Saturday, September 03, 2005

Call for Submissions

Amy Brozio-Andrews, Managing Editor over at Absolute Write, sent me the following information on an anthology to benefit the Red Cross:

Call for Submissions: Stories of Strength

Those who've been affected by Hurricane Katrina will need our help for years to come. This is one way writers can help in an ongoing way.

Stories of Strength will be an anthology of essays, poems, and stories produced by the members of AbsoluteWrite.com, with 100% of the proceeds to be donated to the Red Cross for disaster relief. It will be released in paperback by Lulu, with a possible e-book version as well.

Writers are asked to participate by donating work to this anthology.

Reprints and simultaneous submissions are fine. Please do not submit more than two pieces.

The stories are meant to be uplifting. They may be humorous, dramatic, or inspirational; they may be nonfiction or fiction. Please avoid expletives -- this is a PG-rated book.

Possible sections include:

1. Physical strength: e.g., running a marathon, recovering from a car accident, climbing a mountain.

2. Strength of spirit: Finding faith even when the situation looks grim.

3. Borrowing strength: When a friend helped you through a trying time, when a community came together to help a family, etc.

4. Role models of strength: Stories of people you admire for their resilience.

5. The strength to start over: Stories about building a new life after alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, death of a loved one, etc.


We would also appreciate tips sheets related to emergency preparations for natural disasters.

-What to do in case of a fire
-What to do in case of a hurricane
-What belongs in an emergency kit
-Etc.

It's okay if your idea doesn't fit neatly into one of these sections.

We prefer submissions to be a maximum of 1200 words, but this is not a hard cut-off. (We will absolutely not accept anything beyond 2000 words.) Shorter stories and poems are welcomed.

You retain the rights to your work; all we require is one-time anthology rights.

Please send your work in the body of an e-mail to (Ms.) Macallister Stone at macallisterstone @ yahoo.com and be sure to put the word STRENGTH in the subject line.

You may also include a short (35 words or fewer) bio with your submission.

The deadline is not firm and will depend on the volume of submissions, but we'd like to receive submissions by Friday, September 16th.

To follow the progress of this project, please visit http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18397 .

Thank you,
Jenna Glatzer
Editor-in-chief
AbsoluteWrite.com

5 comments:

  1. This is a great idea. Thanks for posting it : )

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  2. Anonymous12:35 PM

    Since we are on the Gulf Coast instead of in Florida, we always have the option of driving away and getting out of hurricane range. And we always did that.

    Since we never stayed for hurricanes so we didn't keep such things in the house. We always have a bug-out kit on hand (no matter where we've lived, hurricanes or no) and that's what we grabbed when we left. That plus a little extra clothing.

    But when you leave for a hurricane, you expect to be back in two or three days at the most. This one is different and I'm finding that I have to put together an extraction plan for enough stuff to carry us over an 8 week period away from home.

    We have a plan in mind (See my blog comments for details at http://www.fobrienandrew.com/soap ) and hope that it works out.

    Bottom line is that we don't know how bad things really are back in my neighborhood. I don't know if I have a roof or not, a house or not. Things look good from what little info I get on the net, but we really don't know and not knowing is hard to take. If it is all destroyed, I'll still be relieved when I find out because the waiting will be over.

    Keep your fingers crossed for me and stay safe yourselves.

    -- F

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  3. I have a story at my blog that isn't by a writer, but I wish anyone who said "let 'em shoot each other" would read.

    http://katerothwell.blogspot.com/2005/09/hey-he-said-get-story-outwell-okay.html

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  4. Thanks for the link.

    I've joined Absolute Write and polished an old story that might fit. I hope I'll be able to come up with another one. Dang, where are the plotbunnies when you need them.

    A tiny donation (I'm unemployed and don't have much myself) and my writing is all I can give. I wish it was more.

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  5. In case anyone checks in here, THANKS!! And I wanted to let you know the anthology is now available at www.storiesofstrength.com. We've already raised more than $2000 for disaster relief charities and we're going strong!

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