Doing the Work 03/17/25
Calls for submissions, reading recommendations, writing prompts 03/17/25
Hello friends!
Welcome to the fourteenth 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
One of our big core tenets for creative work is collaboration. We find that it is far easier to be creative when you don’t have to do it alone. And so this week we’re sharing an open call for a magazine that feels similarly: Spark to Flame.
Here’s what they have to say about their journal:
Spark to Flame is a journal dedicated to collaborative poetry. We pair poets to co-author poetry anonymously through submissions of poetry fragments (sparks). If a fragment is accepted, it is then sent to another author, who turns it into a cohesive poem (flame). You can choose to submit a spark and write off of someone else’s spark, or to only submit a spark. We also accept polished, co-authored poetry submissions.
It’s easy to submit (through a Google Form) and they nominate for Best of the Net!
Reading Recommendations
Reading can act as a method of discovery. It’s pure inspiration. Sometimes it’s easy to feel pigeonholed in your creative process, and seeing what other people are doing can help get you out of a rut.
Check out this (incredibly interesting) work of translation by Daniel Owen. I promise you that you’ve never seen poetry like it. It’s called There’s No Meaning: A Repeating Poem. I would love to know your thoughts on this, I’m still working out my own! Enjoy.
Writing Prompts
Today’s prompt is going to go hand-in-hand with the call for submission. Spark to Flame has a process where you’ll complete a poem based on somebody else’s work, what they call a “fragment.”
But you don’t have to get the fragment from just them! Ask a friend for a line or two, or pull one or two from a poem you love. Then, add your own personal take on it. It’s amazing what collaboration can create. 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.
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Thanks for reading,
Sam & Corey.