A few days ago, we announced the weekly feature where we publish one flash fiction piece and/or one poem every week. The pieces will be selected from the special submission process. The series will kick off on June 9th. So, let those submissions roll in.
For the past two years, we have released one issue per quarter. Although this gives the readers a rich tapestry of written arts, the readers want more. Based on the feedback we received, we decided to publish one poem and one flash fiction story once a week on the blog. The quarterly magazine is thriving, and we will continue to publish it.
So, starting today, I am opening the submissions for the weekly feature. Let the excitement begin.
Like you, I like to laugh. Laughter cleanses the blemishes on the soul that build up like cobwebs from the daily grind. As a child, I waited for my Dad to come home from the long business trips because I knew he would come back with stories that made me laugh. Although his humor was innocuous, as I read more, I grew to like satiric humor with social commentary. Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, and Marathi humorist P.L Deshpande became my favorite writers. I rolled over laughing when I read the exchanges between Sir Winston Churchill and the fools who were the objects of his sharp wit.
These were some of the classic masters. Later when I became a mother and lived the life of a stay-at-home mother for a short time, I discovered Erma Bombeck and instantly identified with her brand of humor.
May 10, 2015 is the Mother’s Day. Since that day in 1908, Anna Jarvis held the memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia, the celebration has evolved into honoring and celebrating motherhood practically all over the world. What is your definition of motherhood? What comes to your mind when you think of the word mother?
We all have encountered many faces of literary mothers over our reading lives: from the kind and beloved mothers in Shyamchi Aai (Shyam’s Mother – A Marathi Classic) and The Little Women, to the uncertain mothers in Pride and Prejudice and The Mill on the Floss, to the wicked mothers in Hamlet and Lolita, to the tortured mothers in Sophie’s Choice and “Rani Ma Ka Chabutara” (Queen Mother’s Perch – A Hindi short story by Mannu Bhandari).
Which one do you remember from your reading? For this contest, think about the mothers on the margins. The margins could be societal, economical, psychological, or any other that you can think of.
Think about it and then write a story under 2500 words and send it in a MS Word document (.doc, .docx, or, .rtf) to theliterarynest (at) gmail.com. We will publish the winning story on our site on the Mother’s Day 2015.
The new deadline is Midnight PST March 31st , 2015.
The inaugural issue will be online on April 15th.
The winners will be announced at that time, and the winning entries will be published in that issue.
Please see the contest page for the details.
With tremendous gratitude and undying devotion to the Poetry Goddess herself, although she calls herself The Poetry Witch, The Literary Nest welcomes our poetry advisorAnnie Finch.
After some brainstorming, we have decided to change the fiction submission rule. To allow for the growing popularity of short-short fiction, we have now set the new word limit to 800-5000.
We hope this will suit for many of us Flash and Short fiction writers and readers.
We welcome your submissions. Check the official submission call for details.
The Literary Nest is a labor of love for a struggling writer and a literary connoisseur, but I believe that the writers should be paid. The idea of this contest was born in that spirit. So here it goes.
The Literary Nest announces the Inaugural Writing Contest with cash prizes.
Fiction: 1,500-5,000 words
Poetry: 10-40 lines.
Please submit your entry with “Contest” in the subject line to theliterarynest@gmail.com by March15, 2015.
No erotica and nothing rated R or above.
One winning entry in each category will receive the cash prize of $10. The rest of the entries will be eligible for the publication.
The website is under construction, so pardon the dust for now.
Call for Submissions:
The Inaugural Issue of The Literary Nest will be published on April 1, 2015.
We welcome submissions of previously unpublished work from established as well as new writers. Submissions are on a rolling basis.
Fiction: Send us stories with fleshed out characters and flowing narrative that deliver a strong punch. 1,500-5,000 words.
Poetry: Challenge our perceptions. 10-40 lines
Simultaneous submissions are fine. We do not publish erotica or anything rated R and above.
Please submit your entry in a single MS Word document with “Submission” in the subject line to theliterarynest@gmail.com