Resources
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Artificial Intelligence Manifesto at the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, a venerable organization that advocates for authors' rights, issued this manifesto in 2023 to propose limits on the use of generative AI such as ChatGPT. The organization plans to lobby for laws and policies that will protect authors' copyrights, compensate them for the use of their work in training AI data sets, and allow them to opt out of such use, among other safeguards.
Arts and Faith
Discussions of literature, music, visual and performing arts from a spiritual perspective.
Arts Journal: Publishing
A quick way to get up to speed on the major stories.
Arts Writers Grant Program
The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program supports individual writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through grants in the following categories: articles, blogs, books, new and alternative media, and short-form writing. Grants range from $3,000 to $50,000 depending on the needs and scope of the project. Application deadline is typically in early June.
Artvee
Artvee offers free, downloadable, high-res images of public domain art from museums around the world. Great for book covers.
As If Gravity Were a Theory
Winner of the 2005 Cider Press Review Book Award, this first collection limns the wonders and losses of everyday life with clarity, compassion and a deceptive simplicity that is the distilled product of wisdom. Admirers of Douglas Goetsch and Wislawa Szymborska may find Colburn's poetic voice especially resonates with them.
ASBPE Editorial/Magazine Publishing Resources
The American Society of Business Publication Editors' website offers this extensive page of links for journalists, including trade associations, reference sites, job markets and legal basics.
ASCAP Resource Guide to Songwriting Competitions
ASCAP, the rights management agency for songwriters and recording artists, maintains this link directory. (Although we assume that contests listed here are more likely to be reputable, writers should still research each contest online before entering.)
Asian American Literary Review
In showcasing the work of established and emerging writers, AALR aims to incubate dialogues and, just as importantly, open those dialogues to regional, national, and international audiences of all constituencies. They select work that is, as Marianne Moore once put it, "an expression of our needs...[and] feeling, modified by the writer's moral and technical insights." Published biannually, AALR features fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, comic art, interviews, and book reviews.
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
AAWW sponsors the annual Asian American Literary Awards Ceremony to recognize outstanding literary works by Americans of Asian descent. Their reading room contains notable works of Asian American literature through the decades.
Association of University Presses Subject Area Grid
The Association of University Presses maintains this annually updated list, free to download, of member presses' special interests in particular genres and topics. If you're considering a university press for your poetry or literary prose book, this guide will help you target the right ones.
At First Light
...greater is He that is in you.... [1 John 4:4]
Half-past five. I am wan and waste.
Destruction clutches
hard beneath these ribs and brows.
Before the sheets are first thrown off,
passions resurrect that nurtured
in the day now past, pestered
on the breaths of night. I mourn
near certain sin in this new day,
yet try to snuff the spark that whispers
Peace, be still.
Please ...
Dew the deserts, salve the stings,
fill this pardoned purgator.
Kindle fresh your resurrection,
warm like anthracite inside.
Bend my spirit's steel
by your holy brawn and brooding.
Guide me with your strong hands,
since I fear that more astrays will come.
Draw near, sweet guest.
Transform my thorns that should be fruit,
Fill me for another day,
that I might not grieve you
even once.
Copyright 2005 by John Alexanderson
Critique by Jendi Reiter
This month's critique poem, John Alexanderson's "At First Light," caught my attention because of its economical yet densely textured language, and its continuity with the tradition of classic Christian poetry. The tone and theme recollect 17th-century metaphysical poets such as George Herbert, while the style pays homage to Gerard Manley Hopkins' delight in word sounds, adapted to a more modern idiom.
In the opening stanza, Alexanderson uses alliteration and assonance to intensify the sound of his words, lifting them beyond mere prose. We hear a dark harmony in the clenched sound of "destruction" and "clutches," the grinding "R" of hard/ribs/brows. The slightly old-fashioned vocabulary ("wan and waste") also signals that the author is introducing a subject of more than everyday importance. In a more overwritten poem, such language might seem affected, but Alexanderson skirts that trap by using simple, short sentences that maintain the natural and direct style we expect from contemporary verse.
The second stanza concisely lays out the universal dilemma that torments the narrator. Returning to himself from sleep, he sees himself as the flawed element that will spoil the gift of the new day just as he did before. How soon the passions that seemed to "nurture" in the morning turned pestilent before evening!
