Resources
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Disability in Kidlit
Disability in Kidlit is a multi-author website dedicated to discussing and improving the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature. They publish critical essays, reviews, and interviews. Their goals are to help readers, editors, and libraries find books with accurate and respectful treatment of disability, and to educate writers and editors about problematic portrayals. All contributors and editors identify as disabled.
Disability Writes
Online forum for disabled writers to post poetry, fiction and articles, and receive feedback and news of writing opportunities. Website is managed by Just Services, with funding from Arts Council England.
Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space
By Amanda Leduc. A hybrid of memoir and literary criticism, this important and engaging book challenges us, as writers, readers, and myth-makers, to resist the habitual misuse of disability as a symbol of tragedy or villainy. Canadian novelist Leduc interweaves her thesis with personal memories of growing up with cerebral palsy and interviews with modern disability activists.
Dispoet
Insightful blog about poetry and disability includes brief reviews and discussions of contemporary poets writing about the subject (Floyd Skloot, Jim Ferris and others), plus contests and resources.
Diverse BookFinder
Diverse BookFinder is a searchable collection of children's picture books with characters who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Books can be requested from DBF by inter-library loan. DBF strives to collect all books in this category that have been released by trade publishers since 2002, in order to track publishing trends and encourage conversations about improving representation. This is not a "recommended books" archive. They accept donations of eligible self-published books, as they do not have the resources to find all qualifying books on their own. Other website features include an archive of author interviews, topical groupings (e.g. books on intercultural friendships), and articles on curating and teaching from a diverse book collection.
Diversity Style Guide
The Diversity Style Guide is a resource to help journalists and other media professionals cover a complex, multicultural world with accuracy, authority, and sensitivity. This guide, a project of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University, brings together definitions and information from more than two dozen style guides, journalism organizations, and other resources.
Divining Bones
By Charlie Bondhus. This third collection from an award-winning poet stakes its territory in the liminal spaces between male and female, fairy-tale and horror, the archetypal struggle in the psyche and the mundane (but no less dangerous) conflicts of domestic life. The presiding deity of this shadow realm is Baba Yaga, the child-eating forest witch of Eastern European folklore, who guides the narrator to embrace traits rejected by mainstream gay culture. Aging, emasculation, and the grotesque lose their stigma and become sources of transgressive power.
Djelloul Marbrook
Award-winning poet and journalist's weblog features essays on contemporary poets, contextualized with reflections on politics and culture.
DL Shirey’s Short List
Fiction writer DL Shirey curates this list of journals that publish short fiction and nonfiction, sorted by length, from publications for 50-word micros on up.
DMQ Virtual Salon
Online literary journal DMQ Review began their Virtual Salon in 2020 when in-person poetry readings were cancelled due to the pandemic. Each month they publish three videos of contemporary poets, most of them former DMQ contributors or editors, reading from their new books. Featured authors have included Nin Andrews, JP Dancing Bear, Meg Eden, Christopher Salerno, and W. Todd Kaneko.
Do Daily Deal Services Work?
In this 2017 article at Writer Unboxed, Laura Heffernan, self-published author of the romantic comedy novels America's Next Reality Star and Sweet Reality, compares sales figures and Amazon rankings from 19 "daily deal" sites where she advertised her 99-cent e-book sale.
Do You Think Your Father
By Lesléa Newman
DO YOU THINK YOUR FATHER
would take me to the theatre?"
A woman pulls me towards her,
her pointed red nails digging
into the doughy flesh of my bare
upper arm. It is a hot August
afternoon, made hotter still
by the heat of the oven
which I have just opened
to take out a pan of kugel
a neighbor brought by and needed
to be warmed. How did I wind up
alone in the kitchen with this
woman who does not look unlike
my mother? Styled and stiff
thinning brown hair dried out
from too many years of dyeing,
lipstick two shades too dark,
forehead lined like notebook paper
hope springing eternal
in her made-up myopic eyes.
I drop the metal pan of food
on the counter with a clatter,
open a drawer near the sink
and lift my mother's gleaming
kitchen knife. What is this woman's
name? Edna, Edith, Estelle,
Esther! A woman my mother used
to play canasta with and never
particularly liked. "She cheats,"
my mother told me on a scorching
afternoon not that long ago.
"She picks out all the cashews
in the bridge mix. And she has eyes
for your father." I cut the kugel
into even, sharp-edged squares
missing my even sharper-edged mother
who would curl her lip and shoot
me a silent "I told you so" look
to hear Esther ask me if my father
would take her to the theatre
the very afternoon after
the morning of my mother's funeral.
