Call for Submissions: damselfly press

damselfly press, an online literary journal for women is pleased to announce the publication of our seventh issue and call for submissions for the eighth issue. We are seeking electronic submissions of original fiction, poetry, and non fiction by female writers only slated for online publication in July.

The deadline to submit for the eighth issue is June 15th.

These are the e-mails per genre editor:

Fiction- jennifer(at)damselflypress.net (replace (at) with @)

Poetry- lesley(at)damselflypress.net (replace (at) with @)

Non fiction- nonfiction(at)damselflypress.net (replace (at) with @)

Visit the damselfly press website

to read the latest issue and learn more about the journal.

Northern Arizona Book Festival

The Northern Arizona Book Festival
Flagstaff, Arizona
April 24-26, 2009

Featured authors include:
Diana Gabaldon
Robert Bly
Alberto Alvardo Rios

All readings are free and open to the public. For more information, maps, and a full calendar of events, go here.

Call for Submissions: Cooper Dillon

Cooper Dillon is an independent poetry press founded on promoting and maintaining the values which make poetry a high art. Through the publication and distribution of full-length collections and chapbooks, our intention is to nurture the poet and reader who finds joy in aesthetic, beauty, honesty and intimacy.

The reading period for full-length poetry manuscripts is now open.

As a new independent literary press devoted exclusively to poetry we're excited to consider all types of work, and are open to submissions, both full-length as well as chapbook manuscripts. We hold contests for both, but are happy to consider collections outside of the contests, if you can submit within the following guidelines:

Be sure your name and contact information is on the cover page of the document.

PDFs are the preferred format (and can be created through the "print" options in most word processing programs).

Please have any cover letter or bio associated with the submission in the body of the email.

All manuscripts should have a table of contents, page numbers, and acknowledgments.

Please note that we are only interested in manuscripts of poetry. Manuscripts of fiction, nonfiction, essay, biography, etc. will not be replied to.

All submission can be emailed to us at editors(at)cooperdillon.com (replace (at) with @)

In the subject line of the email, please use the following format: "Submission by [ your name]."

All manuscripts will be considered carefully and replied to in a reasonable amount of time. If it's been more than a month, feel free to send an email.

Word Counts and Novel Length

The March 30 post on the blog, The Swivet, has some great information on the standard word counts and lengths of various genres. To read more, go here. If you have a novel-in-progress, this is worth a look.

Call for Submissions: Poets Wear Prada

Poetry and Micro or Flash Fiction. Deadline October 31, 2009.

More details can be found at The Smoking Book blog,

the on-line edition of SMOKE.

Editors: Joy Leftow and Roxanne Hoffman
Publisher: Poets Wear Prada.

SUBMISSION POLICY

Poetry (any form or style) and Micro or Flash Fictions wanted for an anthology on SMOKE. Not just the black clouds rising from the five-alarm fire next door, or the billowing plumes of smoke warning us of a forest fire, or the emissions from smoke stacks, apartment house incinerators, and crematoriums, smoke rings rise from cigarettes, smoke pours out of head shops, pipe shops & cigar stores--see that purple haze rising over the fields of poppies and marijuana we just planted--we've used it to communicate via smoke signals and skywriting, to cover our tracks and disappear with and without mirrors, combat the enemy on and off the battlefield, kill bugs, flavor food, cure illness, declare peace treaties, and fragrance our homes. Got the idea? Release it onto the page.

Guidelines: Submit up to three poems/micro fictions or two flash fictions at a time with a fascinating bio of 35 words or less, not just limited to publication credits, copy/pasted in the body of an e-mail (no attachments, please) to roxy533(at)yahoo.com and violetwrites(at)nyc.rr.com (replace (at) with @).

We will also entertain up to six one-liners or 2 short stand-up routines at a time. Previously published work is OK, as long as authors have retained the copyright, which will be returned to them after publication. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged. If your work is accepted elsewhere, and you still have obtained rights to republish, just let us know where and we'll be happy to acknowledge the other publication.

If you do not receive a response from us within a month of your submission considered it rejected and feel free to submit again. Due to the volume of submissions we cannot respond to each and every individual submission. Selection for the on-line edition are made on an ongoing basis as we receive your submissions. However, final selection for the print edition will made after the October 31st deadline. (In other words, not everything that makes the cut for the on-line edition will appear in print.)

Please do not query. When in doubt, send the submission to roxy533(at)yahoo.com and violetwrites(at)nyc.rr.com (replace (at) with @)

Roxanne Hoffman
Publisher/Editor

POETS WEAR PRADA
C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street - 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030

POETS WEAR PRADA is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey devoted to introducing new authors through limited edition, high- quality chaplets, primarily of poetry.

