Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We're officially eight days into our NaNoWriMo Reset. How is it going? Are you having fun? Are you enjoying what you're writing and how it's coming together? You're probably feeling pretty tired after getting through the...
Whether we personally identify as an introvert or an extrovert, a loner or a team player, we all yearn for a connection with other people, especially the people who should love us the most: our families. But sometimes life doesn't work out that way, and we're left...
Happy Thursday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And welcome to the end of week one of our NaNoWriMo Reset! Today's all about letting inspiration come to you through any form and at any time that it wants to come to you. We shouldn't be totally dependent on The Muse,...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And happy what should be Day 6 of our NaNoWriMo Reset! We have a little confession to make: we fell off of our OWN plan this weekend. Between family visiting, the holiday season ramping up, and decorating for...
The day is here! If you haven't submitted for December's Poem of the Month contest of Issue 4 of Lit Shark Magazine, the final issue of our inaugural year, this is your last chance! Because we're reminding you so late in the date on December 4, we WILL consider your...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And happy December 1st! For those of you who are participating, you know what else today is: It's Day 1 of the NaNoWriMo Reset! Where Do We Begin? Whether you're just getting started or you're picking up a project...
Happy Thursday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And happy last day of November 2023! Can you believe that we're here already?! I sure can't. You know what else I can't believe? It's technically the last day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Did you sign...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! In response to our "We're Making a List" writing prompt, Julie A. Dickson wrote this wonderful poem, "Listing," which also went on to appear in Issue 1 of Lit Shark Magazine. Here is Julie's poem, recreated as a...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope your week is off to a wonderful start! Tuesdays are a popular day for book and music releases, and today, it's a wonderful day for Lit Shark, because we have the results for Lit Shark Magazine's November Poem of...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We hope you've had a wonderful week. Our Editor-in-Chief is still sick, so it's been a pretty quiet week in the Lit Shark world, but we still have a few important announcements to make. Thanks for reading! Coming Soon:...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I have something to discuss with you today that will feel off-topic at first, but please, bear with me. It's important. This past weekend was a whirlwind. My kids really wanted to watch Sharkdog on Netflix, a cartoon...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We have a wonderful double book review for you today of the first two full-length poetry collections by Alyssa Harmon: Seven Years and Treading Water. If you've been reading the issues of Lit Shark Magazine (thank you),...
Hi, readers, writers, and shark fans! Happy Friday! Our Editor-in-Chief is pretty sick, so we're going to keep this one short, sweet, and to the point. Here's what to expect: Paperback Editions Available of All of Our Magazine Issues Poem of the Month Broadside Series...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Ugg, I have to be real with you: This post should have come out on Wednesday. But I have been SO sick this week and I feel like barely squeaking by, so the writing prompt came out on social media on Thursday instead of...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We're so excited---screaming, in fact---to share that Stephen King has announced his next book: a short story anthology entitled You Like It Darker, which includes a sequel to his 1981 novel, Cujo. The sequel is called...
Hi readers, writers, and shark fans! You know that feeling when you finish reading a book... and a few weeks later, it comes back to you, and you can't stop thinking about it unless you revisit it? Well, that's how we're currently feeling about Sophie Diener's debut...
Did you know that coral reefs absorb up to 97% of the energy of the waves that reach the shoreline? At Teahupo'o Reef in Tahiti, that is a massive amount of energy generated every winter by the south swells that hit their islands. Coral reefs act as a natural buffer...
Hi, readers, writers, and shark fans! Happy Friday! And welcome back to the Friday Feed! We haven't hosted one of these in a LONG time; we've sure missed it and hope you have, too! To get us all caught up, this is going to be a longer one, so here's a breakdown of...
Happy Halloween, readers, writers, and shark fans! Today is an incredibly special day in the Lit Shark Community, because Issue 3: The Spooky (TEETH) Edition is finally here! We're so excited to share Issue 3, complete with nearly 200 pages of spooky poetry and...
Happy Monday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Today is an incredibly special day in the Lit Shark Community, because Issue 2: The SHARK WEEK Edition is finally here! We're so excited to share Issue 2, complete with 150 pages of poetry and fiction, as well as a...
While blessing us with the thought of book-themed cocktail parties, Tom Lake author Ann Patchett referenced The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and its surprising mis-genre labeling that she's witnessed among readers perhaps one too many times. "People try to...
LAST CALL, readers, writers, and shark fans! If you've been sitting on a horror story, a ghost story, a campy Jaws or The Meg or Sharknado retelling, or even some creepy, surreal poetry, or a real-life encounter, we're ready to read it! Hurry! The doors close on...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope you had a wonderful week! I was originally going to post a traditional Friday Feed, but then I realized I had one specific announcement to make that deserved its own space: the results for Lit Shark Magazine's...
