Achievements
How Many Rejections?
This was a fun cosmic coincidence. I had just recently hit my "writing anniversary" of three years since the first time I had been published. Of course, I had been trying to get published for a while before that, and I had been entering all sorts of contests as well. All in all, submitting to publications and contests has basically been going on for the last 5 years of my life.
By Stephen Kramer Avitabile4 months ago in Writers
Temporary Solution
As some of you know, I frequently lament the lack of a curtsy emoji. While it isn’t on my keyboard and can’t be typed as a comment, I may have a way around that. Time will tell. For now, I have an image that will work for pretty much everything except comments here (where I need it most). If I respond to something with a YouTube link, it may be this animation of my curtsy image.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
Notes At And On The End. Top Story - July 2026.
I find it to be the most utterly pretentious notion to contemplate who will be present at my funeral. After all, I’ll be dead, and you’ll be wasting your time looking at a portrait of me since, should my wishes actually be followed and not bastardized like the adaptation of The Hobbit was, my ashes will be tucked in the core of a tree somewhere. What a dreadful waste of time for all of us to assemble here, truly.
By Matthew J. Fromm4 months ago in Writers
The Woman Who Wrote What She Couldn't Say
When she died, she left behind almost nothing that suggested literary ambition. A rented apartment in Finland. A kettle stained by years of tea. Receipts folded into the pages of paperback novels. Three unfinished notebooks. Hundreds of customer service emails signed with impossible cheerfulness.
By Samara Pollyana 4 months ago in Writers
The Winner's of Tim’s July 8th Birthday Challenge
I asked three friends to read all of the birthday poem submissions and make the selections so I wouldn't be the one choosing. After reading everything, they couldn't agree on a single favorite. Instead, they chose these three poems to be read as part of the celebration.
By Tim Carmichael4 months ago in Writers
Writing Love as an Act of Survival
When Kristina Zill died, the literary world lost a writer who had spent her career insisting that tenderness deserved the same artistic attention as suffering. During her lifetime, she occupied a curious place within contemporary literature. She was admired by devoted readers, respected by fellow writers, and quietly prolific, yet she never became the sort of public literary figure critics expected to define a generation. Her books found their audience gradually, passed from hand to hand rather than propelled by bestseller lists. Long after publication, readers continued discovering her work and recommending it with an intimacy usually reserved for conversations instead of novels or collections of poetry.
By Kristina Zill4 months ago in Writers
The Vocal Situation
Introduction Thankfully I can now publish and there are some improvement in the editor although I hate the autosave feature. When it fails and says it is saved locally you don;t know whether to trust it. As yet it has worked for me, but I do save an offline copy just in case.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 4 months ago in Writers
The Architecture of Shadows: Reconstructing Sai Marie Johnson
To read Sai Marie Johnson in the wake of her passing is to enter a labyrinth where the doors are constantly shifting. In the mid-2020s, Johnson occupied a singular, almost defiant space in contemporary American letters. Working from the rain-heavy landscapes of the Pacific Northwest- a terrain that deeply saturated the atmosphere of her later prose, she was a figure who fundamentally rejected the modern boundary between the commercial and the sacred, the visceral and the esoteric.
By Sai Marie Johnson4 months ago in Writers
Raise a Glass to America
Today is the Fourth of July. America celebrates 250 years of its independence from Britain (even though seemingly confused about wanting a new king). Imagine you are at the celebration. The fireworks are ready, the grill is hot, and someone has just handed you the microphone.
By Lana V Lynx4 months ago in Writers
