TAKE IT FROM A FICTION READER: getting through the first pass at lit journals

What happens to your short story once you’ve submitted it to literary journals? Who reads your piece, and what happens next? Although each venue runs things a little differently, almost all have a first-pass read, which is where most stories end their journeys.

In this weekend-long workshop, you’ll learn strategies for breaking through that screening read to move on to the next level (and, hopefully, to publication!). Using expertise gained from a published writer and long-time fiction reader at Ploughshares and other journals, you’ll learn about common pitfalls that keep readers from turning the page, and you’ll polish the first three pages of a story so that first-pass readers stay engaged and curious . . . right up to the end. You’ll also learn about different tools for finding journals and tracking your submissions.

This session will be half discussion, half workshop. All participants are invited to bring in three…