Documatica Forms: Publishing & Copyright Agreement
Online store for legal forms offers this simple publishing contract for free.
Dodge Poetry Festival YouTube Channel
This YouTube channel features videos of readings and performances from the renowned Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, held biennially since 1986 in northern New Jersey.
Does Poetry Matter? an essay by William Waltz
Prizewinning poet William Waltz investigates why there are more writers than readers of poetry. Today's highbrow poets, he ventures, should plumb their playful side. "Despite the messy state of affairs today, the poetry world is primed for (and maybe on the verge of) a roaring comeback. And, although many poets seem content to write poems that only connoisseurs and mothers could love, a growing populist movement seems bent on dragging poetry back into the mainstream."
Domestic Enchantment
By Reena Ribalow
Some spells turn a prince into a frog,
some tame wild girl to wife,
conjure mother out of woman,
tranced by cooking, tending, laundry.
Swaying from their pegs the colored clothes
are dazzling as the wings of
subjugated butterflies.
Sun scents the air with opiate of soap;
captivity subdues the blood like sleep,
with cleanly, sweet,
obliterating peace.
The kitchen table is set
with the artifacts of enchantment:
a jug of flowers upon a blue-checked cloth,
white mugs, a fresh-baked cake.
She herself prepared the potion,
self-bewitched,
the recipe her mother's song,
sung before memory.
A cup of flour, two eggs,
a handful of the magic
that fetters sense and soul:
that gilds the room the gold
of an imagined sun:
that heats her veins
like the tea which steams
from teapots,
with the smoke of dreams.
Don Dreams and I Dream
By Leah Umansky. Inspired by the hit TV drama "Mad Men", this chapbook captures the show's lingering atmosphere of cigarette smoke, perfume, and unfulfilled dreams. Rather than recapping events from the series, the subject of these poems is the cultural ambience of the 1960s advertising agency and the America it created. Catchphrases, images, and snippets of dialogue are layered atop one another like the collage of peppy poster girls and noir silhouettes in the show’s opening credits. Umansky understands that "Mad Men" is fundamentally about how our identities are constructed by what we desire. And what we desire–such is the promise of advertising–links us to whom we desire.
Don Schaeffer
Blog offers concise and thought-provoking lyric meditations
Don’t Call Us Dead
By Danez Smith. "Every day is a funeral & a miracle" in this award-winning poet and performance artist's second collection, a defiant record of life as a black gay man under the twin shadows of police violence and HIV. The pervasive image of blood links these poems and the boys, alive and dead, for whom Smith speaks: blood as kinship, as bearer of the memory of dangerous intimacy, as evidence of murders that white America wants to wipe away. Smith's honors include a Lambda Literary Award and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.
Don’t Know Tough
By Eli Cranor. This heart-wrenching novel limns American toxic masculinity and small-town desperation. Billy Lowe is a small-town Arkansas football star who's only ever known abuse and poverty. His response to everything is violence, but deep down he wants to be a better person. His Coach thinks of himself as a heroic Christian mentor, but when it comes down to it, his savior complex and selfishness get in the way. Coach's daughter is the one who actually understands the meaning of sacrificial compassion. She not only sees Billy's innocent soul but is willing to share his stigmatized and dangerous existence in order to reach him. Their unlikely friendship revolves around literature. If anything can give Billy the self-awareness to break intergenerational patterns, it might be a book.
Don’t Make Violence and Abuse Just Another Plot Device in Your Novel
Rene Denfeld is the bestselling author of the novels The Child Finder and The Enchanted, as well as a journalist, nonfiction author, and death penalty investigator. In this 2017 essay at LitHub, she discusses how to depict sexual violence and trauma responsibly, from a perspective that humanizes victims and restores their agency, rather than exploiting and objectifying them.
Dora McQuaid
Poet, spoken-word artist, and activist.
Dora McQuaid
Poet, spoken-word artist, and activist Dora McQuaid raises awareness about domestic violence, child abuse, prisoners' rights, and other social justice issues.
