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EDITOR'S THOUGHTS

DO YOU SEE OPPORTUNITY OR OBSTACLE?

This is a dilemma I've fought my entire life. I mean, consciously...seriously grappled with. 

In my earlier years, I decided nothing would get the best of me. I gave everything my all, and if I did not ace whatever it was, then I hadn't tried hard enough. I saw life as nothing but challenge and opportunity, mastered simply by my personal choice of how deeply I was willing to invest myself. 

Then I had the inevitable crash-and-burn moments. Then the battle became me against me. I lost sight of the horizon.

We can't always win. However, we can't pursue a goal without feeling possibility and hope that our dreams at least have a chance. Some people rely solely on hope, playing the odds that success will find them. Others go overboard fighting upstream, demanding they be successful . . . when maybe their goal isn't the right one to be fighting.

With age and experience comes wisdom, unless you find a brilliant mentor along the way who has already paid their dues. I know more of what I want to do today. I'm less likely to leap at every bright shiny thing, or every success method promise out there. Also, everything doesn't have to be a challenge. Some things can be just something I don't want to do in order to keep my life on an even keel.

But failure has to be a part of the equation. Failure is a gift. Failure is a check point that stops us from ruining our lives forever. 

Did we choose the wrong goal? Did we miss a clue? Did we take a wrong turn? Did we listen to the wrong person? Did we push through a red light when we should have stopped and taken stock of the traffic? Did the book not publish because our writing was not fleshed out yet?

Did we make wrong choices or was luck just not there (yes, there is a bit of luck in the mix). It's usually a combination of both.

Even if it all went wrong, we learn from the exercise of scrutinizing what happened. These days, however, the social environment is to blame ourselves or blame others, both of which are just stupid wastes of precious energy. 

I used to blame myself for not working harder. Today, I study the facts, take notes, alter the course, and move on. I cannot afford to dislike myself. I cannot afford to dislike others. I need that energy for the mission, whatever it may be. Even if it is two steps forward and one step back, I'm still getting there. 

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Featured article

THE MONOLOGUE MARKET

By Christina Hamlett

As with many industries across the country and around the world, theater was dealt a devastating blow with the escalation of COVID. With actors unable to rehearse plays, producers unable to fill their performance spaces and audiences deprived of live entertainment experiences, it seemed that it wasn’t just Broadway that would go dark indefinitely. 

While it hasn’t stopped my fellow playwrights from penning scripts during lockdown, it has changed how we’re channeling our creative energies to stay relevant. One such way to do this is by writing monologues — an aspect of playwriting that has long existed but, most recently, has achieved an exciting new level of viability. Solo performances can not only be used as audition pieces for demo reels but also produced as Zoom presentations, live-streaming, and socially distant tableaus. Are actors and directors gobbling them up? You bet!

WHAT MAKES A GREAT MONOLOGUE?

A monologue is a one-person show which needs neither sets, costumes nor props to deliver its point. It’s a story told in first person and spoken to the audience, spoken to an unseen listener or delivered as a soliloquy. Though monologues can tap any genre or historical period, the best ones are those whose messages embody timeless themes which will resonate with contemporary viewers. Further, a great monologue should embrace a wide spectrum of emotions to challenge an actor’s skill sets. The most marketable monologues are in the 10-15 minute range, primarily because these can subsequently be clustered with similar-length pieces to comprise a full evening’s entertainment. Also popular—especially with the teen market—are monologues that can be performed by either gender.

WHAT A MONOLOGUE ISN’T

Novice playwrights often confuse monologues with stand-up comedy, political rants, or rambling confessionals. While these may appeal to an actor’s peer group, today’s play publishers are more interested in works that are sensitive, clever, thought-provoking, and yield “Aha!” twists and surprises. I also caution writers against monologues that involve excessive yelling, frenetic pacing, and hurling expletives from start to finish. These devices get old after—oh, the first two minutes.

