The Writer

LAST MONTH, I HOPELESSLY FAILED a daily writing challenge. The first 15 days began swimmingly – I wrote every day, reveled in the creative prompts I was given, and felt gloriously proud of the works I’d produced. I felt good. Powerful, even. Each day, I’d sit down for an hour and emerge with a flurry of new pages I felt wondrously excited about. But on the 16th day, I sputtered. On the 17th, I floundered. I flailed and fretted my way through days 18 and 19. On the 20th, I arrived once more at the blank page and found – for the fifth troubling day in a row – there was seemingly nothing in my brain. The well had run dry. I knew full well the culprit for the drought. Life, as it…

FICTION The Hacienda ISABEL CAÑAS Set during the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, this gothic haunted house thriller is billed as “Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca.” “Don’t read this gothic horror right before bedtime, especially if you’re prone to nightmares,” warns Good Housekeeping. (May 3) This Time Tomorrow EMMA STRAUB New York Times bestselling author (and Brooklyn bookstore owner; see page 37) – Emma Straub returns to the summer reading scene with a time-traveling story about a woman who wakes up after her 40th birthday to find she’s reliving her 16th birthday in 1996…and decides to change a few things about her present while she’s visiting the past. “Beneath the layers of ’90s nostalgia and sci-fi portals to the past lies something even more satisfying: a complicated tale that doesn’t feel the slightest bit complicated,”…

IN THE WAKE OF THE COVID-19 PANdemic, authors like myself – who once identified as introverts – found themselves craving the company of like-minded writers off-screen and in person. Fortunately, convention staff across the country have been busily laboring to relaunch multiday events, some of which offer hybrid programming for those who still prefer to remain at home. Speculative author L. Marie Wood, author of The Realm series, believes attending conventions can help speculative fiction writers in numerous ways. “You can sell a few books and gain some exposure that way, but there is so much more involved if you open your mind to it,” she says. “The growth of your network, the topics you can learn about, the opportunities to share your own expertise – these are the things that…

In 1887, The Writer was founded in Boston to instruct, inspire, and encourage working writers. In 2022, it’s returning to its roots by hosting a live event in the historic city in which it was born. On September 17, 2022, 200 attendees will gather at More Than Words Books for hands-on craft instruction, networking and camaraderie, and hard-earned publishing advice. The bookstore, located in Boston’s historic South End, is a nonprofit organization that serves as a job training and development program for system-involved youth. The faculty at this one-day event will include plenty of familiar names to The Writer readers, including Toni Fitzgerald, The Writer’s longtime copy editor and frequent contributor, as well as Yi Shun Lai, “Broadening the Bookshelves” columnist, instructor, and author, who will teach a small-group Fiction Masterclass on…

IN 1926 – IN THE HEYDAY OF THE Harlem Renaissance – Langston Hughes asked Black novelist and playwright Wallace Thurman to edit the first issue of Fire!!, a literary magazine founded to showcase the works of young Black writers and artists. The periodical shut down after one issue, but 90 years later, it inspired FIYAH – a literary magazine devoted to Black speculative writing. Founded by author Troy L. Wiggins, FIYAH spotlights short stories, novelettes, book reviews, essays, and poems by and about Black people of the African diaspora. “We came about after Fireside Fiction’s Black speculative fiction report, which found that only 2% of science fiction and fantasy stories published in the year 2014 were written by Black authors in magazines that pay professional rates for short fiction,” Wiggins explains. This…

Black Annis Books: Horror Black Annis Books seeks feminist horror as well as horror that is socially conscious. “We want your best work that uses elements of horror to explore social and emotional issues in beautiful, terrifying, metaphorical ways,” editors explain. Short stories (1,000 to 10,000 words), flash fiction (up to 1,000 words), poetry (three to five poems), academic articles and book reviews (500 to 7,000 words), and visual art are all welcome. Submit by July 1. pumpernicklehouse.submittable.com Interim: Works in translation Interim seeks translated works for a special issue guest edited by Xiaoqui Qui that is dedicated to translation. Editors seek “translations that are mindful of this intricate balance, for translations that are not afraid of music, or clever transfers of puns, translations that strive to reenact the original in universal language, as…