Hi Friends:
Because writer’s block is a dramatized collection of tension, this issue includes:
A sip…
It isn’t the Ghost in the Graveyard, but it may be the muse…
A shout out…
If ever there is an example of dedication and talent blossoming into a career, architect, author, and podcast host, ‘Pemi Aguda, is all the proof one needs.
A native Lagosian and alumnus of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, her works have appeared in American Short Story Fiction, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Granta, The Kalahari Review, Ploughshare and Zoetrope, to name a few.
Active since 2011, she began as a fiction columnist with The Naked Convos online community, dovetailed into speculative fiction, took a brief detour with realism and flash, and has since returned to her speculative roots.
Her debut short story collection, Ghostroots, received the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award, has three covers, is released by two publishers (Masobe Books, Nigeria, and W.W. Horton, USA), and is slated for release by a third in June 2024 (Virago, an imprint of Hatchette, UK).
The inaugural recipient of the Writivism Stellenbosch University Writing Residency (2015), she is also the recipient of the O. Henry Prize (2020), was selected as a Miami Book Fair Fellow (Fiction, 2021) and a MacDowell Fellow (2022), and her works have been supported by various other scholarships including Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (2018), Juniper Summer Workshop (2019), and an Octavia Butler Memorial Scholarship (2019).
A sentence…
Prompts gleaned from Ghostroots:
“Another day passes and all I can taste is anger, and loneliness.”
“We have to be grateful for the ineptitude of our justice system this one time.”
“My eyes are tied to the candle that went out. My skin feels like bad spirits are in the air.”
“Do mothers run from daughters who remind them that they carry their own mothers on their “faces?”
“But right now, watch them behold their sons -terrified by the possibilities – with hitched breathes, ticking pulses, raised hairs.”
A few useful tips…
On writing short story collections:
Break the rules.
Stick to a theme.
Keep the timeline short.
Play with overlapping characters.
Evoke consistent mood by keeping a consistent tone.
A few contests/competitions…
Creative Future Writers’ Award
Dream Foundry Emerging Writers Contest
Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
A fellowship opportunity…
The Africa Institute Global Africa Translation Fellowship
A few freelance opportunities…
Africa Arguments seeks freelance journalists.
Blacklight seeks experienced freelance journalists.
Chronicle Books seeks freelance writers for book projects.
Internet Brands Publishing seeks travel writers.
North Star Editions welcomes applications from authors interested in producing manuscripts on a work-for-hire basis.
A few submission opportunities…
Apparition Lit is seeking submissions on the Anachronism theme.
Bannister Press is seeking international short story submissions by women-identified writers on what it means to be on the outside looking in.
Betches seeks pieces about weddings.
Drift is seeking new fiction.
Eternal Haunted Summer seeks poetry and short fiction about the Gods and Goddesses and heroes of the world’s many Pagan traditions.
Heartlines Spec seeks submissions of short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial.
Viator! seeks a Galveston writer for a potential insider guide to the city, with a Black History/Juneteenth hook.
A few sessions & workshops…
May 16th
May 17th
May 18th
May 19th
May 20th
Ongoing
A few virtual book clubs…
Marriage as Designed Book Club
And a final thought…
This installment contains an affiliate link; I earn commissions when you purchase books using that link, or you may please buy me a coffee.
Thanks for reading,
This is super helpful. Thank you.