Doubleback Review
Doubleback Review is a project of Sundress Publications, the literary press that sponsors the annual Best of the Net Awards. Doubleback Review specializes in pieces of any genre that were published by a journal that subsequently became defunct. Entries are accepted year-round for two issues to be published in April and October. Submissions are free. Writers from traditionally marginalized communities are particularly encouraged to submit their work. Managing Editor Krista Cox says, "In a churn and burn culture, to revisit and reflect is a luxury. Doubleback Review wants to hit the pause button on art that may slip from the public's eye (and therefore lose its potential for connection). It wants to resurrect your retired darlings, your dead art, your beautiful zombies—pieces that, like rare and precious artifacts, are worth dusting off, airing out, and putting out on display. Let Doubleback's talented team of editors help you recirculate your valuable relics, and offer them one more triumphant day in the sun."
Down the Hall
By Jennifer Davis Michael
I am going down the hall
in my childhood house.
Our father has summoned
my brother and me.
It feels like a dream, and not.
The hall seems shorter,
ceilings lower.
I let my brother go first,
though I was first. We pass
his bedroom door, then mine,
the photos in their frames.
At the end is our father's bed.
He has things to say,
not the last things, not yet,
and yet the movement feels
like last, and first,
down the hall,
a narrowing space.
I will be here again,
and soon.
Down the hall.
My father calls.
Dr. Mardy’s Dictionary of Metaphorical Quotations
This alphabetized online compendium of nearly 50,000 quotations on 2,500 topics is the work of Dr. Mardy Grothe, author of literary reference books on metaphors, oxymorons, and other rhetorical devices.
Draftable
Draftable software lets you compare two versions of MS Word, PDF, Excel, or PowerPoint documents, so you can easily see the edits and changes you made. See a free demo by uploading sample text to their website.
Dream of Things
Founded in 2009, Dream of Things publishes anthologies of creative nonfiction on a variety of themes: stories of forgiveness, coffee shop stories, travel writing, life in the modern workplace, Internet dating, and others. Their first anthology was 'Saying Goodbye', released in October 2010. Their books seek to fill the gap between popular anthologies that publish stories that are "short and sweet" (sometimes so saccharine-sweet they are hard to swallow), and the Best American Essays series, which are typically quite a bit longer. The goal for Dream of Things anthologies is to publish writing that is not short and sweet, but short and deep. The result is stories that are easier to swallow because they are authentic, and easier to digest because they average 1,250 words in length. See website for submission guidelines and special offers.
Dream Voices: Siegfried Sassoon, Memory and War
Online slideshow of the World War I poet's correspondence, drawings, and poems from the front, selected from the Cambridge University Library exhibit of his personal papers (open through December 23, 2010). The 5-minute video narrated by curator John Wells includes a discussion of how Sassoon's anti-war views evolved.
Dress Rehearsal
By Diana Anhalt
After 48 years together—Or is it 49?— the eventual
becomes inevitable. And I must teach you the secrets
of the pressure cooker, to sun-dry the sheets, water
the dahlias, and introduce you to a good woman, Anne,
perhaps, without arousing your suspicions.
Did you know mustard eases leg cramps?
A pinch of salt helps water boil? Toothpaste
takes the itch out of mosquito bites?
I won't tell you that someday—not long from now—
we'll become one with wind-blown silence, taste
of grass. I will tell you the password for my email,
and place the Christmas card list—grown shorter
every year—on your computer.
You'll need to know I hide spare keys inside
old shoes. You'll find my obit in the pocket
of your winter coat.
Duane L. Herrmann
Duane L. Herrmann is an American prairie poet based in rural Kansas. His books include the poetry collection Prairies of Possibilities and the historical work By Thy Strengthening Grace, published in 2006 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Topeka Baha'i community.
Duotrope’s Digest (Markets for Writers)
Free searchable database of over 875 print and online periodicals that publish fiction and poetry. Profiles can be sorted by genre, submission policies, pay scale and more. Mainly for fiction writers, but poets will also find it useful. (Search for poetry markets in the "length" field, not "genre".) Unlike many link directories, this site is updated daily and fact-checked every week. You can sign up for their Weekly Wire e-newsletter to receive new listings in your inbox.
Duotrope’s Digest: Editor Interviews
Duotrope's Digest, a directory of literary magazine submission guidelines, includes this extensive archive of brief and informative interviews with magazine editors about the unique characteristics of their publication. Featured journals range from heavy hitters (American Poetry Journal, Bellingham Review) to the quirky and obscure (Untied Shoelaces of the Mind).
Dusty Pearl
I wrestle with the shadows,
Wearing faces of those
Born before me,
Wielding the sword
Of repetitious sorrows.
And in the gamble
Of blind ambition,
I search wisdom
To understand,
How a grain of sand
Holds a sea of pearls.
I hunger for a love
That shines...
A child of captivity,
I hold the hem
Of a garment,
Passed through the ages.
