Category: writing

call for submissions, Celebrations, garden of neuro, napowrimo, national poetry month, poetry, prompts, short story, workshop, writing

What now?

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
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First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! If you participated in any way for National Poetry Month, BRAVO to you!

Do you have a stack of poetry to read, edit, scratch your head over? Where do you go from here?

There nothing quite like a critique group to help you sort this out. Do you have such a group? They are out there. Check with other poets to find out where they go. In this area of North Carolina there is an excellent group via Living Poetry. Here’s a link to check it out! https://www.meetup.com/living-poetry/events/305658373/?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link

Poets and Writers AKA PW.org has a variety of groups, including online critique groups. You can check them out here: https://groups.pw.org/browse-all-groups

There are others, I have no doubts. Just ask around and I bet you find a group. Anything I have worked on via a critique group has been published and rather quickly.

Poetry Editors can also be helpful. You will have the advantage of 1:1 feedback. It takes a bit of time to find that right match. This is often a paid service unless you work out a mutual feedback relationship.

Meet others in common at Poetry Workshops. Chances are that if you put it out there that you would like a writing partner, you will find someone or a group to work with. I participate in a weekly prompt workshop. In this it’s up to you to be prompt centric or to veer off. I tend to veer off. It’s a PW.org group called The Time is Now. It only last about 30-45 minutes and it helps to interact with others.

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You have polished your work and now is the time to publish. There are multiple journals accepting submissions. Where do you find them? I use Duotrope. because I like the feedback feature in which you can determine if the publisher is a good match. There is also a tracking feature for all your submissions. As one who runs a Facebook group, I share when I find what sound like good matches. I especially focus on paying publications, preferably ones who don’t charge.

Submittable is another option for finding a variety of places to submit.

As an editor for FineLines.org I recommend this journal, which has been around for 35 years, for submissions of poetry, art, essays, short stories, and photography.

There are also several calls for submissions from poets and writers of which I regularly have contact. Here they are:

Feed the Holy

Chewers by Masticadores

Masticadores USA

Latinos USA

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Have you found that National Poetry Month has helped you with all the prompts? Check out the options for regular prompts.

Living Poetry has regular prompts and you can even share your work on their blog.

Metaphor Dice are fun for creating metaphors. You can make a game of these.

Garden of Neuro Institute has frequent poetry prompts and events in their Poetry Group. There are also regular workshops and open mics.

Wordsmith Weekly is a Saturday group in which attendees work with prompts and share.

If you are interested in a special Call for Submissions with a specific theme, you might want to check out this one: https://www.gardenofneuropublishing.com/

I hope this is helpful. There is a lot more information out there, but I thought I would open up the discussion.

Happy Writing!

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If you have a completed manuscript, feel free to submit to ProlificPulse.com We are reviewing submissions for 2026.

Book Announcements, call for submissions, Celebrations, Contests, napowrimo, national poetry month, poetry, prompts, writing

Quirky Prompt 26: Birds Wear Bowties

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

In honor of April’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), and to celebrate the upcoming release of “Seesaw,” a quirky poetry collaborative book by Ken Tomaro and me, I will post a quirky prompt each day in April. Submit your best quirky response poem (no more than 26 lines) to the Seesaw contest on Prolific Pulse Press:https://forms.gle/3a3NBmohikms19yA8 […]

Quirky Prompt 26: Birds Wear Bowties
prompts, short story, writing

“Skunked!” A Quirky Essay by Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

PeeWee, my part Pekinese/poodle/dachshund mutt, loved to go on walks. He would explore every little bit of nature. As I chatted away with my walking mate, Peewee kept up the pace, then nosed through a ditch. Suddenly, a black striped animal emerged. “Skunk!” is all I had to yell when my friend and I broke […]

“Skunked!” A Quirky Essay by Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
Announcements, Book Announcements, book launch, books, Celebrations, Short Fiction, short story, writing

ANNOUNCEMENT! Yellow Chrysanthemum by Munmun “Sam” Samanta is Now Available

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Set in contemporary India, “Yellow Chrysanthemum” is a stirring collection celebrating the lives of Durga, Uma, Tihar, Somlata, Mridula, and fifteen other women from rural villages to bursting cities. These women are not passive victims but survivors and warriors who have the courage to challenge the status quo of society, which always seeks to silence their voices.

As the author, I wrote this book to pay my homage to the women who continue challenging society’s oppressive forces. If you are in search of a book that will both challenge and inspire you, “Yellow Chrysanthemum” is a top pick. Take part in the celebration of women’s voices, a call for justice, and a reminder of the incredible power that exists within us all to rise above, no matter the odds.
Munmun Samanta


~Storytelling, Truth-telling

The commodity of these twenty stories is the struggle of a woman as an artist, as a family member, and as an individual in society. In “Written in Blood,” which concludes the collection, Asima, the protagonist, says, “But conventional society never teaches a woman to strike back.” In every story, the author strikes back forcefully and eloquently, in sentences that are as poignant as they are poetic. “Mother India, which begins the collection, is about poverty, hunger, and a mother’s determination to feed herself and her children. It’s a visceral story, one feels as they read. In “The Caged Bird,” Tihar,” trapped in a repressive marriage, identifies with the bird she sets free. And in “The Dawn of Sia’s Dream,” the “confluence of light and shadow” that the writer-protagonist loves may be seen as the conflict that drives her story, as if her story is also the sky’s. Its underlying theme is the imagination’s power to transcend, a theme also in ” A Girl Made of Darkness, about an artist who has struggled with society’s prejudice of people, like her, with dark skin. Each story in the collection is an integral part of the whole and told in a voice that arrives in each instance at some truth. Yellow Chrysanthemum establishes Munmun Samanta as a topnotch writer of fiction not only in India but also throughout the world.

– Peter Mladinic, Author of “Files of Information for People who Don’t Exist”

Mumnum Samanta’s short story collection, “Yellow Chrysanthemum,” is a treasure chest of joy and strength that springs from the neglect, abuse, betrayal, and invisibility of 20 women. These women are flowers in a hostile world that crushes them underfoot. Yet somehow, they take root and bloom.

We only need the eyes to see what we take for granted. This book will open those eyes.

– Nolcha Fox, author of “End of Earth”

Yellow Chrysanthemum is available at online stores.