LitFriends: What if the World is a Mess Because You've Been Silent?
“Constantly defining yourself in opposition to what others say about you is not self-knowledge. It’s confusion.”
— Ayad Akhtar, Homeland Elegies
It is easy to look at the world right now and think: what a mess.
The noise is relentless. The problems are enormous. The systems feel stubborn. And one person’s voice can seem too small to matter.
But the only thing that has ever changed culture, government, or the direction of a community is a whole lot of people using their voices for good.
Not perfectly or suddenly, but persistently, and from their best chosen values.
That is why your voice matters now. Not when you feel ready. Not when the world calms down. Now.
This month’s LitFriends offers a few ways to keep that voice in motion: a memoir article to help you begin, Studio Sessions to help you shape the work, and publications currently calling for writing like yours.
Voices on the Gift of Aging — Update
Thank you to everyone who submitted work to Voices on the Gift of Aging.
Submissions are now closed, and we are entering a reading and editorial period.
We’ll be rereading both new and previously submitted work to assemble an anthology your words deserve to live in. You’ll hear more throughout the year as the project develops.
And because anthologies require a long runway, the next call for submissions will likely go out this summer. If you missed this call, keep writing. Another door is coming.
The Alchemy of Sass — Publishing Update
My next memoir, The Alchemy of Sass, has officially been accepted by a publisher and is currently with the proofreader.
I’ll be sharing more of that process in the months ahead, including ways readers and writers in this community can connect during the book tour, which is likely to begin in early spring next year.
Do contact me if you have ways for us to collaborate in an in-person or online event. Let’s help each other.
New Article: How to Start Writing a Memoir
You do not need to understand your whole story before you begin.
Sometimes the best way to find the meaning is to start writing toward the memory, question, or contradiction that will not leave you alone.
🌿 Read the article here:
https://amyloujenkins.com/how-to-start-writing-a-memoir/
Writer Clubhouse Studio
These sessions are designed for writers who are ready to finish meaningful projects while learning to use their talents more intentionally and develop useful skills for reaching readers.
The focus is memoir, narrative nonfiction, and personal essay: writing that transforms lived experience into work with clarity, depth, and resonance.
You’ll be hearing more about upcoming Studio Sessions soon.
🌿 Explore Writer Clubhouse Studio here:
https://www.writerclubhouse.com/
Submission Opportunities for Memoir & Personal Essay Writers
If you want to strengthen your writing life, submission practice matters.
Not because publication is the sole measure of worth. It isn’t. But because sending work into the world changes your relationship to it. It asks for seriousness, revision, courage, and clarity.
🌿 Creative Nonfiction Magazine
https://creativenonfiction.org/submissions/
🌿 Hippocampus Magazine
https://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/submissions/
🌿 Poets & Writers Open Reading Periods
https://www.pw.org/open-reading-periods
Individual voices may seem small on their own. But individual voices, joined in the direction of empathy, compassion, curiosity, and justice, are the only way culture has ever shifted.
The world does not improve because everyone suddenly agrees. It improves because people become willing to examine their lives honestly, speak with greater clarity, and refuse to disappear into silence.
Warmly,
Amy Lou Jenkins
LitFriends: literary insights to fuel revolutionary expressions, narratives, and discourse.
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