I wear the dusty coat
Of choices made,
Tired and gray
Because it fit.
I seize the floating bits
That tease the light,
As dust returns to dust.
The kiss of Judas clothes me
In golden robes of fools
And crowns of tarnished silver,
Holding ransom
My simmering unrest,
Where blood runs on empty
Just under the skin.
In my search
To fill the depths,
I am blinded by the sand
In my eyes,
To the pearls
Lying in the expanse,
Of Him Who sees,
One in the other
It is His Will
To free the spirit,
And fill the void,
Building up
My sand foundation
Layer by layer,
Luster to luster,
Reflecting His vision
For me
In His eyes.
Copyright 2004 by Ellen Morgan
Critique by Jendi Reiter
This month's critique poem, "Dusty Pearl" by Ellen Morgan, caught my attention because of the many meanings it teases from a single metaphor. Though in a modern style, this piece recalls 17th-century metaphysical poets such as George Herbert and Henry Vaughan, who would build a complex theological argument around a central image such as a storm, a waterfall or a banquet.
"Dusty Pearl" presents a dialogue between two sets of images, corresponding to the speaker's imprisonment in destructive behavior patterns and her hope of transformation through God's love. The theme of heredity is set up by the title, which might suggest an heirloom long forgotten in the attic. We first encounter the speaker entangled in a conflict that seems to have no beginning and no end: "Wearing faces of those/Born before me,/Wielding the sword/Of repetitious sorrows." Those lines capture what it feels like to be trapped in family dysfunction, doomed to become both victim and perpetrator, down through the generations. "I wear the dusty coat/Of choices made,/Tired and gray/Because it fit." This garment, so worn and inferior, is chosen again and again out of habit, not because it is the best.
Contrasted to this coat is "the hem/Of a garment,/Passed through the ages." The speaker clings to this garment as salvation from her captivity. These lines recall the sick woman who was healed by touching Jesus' cloak in Luke 8:44.
Later in the poem, Morgan develops the metaphor further, by mentioning the false finery in which "the kiss of Judas" clothes the speaker. This might refer to the purple robe and crown of thorns in which the Roman soldiers clothed Jesus to mock his claim of kingship, a reading supported by the poem's overall concern with humiliation and the search for self-worth through faith in God.
The central metaphor of the pearl also has biblical resonance. In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a treasure hidden in a field, and then to a pearl of great price. In both parables, the protagonist sells everything he has in order to obtain the treasure or the pearl, but the precious thing itself takes effort to find.
Similarly, in this poem, the pearl of God's love is worth more than all of the world's withheld approval. However, the speaker must search for it amid the concealing sands of her own doubts and temptations. "In my search/To fill the depths/I am blinded by the sand/In my eyes," she confesses. What is the sand? It could be the dust of impermanent pleasures; the myriad irritations and worthless distractions of life; or the "blind ambition" that makes her erect a self on a "sand foundation."
But God turns this despised material into something precious. The grain of sand is the necessary irritant that prompts the oyster to create the pearl "Layer by layer,/Luster to luster." The promise of this transformation lends a hopeful gloss to images, such as the garment and the sand, that started out as symbols of spiritual bondage.
The one thing I would change about this poem is the stanza that begins "Holding ransom". While these four lines contain striking images, I wasn't sure how they fit with one another or with the poem's general argument. "Held ransom by my simmering unrest" would make more sense, since the unrest seems more like the obstacle than the victim. "Running on empty" is also such a familiar phrase that it weakens the impact of the line.
Where could a poem like "Dusty Pearl" be submitted? As I've noted before in this space, mainstream literary journals aren't always receptive to such traditional Christian verse. However, there are several quality journals that endeavor to bridge the gap between the language of faith and the world of modern poetry. See their websites for submission periods and guidelines:
Ancient Paths Christian Literary Magazine
Submit during October-April
First Things: The Journal of Religion, Culture & Public Life
Conservative Catholic intellectual monthly. Publishes 1-3 poems per issue
We would also recommend the following contests for this poem:
Soul-Making Literary Competition
Postmark Deadline: November 30
Poetry and prose contest for "personal writings that illumine the search for the sacred and the spirit"
Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Annual Poetry Prizes
Entries must be received by December 10 (changed to November 6 in 2006)
New contest seeks shorter lyric poems "celebrating the spirit of life"
Chistell Writing Contest
Postmark Deadline: February 28
Contest for unpublished writers, from a small press focusing on women's and African-American literature. Free to enter
This poem and critique appeared in the November 2004 issue of Winning Writers Newsletter (subscribe free).
