The Writer May 2022

EARLIER THIS YEAR, I VOWED TO reform my reading tracking, which, as longtime readers may remember, previously only existed in a high-tech system called “A Really Long List in an Untitled Draft Email.” No, no, this would not do, I decided. Ten years of helter-skelter lists were enough. It was time to get serious. It was time for a Google Spreadsheet. Oh, what a beautiful color-coded world my read books now live in. There are pie charts for genre, book count by month, and author demographics, to help ensure my reading list looks more like the U.S. census (incredibly diverse!) than the publishing industry (largely white, non-disabled, and straight!). Each time I closed a book for the last time, I flew to the spreadsheet, eager to get that delicious dopamine hit from seeing…

SPRING IS A SEASON OF GROWTH, change, and possibility. What better time to refresh your creative process? Use these tips to declutter your brain, reorganize your approach, and clear space for writing in the months ahead. Clean out your writerly closet With winter gone and summer racing toward us, it’s time to open every drawer, empty the closets, and sort through your goals, perceptions, and process. Take stock of where you are in your creative life at this moment. What’s working well? What’s cluttering your mental space? What tricks, crutches, and excuses do you reach for most often? What parts of your brain do you barely use, and what would help you access them more often? Make a list of ideas or routines you’ve been holding onto that no longer serve you creatively. What…

THE MFA DEGREE, OR MASTER OF Fine Arts degree, in creative writing can be a hot commodity. Those three letters after an author’s name can open doors to publishing and teaching opportunities. But what if a writer lacks the time and the thousands of tuition dollars to enroll in such a program or simply prefers to design a self-paced course of study without the pressure of working toward an official academic degree? Enter DIY MFA. In 2010, New York author Gabriela Pereira founded what she describes as less of a program and more of a virtual experience to assist writers in achieving their literary goals. Many participants show up mid-career, she says; others are retired and eager to write the novel they’ve been dreaming about for years. “We’ve designed everything to be…

Calls for submissions Chicken Soup for the Soul: Holiday stories The editors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series seek contributions about the entire holiday season: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, etc. Payment is $200 and 10 copies of the anthology. Submit by May 1. chickensoup.com december: 2022 Curt Johnson Prose Awards Submit fiction and nonfiction up to 8,000 words for consideration in december magazine’s 2022 Curt Johnson Prose Awards. First-prize winners will receive $1,500 and publication; honorable mentions will receive $500 and publication. No simultaneous submissions, but entrants should receive a response in eight weeks. Submit by May 1. december.submittable.com The Malahat Review: Far Horizons Award for Poetry Poets who have not yet published their poems in book form are eligible to compete for this $1,000 CAD prize. The winning poet will also be published…

CHESTNUT REVIEW TAKES ITS NAME from the stumps of the chestnut trees decimated by blight in North America – stumps that continue to send up baby tree shoots. “Sustaining a creative practice requires that level of tenacity,” editors note on the 3-year-old magazine’s website. They urge writers to submit their best work and to keep submitting until they find the perfect publication for their poetry and prose. Dedicated to supporting writers, the editors at Chestnut Review respond to submissions within 30 days, and they pay for the pieces they publish. They also promote their contributors’ work on various online channels and host quarterly open mic readings to coincide with the publication of each digital issue. Tone, editorial content Managing editor Maria S. Picone and her staff aren’t interested in pieces that express hatred…

AS A WRITER, I FIND THAT FOCUSing on publishing, rather than on the writing process, is a big mistake. I know, that’s easy for me to say now that I’ve published a couple of books and my work has appeared in some cool places, but I swear to you, I have felt this way for a long time. The irony is that, if you focus more on the writing, you’re more likely to get published anyway. I well remember years ago when I got the news that the Science section of the New York Times was going to publish an essay of mine. I had my annual physical that day, and for the first time in my life, my blood pressure was high. That’s how excited I was. There were months…