Since the pandemic---I know this must be as true for others as it is for me---I've felt this deeper call for connection: to nature, to my family, and to myself and who I'm called to be. These are surely songs that have called all of us at various moments in our lives,...
Good morning, readers, writers, and shark fans! McKenzie here (Editor-in-Chief at Lit Shark). I received the coolest opportunity this morning for my Lit Pup writers, and I wanted to share this with our Lit Shark community right away. Lit Pup writers, I hope you'll...
Whether it's poetry by Walt Whitman or Edgar Allan Poe, children's poetry by Shel Silverstein, or poetry by singers like Jewel and Halsey, everyone can agree that poetry is meant to make you feel something, whether it's deeply vulnerable, beautiful, or...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I have a little secret: I know you have a project that you've been putting off. Maybe you've put off finishing it, or polishing it, or simply sending it off for consideration. No matter what your situation, though,...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! In place of Writing Prompt Wednesday this week, we want to share a new opportunity with you: our first paid opportunity! Starting with the rest of September 2023, Lit Shark Magazine will host a monthly Poem of the...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope you had a fantastic week! We're excitedly working our way through Issue 2 of Lit Shark Magazine: The SHARK WEEK Edition and can't wait to share that with you. BUT, we have a lot more to share, too. Read on for...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! It's that time of week again! We're here for another Writing Prompt Wednesday! Each Wednesday, we will share a writing prompt THEME instead of just one solo prompt. There will still be prompts included, but like our...
Happy Monday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And welcome to last week's belated Friday Feed! There were no technical difficulties this week, thank goodness, but the youngest in our little Shiver team DID have a third birthday! Our original team was made up of...
Whether they fly in the air or swim far down in the deep, have soul-searching eyes or giant teeth---we all have a favorite animal (or a few), and our reasons for loving them tend to be very personal. We may not think about it very often, but our favorite animal we...
Happy "Wednesday," readers, writers, and shark fans! (We know it's Thursday, but this was supposed to post yesterday and for some reason... it didn't... so we're going to chalk it up to being Wednesday!) With the Shortlist for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for...
Welcome to Vitruvia, readers, writers, and shark fans! In this futuristic series, women have completely lost their rights as society has transitioned to Victorian standards and patriarchal dominion. The Vitruvian Heir is a steampunk rendition of Margaret Atwood's The...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And Happy National Book Lovers' Day! August 9 of each year is a celebration for everyone who loves books---books in general, reading books, collecting books, watching movies based on books... Basically, take August 9...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Another week in the summer has flown by, and we're excited to share another Friday Feed with you---what's going on right now, publishing yays for our past contributors, and what to expect next from Lit Shark. Five More...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And happy AUGUST! Can you believe a whole new month is here already? And that SHARK WEEK is already done for this year? And that we're extending our deadline for Issue 2: The Shark Week Edition to August 9th instead...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! In case you missed it, this week is SHARK WEEK, and it's already thoroughly underway, and dare we say, "jawsome." Keep reading for where and how to watch (if you have some catching up to do, no judgment here!), as well...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We're starting a feature today called "The Friday Feed," where we'll share positive news we have going on in Lit Shark territory, yays from our past contributors and where to find them, and something fun and uplifting...
Happy Thursday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope you've had the most incredible week. This past week has been the loveliest and most exciting whirlwind since Issue 1 of Lit Shark Magazine dropped. I've received so many messages from colleagues, contributors,...
Happy Saturday, readers, writers, and shark fans, and happy 1st of July! Today is an incredibly special day in the Lit Shark Community, because Issue 1 is finally available! After a variety of hang-ups and setbacks, we're so excited to share Issue 1, complete with a...
Happy Mother's Day Week, readers, writers, and shark fans! To celebrate this Mother's Day with you, we wanted to share a special mother-daughter poetry collaboration that really pulled at our heartstrings: Wing Strokes Haiku by Sydell Rosenberg and Amy Losak. Poet...
Happy Wednesday, writers and shark fans! I hope your week is everything you’ve hoped for. In the meantime, it’s Writing Prompt Wednesday! AND National Poetry Month! For the month of April, to celebrate National Poetry Month, we're going to share a series of words that...
Happy Wednesday, writers and shark fans! I hope your week is everything you’ve hoped for. In the meantime, it’s Writing Prompt Wednesday! Every Wednesday going forward, we will share a writing prompt, as well as the Editor-in-Chief’s (EIC’s) response to the prompt and...