DutchCulture/TransArtists
The website TransArtists posts listings of artist-in-residence programs from around the world. There are opportunities for writers, performers, visual artists, graphic designers, fashion and applied arts practitioners, and more. It is a project of DutchCulture, an Amsterdam-based center for international cooperation.
E-book Design Tips from Podia
This article from 2020 gives a user-friendly overview of design principles to make e-books more readable and engaging, from font choice to graphic and multimedia elements. Author Cyn Meyer is a content marketer for Podia, a platform for creating online courses, digital downloads, and membership websites.
Earth Abides
A classic in science fiction's end-of-the-world genre. As much wisdom about philosophy and society as you'll find anywhere, all in a gripping novel that never flags.
East Jasmine Review
East Jasmine Review is an online literary journal whose mission is to publish writers from diverse and under-represented populations, such as "LGBTQIA, ethnic minorities, women, lower socio-economic status, those who are older or younger, religious minorities, and non-American persons." They accept poetry, fiction, essays, book reviews, and articles on the craft of writing.
Ebook Launch
Founded in 2011, Ebook Launch is a self-publishing services company. They offer proofreading, copyediting, and interior and cover design for your self-published book. Their prices, though not cheap, are clearly stated up front, and their cover designs are professional-looking and unique for each book. It's worth investing in good design to make your book stand out.
ECRITUREartefacts
Looking for a stylish, quirky gift for a literary friend? Award-winning poet and ceramics artist Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde's online store features a wide selection of objets d'art with conversation-provoking lines like "A Good Poem Beats a Dollar Burger", "Chief of Your Own Conscience", "Dadaism Rules/Stinks", "Easter Bunny in Animal Soup", "Madder Than Plath", and "What Gender Performance". Available products include journals, glassware, aprons, totes, t-shirts, pencil cases, iPhone covers, MacBook sleeves, and fine art prints. See more products by Desmond at Lulu.
Edinburgh
By Alexander Chee. In this poetic debut novel, a sexually abusive choir director forever alters the lives of a gay Korean-American youth and the friends he loves. The protagonist finds healing through artistic imagination, the survival stories of his refugee family, and taking responsibility for the dark side of his own desires.
Editcetera
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Editcetera has been matching editorial freelancers with projects since 1971. Their clients include book and magazine publishers, businesses and nonprofits, and independent authors and scholars. Services include proofreaders, copyeditors, developmental editors, business writers, technical writers, and ghostwriters. They also offer training programs for editors and writers.
Editing by George
Bruno George is an experienced in-house and freelance editor who has worked on books published by Yale University Press, Microsoft, and the Seattle Art Museum, among others. He is a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient. He is available to help with your novels, art books, or technical writing. His companion site, Writing Your Life, offers memoir editing and ghostwriting services.
Editing Versus Proofreading Explained
The website of The Expert Editor, an Australian vendor of editorial services for books and dissertations, offers this handy overview of the differences between proofreading and copyediting, and how to choose the level of editing that's right for you.
Editorial Freelancers Association
National nonprofit professional association of self-employed workers in the publishing and communications industries. The EFA works to improve conditions for freelancers and match them up with clients. Employers can post jobs for free.
Editorial Freelancers Association
National nonprofit professional association of self-employed workers in the publishing and communications industries. The EFA works to improve conditions for freelancers and match them up with clients. Employers can post jobs for free.
Editors of Color
Founded by Karen Yin, creator of the Conscious Style Guide, the Editors of Color database is a networking tool for publishers and authors to hire language and content editors, sensitivity readers, proofreaders, and other editorial professionals from underrepresented communities and cultures. The site includes a Database of Diverse Databases that links to directories of LGBTQ, disabled, and POC journalists, cartoonists, editors, and experts in various fields.
Eggplant Tears
Eggplant Tears is a webzine for creative writing and artwork by the transmasculine community, broadly understood to include trans men, butches, and other gender-variant masculine folks. See guidelines page for issue themes and deadlines. They are especially open to thoughtful and nonjudgmental explorations of how queerness intersects with sexuality, sex work, and trauma.
Eightify
Eightify is a Chrome browser extension that generates eight-point text summaries of YouTube videos (up to 30 minutes) with clickable time-stamps for each data point.
Élan
Élan is an international print and online literary magazine that publishes original fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, plays, and all kinds of art by creators aged 14-18. Their site design is very artistic.
