I love teaching. Educators, are you too getting ready for back to school, whether it is back to teaching pre-K or at the university?
I love to see these desks fill up. It’s a great yearly rhythm, a great chance to start over each term, each class. Who else gets that?
Now, I wish my students would register! We will have a great class together, I promise you. There’s magic in the classroom–let’s find it together.
Thanks for reading.
Some of my poems, short stories, and nonfiction articles are included in books and magazines published in the UK, Greece, New Zealand, and the United States.
*Coffin Bell Journal,2018
“Herstory,” a poem, to be published October 1, 2018
*Spillwords Press, 2018
Stopped by Laura Lee at Spillwords Press
*Tuck Magazine, June 2018
Tuck Magazine
*Tuck Magazine, May 2018
Tuck
* Southernmost Point Guest House (UK)
Poetry
* Journal of Modern Poetry 21 (Volume 21)
JOMP Volume 21 Dear Mr. President
* Journal of Modern Poetry 20 (Volume 20)
JOMP Volume 20 Poetry Writer’s Guide to the Galaxy
* Journal of Modern Poetry 17 (Volume 17)
JOMP Volume 17
* Magazine (New Zealand) , Raewyn Alexander, Publisher
Raewyn Alexander NZ
* Fiction in: http://staxtes.com/2003/
“Between the Sunlight and the Skipping” in English Wednesdays
*Poetry in: https://poetsagainstthewar.org/ Archives
* Illinois English Bulletin, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English, nonfiction article about teaching in an alternative education program.
* Poetry in Marginalia, Elmhurst, IL
I like to support new literature ventures, and am supporting and submitting to this new journal, the Winnow Magazine,https://thewinnowmagazine.weebly.com/about.html
which states:
the winnow is an online literary magazine devoted to showcasing urgent works of prose, poetry, and photography from underrepresented creatives.
We strongly believe that everyone has something important to say. From the marginalized, to the disillusioned, to the unpublished, we want to hear your voice.
I, too, believe we should support hearing the voices of others.
Why not consider submitting there and reading there when they publish?
Thanks for reading.
After a rough summer of submissions and many “declined” (rejections), I am pleased to learn my poem “Herstory Lesson” will be published by Coffin Bell Journal on October 1st. I’ll put up a link when it’s published, but for now, the journal can be found here: https://coffinbell.com/.
I don’t write in the genre they publish, dark literature, very often, but I did my research, read there (fun!), and decided some of my work does fit. Phew, because I was correct. While I wrote this poem as feminist poetry, about killing women, it did fit the genre of dark literature.
(And now this post is longer than the poem!)
Lesson learned? Read before submitting, read more, think creatively, and keep on submitting!
Thanks for reading.
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” ~ Lau Tzu
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” –Frederick Douglass
Feel free to add on and share!
Thanks.
Laura Lee
For decades, August has been my strongest “urge to poetry” month. Something about the light, the sounds, the smells–all is so REVVED UP. Poets, agree?
I used to be in vibrant online writing communities, and every August we would have a poetry challenge. We would write a poem a day, no editing allowed, just to “rev” up our creativity.
It was glorious.
We (I!) wrote a lot of bad poetry, but I am still finding some snippets of good poetry on old flash drives and in old posts.
Hmm…perhaps it is time to reinstate an AUGUST POETRY CHALLENGE?
It couldn’t be here, on a public blog, I fear, for that would preclude subsequent publication. Perhaps back on good old Facebook, with a private account only friends can access.
There’s an idea!
Readers, writers, what do you think?
Thanks for reading.
Since late spring, I’ve made 35 plus submissions just using Submittable.com. I love using this vehicle since it helps me keep track of my submissions in one convenient location. I’ve also made email and US mail submissions.
My goal in submitting work is yes, to be published, but also to encourage me to improve my writing and to feel a part of a writing community. I am not a great writer, but I can be a good one if I work at it!
It’s obvious there are more poets than poetical publishing opportunities. I am receiving a number of rejections after an early spring run of four acceptances, and so yes, I am feeling the sting a bit, even while the editors are quite kind in their notes. Just doesn’t fit, not right now, etc. No one has said I should seek solace on another planet. Yet.
