I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you all here…
Apparently my pandemic binge-watch is going to be every mystery movie and series that I’ve got access to. Or at least that’s what it looks like this month. So in that spirit, allow me to present you with a mystery quote from one of our judges:
I’ve never wanted writers’ contact information before but I wish I could send a note to everyone in this group – all but two essays were likely publishable just about as-is and the other two really only wanted a good editor to make them publishable. I hope the writers are planning to look for appropriate calls for submissions.
What group? It’s a mystery. Which two essays? Also a mystery. The good news is that you don’t have to solve the mystery to just assume it applies to you, touch up your essay if you want, and try to find a home for it. After all, it’s yours.
As always, anything that went right this round is entirely due to our admin team’s untiring work behind the scenes, and anything you hate is probably my fault. Unless it’s your feedback—hating and loving your feedback is just kind of part of being a writer.
Before we announce who’ll be moving on, let’s take a moment to chat about the next round of the Super Challenge. Starting Friday, the advancing writers will be working with a word or a phrase. Each writer will incorporate that word or phrase into an essay about… well, about wherever it takes them for inspiration. The essay could be personal or persuasive. The catch is that the word or phrase shouldn’t stick out or sound unnatural. Words should flow, nuance should be on-point, and our judges shouldn’t be able to tell where your writing ends and our prompt begins. This may mean that you need to adapt your writing style a bit throughout the rest of the essay so that it doesn’t stand out awkwardly. Need a little extra help? Check out our Navigating Prompts post on word or phrase prompts.
Sound fun? Let’s see who’ll be taking on that, er, super challenge:
Congratulations to Our Advancing Writers
Let’s have a hand for the following writers, in alphabetical order, who will be advancing to the next round of the Super Challenge:
CG Aubrey
Cindy Cook DeRuyter
Melinda Hagenson
Michelle Hanley
Anna Hiller
D.A. Lockett
Kate Macolini
Madeleine Pelletier
Alison Pereto
Johannah Simon
Frances Turner
Shelby Van Pelt
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Writers, if you don’t have your feedback, please send us an email at superchallenge@yeahwrite.me, ’cause that email should have reached you about twelve hours ago.
Now that this round of the competition is over, you’re free to post your work anywhere on the Internet you like, or take our judges’ suggestions and rework your submission to send on to other venues and anthologies. If it finds a home, we’d love to hear about it in the Coffeehouse! And if you choose to post it to your personal site or blog, you can share that link in the Coffeehouse as well.
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
