These days, it might seem superfluous to submit poetry to journals and magazines when you can make a living as an Instapoet instead. But in the world of poetry, having many publications under your belt can be a way to build towards publishing a chapbook or full-length book of poems.
What follows is a step-by-step guide for poets on submitting your work. This is part of a series of articles for new writers who’ve never sent their work out before. While everyone’s process is different, I hope these tips and tricks can be a starting point for you to figure out your submissions process and start getting your work into the world.

Read the full article here . . . 

Today on Medium I'm continuing my series of writing articles, this one all about the different terms we use when we talk about submissions. If you've ever wanted to submit your writing, but don't know where to start with all the lingo (What's a slush pile anyway?), this article is for you. 

Read the full post here!

I have a new poem up today at Liminality: A Magazine of Speculative Poetry. It's called "Dead-Eye Girl" and it's nice and creepy for the upcoming month of October! 

I am seeking you in the blood on my tongue
in the rims of shattered bottles under bridges
in the blossoms of storm clouds in summertime
in the songs of cicadas swarming.

Read the full poem here . . .

Submitting your writing is hard and a little bit terrifying. But you don't need to go it alone! Over at Trish Hopkinson's blog, I wrote a guest post on the different resources you can use to submit your work, including submission trackers, query trackers, manuscript wish lists, submission stats, and places to find calls for submissions. 

Read it here...

Whew, deep breaths. I am really pleased to share with you some early reviews for my forthcoming chapbook, Glimmerglass Girl (Finishing Line Press 2018). It is so exciting (and a bit terrifying) to see that people are already engaging with this book. 

My chapbook was reviewed by VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts. This is such an honor, as VIDA is a very important organization working to expose gender parity issues in literary journals and the writing world. This is a mission that means a great deal to me so to have them review my work gives me a lot of feels. Read it here. 

My chapbook was also reviewed by two bloggers, Melissa Jennings and Morgan Boyer. Thanks for the reviews fellow bloggers!

I’m a busy writer. Not too long ago (two years to be precise) I decided that if I wanted to be a writer, I had to get busy and write some things. That’s what being a writer means, right? But I also committed myself to community. I committed to submitting. I’m going to share with you a few things I’ve found as a part of this process.
 
This fall, I stumbled upon a neat little site called Sixfold. Sixfold is an online literary journal where selections for publication are chosen by submitters. There are no editors involved, just writers reading the work of other writers. Sounds interesting right?
 
The way it works is this: You pay $5, along with several hundred other writers (the full number is unknown) and you vote on a series of manuscripts in three rounds. Each round you vote on 6 manuscripts. The highest voted manuscript gets $1,000. The top 30 poem manuscripts get published. (More about the process is available here.)
 
I’m in the second round of voting right now, and I have to say I’m enjoying the process. It is challenging to rank manuscripts – Which read slightly better than the last? Or slightly worse? It reminds me of working at a literary journal in college. Except, I can give feedback to my fellow writers! This is my favorite feature of the website.
 
I don’t know whether my manuscript will get very far in the voting process, but even if it doesn’t the fun of getting to rate poems and receive feedback from other writers hooked me. With NaNoWriMo on, I panicked this week because I realized it was the second round of voting, but I got my vote in.
 
The voting process is pretty easy. I enjoy reading which poems were picked. The top poems get voted on by a total of 390 writers. This differs greatly from a normal literary journal, which might have 1-2 slush readers, then an editorial board or one editor reading second tier submissions. The economic model makes more sense too. Writers have to pay to play, but they are guaranteed feedback. It is rare (read: doubtful) for a literary journal to offer feedback, especially on poetry. Yet most journals charge for submissions, expecting writers to be happy to pay and receive nothing in return but a rejection letter.
 
I’m not saying it’s perfect. Sixfold just underwent a serious funding campaign (which it met) to stay alive. No options exist for genre writers. But the model calls into question the traditional literary journal format, and suggests that in our digital world, there are other ways literature can thrive.

What does it mean that literary journals are increasingly crossing into the digital realm? Print is certainly not dead yet, but the space that Sixfold inhabits is one of both democracy (user-generated, user-voted content) and digital community. These two ideas coming together may mean something for the future of literary journals, or they may just be a passing fad.
 
Let’s just say, it’s another way I’m keeping myself busy. 

I just got back from the Texas Book Fest last weekend, where I was promoting Writefest, a new literary journal fair and writer’s workshop in Houston, Texas, hosted by Writespace, the local grassroots literary center I work with. I spent the weekend on a whirlwind meet and greet with a fellow writer friend, and I think we may never recover. We hung out with other writers, met remarkable authors, and got some serious Writefest inspiration.
 
Here’s a few highlights from the trip, as if you needed more proof that Austin is a city of magical unicorns. 
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1. We met Margaret Atwood. She was overwhelming, forcefully devoted to the craft, and it was like standing next to the literary equivalent of some kind of really sweet, tolerant norse god. Or something. 
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​2. We met a slew of other new writers I hadn’t heard of but now am obsessed with, including Amelia Gray and Edward Carey, who both write wonderfully weird things that I now must go read. (And Edward Carey doodled in his signature. Who doesn’t love that?) By the way, Carey is reading at Brazos Bookstore Nov. 16th, so make sure you check him out. 
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​3. We met Kelly Link, and took an uber with her, and saved her wallet. How does this even happen? Oh yeah, and her panel with Edward Carey was delightful. 
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5. We met Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, and told him we skipped a second beer at the bar (Did I mention Shiner Cheer is back out again? It’s enchanted, and I think it may have contributed to the magic of the weekend) just to come to his panel, which I think he was slightly bemused by, however, he is hilarious. 
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​A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (Austin, Texas) I was a secret poet. As an undergrad, I wrote piles of poems, most of which never got finished. Then I went out into the real world and had to survive, so I worked shitty jobs. I put my husband through grad school with those shitty jobs, so I can’t harp on them too much. But in the last few years, I finally got to dedicate myself to writing.  
 
Now, I’m writing more and more short fiction. I started with flash, which seemed like an easy jump from poetry. My goal is to get published, to be able to make it with my writing. For now, editing pays the bills (and don’t get me wrong, I love it), but being a full-time writer is the end-game.
 
The first advice anyone offers a new writer on getting published is to read more. I’ve been following that advice, focusing on finding new journals and new (to me) authors. Here's my current TBR pile.