The heart of his problem is that he simultaneously desires and shuns God's transforming power: "I mourn/near certain sin in this new day,/yet try to snuff the spark that whispers/Peace, be still." The apostle Paul expressed a similar sentiment in Romans 7:18-19: "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing."
After catching his breath on a stanza break, the narrator gasps out only "Please...." In the release that follows this prayer, cascades of words tumble out, sped by alliteration: "Dew the deserts, salve the stings,/fill this pardoned purgator." Alexanderson channels the voice of Hopkins in the wonderful lines, "Bend my spirit's steel/by your holy brawn and brooding." I loved that unusual, melodious pairing of male and female, forceful and nurturing, with its echoes of Hopkins' "Holy Ghost [that] over the bent/World broods" (from the poem "God's Grandeur").
The combination of tender intimacy and humble formality in "Draw near, sweet guest" reminded me of Herbert poems such as "Love Bade Me Welcome". Because the power to be good comes from God and not himself, the speaker dares to ask what first seemed impossible: "that I might not grieve you/even once." Instead of looking inward with despair at his own faults, he looks outward with hope in his relationship with God.
Where could this poem be submitted? There are a growing number of excellent literary journals with spiritual themes, which I've recommended before in these pages. Publications to investigate include Windhover, Literature and Belief and Image. I support the mission of these journals, but I also encourage writers of spiritually oriented poetry to explore "mainstream" publication outlets, so as to open up new channels for dialogue between the religious and artistic subcultures. These upcoming contests may also be of interest:
Greensboro Review Literary Awards
Postmark Deadline: September 15
http://greensbororeview.org/contest/
$500 in each category (poetry and fiction); no simultaneous submissions, but unlimited free entries allowed
This poem and critique appeared in the August 2005 issue of Winning Writers Newsletter.
At Meiji Shrine
By Rick Lupert
Long path from train
through gates, large like trees
A sea of umbrellas come
to visit the enshrined souls of
Emperor Meiji and his consort
the empress.
We wash hands
ritually like before a Jewish meal.
We bow and clap.
We drop coins in box.
People hang votive wood notes
like prayers in a Western Wall.
This is not an ancient place
But it is quiet like history.
Until young boy with his
bird sounds video game
forces us to move to a
more quiet corner.
The soul of the emperor
is broken up by rain drops.
We take him away in our wet clothes.
Attack of The Saurus
By John Reinhart
The dictionaries cower in fear
while the complete Shakespeare
runs for cover behind the less nimble
classical texts in Greek.
Modern poetry babbles incoherently,
even the no nonsense nonfiction
was unprepared for this rabid
assault, attack, barrage, battle, battery,
charge, duel, fight, fracas, joust,
melee, offensive, onslaught, siege,
from the previously, until now, earlier,
erstwhile friendly, content, happy,
nice, passive, pleasant, polite, tame,
timid thesaurus.
Audio Archives from the Academy of American Poets
Beginning with John Berryman's historic first reading of The Dream Songs on Halloween night, 1963, the Academy of American Poets has presented and recorded over 700 poetry readings, lectures, and symposia, making the Poetry Audio Archive one the world's richest aural records of poetry. You can search for audio clips by author or poem title, or browse the most popular selections. See their online store for poetry CDs to purchase.
Auroras & Blossoms
Launched in 2019, Auroras & Blossoms is dedicated to promoting positive, uplifting, and inspirational art and creativity. They accept short stories, flash fiction, essays, drawings, paintings, photography, and digital art. As a family-friendly platform, they want work with no swear words, dirty words, politics or erotica. Payment (adults only): ongoing royalties and complimentary copy of publication. No simultaneous submissions. Reprints are eligible if you own the rights. There is no submission fee as of 2023, but they require a small donation if you would like a digital copy of the issue where your work appears.
Austin Kleon’s Writing Newsletter
Writer and illustrator Austin Kleon is the bestselling author of the creativity guide Steal Like an Artist and other books. His free weekly e-newsletter (archived on his website) features 10 links to writing, art, and other media that he finds worthwhile and relevant to the moment. An example of Kleon's playful, down-to-earth writing advice: "When I am beginning a new project, I often ask myself, 'What's something you despise in the culture that you wish were otherwise?' and I go from there."