PAST OR PRESENT

My own monologues tend to be a mix of contemporary themes (i.e., homelessness, abortion, dysfunctional relationships, peer pressure) and “what-ifs” drawn from the pages of history (i.e., what if Jack the Ripper was actually a woman, what if Anne of Cleves actually sent her lady-in-waiting as Henry VIII’s next bride). The secret to crafting a monologue that feels authentic is to ask yourself what topics you’re passionate about and then invest in the research to bring them to life. Keep in mind, too, who your target audience is. A high school crowd, for instance, may not be savvy enough to catch all the subtleties of life in the past lane, nor would a Christian publisher warm to a monologue about witchcraft.

WHO’S BUYING?

As with any professional submissions, it’s critical to familiarize yourself with the kinds of monologues each play publisher seeks. They prefer query letters over script submissions, and these can be done via email. 

Here’s a list of some of my favorites:

Silver Birchington, UK
https://www.silverbirchingtonplays.com/
Children, Teens, Adults

PLAYS, the Magazine for Young People
https://www.playsmagazine.com/
Lower, Middle and Upper Grades

Pioneer Drama Service
https://www.pioneerdrama.com/
High School

Heartland Plays
https://www.pioneerdrama.com/
Children, Teens, Adults

Brooklyn Publishers
https://www.brookpub.com/
Teens, Adults

Although a subscription service, I also encourage playwrights to check out Play Submissions Helper at https://playsubmissionshelper.com/. This resource provides contact information for theater companies and publishers around the world seeking plays of all lengths (monologues included!) as well as information on playwriting competitions.

Frustrating as it is to see our beloved livelihood on hold for the immediate future, there’s one thing we can all take heart in. Theater—for better or worse—has never been shy about reinvention. The show will definitely go on—even if it’s one person at a time.

BIO: Former actress and director Christina Hamlett is an award-winning authors whose credits to date include 44 books, 236 stage plays and squillions of articles and interviews. Visit her website at www.authorhamlett.com. 


 

COmpetitions

STRINGYBARK SEX AND GENDER AWARDS
https://www.stringybarkstories.net/competitions/open---sex-and-gender.html
ENTRY FEE A$14. Deadline July 18, 2021. We are looking for great short stories that address any issues relating to human relationships from a sex or gender perspective. Subjects that could be explored in a fictional context include: romance, sexual violence, love, lust, harassment, bullying, LGBTIQ+, equality, respect, disrespect, consent, care, empathy, empowerment, redemption, discrimination etc. We want stories that illuminate these issues but also that give us hope for a better future. The story must be 1,500 words or fewer in length, be related to sex or gender issues, and written for an audience aged 16 and above. First prize A$360 and publication. Second prize A$250 and publication. Third prize A$125 and publication. Highly recommended gets publication. 



FRANCINE RINGOLD AWARDS FOR NEW WRITERS
https://nimrodjournal.submittable.com/submit
$13.70 ENTRY FEE. Deadline July 16, 2021. Prizes: $500 prizes will be awarded in both the fiction and poetry categories, and the winning manuscripts will appear in the spring issue of Nimrod. Winners will have the chance to work with the Nimrod board of editors to refine and edit their manuscripts before publication. Open only to writers whose work has not appeared or is not scheduled to appear in more than two publications in the genre in which they are submitting. Submit up to five pages of poetry (one long poem or several short poems). Up to 5,000 words of fiction (one short story or a self-contained excerpt from a novel). 



CHARLOTTE MEW CHAPBOOK CONTEST
https://headmistresspress.blogspot.com/2017/07/charlotte-mew-chapbook-contest.html
$12, $15, or $20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline July 4, 2021. Headmistress Press, a lesbian-identified publisher of books by LBT poets, is proud to announce our 7th annual Charlotte Mew Chapbook Contest (scroll down for list of past judges/winners). Our first-prize winner will receive $300 plus 20 copies of the winning book. All entries will be considered for publication. No more than 35 pages of poetry, excluding front and back matter.



