Doing the Work 03/24/25
Calls for submissions, reading recommendations, writing prompts 03/24/25
Hello friends!
Welcome to the fifteenth 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
This week I’m highlighting a literary journal from Canada called The Fiddlehead. They accept all types of submissions, and are a fairly competitive journal. What really sets them apart from other journals, however, is that they often will give you notes on your work, even if you are rejected!
That is a rare and valuable resource, and one that should be taken advantage of. On the best day, you get your work into a great journal, on the worst you get free feedback from knowledgeable editors. They close for submissions on the 31st, so submit soon!
P.S. You will need a Submittable account. 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
Speaking of editors, I want to share one of my absolute favorite articles. It has to do with one of my favorite short story writers, Raymond Carver, and his relationship to his editor, Gordon Lish.
The article gives fascinating insight into their collaboration, and how Gordon Lish shaped the ultimate legacy of Raymond Carver’s work. It is yet another fascinating insight into the professional world of writing, and how often it is not just a solo act of genius, but rather a confusing, often tumultuous relationship between writer, editor, and audience.
The article is called The Kindest Cut, and you can read it for free!
Writing Prompts
This week’s writing prompt is more of an editing prompt (we love a theme here). I know, I know, editing is not nearly as fun as writing, but this series is called Doing the Work! So we’re going to do some work.
Gordon Lish is famous for his succinct, often brutal, cuts to prose. Cutting work down to the bare bones is hard, but it is a very useful skill. Take something you have a written, whether it’s poetry or prose, and try to edit it down to its barest bones. Cut superfluous language, excess expository, hell, even cut adjectives if you can.
You might not recognize the piece when you’re done, but when you remove all the excess, you will be able to evaluate your piece with new eyes, and build it back up with more precision.
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.