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One of the easiest ways to break into publishing is by having individual poems and short stories published in literary magazines. In this workshop, we’ll discuss where to find and decipher market listings for small press and university literary magazines, proper manuscript formatting for poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, how to write a query letter to go with your submissions, and finally, how to submit your short works. We’ll also discuss what your long-game plans are and how to achieve them, whether it’s compiling your poetry or short stories into a full-length manuscript (and how and where to send it), traveling to universities and literary groups as a visiting poet, participating in conventions and how to get invited to do so, or setting up readings, book signings, and interviews.

Holly Day has worked as a freelance writer for over 30 years, with over 7,000 published articles, poems, and short stories and 40 books and chapbooks, including the nonfiction books, Music Theory for Dummies, Music Composition for Dummies, Walking Twin Cities, Stillwater, Minnesota: A Brief History, Nordeast Minneapolis: A History, Tattoo FAQ, and History Lover’s Guide to Minneapolis; and the poetry books, A Book of Beasts (Weasel Press), The Tooth is the Largest Organ in the Human Body (Anaphora Press), Bound in Ice (Shanti Arts Publishing), and Cross-Referencing a Book of Summer (Silver Bow Publishing). Her writing has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, a 49th Parallel Prize, an Isaac Asimov Award, several dozen Pushcart awards, and a Rhysling Award, and she has received two Midwest Writer’s Grants, a Plainsongs Award, the Sam Ragan Prize for Poetry, and the Dwarf Star Award from the Science Fiction Poetry Association. She currently teaches writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minnesota, The Muse Literary Center in Virginia, and the Richard Hugo House in Washington.