Author Level Up
Michael La Ronn is a prolific self-published science fiction and fantasy author. His website is updated weekly with videos that share his best advice on writing, publishing, and marketing. We liked his 12-minute spiel on "How to BEAT Self-Doubt as a Writer".
Author Media
Author Media features product reviews, marketing tips, and technical advice for selling your books. Their offerings include the Novel Marketing Podcast.
Author Solutions and Friends: The Inside Story
This 2015 article from self-publishing expert David Gaughran's blog "Let's Get Digital" exposes the deceptive marketing practices of Author Solutions and its questionable partnerships with major publishing houses. Author Solutions is the umbrella company for several well-known self-publishing imprints such as iUniverse, Trafford, AuthorHouse, and Xlibris. According to allegations in a pending class-action suit: "Author Solutions operates more like a telemarketing company whose customer base is the Authors themselves. In other words, unlike a traditional publisher, Author Solutions makes money from its Authors, not for them. It does so by selling books back to its Authors, not to a general readership, and by selling its Authors expensive publishing, editing, and marketing services that are effectively worthless."
Author’s Guide to Agency Agreements
This 2017 article on the Authors' Guild website discusses the provisions that should be included in author-agent contracts and what they mean.
Author’s Republic
Author's Republic is a platform for creating and distributing audiobooks. They support books in a variety of formats, including Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. You can create the book through them, using one of the narrators from their curated roster, or upload your already-created audio files for them to format and distribute to a variety of sales channels.
Authors Access
This site features free downloadable podcasts of interviews with people around the world who can help authors better manage their writing careers. Popular guests have included Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of 'The Frugal Book Promoter'; Jo Virgil, a community relations manager for Barnes & Noble; and publicist Maryglenn McCombs.
Authors Alliance Fair Use Guidebook
"Fair use" is the legal principle that determines how much of a copyrighted work can be quoted without a license. The Authors Alliance offers this free online guide to fair use for nonfiction writers, covering common scenarios and their legal resolution.
AuthorsPublish List of 35 Literary Journals Accepting Translations
Writing resource site AuthorsPublish compiled this list in 2023 of three dozen reputable magazines that are open to English translations of poetry, fiction, or essays. The list includes science fiction, mystery, and horror magazines as well as literary journals.
AuthorsPublish List of Journals Open to Publishing Reprints
Writing resource site AuthorsPublish compiled this list, current as of Spring 2023, of 26 journals that accept previously published poetry, fiction, or essays. Some are magazines with a specific theme, like speculative fiction, while others are general-interest.
AuthorsPublish List of No-Fee Poetry Manuscript Publishers
This list compiled by Emily Harstone at AuthorsPublish features 80+ publishers that do not charge reading fees to consider poetry manuscript submissions. Among them are major British presses like Carcanet and Faber & Faber, as well as reputable American literary publishers like Able Muse Press, Damaged Goods Press, Milkweed Editions, and Persea Books.
Autistic Representation and Real-Life Consequences
Disability in Kidlit is a multi-author blog that reviews portrayals of disability in books for children and young adults. In this 2015 essay, speculative fiction author Elizabeth Bartmess surveys common stereotypes and limiting depictions of autistic children in fiction, and how they contribute to mistreatment in the real world. This piece is a must-read for fiction writers in all genres who are developing a neurodiverse cast of characters.
Autumn Fire
By Linda Principe
Autumn fire
these trees in a row
like flaming candles against the blue.
Fall is a feeling,
not unlike the setting sun;
the most beautiful kind of dying.
They know, these trees,
about borrowed time,
that brazen, courageous orange,
a last stand against the onslaught of wind
that will strip them to skeletons,
their death no more merciful
than anyone else's.
Every year, for weeks,
they move from flicker to flame,
to autumn fire,
time the accelerant that reduces them
to embers on the grass
strewn about like pages
from books we barely remember,
though we know how the story ends.
Avantacular Press
This virtual press edited by Andrew Topel publishes e-chapbooks of visual poetry, a form that combines text with abstract art and other images. Email submissions to andrewtopel@hotmail.com.
Avoiding Literary Agency Scams
Warning signs include agents who advertise too aggressively for new clients, or gather most of their fees from the writer rather than the publisher.
Avoiding Scams in Agent-Curated Self-Publishing
This article from David Gaughran's self-publishing blog "Let's Get Digital" warns about overpriced intermediaries.
