I listed a bunch of open mics in my last post on Thursday, and was soon told about other events in the area. One weekly open mic takes place at Brass & Bone, a restaurant in South Norwalk, CT, every Tuesday at 8pm. Music, storytelling, and readings welcome. More details here (along with their other events).
Connecticut Book Festivals hosts Writer Sneak Peeks on the third Thursday evening of every month from 6-8pm at the Norwalk Public Library. If you’d like to read, contact Luca DiMatteo or Andrea Pettite to be added to the schedule. The same event also runs on the third Wednesday of each month from 6-8pm at the Cafe Atlantique in Milford and on the third Friday from 6-8pm at Spruce Coffee in New Haven respectively. They’re always looking for new authors to present their work.
After months (or years) of writing, are you left with nothing but a folder full of false starts? Do you have a novel you were once excited to write but abandoned after only a few chapters—or even halfway through? Are you trapped in an endless cycle of rewrites, self-doubt, and perfectionism? This sounds like it might help. Page One to Done, by Jessica Brody, author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, explains her Novel Fast Drafting Method: a proven approach for getting your book out of your head and onto the page in as little as 30 days. It’s a 3-phase process that’s helped thousands of writers finish their first drafts in weeks instead of years.
And it wouldn’t be my post if I didn’t mention my Canadian heroes, Authors Publish. Here’s their latest offering: 30 New Literary Magazines to Send Your Work To. New literary journals are a great way to break into publishing. Not only do they often have higher acceptance rates, they often have more enthusiastic and thoughtful editors. Here are thirty new journals publishing a wide array of writing, so you can find the right opportunity for you. Read the article/list here.
WRITING CONTESTS
If you’re writing a novel, consider entering the CRAFT First Chapters Contest, which encourages novelists to harness the energy of their openings for the opportunity to win a $2,000 award, excerpt publication, and a full manuscript critique by Artful Editor. Deadline June 28. They award $2,800 and publication. Your manuscript need not be complete for you to enter your first chapters. Here’s what Guest Judge Deb Olin Unferth would love to read: “I’m looking for a first chapter of a novel that, by the end of it, a few things are happening: I’m moved by the narrative voice—maybe it feels unique and inviting, or rebellious. Also, I’m deep into a character, I feel like I want to know them. And I need to be pulled along by the momentum of the story, promises are being made to me. The style needs to light me up, as well. Also, I’d like to know that this is all important somehow, that the story is about larger ideas, beliefs, global problems or philosophical ones.” Everyone who submits will also receive a 10 percent discount from Artful Editor on any editorial services. Learn More & Submit here.
The Welkin Genre Prize is a British-based competition for microfiction up to 100 words that aims to celebrate writing around different genres and themes. For 2026, the categories are: the Earth Prize (writing about landscape and the environment, or about the human connection with the earth), the Joy Prize ( joyful or humorous writing, or writing that moves towards a sense of hope), the Body Prize (writing about the human body or writing that engages with the theme of illness or disability), the History Prize (writing that takes us into the past, whether that be a real past or an alternate past) and the Firefly Prize (writing with a speculative bent -fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, ghost stories, horror). The competition is open to all forms of narrative prose (fiction and non-fiction), be that flash fiction, short-short, vignette, haibun, hermit crab, prose poem, or work that sits outside such labels. There’s a whole universe (or welkin) of possibilities. Deadline: 3pm BritishST/10am ET on June 30. Details and rules here.
Happy writing!
