We want to feature your story on our stage
and in our podcast.
In 650 words or fewer, the personal narratives we feature are short, powerful stories about meaningful experiences in your life.
We are looking for work that expresses your unique sensibility and voice. Let us share your joys, hopes, fears, your sense of humor, sense of the sublime or even the ridiculous. We hope our prompts offer you an inspiring spark. We look forward to reading your engaging and well-crafted essays.
1. Your essay can be original, or excerpted or adapted from your own earlier work.
2. Submissions are evaluated by an editorial committee of professional writer/editors.
3. Your essay may be featured in our podcasts as well as future broadcasts and printed anthologies. but it remains yours to publish again elsewhere if you choose.
4. The maximum length of 650 words translates to a five-minute spoken word piece.
5. We'll need your social media handles for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
6. We'll need a 130 word (max) biography. Please tell us more than just your publishing credits.
HI MOM!
We’ve all got one. Maybe you are one. We’re interested in stories about mothers, mothering, and various acts of motherhood, from any and all perspectives. You might also write a letter to your mother, bringing her up to date on the events of your life and the person you’ve become. You can finally tell her what you’ve always wanted to.
DEADLINE: APRIL 1, 2023
Live Show 2PM Saturday, May 13, 2023
JEANS
Some wear them bell bottomed, some tapered. We cut them, squeeze into them and collect them. Ironed, tie dyed, and torn in all the right and wrong places. Worn to weddings and to work in factories. Jeans.
They possess, as Yves St Laurent reminded us, “expression, modesty, sex appeal and simplicity.” Blue, black, or white; tight or loose; your mom’s, your dad’s, your favorite rock star’s.
Whether you call them denim or dungarees, like great love affairs, most of us have a story about a pair we’ve loved or lost along the way. Tell us yours.
DEADLINE: JUNE 1, 2023
Live Show 2PM Sunday, September 10, 2023
HAIR
There are four types of hair: coily, curly, wavy, and straight. But no matter the character of one’s hair—or, let’s be fair, hairlessness—at every age, we spend inordinate amounts of time, energy, money, worry, and pride in front of mirrors styling or removing it.
And that’s just the hair on our heads.
In 650 words, tell us a funny, sad, poignant, tragic, embarrassing, glamorous story about your hair that will make the hair on the back of our necks stand up and applaud!
DEADLINE: AUGUST 1, 2023
Live Show 2PM Sunday, January 14, 2024
THAT'S ITALIAN
There is so much that is Italian. But beyond pasta and prosciutto, Michelangelo and the Medicis, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, Galileo and The Godfather, Leonardo Da Vinci and Leonardo DiCaprio, being Italian is the result of a complex millennia-old culture.
In recognition of Italian–American Heritage Month (October), we are looking for personal stories about Italian experiences, whether they take place in America or on the boot-shaped peninsula nation, at the family dinner table or in a piazza.
What is it about the country, its people, food, history, traditions, family life, language, art that affects you, even if you’re not of Italian extraction but just love la dolce vita? What continues to influence you about Italy and Italian–Americans, even those generations removed from the home country?
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2023
Live Show: Sunday, October 8, 2023
with an encore performance Sunday, October 22, 2023
BETWEEN THE LINES
WRITERSREAD is interested in short, personal meditations about any and all aspects of writing and the writing life for the “Between the Lines” segment of our podcast series.
Do you have some thoughts, observations, or hard-earned wisdom to share about writing? Or about not writing? Or the many ways you’ve discovered to procrastinate? About developing your writer voice? About some sage advice from a mentor? The struggle to have something published? Why and how do you write? And why does writing matter?
NOTE: You don’t have to appear on stage, rather, you can record the piece (into your phone or better) and send it to us!