Award-Winning Tales
This enjoyable collection of short fiction in the Western genre features the top stories from the Cowboy Up contest sponsored by Moonlight Mesa Associates. The book includes adventure tales, humor, and romance, in settings both modern and historical.
AWE
Marrying surrealism to a childlike matter-of-factness, in a voice reminiscent of Gertrude Stein, these poems convey the delight and bafflement of having "your mind...whipped by the large whisk of God."
Awful Library Books
Michigan librarians Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner created this humorous blog to defend the necessary but controversial process of culling the library's collection to make room for new titles. Their motto: "Hoarding is not collection development." Some classics destined for the pulp mill include God, the Rod, and Your Child's Bod: The Art of Loving Correction for Christian Parents; Nazis in the Woodpile; Children's Head Injury: Who Cares?; and Eat Your Troubles Away.
Bad Bad
In this unique offering from Fence Books, the author indulges her passion for the textures of language (and clothing), while poking fun at the pretensions of the academic poetry scene. Adopting the persona of a naughty little girl, the speaker of this book deflects criticism by flaunting her frivolity, yet at the same time secretly hopes to impress everyone with her cleverness. The pleasures of this book (particularly its 68 "prefaces") compensate for some repetitive passages.
Bad Poets, a short essay by Randall Jarrell
Mr. Jarrell (1914-1965) was a leading American poet and critic. These are his blunt yet compassionate reflections on judging badly written poetry.
Badilisha Poetry X-Change
Badilisha Poetry X-Change is both an online audio archive and a Pan-African poetry show delivered in radio format. Now the world's largest online collective of African poets, Badilisha features over 350 poets from two dozen countries. The project aims to introduce African readers to the best contemporary and classic work from their continent, bringing together literary cultures that had been isolated from one another by colonialism and language barriers.
Badlands
They accept submissions of original and translated poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction in English and Spanish, as well as artwork. In addition to general-interest submissions, the journal is currently seeking work by combat veterans of the US Armed Forces, for inclusion in several upcoming feature sections showcasing work by veterans. Include cover page with contact info, word and page count, title and genre of work, and brief bio (50 words). Do not include name in actual submission as works are read blind. Files should be in doc, docx or pdf format. See website for online submissions form.
Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature
The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature at the University of Florida offers 7,000 children's books to read online or download for free, spanning the 19th century to the 1950s.
Ballad of the Arthur and Edith Lee House
By Yvonne
Like an itty-bitty dollhouse.
Made of pretty, white wood.
Happy green grass in front and back.
Cozy and still it stood.
Some say it came right out the box.
Right off a train from Sears.
It came from heaven Mama sang,
An answer to our prayers.
Papa checked the basement and roof.
The windows, doors, and stairs.
Then he nodded his head and winked,
Mama's eyes bright with tears.
We came in a big friendly truck.
Truck full of old and new.
Beds, chairs, tables, lamps and dishes.
We thought the sky smiled blue.
That night we heard a far rumble.
We thought it came from dreams.
Next morning flung at our doorstep:
"Get out!" "No colored!" Screams.
"Fighting in France, who moved me out the mud?
"I will make this house, my home." Papa said.
All day the sidewalk grumbled
A storm up from the ground
Building a wall of angry fear
White faces all around.
Somebody said, "Think of your kid.
And wife. Let's make a deal."
Hundreds more cash—than Papa paid.
"Our buy-back price, your steal."
All night the neighborhood trembled
Earthquake's defiant fear.
Next day the crowd swelled like a flood.
Not one cop, far and near.
"Colored boy don't want our buy-back?
Where's the government?"
Somebody picked up mud and rocks.
Somebody, excrement.
Inside we huddled with friends.
Our first lawyer talked and talked.
Up on our lawn, up three front steps
The loud mob walked and gawked.
"Nobody moves me out. Alive or dead.
Not at war in France. Not home." Papa said.
Who called again law and order?
"No! Burn it down! It's done!"
"Let's make a deal" somebody said.
Lord! Who said, "Here's my gun."?
Round and round, back and forth, the mob
Blazed and sputtered for days.
The world deaf, dumb, and blind because
The press shuttered its gaze.
Then on the 15th of July
The press uncorked that choke.
