Submission Sunday 6.30.24: Questions to Frame Your Memoir
Celebrating 100 Submission Sunday posts!
Happy Sunday, writers! After sending last week’s post, I realized that it was somehow the 100th Submission Sunday post I’ve sent out since the newsletter launched in July of 2022. The math makes sense, but still… 100 posts! Thank you so much for subscribing and being part of the journey. If there’s anything you’ve published after seeing a call or contest here that you haven’t shared with me, please do!
Today I wanted to share an essay with you that I published at
’s Substack CoAuthored last week. As a memoir instructor and coach, first through Writing Workshops Los Angeles and then on my own during and after the pandemic, I learned a lot about how to go wrong and how to go right when you’re drafting a memoir. But it wasn’t until I came across a quote by Jorge Luis Borges that I was inspired to compose a series of questions to make memoir writing easier. (More on that later.)I’ve taught workshops for aspiring memoirists for almost fifteen years—sometimes meeting with different groups of writers three times a week, reading every craft book on memoir that came out—and it says a lot about this genre that it has held my interest for so long. I admire the bravery that writers bring to the room and the vulnerability they are willing to share. I like the drama of memoir. While some writers come to the workshop with just a vague idea that they wanted to write about their lives, most come in with a capital S Story. I like how I can teach the techniques of fiction to make the memoirs that much stronger and more interesting. Even better, the main characters are right there in front of me! I love a compelling first-person voice and that’s one of the selling points of a good memoir. I like demystifying what can be a tricky genre. I like the freedom that memoir offers because, while the questions below will focus on some ways to get memoir right at the start, there are so many different directions from which to grow once you’re planted.
Over the years, I’ve confirmed that there are some initial questions you can ask yourself with the hope that the answers will make the writing easier. I’ll briefly mention some of these questions before diving into the one we’re here to discuss: Mirror or Prism?
I’ll send you over to Foster now for the list of questions and some explanation, and I’ll open the paid subscriber chat for discussion if you have thoughts or feedback!
Mirror or Prism, and Other Questions to Frame Your Memoir
Here’s a reminder of the deadlines coming up from previous posts. Please note that archived posts might also include calls that are open year-round. If you sign up for Substack Notes, I also post deadline reminders there. If you submit to any of the Submission Sunday calls and publish or win, let me know and I’ll broadcast your success in a future post.
The Lascaux Prize in Flash Fiction (Deadline June 30)
The MacGuffin Call for Submissions (Deadline June 30)
The Gravity of the Thing Call for Submissions (Deadline June 30)
Pleiades: Literature in Context Call for Submissions (Deadline June 30)
Bellevue Literary Review Call for General Submissions, 2025 Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, 2025 Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction, and 2025 John & Eileen Allman Prize for Poetry (Deadline July 1)
Epiphany Call for Submissions (Deadline July 8)
Granum Foundation Prizes (Deadline August 1)
Contrapuntos Call for Submissions (Deadline August 31)
At Length Call for Submissions (Deadline End of Summer)
River Styx Castro Prize 2025 (Deadline September 30)
The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction, Short Story Collection Competition, and Poetry Collection Prize (Deadline September 30)