Sunspot Literary Journal currently has three contests open to authors and artists. The newest pays $100 for 100 words. Continue reading
100 Bucks for 100 Words Writing Contest
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Miradme Al Menos: Juana Inés on Netflix
Fantastic post about a must-see Netflix original covering the life of a woman who was important in history.
Frontispiece, Fama y Obras Póstumas del Fenix de México. Madrid, 1689. From Wikimedia Commons.
Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, la Décima Musa, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, looms large in the study of the literature of the Siglo de Oro. Hers is often the first woman’s voice we find, in a litany of men; forcefully Juana Inés reminds us of a woman’s genius, and a woman’s perseverance, against great—and ultimately insurmountable—odds. She is, in short, much more immediately important to me than is Simón Bolívar, libertador and subject of a flagrantly inaccurate adaption—but I have watched María Luisa Bemberg’s Yo, La Peor de Todas, and I’ve read Octavio Paz’s Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: O, Las Trampas de la Fé,1 as one does—and now, finally, an age after it showed up in my queue, I’m watching the new Netflix/Canal Once production…
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Contest for Authors and Artists
C*nt Contest for Authors and Artists from Sunspot Literary Journal
Words are important. Words are so powerful that certain ones have been weaponized to use against specific groups of people.
C*nt is one of many, but in the world today, it is more incendiary than ever. Submit a story, essay, poem, or art piece that talks about c*nt in your life:
-When did you first encounter the word?
-Have you taken on this word and ones like it as a rallying cry?
-Have you ever used it to refer to someone else?
Send your rants, your ribald comedy, a poem, or a photo that cuts to the core. You do not have to use the word within your submission as long as you are conjuring the essence of some element of this word and its use.
All submissions for this contest will be compiled for a special edition of Sunspot Literary Journal. First place winners and two runners-up from each category will be published in summer of 2019.
All first-place winners will be considered for a cash award. The best of the best will receive $50.
The C*nt Contest is now open for submissions. Deadline: March 31, 2019.
Sunspot Literary Journal Logo Contest
Sunspot Literary Journal has launched and needs a logo that can be used on the digital and print editions as well as the website.
Submit your best idea for a logo that fits with our mission: Hearing Every Voice, Changing the World Through Words.
Poke around our website for details on Sunspot’s approach. Then submit your best idea.
Submit as many times as you like to this contest. Winner receives $40, coverage in the first edition, and coverage on the website.
Tin House to Close; Sunspot to Open
June of 2019 will see the last Tin House literary magazine roll off the presses. After twenty years publishing original fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Tin House is saying goodbye.
The move was done in the face of mounting costs associated with print publishing. Rob Spillman, the co-founder and editor, is moving on to other areas. The closing brings an end to a very long stretch of quality contributions to the literary arena.
While some new works will still be published on Tin House’s website, the loss of yet another print publication is difficult for writers. Much of the industry still gives more weight to credits in print publications, so the loss of even one magazine can be bad news.
There is a bright spot, however. Sunspot Literary Magazine is launching in January of 2019. For the first year, one print edition will be published. The magazine hopes to add additional print editions in subsequent years.
Meanwhile, digital editions are scheduled for every quarter. The founder is also considering adding frequent special editions that focus on a single author or a single category.
The magazine’s mission is to “change the world through words,” and is open to new and established authors and artists. Submissions of short stories, flash fiction, poetry, essays, art, interviews, and reviews of books, movies and galleries are being accepted through Sunspot’s Submittable portal.
This is an excellent opportunity to be heard and to enact the change you want to see.
New Literary Journal Sunspot Open for Submissions
Sunspot Literary Journal is launching at the beginning of 2019. Submissions are already open for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid forms. (Links to their website and the submission portal are at the bottom of this blog entry.)
Words speak truth to those in power by drawing on the power of every human being. Sunspot, intent on being a force for change, hears every voice. Write a new world with words…your words.
Now accepting:
Fiction Without Boundaries
Flash fiction, poetry, shorts of every length, literary works and genre stories are welcome at Sunspot.
Essays That Expand
Send your lyric essays. Offer up thoughts that blind. If it’s unique, Sunspot wants to consider it.
Poetry
Poetry can run any number of pages. Yes, that means Sunspot will consider epic poems and stories-in-verse.
For more details about the journal, visit their website SunspotLit.com.
To submit brilliant, unique work that moves across the universe, go to their submission portal on Submittable.
Author Spotlight: Laine Cunningham
Making unheard voices sing.
November 24! Orange County Public Library! Hillsborough Local Author Book Fair! Where one of the awesome authors you’ll be able to meet is Laine Cunningham!