SUMMER FLASH FICTION CONTEST
https://thetinyjournal.org/summer-flash-fiction-contest
$3 ENTRY FEE. Deadline July 1, 2021. Send us up to three of your best flash fiction works 1,000 words or less. Excerpts are welcome as long as they can stand alone from the whole piece. First-place winner will receive a $100 prize and publication in issue iv. First runner and second runner up will be published in issue iv. 



THE ANNUAL PUERTO DEL SOL POETRY/PROSE CONTEST
https://www.puertodelsol.org/contest
$9 ENTRY FEE. Deadline September 2, 2021. Publishes one work of prose and one poem as winners of our annual contest. Winners receive $500 and publication. Submissions are limited to three poems and one self-contained work (no excerpts ,please) and can be any length under 25 pages.



LUCILLE CLIFTON POETRY PRIZE
https://backbonepress.org/lucille-clifton-prize/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline June 15, 2021. The prize is for a previously unpublished, single poem. The winner is awarded $500, publication via our website, and a set of three poetry collections by Clifton via Boa Editions.



SALAMANDER SUMMER FICTION CONTEST
http://salamandermag.org/contests/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline June 1, 2021. First Prize: $1,000 and publication. Second Prize: $500 and publication. All entries will be considered for publication. Each story must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages. 



FLYING SOUTH CONTEST
https://www.wswriters.org/flying-south
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 31, 2021. Limit three poems per entry, ten pages maximum. Fiction includes flash fiction, short story, and novel excerpt of up to 5,000 words. Nonfiction includes memoir, essay, journal entries, and other creative nonfiction up to 3,500 words. All entries will be considered for publication and all works accepted for publication will receive one copy of Flying South 2021. The three Best in Category winners will be chosen from works accepted for publication in Flying South 2021 and will each receive $500. The President's Favorite winner will be chosen from the three Best in Category winners and will receive an additional $500 for a total of $1,000.

 

GRANTS / FELLOWSHIPS / CROWDFUNDING

WRITERS' COLONY EMERGING POETRY FELLOWSHIP
https://www.writerscolony.org/fellowships
Deadline June 14, 2021. Eligible applicants shall not have published a chapbook or other book of verse but may have published other books. (Published means the book has been issued for public sale and distribution.) Prior publication of individual poems is desirable but not required. The writing sample provided must demonstrate literary merit and the promise of publication in book form. The fellowship winner will receive a two-week residency to allow the recipient to focus completely on their work. Each writer’s suite has a bedroom, private bathroom, separate writing space, and wireless internet. We provide uninterrupted writing time, a European-style gourmet dinner prepared five nights a week and served in our community dining room, the camaraderie of other professional writers when you want it, and a community kitchen stocked with the basics for breakfast and lunch. Location Arkansas.



WRITERS' COLONY CELEBRATE! MAYA PROJECT FELLOWSHIP
https://www.writerscolony.org/fellowships
Deadline June 28, 2021. Two fellowships will be awarded. One will be unrestricted. The other will be awarded to a young writer from the Arkansas Southern Delta region. Fellowship winners receive a two-week residency to focus completely on their work. Writers may stay in the Maya Angelou Suite at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Each writer’s suite has a bedroom, private bathroom, separate writing space, and wireless internet. Fellowship recipients are provided with uninterrupted writing time, a European-style gourmet dinner prepared five nights a week and served in our community dining room, the camaraderie of other professional writers when you want it, and a community kitchen stocked with the basics for breakfast and lunch. Location Arkansas. 

 

FREELANCE MARKETS / JOBS

THE DEADLANDS - ANTHOLOGY
https://thedeadlands.com/guidelines/
The Deadlands exists in liminal spaces between life, death, and elsewhere. We are looking for speculative fiction that concerns itself with death–but also everything death may involve. The Deadlands would love to see stories from a worldwide perspective, different cultures, different approaches to death. We welcome stories from everyone, everywhere. Limit 5,000 words. Pays ten cents/word. Reprints considered at one cent/word. Also looking for essays that explore the relationship between humanity and death. We are looking for a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to cultural funerary practices, rituals of remembrance, historical explorations of death imagery, death imagery used in art and by artists, death imagery found in graveyards, and on tombstones. Submit 1,000 to 4,000 words. Pays $100. Using the same theme, poetry is considered at $50. 



