Submit! Creative Nonfiction Wanted!

Lee Gutkind seems to always be on the lookout for good stuff.

Some submissions require reading fees, some do not.

His call for submissions surfaced in my mailbox this week.

Read on.

BLOGS
With our newfound success publishing blogs in our Best CNF collections (see New Yorker review), we've decided to expand our horizons and will now be accepting blog nominations for upcoming journal issues. Please note, blog nominations will be accepted only through our online submission manager and only during specific reading periods.

We are currently accepting blog nominations until August 31, 2009. We're looking for: Vibrant new voices with interesting, true stories to tell. Narrative, narrative, narrative. Posts that can stand alone, 2000 words max, from 2009.

For more information, or to nominate a blog, click here.

ANIMALS
For an upcoming issue, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about the bonds--emotional, ethical, biological, physical, or otherwise--between humans and animals. We're looking for stories that illustrate ways animals (wild and/or domestic) affect, enrich, or otherwise have an impact on our daily lives.

There is a $20 reading fee--$25 covers the reading fee AND gets you a 4-issue subscription to CNF. Creative Nonfiction editors will be awarding $1500 in prizes.

Submissions must be postmarked by November 13, 2009, and "Animals" must be clearly marked on the envelope and cover letter.

END OF LIFE
Creative Nonfiction is again working with the good folks at SMU Press, this time on a collection tentatively titled "End of Life Stories."

For this collection, we are seeking essays that explore death, dying, and end of life care. We're looking for stories from physicians, nurses, hospice workers, counselors, clergy, family members, and others. Narratives should highlight current features, flaws, and advances in the health care system. Essays must be vivid and dramatic; they should combine a strong and compelling narrative with a significant element of research or information.

There is a $20 reading fee--$25 covers the reading fee AND gets you a 4-issue subscription to CNF. Creative Nonfiction editors will be awarding $2500 in prizes.

Submissions must be postmarked by December 31, 2009, and "End of Life Stories" must be clearly marked on the envelope and cover letter.

GENERAL
Finally, we are always on the lookout for true stories, well-told, about any subject.

We're looking for strong reportage; well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice; an informational quality or instructive element that offers the reader something to learn (an idea, concept or collection of facts, strengthened with insight, reflection and interpretation); and a compelling, focused, sustained narrative that is well-structured, makes sense and conveys meaning.

Submissions are accepted year-round and there is no reading fee.

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Please send all manuscripts, accompanied by a cover letter with complete contact information, SASE, and payment (when necessary) to:

Creative Nonfiction
5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

For more information about any of these collections and complete submission guidelines, visit us online or email us at information@creativenonfiction.org.

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On the Radio:

Luis Urrea today at noon on Bibliocracy, KPFK 90.7 FM.

Luis Alberto Urrea was born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and an American mother. He is an award-winning poet and essayist, author of 11 books. The Devil's Highway, his non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the 2004 Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Pacific Rim Kiriyama Prize. A national best-seller, The Devil's Highway was also named a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times and many other publications. He’s also author of Across the Wire, a memoir, Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life, and a book of short stories, Six Kinds of Sky.

His most recent novel was The Hummingbird's Daughter and now he’s out with a new book, Into the Beautiful North, a story that is part social satire and part genuine, if cheerfully irreverent historical revisionism. Inspired by the film “The Magnificent Seven,” an unlikely group from the small Mexican village of Tres Camarones embarks on a journey to find their own seven protectors, to save the town from drug dealers who have moved in after all the men in town have gone to the beautiful north for work. Urrea’s writing always challenges the hegemony of perspective and point of view, and this laugh of out loud funny, political adventure story about three attractive teenage girls and a gay man takes on stereotypes and embraces pop culture in a story that will charm readers with its ensemble characters and its reconsideration of place and borders and its ironic take on idiom.

Tune in at noon to listen to Andrew Tonkovich's interview with him - or listen later by downloading the podcast at the KPFK archives. Click here - and scroll down to Bibliocracy.