Write, Publish, and Shine

How to Get Published: Craft a Compelling Opening Yes, your opening matters. A strong start hooks readers and editors alike. Ensure your first few lines grab attention and set the tone for what follows. I’m sharing the third lesson from my 14 years on Room’s editorial collective. We’re diving into one of the most crucial elements of your writing: crafting compelling openings. Learn why a strong sta...

In this episode of the Write, Publish, and Shine podcast, I share valuable insights from my 14-year journey at Room Magazine. I emphasize the importance of building relationships with literary magazines and choosing the right publications for your work. I discuss the power of vulnerability in writing, encourage persistence in submissions, and offer tips for connecting with literary communities tha...

Themed submission calls can unlock buried stories, while offering a clear focus and deadlines. In this episode, I share tips for embracing themes when submitting to literary magazines and a curated list of upcoming lit mag themes and deadlines to inspire your writing. --- Get my Writerly Love Letters, sent Wednesdays and filled with ideas and care for you and your writing: rachelthompson.co/letter...

In this episode, we’re diving into a topic on many writers’ minds: the choice between pursuing a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing and enrolling in online writing courses. Whether you’re just starting your writing journey or looking to take your skills to the next level, this guide will help you understand each path’s key benefits and challenges. We'll explore everything from the struc...

In this episode, I delve into the importance and crafting of cover letters for literary magazine submissions. A cover letter is not as crucial as the quality of the writing itself—yet, it does play a significant role in making a solid first impression and demonstrating your professionalism as a writer. In a detailed breakdown of the elements of a cover letter, I outline the importance of brevity,...

Dear writers, I'm thrilled to present the 100th episode of the podcast! I have delighted in each of the conversations and episodes I've been able to share with you, and talking to writers and covering topics on how to write, publish, and shine. Thank you to the writers who listen to each episode and especially those who share what they gleaned or the little ways they were encouraged to keep going....

Memoirist Yolande House sits down with me for a book club conversation about Kae Tempest’s On Connection . It was a real pleasure to read this book alongside her and compare notes. And I hope those of you reading alongside us in our book club enjoy it. About On Connection : This is a book about connection. About how immersing ourselves in creativity can help us cultivate greater self-awareness and...

The Write, Publish, and Shine podcast, hosted by me, author and literary magazine editor Rachel Thompson, celebrates its 99th episode! I reflect on the podcast journey and past episodes, highlighting eleven essential writing tips from literary magazine editors who have been guests on the show. Listen if you need encouragement to write, publish, and shine. Editors share how and why to read deeply,...

In the conversation with Amy Friend, the artist discusses her creative process, the influence of her personal experiences on her work, and the themes of loss, longing, and home that pervade her art. Her childhood experiences, growing up in a neighbourhood populated by immigrants, and the stories she heard from them deeply influenced her work. She emphasizes the importance of play, openness, and le...

We are playing summer reading bingo these next few months, with 24 squares representing categories of books you can read. And you are invited. Grab your card to play along with us , then choose a row, column, or diagonal line, or complete the card. Why are we, a writing community and I, an instructor of writing courses, doing this book bingo? I answer this question in the episode. Listen as I dig...

Writer and Room contributor ViNa Nguyễn discusses their choice to deliberately write about joy as a writer who writes about grief and nostalgia. We also talked about their experimental writing and, in particular, the brilliant piece, A Nesting of Bracketed Bodies , which I published in Room 's “Ghosts” issue; they also read from the work for us, so prepare your earbuds for some delightful fiction...

Listen if you’ve been looking for books to support your writing practice, or maybe a list of books to give another writer in your life, or if you’ve been wanting to read with a community of writers, too, and need some guidance to get started. -- Writerly Reading for Your Summer Get your free bingo card and play along with us for Writerly Prizes. rachelthompson.co/bookclub Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Lina Lau, writer, mother, and owner of too many notebooks, has published short memoir in X-R-A-Y, Prairie Fire, Hippocampus (where she is now a reader as well), Carte Blanch, and Little Fiction/Big Truths. We discuss how flash memoir writing captures a moment and the characteristics required of memoirists. Lina also reads a 100-word story, bringing us into the experience of writing and publishing...

