The Other Side of the Mailbox

I'm very happy to announce that as of this week, I am one of the new Fiction Editors at Literary Mama.
I have long been a huge fan of theirs, and I love the group of women who have established this fantastic site. Along with Suzanne Kamata, I will be reading short stories by mothers, about the wild, complex, intense experience of parenting. Here are the general Literary Mama guidelines:

Literary Mama seeks:

Short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction (please see specific guidelines by genre below).

Writing rooted in/inspired by the experience of motherhood.

Submissions written by writers of all ages who are also self-identified mothers: biological, non-biological, step, transgendered, foster, grand, or adoptive.

We prefer previously unpublished work. We will consider reprints, however, if you have the rights and the work is not currently available online.

Authors retain rights. Please credit us if your work is republished.

Standard response time from 3-12 weeks. Manuscripts are read year round except for June and December.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, as long as you notify us if accepted elsewhere.

Electronic submissions only. Please send submissions to the appropriate departmental editors (see genre guidelines below). Include a brief cover letter.

What we tend to like:

Revelation so stark that it hurts. Pathos can reveal, but so can humor and joy.

Superior craft (clarity, concrete details, strong narrative development).

Ambiguity, complexity, depth, thoughtfulness, delicacy, humor, irreverence, lyricism, sincerity; the elegant and the raw.

And more about our specific department:

Editors: Susan Ito and Suzanne Kamata, fiction@literarymama.com

The fiction department seeks short fiction of less than 6,000 words. We love:

Stories with strong narrative structure, great characters, interesting settings, beautiful language, complicated themes.

Fiction that reflects the full experience -- the hard parts and the joyous.

Fiction at a flat-out, heart-racing run.

Fiction that meanders slowly and irrevocably.

Please send submissions in the text of an email along with a brief cover letter. Please put "Fiction Submission from Your Name" in the subject heading. (we get an insane amount of spam) We report in 3-8 weeks.

I hope to be reading some of your work! If you write poetry or creative nonfiction, visit here and scroll down to those sections.