Doing the Work 03/03/25
Calls for submissions, reading recommendations, writing prompts 03/03/25
Hello friends!
Welcome to the twelfth installment of our Doing The Work series. Here, we share opportunities for submitting your work, recommend some great reads, and offer creative exercises for you to try.
In this week's edition:
Calls for Submissions: Opportunities for poets, prose writers, and artists.
Reading Recommendations: A selection of writing I've been enjoying recently.
Creative Prompts: Writing exercises to inspire your creativity.
If you find this post helpful, please share it with your friends and family. Enjoy!
Calls for Submission
As usual, the start of a new month means brand new submission opportunities. And we’re kicking off March with a very good one, indeed. The Threepenny Review is currently open for submissions. They are open in all genres (poetry, fiction, critical review, art).
They are one of the most respected literary journals out there, and they pay exceptionally well, too. Getting a piece published here would be a huge notch on your literary achievement belt. They’re a great journal so bring your best! And good luck.
P.S. You won’t need a Submittable account for this submission, but we suggest creating one. It is free to make, and I’d highly recommend doing it anyway if you want to start trying to publish work, since many journals use them.
Reading Recommendations
If you’re an artist on the pursuit of publication, one of the best things you can do for yourself is read lit journals. And one of the best lit journals out there is The Paris Review. However, if you’re an artist on the pursuit of publication, you might also be what we lovingly refer to as, “uhhhh, poor.”
Good news! You can read amazing interviews, like this one I read most recently with Dorothy Parker, for free! Getting an insight into literary greats, and learning what they have to say is a phenomenal way to improve your own writing. I highly recommend every interview in this series.
Writing Prompts
Sam and I just did an exercise recently that we absolutely loved, and think you will, too. We each came up with a character, with a few defining characteristics, and then we sat down at the laptop and took turns just…talking.
We went back and forth for about an hour, no direction, no preconceived notion of plot; we just tried to remain true to how our characters would react. We didn’t get a great piece in the end, but we generated an insane amount of ideas. I’ve written two poems so far based on that conversation.
Give it shot for yourself! Find a friend, do the work together. Or, if you’re more solo, you can absolutely do this alone. As always, good luck and have fun.
And if you enjoyed this prompt, feel free to check out our book of writing prompts!
Thank You & Good Luck
If you found this useful, check out last Monday’s post.
To support our work, please share this post with a friend and subscribe.
Thanks for reading,
Sam & Corey.