Resources
From Category: Writing for Social Change
Vitality
Vitality is an online literary journal for poetry, fiction, essays, and artwork with LGBTQ protagonists. Submissions accepted year-round. This is a paying market. They are especially interested in genre fiction with an adventure storyline (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, thriller, steampunk, comedy, travel, historical fiction) and characters who are nonbinary in their gender identity and sexual attraction. No homophobic slurs or bullying, even by villains; explicit sex; or "tragic queers" (LGBTQ characters dying). Read the full list of the editors' likes and dislikes here.
We Are Not Numbers
We Are Not Numbers is an ongoing archive of personal stories from emerging Palestinian writers. Launched in 2014, the project trains Palestinian journalists to reach an English-language audience. Its mentorship program pairs young Palestinians with experienced writers to help shape and publish their narratives. WANN's goal is to help people outside Palestine understand the lived experiences of occupation and exile. Their logo was redesigned in 2024 as a kite to reference the poem "If I must die" by the late Dr. Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in 2023.
We Are You Project
The We Are You Project is the first comprehensive 21st Century coast-to-coast exhibition depicting current Latino socio-cultural, political, and economic conditions, reflecting triumphs, achievements, risks and vulnerabilities, affecting all Latinos "within," as well as "outside" the USA. It is also the first 21st Century art movement that cohesively combines Visual Art, Poetry, Music, Performance Art, and Film making, amalgamating these diverse art-forms into one ("united") socio-cultural artistic Latino voice, which utilizes ART to confront current challenges and opportunities that are faced by contemporary Latinos and Latinas throughout the USA and Latin America. Featured poets include Raphael Montañez Ortíz, Colette Inez, George Nelson Preston, and Gloria Mindock.
Wilgefortis Press
Launched in 2016, Wilgefortis Press publishes the Good News Children's Book Series, a line of religious picture books that feature and affirm children and families who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and genderqueer. The press is sponsored by Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco. Debut titles by Megan Rohrer, pastor at Grace Lutheran and the first openly transgender pastor ordained in the Lutheran church, include Faithful Families (co-authored with Pamela Ryan and Ihnatovich Maryia), which teaches that God loves all types of families, and What to Wear to Church, celebrating diverse gender expressions. Read a profile of the press at Jesus in Love Blog.
Writing Co-Lab: 100 Days of Creative Resistance
Writing Co-Lab is a teaching cooperative that offers online creative writing workshops. Their project "100 Days of Creative Resistance" delivers a free daily email of encouragement, opposition, and commiseration for each of the first 100 days of the 47th president's regime, beginning on January 20, 2025. These brief essays are archived on their website. Participating authors include R.O. Kwon, Denne Michele Norris, Edgar Gomez, Tenim Fruchter, and Robert Jones, Jr.
Writing Resources for Veterans at the Iowa Review
The Iowa Review, a prestigious literary journal, has compiled a list of writing resources for military veterans. These include articles on how to run a veterans' writing workshop; journals and contests specializing in military-affiliated writers and themes; and links to workshops around the US.
Yellow Medicine Review
Founded in 2007, Yellow Medicine Review is a twice-yearly print journal devoted to Indigenous literature, art, and thought. It is named for a river in Minnesota where people of the Dakota tribe would gather healing plants. See website for special themes for each submission period.
