MANDIRA PATTNAIK

July 02, 2025

Hey friends! How about starting this month’s newsletter by sharing some submission calls I’m really excited about and believe you will be too. Hudson Review is open all month to a no-fee #poetrycontest 1st prize: $1000 + publication, 2nd & 3rd: $500 + publication. Submit up to 5 poems; manuscripts accepted electronically. Stone’s Throw (Rock and a Hard Place Magazine) is seeking women-led stories and female-identifying protagonists and is offering $25 per accepted story. This opportunity is open only until July 5 without fee. Claudine: A Literary Magazine is a newly launched paying micro prose magazine that is seeking Micro Fiction, Micro Creative Nonfiction, and Prose Chapbook Reviews fee-free. Discretionary Love is not a paying venue but is submission fee-free too, and they are fabulous to work with. Seeking poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction, essays and articles until July 15th. Discretionary Love published this story of mine in 2023. If you have a piece that pushes the boundaries of form, message, and voice in fresh and unpredictable ways, consider SAND Journal. Typically pays €20-€40 per piece and is now open to limited number of free subs for Issue 29. Again, they are extremely nice to work with. I was a contributor to SAND’s Issue 26: Shifting. Also, Flash Frog is open to fee-free subs of ghost stories and Flash Fiction Online is open to fee-free subs on the theme of “Regret”. Both are paying venues. Does It Have Pockets just published my CNF piece today. They pay $10 for publication and are open now for fee-based submissions (next fee-free period in August!), but at the moment you can send pitches without fee. Happy submitting!

Allow me to draw your attention to an interview of Lydia Davis in The Paris Review. “I am always examining how I live my life.”, says Lydia which seemed so true for many of us, particularly writers. She offers a very interesting window to her process when she says: “And here is a conundrum, a puzzle, and often one question will lead to other questions that seem logical to me. What do I treat the best and why? But again, it’s stylized. I’m leaving out a great deal. It’s not a complete picture…. If I take a short break from work and lie down on the sofa to read and stay there half an hour instead of ten minutes, just how bad is that? Is that really bad?” 

Talking similarly about process, Chanel Sutherland says: ‘My love for storytelling began before I even fully understood what a story was—I only knew they made me feel something, and I wanted to make others feel it too.  Back in Saint Vincent, I used to scrawl my earliest stories into the sand in our yard, knowing they’d be washed away by rain or footsteps.” Chanel was declared the Commonwealth Prize 2025 overall winner for the story “Descend“. Dr Vilsoni Hereniko, Chair, 2025 Judging Panel, called the story “deep and profound”. I haven’t read the story yet, but will be doing so soon. If you have, do share your thoughts on it.

I discussed the issue of ELJ Editions suddenly going silent in my last newsletter. Seems they are back up. They went completely off after April 08-09 but are quite active on Twitter now. That’s good news! Also good news is that National Flash Fiction Day was celebrated with enthusiasm across the globe again this year, around June 14, as is done every year. I was fortunate to moderate a panel for FESTIVAL OF FLASH, NFFD New Zealand. Seven writers from Arizona to Singapore to Japan to Wellington joined me to discuss “FROM THERE TO HERE: Writing Across Geographies”. It was especially illuminating for writers who attempt to write across geographies. I was lucky to discuss and participate in the proceedings around how I’ve been styling my local narratives for a global readership.

Speaking of global readerships, do you think readership is rising? Are more people reading your published pieces, sharing and liking them OR do you think readership is on the decline. Share your thoughts below. Whatever may be the case, writers are certainly growing in numbers. Duotrope published an excellent report on changes in average response times year to year; percentages of acceptance, decline, withdrawals etc. year to year; and average submissions fees over the years. According to this report, submission fees have steadily risen in the last 6-7 years while acceptances have gone up too. Were you, like many others, already suspecting this to be the case?

Another interesting chart (pasted below) was posted by Brecht De Poortere, from an extensive database he maintains. According to Brecht, 43% of top 100 journals offer free submissions. Within the top 500, it’s just under two thirds. Outside the top 500, it’s slightly higher.

PRO-TIP: What I noticed in the database reports by Duotrope and Brecht was that something has been fairly consistent between 2009 and 2025! It is the average percentage of “Non-Responsive” submissions. Around 4% of submissions will never be responded to! How odd is that? And why? My tip would be to quietly withdraw a submission when you suspect that the venue has trashed it/forgotten about it 😀

Finally, the all important Year-end Flash Fiction specific honors list was out–Wigleaf Top 50 List of Very Small fictions 2025! I had my best showing there this year–one in the Top 50 and THREE in the longlist! Quite unbelievable after I’d had a fairly quiet writing year.

Selecting Editor Gerardo Sámano Córdova said: “Choosing only 50 gems among this wealth of short prose was not easy. These selections show the absolute magic that few words, artfully stringed, produce. I gravitated toward wonderfully weird and playful pieces, those with a sharp and silly sense of humor, those that revelled in joy and tenderness, and those that ultimately led me places I couldn’t foresee. Please enjoy these delights.” Notice the words used: “weird”, “playful”, “sharp and silly sense of humor” and “joy and tenderness”. I think these reference words (in the brief note) perhaps offer a window to tastes of global readers I talked about earlier.

Recommended Reading: Of course, this month I’d only recommend the stories that made the longlist and the top 50 list in Wigleaf List of Very Small Fictions 2025. An absolute treasure trove to learn the craft of small fictions.

Finally, some fun: Are you worried about your social media engagement stats? Here’s a fun guide that is hilarious & received a lot of traction (9.9K views!).

If you are new here, my latest craft essay Unlocking Creativity: Writing to Themes Tips and Techniques might be helpful. You may find many more craft essays published over the years HERE. Before I go, please remember to subscribe (it’s free!), and if you’re able, please support my work through a small donation on PayPal. Thank you.

This blog is a monthly newsletter published on the first week that is truly a newsletter–updates from the literary world, open windows, a few personal updates, some tips, opinions and conversations, and a round-up of stories I truly recommend. If you enjoyed this, please share with your friends. Consider subscribing, commenting and/or liking this post. Thanks!