Nicole Melanson ~
In coincidental celebration with International Women’s Day, I’ll be releasing the first News & Opportunities from WordMothers newsletter tomorrow.
I’ve been gathering contacts for this through the pop-up that features on this site, so if you haven’t signed up yet, may I invite you again to do so soon?
The aim of the newsletter is to offer more time-sensitive information around open submission calls for women writers, upcoming feminist literary events and festivals etc.
From time to time, I’ll also draw attention to new journals and publishers that focus on women’s writing. There are lots hitting the scene these days, but sometimes they struggle to get off—and stay off—the ground, so I’d love to give them a warm welcome from the start.
What the newsletter will NOT be doing is featuring guest posts, book reviews, or anything that’s part of the blog, so you can safely follow both without receiving lots of duplicate content.
I am also in the process of going through the Resources on this site to weed out dead links. Sadly, for all the new journals and organizations cropping up ATM, as many folded or went on hiatus over the course of the pandemic. It is a mammoth task keeping the listings current and I try to balance including things as soon as they launch against maintaining a database of established, consistent opportunities unlikely to disappear within 6 months.
That said, if you come across a broken link or defunct site, please shoot me a message so I can remove it. There seems to be an unfortunate trend of any expired domain related to women getting snapped up by p-o-r-n sites (broken up not to be twee but to dodge bots) and I hate finding out people have been clicking on what they think is a lovely literary journal and landing on something NSFW instead.
Occasionally, people ask me to shout-out their new releases, launches, readings etc. I won’t be doing that on an individual level here or on the newsletter, but if you’re part of a broader community or service that might be of interest to other women writers, you know of a timely call for submissions or entries, or there’s a women’s writing festival, conference, or similar on the horizon, please get in touch and I’ll see if I can include it.
I can’t promise the newsletter will be a really regular thing as I’ve been very busy with client projects as well as my own writing, but I’ll do my best!
You can sign up for the newsletter here: WordMothers’ News & Opportunities for Women Writers
FYI I have a similar database + newsletter supporting writers with disabilities on my personal website, so if that’s of interest to you or someone you know, you can find that at www.nicolemelanson.com and sign up for that newsletter here: Writing News & Opportunities from Nicole Melanson.
(On a side note, I like to learn at least one new thing a day, and today I have finally taught myself how to embed a sign-up form in content! And it’s only 9:00 in the morning! Next I will study how to customize said forms so they look a little less My First Sign-Up Form. LOL)
Thanks!
x Nicole
WordMothers - for women writers & women’s writing 