Web tools for writers/Memoir prose and poems

Writer’s Thought for the Week: I have touched with a sense of art some people – they felt the love and the life. Can you offer me anything to compare to that joy for an artist?  ~ Mary Cassatt

WEB TOOLS FOR WRITERS

When you’re in the mood for some targeted Web browsing, The Writer’s Toolkit lists a variety websites for writers. The links are grouped according to forums, resources, writing references, conferences and webinars, and more.

MEMOIR(AND)

http://Memoirjournal.net/submissions

http://www.memoirjournal.net/downloads/submission-guidelines.pdf

Publishes memoirs in both prose and poetry form.

Prizes: $500/$250//$100 and publication.

Reading period is open through noon Pacific time, February 16, 2013. If using snail mail, must be postmarked by that date.

No entry fee. One entry per author per submission period.

Writing advice/Short story contest

Writer’s Thought for the Week: It's like building a stone wall without mortar. You place the words one at a time, fit them, take them apart and refit them until they're balanced and solid. ~ W.C. Heinz

Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of suspense, has some wonderful free resources on the Toolbox section of her web site. The articles are downloadable in PDF format – no videos to wade through. The first group deals with advice on craft, the second group with the submission process, and the third with romantic suspense. Well worth a read.

THE FLYING ELEPHANTS SHORT STORY PRIZE

Deadline: November 30, 2012

No entry fee; one entry per writer

Theme: “AndWeWereHungry...”

Theme for the top prize: “And We Were Hungry for Nature...”

This international prize is meant to showcase the work of short story writers published or emerging. The top prize is $2,000; three other writers will receive $1,000 each. Eight stories will be short-listed and published online in their winter 2013 issue along with the winners. The top prize is reserved for the story that connects the theme with nature or the natural world. “No length restrictions, but longer manuscripts (8,000—10,000 words) or shorter manuscripts (less than 2,000 words) will have to be truly exceptional to be shortlisted.”

Personal Narrative vs Memoir/Poetry and Prose

Thought for the Week: I still have a full deck; I just shuffle slower now.   ~ Unknown

Personal Narrative vs Memoir

This link describes the difference between personal narrative and memoir, and explains why memoir is more demanding for both writer and reader.

CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW

Submission deadline: November 3, 2012 (postmark)

Pays $50 minimum for poetry, $100 minimum for prose

For their Summer/Fall 2013 issue, Crab Orchard Review seeks work that focuses on the people, places, history, and changes shaping the states in the U.S. that make up the "Big Middle" of prairies, plains, mountains, and deserts that shape the middle and non-Pacific Coast West of the Lower 48 (Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada).

Literary Journals/Memoir

Thought for the Week: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchill 

JOURNAL OF THE MONTH

We can subscribe to all sorts of “of the month” clubs: book, fruit, cheese, wine, or even pig. Now we have literary journal of the month. Editors often read literary journals to find new talent. Interested in writing for literary journals but can’t afford to subscribe to more than one? If you live in the USA or Canada, you can sample more than one journal by subscribing to Journal of the Month. For $33, you receive four different journals. You select the frequency – one every month, every other month, or quarterly. Other options are available, up to 24 journals for $170. I’m going to give it a try.

MEMOIR(AND)

http://Memoirjournal.net/submissions

http://www.memoirjournal.net/downloads/submission-guidelines.pdf

The current reading period ends August 16, 2012 at noon Pacific Time.

No entry fee. One entry per author per submission period.

Seeks memoir in prose, poetry, or graphic form. Does not accept previously published work but does accept simultaneous submissions. (A personal blog is not considered previously published.)

Prizes: $500/$250/$100 and publication.