GRAY'S SPORTING JOURNAL
https://www.grayssportingjournal.com/submissions/
We expect competent, vividly written prose—fact or fiction—that has high entertainment value for a very sophisticated audience. Manuscript length depends on subject. If you need 12,000 words to tell the tale, then do so. But if you can tell the story in 3,000 or even 1,500 words, then be kind to yourself, your readers, and our editors. Gray’s is published seven times a year, including four themed issues: the Fly Fishing Edition (March/April), the Upland Bird Hunting Edition (August), the Big Game Edition (September/October), and the Expeditions and Guides Annual (December). Because 90 percent of our readers are bird hunters, 85 percent are fly fishers, and 67 percent hunt big game, we’re always looking for good upland-bird-hunting, fly-fishing, and big-game manuscripts for these issues and throughout the year, but don’t confine yourself to these themes. Other subjects of interest include Waterfowl, Turkeys, Small Game, Unusual Quarry (feral hogs, etc.), Sporting Adventures in exciting locales, foreign and domestic, and Yarns—tall tales or true. We pay from $600 to $1,250 for features, based on quality, not length; yarns average $600; poems, $100. We pay $50 to $300 for photographs. For Expeditions pieces, we pay $850 to $1,000 plus $75 per picture published. All payment is made upon publication.



SATURDAY EVENING POST
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/mission/submission-guidelines/
We accept well-researched nonfiction on health, history, human interest, finance, technology, travel, and politics. Submissions must be between 1,000 and 3,000 words long and previously unpublished. In addition to publishing one short story in every print issue of the Post, we welcome submissions to our online fiction platform New Fiction Friday. Each week, we feature fresh fiction from authors all over the country, bringing you exciting adventures and engrossing stories from writers just like you, available exclusively online. Limit 5,000 words. 



THE YALE REVIEW
https://yalereview.yale.edu/about/submissions
Our next period for online submissions will be in September-October 2021. At The Yale Review, we believe in the power of perspective. The power of connecting great minds—across disciplines, backgrounds, and generations—around thought-provoking writing. Literary nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.



SKIRT.
https://www.skirt.com/become-a-contributor/
Skirt. is a platform that celebrates women and all angles of life. If you want to make an impact and feel that you have a message to share, a topic for debate and conversation, or an upcoming local event, then we’d love to hear from you! Your article/essay should be no less than 500 words and maximum of 1,000 words. Pays $200. 



PARABOLA
http://parabola.org/submissions/
Parabola is a quarterly journal devoted to the exploration of the quest for meaning as it is expressed in the world’s myths, symbols, and religious traditions, with particular emphasis on the relationship between this store of wisdom and our modern life. Each issue of Parabola is organized around a theme. Examples of themes we have explored in the past include The Quest, Happiness, The Wild, and Presence. Parabola welcomes original essays and translations. We look for lively, penetrating material unencumbered by jargon or academic argument. We prefer well-researched, objective, and unsentimental pieces that are grounded in one or more religious or cultural tradition; articles that focus on dreams, visions, or other very personal experiences are unlikely to be accepted. Articles: 1000-3,000 words. Book Reviews: 500 words. Retellings of traditional stories: 500-1,500 words. Forum contributions: no longer than 500 words. 



ARS TECHNICA
https://arstechnica.com/about-us/
Generally, we're looking for interesting, untold stories about games and the people who play/make them. Having a techy angle is helpful but not necessary. Generally not just looking for straight review/preview pitches unless it's a real "hidden gem" game. Rates depends on the pitch and the reporting involved, but $200 is a good rule of thumb for a standard reported story.