Poets, you know this is mostly unpaid publication anyway, and it’s the joy of being published that urges us onward.
While I’ve submitted mostly poetry, I’ve always worked on some mini-dialogue experiments and one short story.
In the meantime, I am enjoying revising my writing, and submitting more.
I am glad I am not trying to support myself with my writing, but I am also glad I write. It’s been a part of who I am since I was an angsty pre-teen, writing my wretched “woe is me” type broken-hearted poetry.
Now it’s time to get back to work; I have a lot of writing to do.
Thanks for reading!
Update: the work I submitted here is short-listed; the editors will determine the overall themes of the works they are interested in and then let us short-listed know if we will be published. I was not familiar that as a writer I would ever be told this, so this is interesting.
As I find new (to me) literary journals, I am delighted to find the absolute joy of language and belief in the power of poetry to be prevalent. The journals I am finding are truly labors of love, and the publishers and editors are publishing poetry because they love poetry, love language, and believe poetry is important. What a pleasant change of pace from the local, national, and world news, which is portraying a country and world in hate-filled crisis after crisis!
For example, I just had to submit some poems to Willowdown Books out of the UK: Willowdown Books.
Willowdown is sponsoring “The Poetic Bond VIII,” a bound poetic journal in autumn; submissions are due by the end of the day tomorrow here: The Poetic Bond.
So what creates a “poetic” bond? The publisher wants to create this bond by publishing poetry that is deeply connected with humanity, nature, and the universe.
You tell me, poets, if this isn’t the heart of poetry? Deep connections. Humanity. Nature. The universe.
Yes sirree. Sure is for me.
Plus the play and delight of language.
Have a look at the “poetic bond” and Willowdown Books.
Oh! For submitting, we got to pick a book out, sort of a thank you for submitting. This also shows support for the poets already published, so that’s a great idea.
Thanks for reading!
Perhaps my skepticism about poetry being ALIVE was too skeptical? I am finding many fine literary magazines and communities, online and in paper, if I just take the time to look about a bit. What’s different for me, however, is how many of the publications are online only or mainly online. For an oldster like me who loves to learn and use technology, that’s fine. I am just happy that literacy in all its forms appears to be thriving.
One publication I just found is Ink & Voices, which can be found here: Ink & Voices.
Ink and Voices acknowledges that the internet is full of places to share writing and art, but states they are different in that:
Ink & Voices is an online publication and community for artists and writers. We are all about original and unapologetic voices, and providing a space for you to express your originality and humanness. We love pieces that are honest, raw and original.
This publication has three main sections, one for Mind, one for Body, and one for Soul. Yes, they are brave enough to use those terms in this sometimes snide and toocooltoshowemotions society. I found mainly fiction and artwork there, but liked what I saw and liked what I read. Perhaps I just couldn’t find the poetry, but I did look. Nevertheless, Ink and Voices is accepting submissions or writing and art and has a separate category for poetry, all through Submittable.com. The positive aspects here are that your work is read or viewed “blind,” and judged on its merit rather than your bio or name, or lack of a name in publishing.
I didn’t see a May or June issue, but they are still accepting submissions on a no deadline basis through Submittable.com, meaning they are paying to keep submission coming in.
I am going to investigate this new site more and consider submitting some poetry. I know I’ll be viewing the artwork there.
If you create “honest, raw, and original” artwork, including written work, why not give Ink and Voices a view? I personally like to support new literary ventures as well as the more-established ones.
Thanks for reading!
Laura Lee
What fun looking at the etymology of English words. I often have my students ex
plore the origins of interesting words we come across in our studies, and they are amazed to learn how much of our versatile language “borrows” from other languages. It helps them understand spelling and pronunciation in English can be greatly influenced by the origins of the words.
Plus it’s interesting to do so.
Once again, a thanks to Thoughtco.Com. To learn more about English’s interesting word origins, go here: Loan Words in English
Don’t feel bamboozled. It’s just English.
Oh. This post created entirely on my phone as I sip ice tea on the patio before the heat wave hits.
How did I do?
Thanks for reading!
Laura Lee 