Resources for Writers

Welcome! In 2005, Black Lawrence Press issued our first publication, a collection of poetry titled I Can Only Go As Fast As The Guy In Front of Me by Frank Matagrano. Like most fledgling presses, we started small. Matagrano’s collection was our only title that year. But, with the assistance of wonderful editors and a dynamic group of writers, we started to grow, publishing a few more titles each year. Now we publish two dozen titles annually.

As we’ve added new titles and authors to our list, we’ve also tried to offer more resources to the literary community. In 2009, we founded Sapling, a weekly e-newsletter that offers a digest of current opportunities for writers. A few years after that, we started offering manuscript consultations, for which scholarships are available.

During the pandemic, we launched a free monthly workshop series and it’s still going strong.

On this page, we offer links to all of these resources and, soon, will start providing articles about craft, publishing, and the writing life. If there’s a topic you’d like us to cover, please email [email protected] with your suggestions.

We hope that you find these resources to be helpful and edifying.

Yours,
Black Lawrence Press

 

P.S. Want to stay in touch? Sign up for our newsletter right here. And follow us on social media. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Sapling

Sapling is a curated weekly e-newsletter highlighting the best of the small press world. We believe in small press publishing, and each issue showcases up-to-date, streamlined information for writers looking for new venues for their work. Every week Sapling profiles a contest, a small press, a literary journal, and features an interview with an editor, publisher, or emerging writer.

Sign up for Sapling here.

Poetry Consultations

During the month of December, Marcela Sulak is on board to critique poetry manuscripts.

Fiction Consultations

Our December fiction consultant, Gwendolyn Paradice, is accepting everything from flash to full-length collections and novellas.

Far Villages: Welcome Essays for New and Beginner Poets

Poetry manuals, at their most essential, are aimed at demystifying aspects of poetry, in order to make poetry less daunting – especially for beginner poets. Such manuals are also reminders that poetry itself is a discipline with a landscape and a history. Far Villages builds on the body of work in this tradition by bringing a number of established and emerging poets together in a single volume to welcome new and beginner poets to the art of poetry, its craft, and the long journey within it.

Free Monthly Writing Workshops

Join us on the second Tuesday of each month for a free Zoom writing workshop.

Grab them by the Eyeballs: How to Get and Keep the Attention of Small Press Editors

Advice on how to find the right press for your project and how to prep your submission.

Speak the Unspeakable: Writing Poetry as an Act of Mental Health Advocacy

Jeanann Verlee discusses poetry about mental health from, offering commentary on both craft and advocacy.