Hunger Mountain Spring Fund Raising Auction

Hunger Mountain, the literary magazine published by Vermont College of Fine Arts, is hosting a fund raising auction on ebay. Details are below:

Dear Friends of Hunger Mountain,

Please join us for the Hunger Mountain Spring Fund Raising Auction, featuring manuscript critiques with notable authors and agents, and limited edition letterpress broadsides. All items will be available at:

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/thehungermountainstore

beginning at noon EST on May 2nd. Bidding ends at noon EST on Saturday, May 9th.

One-on-one critiques in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, writing for children, and writing for the stage will be conducted by phone, email or mail. This is a great way to study with a writer you admire and support non-profit literary publishing!

Not only are we offering an opportunity to work with authors such as Michael Martone, David Jauss, David Wojahn, Donna Jo Napoli and Tim Wynne-Jones, we also have a full-length children’s/YA fiction critique donated by literary agent Mark McVeigh, founding member of the McVeigh Agency, as well as a middle grade/YA critique offered by Tracy Marchini, agent assistant at Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Picture book authors and illustrators Laura McGee Kvasnosky and Marion Dane Bauer will also be offering their expertise.

Been toiling away on a stage production? Bid on a full-length play critique with playwright Gary Moore.

Memoirist Sue William Silverman is offering a full-length creative nonfiction manuscript critique, complete with a complimentary signed copy of her latest book, Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir.

Other authors offering critiques in the auction include Philip Graham, Jess Row, Thomas Christopher Greene, Natasha Saje, Xu Xi, along with children’s and young adult authors Sarah Ellis, Martine Leavitt, and more.

Also available are signed broadsides from the Stinehour Broadside Award Series including work by authors Alice Hoffman, Neil Shepard, and David Rivard and Lucia Perillo. These letterpress broadsides are all signed and numbered, limited edition, and frame worthy, making them the perfect gift for anyone who appreciates the artistry of literature!

All purchases are charitable in support of Hunger Mountain’s non-profit mission to cultivate engagement with and conversation about the arts by publishing high-quality, innovative literary and visual art by both established and emerging artists, and by offering opportunities for interactivity and discourse.

Thanks for your support and please pass this announcement along far and wide!

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/thehungermountainstore

Nonfiction book contest: Benu Press

Benu Press is accepting completed manuscripts for the Social Justice and Equity Award in Creative Non-Fiction.

Contest dates: June 4, 2009 through July 9, 2009. Notification by September 18, 2009.

Benu Press is a small, independent press committed to publishing creative non-fiction, poetry and fiction. We believe in the transformative power of literature. To that end, we seek to publish inspiring and thought-provoking books about the practical dimensions of social justice and equity.

Writing Competition Rules and Guidelines

Entries must include a $25 reader’s fee as well as the entry form.
The author’s name should not appear beyond the cover sheet.
Title of book should appear on all pages of the manuscript.
Manuscript must be 144 – 350 pages and spring clipped (not spiral bound).
The contest readers will perform a blind review of each entry.

Winning entry will be published by Benu Press and the author will be awarded $1,000 in addition to 17% royalties. The initial run will be 1,000 copies. The winner will also receive 20 copies of the book.

Benu Press will sell books to authors at a 35% discount, and these copies may be sold directly to customers at readings and events. Benu Press will not sell books to authors on a sale or return basis.

Manuscript must be written in English, and must not contain excessive adult language or exploitive themes.

Manuscripts will NOT be returned. Benu Press is not responsible for lost manuscripts.

Unsuccessful submissions will be shredded and recycled.

Books that have been previously published are not eligible.

All work must be original work by the author. Should any part of the entry be discovered to be copied or plagiarized, both writer and entry will be disqualified.

Author must submit one (1) hard copy of the manuscript OR an RTF file (burned on a disk) for review.

Entries must be sent to:
Benu Press Writing Competition
PO Box 5330
Hopkins, MN 55343

Questions can be directed to: submissions(at)benupress.com (replace (at) with @), subject: Competition.
Any entry that is not complete or does not follow guidelines will be disqualified.

Call for Submissions: Catastrophia

Catastrophia will be a collection of stories loosely themed around the theme of catastrophes, disasters and post-apocalyptic fiction. I will be looking for original, unpublished stories which deal in a modern manner with these classic SF- and Horror-based tropes.

