putting together our second issue and are looking for submissions of creative writing, poetry, essays, etc..Submissions should be sent to submissions@dossierjournal.com.

ALSO:

Quiddity (what a name, huh?) is seeking submissions. “Quiddity international literary journal is a publication of Springfield College-Benedictine University. It is published semi-annually in April and October. Quiddity’s companion public-radio program is produced by Illinois Public Radio’s hub station, WUIS/WIPA, NPR member and PRI affiliate, and airs regularly. Contributors to the print journal may be invited to read their work for the public-radio program.”

There you go, Word Pirates. What are you waiting for?
~ Joy

Memoir (and) is a new literary journal that will be hitting new stands this spring. Looks like they need submissions. Here’s the deal:

Memoir (and) is an up-and-coming journal for the exploration of memoir as “the” genre of the 21st century. We are based in Sausalito, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We strive with each issue to include a selection of prose, poetry, graphic memoirs, epistolary memoirs, narrative photography, lies and more. The editors particularly invite submissions that push the traditional boundaries of both form and content in the exploration of the representation of self, and are especially looking for graphic memoirs. Memoir (and) is available in print in over 600 bookstores in U.S. and Canada, including Borders, Barnes & Noble, Hastings and independent bookstores.

Our next reading period is May 1, 2008 through August 15, 2008.

More here.

~Joy

Word Pirates,

Remember that time I had us do an exercise around the Modern Love column in The New York Times. Well, dig those out and start working on them, because they could get you a book deal.

The New York Observer has an article on how many book deals have come out of that column. Apparently there are lots, including one of the latest books pimped by Oprah, Eat, Pray, Love. And more:

The most recent deals came just last week: Ellen Graf sold a book titled The Thirteenth Horse Won, based on a column she wrote about marrying a Chinese businessman she barely knew at the age of 46; and Melanie Gideon, an Oakland-based writer, sold a book called The Slippery Year, which was pitched “as similar to Elizabeth Gilbert and Nora Ephron, a bittersweet and wise month-by-month account of the year in her life during which, upon turning 43 and confronted with her own mortality, she chooses to wake herself up, embrace the passage of time, identify what matters (and what does not)—and ‘finally decide to live,’” as the industry newsletter Publisher’s Lunch put it.

Good to know there is a method to my madness after all.

~ Joy

American Short Fiction’s 2007 Short Story Contest is waiting for your entry. Don’t make it sad; enter!

The contest runs through December 1. First prize is $1,000 with publication; second prize is $500. Julie Orringer, author of the award-winning collection “How to Breathe Underwater,” twill judge. Winners will be announced March 31, 2008.

This site features 55-word pieces of fiction. I like the idea of that kind of challenge. I’m not sure of some of the pieces featured on 55 Fiction. But I think it’s something we should all try, even just to make ourselves do something juicy and hooky.

–Marcia

The Cupboard, an online and in-print literary pamphlet, is currently seeking submissions for our upcoming Love Letter volume. This special,double volume will consist entirely of literary missives, and we are seeking high-quality and creative interpretations of less than 400 words.

We define ‘Love Letter’ broadly, and are open to reading real or fictional letters to a beloved person, thing, or idea. To see what The Cupboard is about, please see the latest volume here. Deadline June 1st

The Cupboard is based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and seeks to publish innovative prose in a format that is broadly distributed by its editors, writers, and readers. All work published in The Cupboard is done so anonymously, but we can tell you that previous contributors have published work in Fence, Ninth Letter, Mid-American Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Indiana Review, Jubilat, LIT, Cutbank, Cream City Review, and many, many others.