Tell us about your latest work.
For fifteen years, I worked solely on novels. The results, four full manuscripts and one work in progress, won multiple national awards. Despite these achievements, my skills advanced slowly.
Two years ago, I turned to short stories. The format allows me to experiment with a broader range of human experience, voice, techniques, and themes. A number of literary journals and colleges have recognized these efforts.
The stories explore the liminal frontiers of individuals warped by social expectations—the demands that serve the status quo rather than the human heart. The inner dreamscape is displayed even when that territory evokes nightmares. Institutionalized violence, governmental aggression, and other conflicts spur readers to consider their impact on our global society.
Authors I love:
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Wind, Waves, and Wonder: Where Dolphins Walk
Today is the first day you can buy Where Dolphins Walk. This memoir from a commercial airline pilot who has traveled the world brings a level of thoughtfulness and meaning to how we move through the world…not only while traveling, but in our daily lives.
With profound consideration and lively stops in a number of the world’s most beautiful countries, Douglas Andrew Keehn gives readers a global cultural tour. The weight of his experiences happen in South America, where he eventually lived for a time before returning to the US.
Throughout his journeys and the book, Keehn returns time and again to the message conveyed by the subtitle: A Memoir of Bridging National Lifestyles, Positive Change, and the Powers of Silence.
Destined to become the modern-day A Year in Provence for South America’s many jewels, Where Dolphins Walk connects readers with the global harmony that Keehn so clearly feels is not only possible, but is present for everyone who wishes to engage respectfully with other cultures.
Read this over the holidays, and you’ll know exactly where you want to go for your vacations…and possibly for the rest of your life.
Douglas Andrew Keehn was an avid saltwater angler and deckhand as a teenager. Born in NYC, he was raised in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. He began flying at age seventeen, and has been a flight officer for a major commercial airline for thirty-three years.
After crossing numerous U.S., Canadian, and Mexican cities, his travels shifted south to Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. He resided in Florianopolis, SC, Brazil for more than six years.
Barbara’s Bits and Pieces
One of my clients and fellow authors sends me this delightful email newsletter now and again. I asked if I could share it here so that others can enjoy the fun and useful tips she provides.
Click on the link to see her October 2018 newsletter as a PDF. Then you can connect with her and receive a free subscription, too!
Finding Order in the Chaos
I liked this blog post so much, I wanted to share it. Has some nice points that are useful for all artists.
Finding Order in the Chaos
Landscape Photography
Despite having grown up in the countryside I have never really had much of an affinity for it; as a child I learned the names of trees and grass, I learned to swim in the river a couple of miles along the track, I fished it too or at least I sat and stared at the ripples and bobbing float until my thermos of tea went cold.
Ultimately, I was bored and wanted away the first chance I got, village life rarely offers a teenager much and cannot compete with sordid appeal of the city.
So, it’s odd how now I am finding myself searching for the sanctuary of nature, as a photographer I had never really shot landscapes as such and yet here I am up to my arse in brambles.
Three Birches on Vitosha Mountain
It all started a couple of…
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Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest – Winning Writers
Just wanted to share this contest with you poets. It is run by some really great folks, and the prize is $1500 plus publication.
Source: Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest – Winning Writers
I really like this post about writing. See if you find some wisdom along with humor!
Writer’s House, Tbilisi, Georgia
For the last two weeks, I’ve been enrolled in workshops through the Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) out of Montreal, Canada. Morning workshops run for the entire two weeks, while afternoon workshops run one week each.
The program is hosted by the Writer’s House of Georgia. Located in Tbilisi, the building was completed in 1905. The Art Nouveau architecture blends Georgian and European influences, and the building has witnessed many important historic events, particularly in the political realm.
Although the building is in the heart of the city, the Writer’s House is a quiet sanctuary in the city. The central courtyard hosts a lush garden that stays cool even on the hottest days.
Stop by when you are in Tbilisi, or consider writing and learning with the SLS programs.
Parisian Indie Bookstore Shakespeare and Company
On Friday, I took advantage of a fourteen-hour layover in Paris, France. With so much time to spend, I headed into the city for a quick look around.
The indie bookstore Shakespeare and Company was on my list. The shop is on a street known for the vendors who set up book stalls along the Seine River. Their location is near Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Louvre.
Shakespeare and Company is an English-language bookstore in the heart of Paris. The building was originally constructed as a monastery. An old tradition held that one monk was assigned the duty of lighting the lamps at nightfall. The bookstore’s founder, George Whitman, cast himself as that monk when he began operating a store that would provide light through literature.
Writer's Resource/Sunspot Lit 