Home Stoned in Race Row! Mob Mauls Cop!
The gates of hell just broke.
Three Thousand Renew Their Attack!
From miles and miles they came
Like a lynching or a witch-burning
Clogging streets without shame.
Then a prim Amazon of the law
Hammered her gavel down
"My client has nothing to trade,
Barter or sell. It's done."
"I have a right to establish a home." Papa said.
What Papa said, he did. Yes, he did. Yes, he did.
What Papa said, he did.
Reprinted by permission from HOME: an anthology of Minnesota Fiction, Memoir, and Poetry (Flexible Press, 2020).
The Arthur & Edith Lee House at 4600 Columbus Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN was the center of an urban riot in the summer of 1931. The Lee Family stayed in their home until the autumn of 1933. During that time, they slept in the basement, and their daughter Mary was escorted to kindergarten by the police. Their house is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the home of their attorney, Lena Olive Smith, a female pioneer of African American civil rights.
Balloons Lit. Journal
Balloons Lit. Journal is an English-language online journal based in Hong Kong that publishes creative writing and art for readers aged 12-16. BLJ particularly invites submissions from schoolteachers familiar with this age group. Editors say, "We prefer something that is surprising, explosive, unforgettable, extraordinary, mind-blowing, humorous, bold, unique, layered, witty, educational, original." Read back issues on the website to see their taste.
Banipal: Magazine of Modern Arab Literature
Founded in 1998 in the UK, Banipal is a thrice-yearly magazine featuring English translations of poems, short stories, and novel excerpts by established and emerging Arab writers worldwide. Banipal also publishes book reviews and interviews with authors, publishers, and translators.
Barbara Lefcowitz
Barbara Lefcowitz (2935-2015) wrote 10 books of poems and lyrical essays on themes from nature, spirituality, and the body.
Barbie at 50
Jendi Reiter's second award-winning chapbook won the 2010 Cervena Barva Press Poetry Contest. Notable poet Afaa Michael Weaver calls this collection "poems of a life more real than any doll's, as they point up the grace of having confronted the problematic entanglements that attempt to derail a woman making her way through the puzzles of maturing in the last fifty years." Experienced editor Lori Desrosiers calls it "an inventive re-imagining of the fairytale woman...replete with surprise and peppered with humor."
Barely Breathing
Also known as the artist Tom Taylor, Spiel has written several books that provide material for this powerful collection of new and selected poems. With tough-guy bluntness, a wicked sense of humor, and a haiku-like economy of words, Spiel sketches characters so real you can smell their sweat: traumatized vets, greedy Americans, aging couples hanging on to love despite memory loss, one-night stands picked up in roughneck bars. This is queer poetry without aesthetic preciousness or airbrushed bodies.
Barking Sycamores
Launched in 2014, the online literary journal Barking Sycamores publishes poetry by writers on the autism spectrum, and essays on autism's interplay with the creative process. Editors say, "Barking Sycamores supports the concept of neurodiversity: in short, the idea that autism and related conditions are valid neurological ways of being that are the result of normal variations in the human genome as opposed to pathologies which need to be cured." No simultaneous submissions or previously published work. See submissions guidelines page to learn about their philosophy before entering.
Barnes & Noble Press
This free program allows you to self-publish your books in print and for B&N's Nook e-reader and compatible devices. The site takes a percentage of sales.
Barrelhouse
Launched in 2004, Barrelhouse is a print and online journal that bridges pop culture and literary writing. Fans of McSweeney's and George Saunders will appreciate Barrelhouse's offbeat recombination of cultural "flotsam and jetsam". Affiliated ventures include publishing imprint Barrelhouse Books and the Barrelhouse Amplifier, a $1,500 award for independent literary magazines/websites and small presses (no application fee).
Baseball Bard
Baseball Bard is an organization that connects poets and writers who follow baseball with baseball fans who enjoy poetry and literature. The aim is to intensify the enjoyment of baseball by presenting it in a new and exciting way. Baseball fans will enjoy writing that captures the essence of the game in elevated, but easily accessible language. Poets will get new opportunities for publication and special recognition. Baseball Bard's two primary tasks are the maintenance of the Baseball Bard Website and the publication of Baseball Bard, an annual book (printed and digital) featuring the year's best poetry and verse on the subject of baseball.