CANOPY ATLANTA
https://canopyatlanta.org/
Deadline June 4, 2021. Canopy Atlanta is a community-led journalism project founded in 2020. We partner with specific communities in the metro area to choose, report, and present stories. Our Forest Park issue will be released in early fall. Your story idea must be rooted in some way in or about Forest Park—maybe it's an issue specific to the area; a piece of its history; or a way in which something happening Forest Park is representative of a bigger issue. We commission written stories (short and longform), photo essays, audio, graphic ideas, and more. We pay competitively and would prioritize pitches from journalists with Forest Park/ClayCo connections (though that's not required to work with us). Questions / submissions: [email protected] . Pays up to 50 cents/word.



ARTnews
https://www.artnews.com
ARTnews is looking for reporters for editorial projects related to US art museums, art collections, etc. Candidates should have a background in art/museum reporting. Rates $0.50-$1 per word. Get in touch with Max Duron at [email protected]. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely circulated art magazine in the world. Its readership of 180,000 in 124 countries includes collectors, dealers, historians, artists, museum directors, curators, connoisseurs, and enthusiasts. Published in print four times a year, it reports on the art, people, issues, trends, and events shaping the international art world. Questions / applications: [email protected]
 

 

Publishers/agents

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THE LINDA CHESTER LITERARY AGENCY
https://lindachester.com/about/
The Linda Chester Literary Agency represents a wide variety of adult literary and commercial fiction, as well as an array of nonfiction in the following categories: science, technology, medicine, health, memoir and biography, fine and performing arts, narrative nonfiction, current events, politics, history, popular culture, humor, gift books, psychology, spirituality, and business. We place dramatic rights for our projects and work in tandem with all the major and boutique film agencies.



GREENHOUSE LITERARY AGENCY
https://www.greenhouseliterary.com/submissions/
Please note that Greenhouse does NOT represent: picture book texts by writers who aren’t also illustrators (unless you are already a client), short story collections, poetry collections, educational or religious/inspirational work, erotica, pre-school/novelty material, or screenplays. Chelsea is looking for middle grade, young adult, graphic novelists, illustrators who write picture books, and upmarket women's fiction. Kristin is seeking tightly written, tightly plotted, fast-paced commercial middle-grade and young adult fiction—adventure, mystery, and contemporary humor—as well as young adult romance. I am also looking for illustrators who write picture books as well as graphic novelists—particularly those creating works for the younger end of the spectrum (5–7 years).



CAMCAT BOOKS
https://camcatbooks.com/For-Our-Authors
We’re a small, independent book publisher, and we’re open to submissions. We publish adult (over 18) and YA (9th-12th grades), novel-length genre fiction. We’ll look at any good tale, but what we want to see most urgently revolves around these genres: Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Romance, Historical, Paranormal, Horror, Adventure. We’ll even look at Westerns. With regard to length, we’re not looking for novellas (shorter than 65,000 words, give or take) or tomes big enough to serve as door-stoppers (longer than 125,000 words, give or take, depending on genre). 



BROTHER MOCKINGBIRD
https://www.brothermockingbird.net/submissions
While our focus is Southern Fiction and authors, we will never reject a good story no matter where it originates. Looking for women's fiction, historical fiction, romance, mystery, commercial literary fiction, thriller, suspense, traditional crime (i.e., cozies), science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, and young adult. Not interested in previously published material. No novellas or erotica. 



MAVERICK PUBLISHING
http://maverickbooks.co.uk/about/
Maverick has over 250 titles across the formats of picture books, early readers, graphics for reluctant readers, junior fiction and middle grade. We believe that, with everyone leading such busy lifestyles, it is important for children to spend time with adults sharing and engaging over books.



SHADOW MOUNTAIN
https://shadowmountain.com/submission-guidelines/
Shadow Mountain Publishing is passionate about clean content and empowering values. We publish general fiction and nonfiction for all ages. Currently looking for fiction and nonfiction. Fiction: empathy-building, contemporary middle grade novels, middle grade fantasy, clean romance, women’s fiction, YA fiction, historical fiction. Nonfiction: historical nonfiction, inspirational nonfiction, cookbooks, religious content for non-denominal audience. We are NOT interested in the following genres: business and finance, family histories/personal journals, or poetry.

 

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E-mail: [email protected]
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