Welcome to our last instalment of this string of episodes on writing with limitations and disabilities. I’m so happy to end this with the wonderful Cicely Belle Blain, the final member of my writing community who kindly agreed to join us to discuss limitations and disabilities when it comes to writing. Reading from Cicely’s bio: Cicely Belle Blain is a Black/mixed, queer femme activist, equity and...

Welcome to our semi-final instalment of this string of episodes on writing with limitations and disabilities. In this episode, writer S.L. Shuter, a member of my Writerly Love Community, talks about embracing an identity related to her diagnosis and the push back she received for this. Set L. Shuter is a writer, filmmaker and storyteller from Toronto. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from T...

Welcome to the next instalment of this string of episodes on writing with limitations and disabilities. In this episode, Crystal Randall Barnett, a member of my Writerly Love Community, adds to the conversations we’ve been having in this series of episodes on writing slowly and listening to your body. Crystal Randall Barnett is an emerging writer from Ontario. She has been published by The League...

Welcome to the fourth instalment of this string of episodes on the theme of writing with limitations and disabilities. Andrea Martineau is a writer, poet, bibliophile, and phytomaniac (I had to look that one up: a plant lover!) with a penchant for heritage buildings and their paranormal tenants. Her poetry has previously been published and shared in untethered magazine , Blank Spaces , [SPACE], Fi...

Welcome to my next conversation in this run of episodes on writing with disabilities and limitations. In this episode, I sit down with Amy Yuki Vickers, a new writer in our community and a recent alum of my Lit Mag Love course. Amy is the author of the blog and newsletter The Intentional Hulk , writes short stories and personal essays, and is at work on a memoir. And, as she says in her bio, becau...

Welcome to the next episode in this run of episodes on writing with disabilities and limitations. In this episode, a wonderful Writerly Love Community member, Olwen Wilson talks with me about following joy and writing with a chronic condition. We discuss labels and their conflicting appeal/repellent nature. And, what I suspect will be a through line of all these episodes: listening to our bodies a...

Welcome to the first interview in my series of episodes on writing with disabilities and limitations. I sit down with a wonderful Writerly Love membership community member, Shantell Powell, a two-spirit author, artist, and self-described swamp hag who grew up on the land and off the grid. Her publication credits include Augur , Solarpunk Magazine , MetaStellar , The Deadlands , and honestly keep r...

The Write, Publish, Shine Intensive, which brings together my three courses: Write and Light, a course to get writers generating new, more profound work; Revision Love, my course on learning to self-edit your writing; and Lit Mag Love, my flagship course on getting published in literary journals. All of the resources mentioned in the episode are in the show notes at rachelthompson.co/podcast/79 Le...

In this episode, I sit down with our Community Facilitator, Meli Walker, to discuss what we do to make our online course community more accessible to writers with disabilities and limitations. This episode marks the beginning of a run of episodes focusing on writing with limitations/disability. Coming up, you’ll hear me talk with writers with various challenges about what they need to write, how t...

“Nothing has to happen in the story. There doesn't need to be explosions or big shocking twists. It's just enough to have well-developed characters and a beautiful world.” —Terese Mason Pierre, Augur Terese Mason Pierre is co-Editor-in-Chief of Augur , a Canadian speculative literature journal, and has published work in Hobart , The Puritan , Quill and Quire , and Strange Horizons . Her work has b...

Lina Lau, writer, mother, and owner of too many notebooks, has published short memoir in X-R-A-Y, Prairie Fire, Hippocampus (where she is now a reader as well), Carte Blanch, and Little Fiction/Big Truths. We talk about how flash memoir writing captures a moment, how Lina reads a 100-word story and brings us into the experience of writing it, and also about the characteristics required of memoiris...

All craft is political. It’s how we, as writers, resist injustices and dream up better worlds. So, listen to this conversation with the brilliant Kavita Das, and then take up your pen. Kavita Das really takes us on an intentional journey with her deep knowledge of social justice work. She challenges us to unpack our motivations for writing about an issue and to understand that “writing, irrespecti...