Rights and other technical details

I’m looking only for original material - no reprints. I will be buying First British and First North American Rights for your story with a one-year moratorium subsequent to publication. I can offer 3p/6c a word up to a maximum payment of £100 / $200 per story. The book will be published by PS Publishing and the current expected pub date is summer 2010.

Submissions

The submission period will open on 1st August 2008 and will last until 31st May 2009 or whenever the book is full. Unless specified otherwise, all submissions should be sent as disposable hard copies to:

Allen Ashley
Editor: Catastrophia
110d Marlborough Road
Bounds Green
London, N22 8NN
England

Please include an email address for reply or a stamped and addressed envelope. Response time will be three months or less.

Stories should ideally be in the range of 2000 to 6000 words although both longer and shorter tales will be considered.

Catastrophe? What catastrophe?

In short, some event that rapidly changes the world social order, threatens the survival of humankind or the Earth, reduces people to a state of mere hand-to-mouth existence, puts the clock of progress back a couple of thousand years almost overnight, takes our attention off the exploits of celebrities, footballers and politicians and instead focuses it on keeping ourselves and our loved ones alive until sundown . . . and so on. As I said in my own story ‘The Overwhelm’ (in which the world was engulfed by fog): “Truly it didn’t take much for the veneer of civilisation to be stripped away.”

I will be taking a broad view of what constitutes a catastrophe/disaster / apocalypse but authors should note that I am not seeking gratuitous rape and violence fantasies.

A brief history of catastrophes

These tales have a long and prominent history within the genre and are among the first titles that spring to mind when listing SF classics. Discounting Biblical, mythical and similar precedents, this sub-genre probably started with:

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (invading Martians destroy Britain) and M. P. Shiel’sThe Purple Cloud (Polar toxins kill everybody bar the protagonist).

Brian Aldiss famously labelled many of these stories as “cosy catastrophes” but that certainly hasn’t got in the way of our enjoyment. Your editor grew up on these stories and with Catastrophia expects to reinvigorate the genre for the twenty-first century. Indeed, recent films such as The Day After Tomorrow (environmental disaster), Deep Impact (comet strikes Earth) and the re-make of The War of the Worlds suggests the desire is there to be faced with the apocalyptic all over again.

Further reading

Brian Aldiss - Greybeard (no children are born);

Brian Aldiss - Barefoot in the Head (LSD contamination causes social breakdown);

J. G. Ballard - The Drowned World, The Drought, The Crystal World, The Wind From Nowhere - early quartet of psychological /environmental disaster novels from the master;

Edmund Cooper - All Fool’s Day and Richard Matheson - I Am Legend (benchmark post-apocalyptic last man on Earth tales);

Edmund Cooper - Kronk and Charles Platt - The Gas (rampant venereal disease / sex plagues);

John Christopher - The World in Winter (new ice age);

John Christopher - Death of Grass (aka No Blade of Grass) (All grass / wheat / rice crops fail);

Keith Roberts - The Furies (giant wasps);

John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids (blindness and killer plants);

John Wyndham - The Kraken Wakes (marauding sea monsters);

Roger Zelazny - Damnation Alley (Mad Max started here).

For a really modern catastrophe story in the short form, I recommend that you track down ‘Approaching Zero’ by John Lucas (contemporary lifestyles as catastrophe!), most recently available in my anthology from Elastic Press, The Elastic Book Of Numbers (2005).

Catastrophes for the new millennium

With the current prominence of ‘Green’ issues, you may well decide to try your hand at environmental disaster, biological agents running amuck, responses to the future fuel and water shortages or similar themes . . .

I’ve always quite liked the idea of the animal and plant kingdoms getting their own back on Humankind (See The Furies, Day of the Triffids, the film Them, etc) - so I would be quite receptive to an idea along those lines. No zombies or vampires, though, which have been done to death.

Similarly, I’m open to something based on our dependence on technology in the so-called Information Age. But no cyberspeak gobbledegook, please, and no rehash of Transformers.

I’m sure there’s plenty of material to extrapolate from. Better still, come up with a fresh catastrophe idea, something that has not been explored before but is still close enough to the real world to convince as an extrapolation or a possibility.

Good luck!

Allen

E-mail: editorcatastrophia(at)hotmail.co.uk (replace (at) with @)

A Poem A Day--from Poets & Writers

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Poets & Writers, in conjunction with DailyLit, will post a poem every day throughout April by one of the late, great poets. This online collection offers some of the best-known poems -- together with a few uncommon selections -- for readers who want to rediscover the lasting power of poems by the masters.

The subscription is free, but you must register with your email to read the poems.

The link.