I’m back with a new episode of Authors & Audiences, and I’m thrilled to be talking to Dr. Paige Quiñones, an award-winning American poet and author, currently living in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Paige discusses her journey from pre-med to a poetry PhD and tells me about the creation of her debut collection "The Best Prey," which won the 2020 Pleiades Press Lena Miles Weaver Todd Prize for Poetry. She shares insights into her writing practice, on how much she loves teaching creative writing, on her former role as managing editor at one of the US’s most important literary journals, Gulf Coast, and we also discuss the importance of presenting yourself and your work in a professional way when submitting work for publication.

And Paige and I have something for you if you ‘re thinking about submitting some of your short-form writing – like poetry, short stories, flash, essays etc – we tell you about our forthcoming webinar which is the first in the Authors & Audiences Guest Series, in which I’m joined by one of my amazing guests to offer advice, understanding and support in your own writing journey. The webinar is called Taking the Long View of Short Submissions, and it’s happening on Saturday November 2nd at 12pm Eastern, and which will be available after that as a recording on my website. Registration costs just $79 and not only will take you through all you need to know about the submission process, we’ll also help you get started on creating your own submission toolkit during out session. Plus we’ll answer all your burning questions too. To find out more, and to register for the webinar, carolineleechwrites.com/events

We've also created a free resource that we would love to send to you, called A Short Guide to Submitting Your Short-form Writing. So while the webinar will show you what to send out and how to send it out and who to send it to, the Short Guide will explain why it's important for you to start submitting your work, or to keep submitting your work, if you've already started. We set out the five most compelling reasons to start submitting your work right now, and we also give you five really useful and practical tips to help you as well. To get your free copy of our Short Guide, visit carolineleechwrites.com/shortsubmissions

To order a copy of Paige's collection The Best Prey, visit the LSU Press website, and if you find yourself in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Paige recommends that you visit her favorite bookstore, Knjigarna Azil.

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Katherine Center is a New York Times-bestselling author, and a Romantic with a capital R. Her first novel, written in the sixth grade was a fan fiction about Duran Duran, has sadly not yet been published, but she has gone on to publish ten other novels, two of which have been turned into movies – The Lost Husband and Happiness for Beginners. Both immediately went to the top of the Netflix charts almost as soon as they started streaming.

Last week, Katherine’s 11th novel, The Rom-Commers, was published by St Martin’s Press, and we'd love you to buy it from one of Katherine's favorite indie bookstore, Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas, by visiting the store's website.

You can find out more about all of Katherine's books, movies and other projects, and also sign up for her amazing newsletter, at www.katherinecenter.com

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July Duffy was a self-confessed frustrated creative writer-who-wasn’t-writing, when she challenged herself to write a story every day of May 2010. Other would-be writers heard what she was doing and asked to join in. And that was only the beginning.

And today - May 1st, 2024 - Julie is launching the 15th year of StoryADayMay.

Since then thousands of writers have joined Julie each May (and lately in September too), to prove to themselves that they can make creativity a priority in their lives. The focus is on writing, creating and improving your craft, not on getting published (though that may be the end result eventually too).

Now, she leads her community of writers at StoryADay, and is a sought-after guest speaker on topics related to creativity, productivity and community. And as a fellow Scot, I had such a lot of fun chatting to Julie for this episode of Authors & Audiences.

So if you are listening on May 1st - go sign up for Julie's daily email writing prompts.

If you are listening later in May - it's still not too late, so go sign up for Julie's daily email writing prompts.

And if you are listening anytime later, Julie has so many other things to get you writing throughout the year, I think you should sign up anyway.

I'm planning to join in and write some stories too - maybe not every day, but as many as I can manage, so make sure you follow me on Instagram and I'll share my progress with you there, so you can share yours too.

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Music by Oleg Kirilkov - #We StandWithUkraine