Amberjack Publishing was founded in 2014 as an independent publisher. With locations in New York and Idaho they actively seek commercial, literary, and children’s fiction. They are particularly interested in children’s book manuscripts with a focus on diversity for their Little Adventures imprint. At this time, the only nonfiction they accept is memoir. As of September 16th, 2016, they are no longer accepting children’s or early reader manuscripts

Submission Process: Amberjack Publishing accepts submissions via two avenues: either their online submissions page or through Authors.me which is a submissions app platform for writers, publishers, and agents alike.

Distribution: Amberjack Publishing currently has twelve titles (eleven fiction and one memoir) in print and distributed through Midpont Trade.

This number does not include several titles under the Little Adventures imprint.

All of their books are available for purchase from Midpoint, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indie Bound, though some of purchase links are broken.

For anyone interested in the authors: a pleasant surprise was the photo-heavy and well written Authors page.

Editorial Process: While Amberjack Publishing’s editorial process is not clear, their blog is updated several times a week and some editorial information may be found in the “Writing Tips” category.

Overall Thoughts: Overall, the Amberjack Publishing website is simple, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to navigate. While there is an events calendar, it is difficult to tell if an event is actually a public event or just an announcement of a book release. Among the many social media buttons at the top of the site, I was pleased to see a LinkedIn page, which tells me they welcome professional connections.

Amberjack Publishing welcomes questions, comments, and correspondences here.

Bio: Erica Secor earned her Ed.M. in English Education from SUNY Buffalo. She lives with her husband and dogs in South Carolina. When she is not teaching college English, she writes non-fiction. Erica welcomes connections via @TheDavisGirl or LinkedIn.

The Wanderer is published weekly online, and they accept submissions on a rolling basis. In addition to poems written in English, they also seek poems written in Spanish, as well as book reviews—especially reviews by and about women, transsexual, non-binary, and POC poets—and excerpts of forthcoming poetry books. They pay $10 for all published reviews.

Poets may submit four to eight poems, in English or Spanish, or one book review or book excerpt. The Wanderer accepts submissions via email, but not online or by post. They actively seek work that was previously self-published—such as poetry posted on a personal blog, Tumblr, or as a series of Tweets—but they do not accept work previously published in another literary journal. The Wanderer suggests that submitting poets read past issues online to get a sense of their style.

If you would like to learn more or submit to The Wanderer, please visit their website at http://wandererpoetry.com/submit/.

“Every kind of creative work demands solitude, and being alone, constructively alone, is a prerequisite for every phase of the creative process.” ~ Barbara Powell

Stepping out of our daily grind from time to time can help to refresh perspective and reinvigorate creativity, and residencies can be a great way to do that.

However, the costs of many retreats are prohibitively expensive, so here is a list of places you can write for a few weeks or months without having to sell all your furniture to get there. All of the below you can apply to for free, and attend for free.

Omi International Arts Center – Writers Omi

http://www.artomi.org/program.php?Writers-Omi-4

Duration: 2 weeks to 2 months

When to apply: Applications due by October 20th for residencies beginning in March 2017 and decisions will be made by January 15th 2017

What to provide: Check the website for details, but you will need a cover letter, a brief outline of your literary work history, a writing sample and a description of the work you plan to do at the residence.

The application must include a reference letter from someone in the literary field who is familiar with your work.

Where:  Upstate New York, on 300 acres of land. Omi provides room and board and the site often welcomes dinner guests from the NYC publishing world.

The Edward F. Albee Foundation – “The Barn”

http://www.albeefoundation.org

Where: Long Island, near Montauk

When to apply: January 1st through March 1st of each calendar year

Residency times: Mid-May through mid-October

Duration: Two options, four weeks or six weeks

Plan to provide: Fiction: 1 short story or 2 chapters from a novel and Non-fiction, Memoir and Journalism authors should provide 2 essays or articles or 2 chapters from a book. Your application should include a resume, email addresses of two professionals familiar with your work, and details of the project you intend to work on at the residence.

“The Barn” is a big old white barn that houses up to five people at a time in a secluded yet still easily reachable destination.

Food is not provided, but groceries are about 1.6 miles away in the form of shops and farmer’s markets. Bikes are available for fellows to borrow. The beach is within a couple miles as well, but as they state on their site, this is a place to work on your passion, not a vacation!

National Parks Service AIR (artists in residence) Program

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/arts/air.htm

Where: Scattered all over the U.S. and Canada

When to apply: Dates vary according to location

Duration: Most are two week residencies, but times vary

The US National Parks Service has an artist-in-residency program in more than fifty locations around the United States. Some of these are for visual artists specifically, but most are interdisciplinary. Have a look at the location nearest you in the interactive map in the link provided. Some offer monthly stipends, some do not. A few have application fees (Golden Gate Recreation Area for example), most do not, and it varies quite a bit from park to park. The majority ask that you leave a piece of writing (to which you maintain copyright) at the park.

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Good luck should you decide to apply to any of these residencies! If they are out of your reach – either too far away, or you cannot take the time away from work or kids, you may want to think about doing it the way artists have been for centuries – find a friend or a relative with a spare bit of private space and convince them to let you spend some time there. Even if you have to keep slogging away at your writing project in a stolen hour or two before or after work, the important thing really is the work, not the place you do it in. Keep creating

Bio:
Tilly Horton is a fiction writer with her first book of short stories soon to appear in digital format. More information can be found at tillyhorton.com