Hi poets — September seems to be a time of re-committing to practice, even if you’re not formally teaching or returning to school. If you’re considering workshops to take (or lead) now, check out Workshops4Gaza.
They’re bringing writers, artists, and educators together to offer online workshops, with all proceeds going to Palestinians. They’ve got a handful of upcoming workshops and are looking for more folks to lead workshops.
I wanted to highlight Samah Fadil’s upcoming workshop: 15 Memories, Poetry as History. It’s on October 12, and proceeds will benefit Samah’s sister, who is resettling her family in Canada after surviving genocide.
🎉 Milestone: Submission Fee Support
We’ve passed $10,000 in funds redistributed to over 200 poets who otherwise couldn’t afford submission fees to get their books out there.
Thank you to everyone who has chipped into this fund and to paid supporters here on Substack—half of every paid subscription goes toward submission fee support.
Requests continue to come in at a quick pace this year, and they continue to exceed the funds available. I’m catching up on a recent surge in emails on this project and appreciate your patience!
You can find more details here.
Creative Support: Workshops, Awards & More
If you’re writing and submitting in solidarity with writers facing genocide now, I included tips for researching and vetting organizations in this document. Even a couple minutes of searching Twitter, Substack, or an organization’s website can be clarifying.
Sept 20 — Periplus, a mentoring collective, is open for applications for its 2025 fellowships, for writers in the United States who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
Sept 23 — The 2025 Tin House Winter Online Workshop is offering a scholarship for Palestinian writers, with no application fee.
Sept 23 — The McColl Center is accepting applications for its artist-in-residence program for parents and educators who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate.
Jan 6 — The Glen Arbor Arts Center is accepting applications for its 2025 artists-in-residence program. This is near me in northern Michigan, where water waits for you in every direction. If you’ve never been to Lake Michigan, I promise she’s full of good writing energy. I’d like to cover the application fee for one writer for whom it’s a barrier—drop me a note out if that’s you.
Feb 1 — Sundress Academy for the Arts is now open for applications to its spring 2025 residency. They use a reparations payment model, with support grants available to cover the cost of travel, food, and child care.
Songs of the Sunbirds, a column at New Orleans Review, has welcomed three new editors and increased the honorarium for prose pieces to $300. They’re seeking submissions in a variety of formats, from poetry to video to letters and art and more. All contributions are paid, and submissions are free.
Rolling — Sundress Reads is looking for recently published books to review.
Upcoming Deadlines
Between now and late October, there are two reading periods with presses that are working in solidarity with writers facing genocide:
Heads up for October—be my press mate! Game Over Books will be open October 1 through October 5 for books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. I’ve loved my experience with Game Over and admire my press mates a ton… I know I probably sound deeply earnest whenever I talk about this, but the publishing machine can be so disillusioning, and this crew just gives me hope.
Nov 30 — Abode Press is open for poetry and hybrid chapbook submissions. Fee waivers are available for queer and/or trans writers of color.
PACBI isn’t the last word on or only form of solidarity, but it’s a place to begin. If you’re submitting in solidarity with writers facing genocide now, in Palestine and elsewhere, it’s a way to find presses that are more likely to share your values in spirit and in practice. Publishers for Palestine and Writers Against the War on Gaza both have lists of presses committed to PACBI.
There are about a dozen deadlines for full-length poetry books between now and mid-October. The full spreadsheet of upcoming manuscript deadlines is available here.
The bulletin is made by Emily Stoddard, and the big list of poetry publishers came together as she found a publisher (Game Over Books) for her poetry debut, Divination with a Human Heart Attached. If you have updates to a publisher’s listing or want to share a resource, please leave a comment.