Happy Tuesday, writers, friends, and shark fans! I cannot believe we only have ONE WEEK LEFT in February already. Where is this year going? Fortunately, I have a positive answer for that: this year is going amazing places. How do I know that? Well, because I have a...
Happy Wednesday, all! It's been an inspiring day, and we've taken big steps today, including officially announcing that our community is live, opening the doors for submissions for our first issue, and making progress on our social media channels. Whether you're...
Content Warning: Mentions of suicide, mental health, and faking death Romance Author Susan Meachen is Back from the Dead---And No, This Isn't the Plot of a Daytime Television Show. Creative individuals, including those in the writing community, are not...
Hi to our younger readers, writers, artists, shark lovers---and your parents/guardians/family/mentors! Thank you so much for supporting Lit Pup by being here. We're so happy you're here and are interested in working with us in this early part of your creative,...
Hi readers, writers, and shark lovers! Thank you so much for supporting Lit Shark. We're so happy to hear that you're potentially interested in sharing your work with us and contributing to this growing, shiver community. Please read below for details about how to...
Here I am, attempting to think of what to say, but my coffee spilled, and it made such a lovely and dark display across my table. This is the sort of mindset in which Shawnte Orion places me: an area of in-the-moment appreciation, the odd humor of something spilled...
Even when you read regularly, it takes time to find something truly great; but every once in a while, there will be a book, a poem, a story, that truly turns you on your heel, holds you in place, and keeps you loving, recommending and discussing that piece for months....
We’ve all been there. We reached the final year of high school and discovered the college, the school, the job, and the career that we wanted, and we attempted to move forward. We did everything we thought we needed to do---and more---to ensure that we would land one...
Writing reviews can be extremely difficult. What’s ironic, though, is that I tend to find greater difficulty in writing a review about a book that I loved, rather than one I was unimpressed with. Perhaps this is because I tend to find some angle of merit in each work...
I’ll be honest: I’ve spent the last two days trying to let this book go (or rather, to pry its hooks out of me). This book is all at once startling and overwhelming, beautifully composed, and thieving (as ‘haunting’ in this case is not a strong enough word). I flipped...
Let me point one fact out from the beginning: I admire young adult literature, and I believe it can be extremely powerful when the central characters are confident, self-possessed individuals, dealing with both personal and more widely-recognized issues. Rebekah...
Betsy Andrews' book-length poem, The Bottom, was published by 42 Miles Press in 2014 and received the 2013 42 Miles Poetry Prize. Sections of this poem appeared in such places as Kadar Koli, BoogCity, Stone Canoe, and The Laurel Review, as well as Poets for...
Jessica Piazza's first full-length collection, Interrobang, was published by Red Hen Press in September 2013 and was the recipient of the AROHO 2011 To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize and the 2013 Balcones Poetry Prize. Poems in this collection appeared in such...
Welcome to our Creative Highlight of the week! This week, we are featuring this painting, "Luminous Descent" by Ascending-Storm on DeviantArt. In the future, we will select short writing submissions and artwork that have been submitted to Lit Shark Magazine and Lit...
Happy Writing Prompt Friday, everyone! We have one more for today: turning a list into a poem.
Happy Friday, readers and shark fans! Here is Jean Hanff Korelitz’s THE PLOT, which bears incredible ties to LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and GONE GIRL in a dark academic thriller.
Happy Friday, readers and shark fans! Here’s our next review—a spooky and queer YA graphic novel, DOUGHNUTS AND DOOM by Balazs Lorinczi.
Happy Friday, writers and shark fans! I hope your week is everything you’ve hoped for. In the meantime, it’s Writing Prompt Friday! Every Friday, we will share a writing prompt, as well as the Editor-in-Chief’s (EIC’s) response to the prompt and some of her thoughts...
Happy Friday, readers and shark fans! Here is our latest book review: SECURE YOUR OWN MASK by Shaindel Beers, a beautifully striking poetry collection from White Pine Press.
Happy Friday, writers and shark fans! Every Friday, LIT SHARK will share a writing prompt you can use to submit work, due the following Monday, for a creative feature on the site! Happy Writing! #writingprompt #writinginspiration #litshark #litpup #shivercollective #amwriting #submissions #submit #slushpile #literarymagazine #litmag
Hey readers, writers, and shark fans! I'm McKenzie Lynn Tozan, the Editor-in-Chief of Lit Shark (and more). I'm beyond pleased to introduce this fledgling to you, because this is more than another literary magazine. Through Lit Shark and Lit Pup, this space welcomes...