Happy First of October, readers, writers, and shark fans! Many of you following us are familiar with National Novel Writing Month (often referred to as NaNoWriMo), the organization that promoted the concept of writing an entire novel (first draft) during the month of...
Happy Saturday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome back to Lit Shark's Friday Feed! Every Friday or Saturday, we share our favorite content from the week (in case you missed it), new submission calls, and what else we have in the works. (And if you'd like to...
Happy Thursday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We hope you're enjoying your week as well as Issue 6 of Lit Shark Magazine: The SHARK DOG Edition if you've begun reading it. Thank you so much for your support! Today, we want to draw your attention to an important...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Not only is it the middle of the week and the second-to-last full week of August, but AT LONG LAST, we're so pleased to tell you that Issue 6 of Lit Shark Magazine: The SHARK DOG Edition is now live! This issue is...
Happy Thursday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We previously had the pleasure of sharing with you the latest collaboration between Sesame Workshop (the home of Sesame Street) and HiHo Kids in their "Kids Meet" series on YouTube, starting with their episode, "Kids...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We're always so excited to see members of our Lit Shark community succeed, especially when they have a book coming out, so we could not be more pleased to share the news that Sandra Noel has just published her poetry...
Happy Thursday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We love celebrating our Lit Shark community here, so we are excited today to share Ellen Hirning Schmidt's latest poetry collection, Armed to the Teeth. Ellen graced us with her presence in Issue 2 of Lit Shark...
King's Out Here Redefining Dark Retellings & Cozy Horror Stephen King reflected before writing Fairy Tale and asked himself what would make him happy to write, and this was it: “As if my imagination had been waiting for the question to be asked, I saw a...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans, and Happy Juneteenth! On June 19, 1865, more than two years after Abraham Lincoln manumitted all enslaved people in the Confederate states, Union Army general Gordon Granger announced the news of freedom to enslaved...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We're always so excited to see members of our Lit Shark community succeed, especially when they have a book come out, so we could not be more pleased to share the news that Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas has just...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! To get you through the rest of the week, or to answer that looming question of what you will read this weekend, we're excited to announce that Issue 5 of Lit Shark Magazine is now live! We're so excited about this...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome back to Lit Shark’s Friday Feed! Though it's been a lighter week content-wise, we're excited to share what we've been working on, thinking about, and of course, writing! Let's jump right in! True to our past...
How many lives can one woman save in one romantic equestrian thriller? Well, Betty Briggs pushes the envelope in her novel, Pressure Point, in which Stephanie receives a letter from her ultimate nemesis, who mocks her with the kidnapping of her future adoptive...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome to Writing Prompt Wednesday and a belated Lit Pup Tuesday! To honor both occasions, I've provided a writing prompt today that a writer of any age can use! Keep reading for some suggestions for how to use this...
Happy Monday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We hope you had a wonderful weekend! We've all heard the idiom about someone "wearing their heart on their sleeve," and for this Motivation Monday, I wanted to talk about the importance of being vulnerable, at least...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And welcome back to Lit Shark's Friday Feed! We appreciate you being patient as we get back on our "fins," and we hope you've enjoyed this week's wave of new content. True to our past Friday Feed editions, we have a few...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We hope you're having a wonderful week! While submissions have technically been open for a while, we wanted to take a moment to officially announce that submissions are open for Issue 6 of Lit Shark Magazine, now...
Happy Writing Prompt Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We're so excited to get back to this series and hope you are, too. In case you missed it, we hosted our first Lit Pup Tuesday yesterday, including writing prompts for children and teen writers. All...
This September, our silver screens will be graced (or haunted?!) by the revival of a triple-named ghoul with the return of Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (also known as Beetlejuice 2). In preparation, not only are we rewatching Beetlejuice...
Few of us understand how privileged we are until we are put face-to-face with a dire situation, like seeing a house fire where the family loses everything they own. Though middle-schoolers and twin sisters, Taylor and Mackenzie, had their own struggles with a year of...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And a special hello to our Lit Pup Community! As we get settled back into a regular content schedule, you might notice that Lit Shark is now going to be posting themed posts each day, including "Lit Pup Tuesdays," which...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! As we're getting back in the swing of regular posting, you'll begin to notice that each day of the workweek has its own "theme" here at Lit Shark, including today's very first Lit Pup Tuesday, geared toward children and...
Happy World Book Day, readers, writers, and shark fans! To celebrate, we're sharing a fun book that will be available to watch early this May. Our Editor-in-Chief was invited to attend an early viewing event of the film adaptation of Robinne Lee's 2017 romantic...
I remember about a decade ago, while sitting in on an interview for what would turn out to be an incredible internship at a cancer-centered publication, I discussed with the publication's President the importance of how we talk about cancer and how we communicate with...
Happy Saturday, readers, writers, and shark fans! The reading community has been on a wave of top new releases this year (it's going to be hard to pick our Top Ten favorites at the end of the year at this rate!), especially fantasy readers, as Danielle L. Jensen has...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope you're having a wonderful week! At the same time, I know sometimes I need a little bit of a pick-me-up around the middle of the week, so in case you're feeling that way today, I'm happy to share some great...
Helloooooo, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome or Welcome BACK to Lit Shark Magazine! I'm so grateful you're interested in writing for us and/or potentially joining our team. We're gradually growing our team with Assistant Editors and other positions, so if...
Helloooooo, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome or Welcome BACK to Lit PUP Magazine and the Lit Shark Community! I'm so grateful you're interested in submitting. We're actively looking for submissions for the inaugural issue of Lit Pup Magazine, which will be BY...
Helloooooo, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome or Welcome BACK to Lit Shark Magazine! I'm so grateful you're interested in submitting. If you're specifically interested in submitting to Lit Shark's Poem of the Month contest, I'm happy to tell you we'll be...
Helloooooo, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome or Welcome BACK to Lit Shark Magazine! I'm so grateful you're interested in submitting. If you're interested in submitting to Lit Shark's special edition SHARK DOG Issue, we need submissions in as soon as possible....
Helloooooo, readers, writers, and shark fans! Welcome or Welcome BACK to Lit Shark Magazine! I'm so grateful you're interested in submitting. If you're specifically interested in submitting to Issue 5 of Lit Shark Magazine, tomorrow (Friday, March 15, 2024) is the...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And welcome back to the Friday Feed! I'm so excited to get this series back up and running. If you're interested in a more in-depth version of the Friday Feed each week, including writing/submission tips,...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope you're having an incredible week! Our week at Lit Shark has been wonderful, because we announced our December-January Poem of the Month winners yesterday, and we're back again today to announce the winners of...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope your week is off to a wonderful start. Tuesdays are a popular day for entertainment releases, and Lit Shark is getting in on the fun today, because we (at long last!) are here to announce the winners of our...
Happy Monday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and have been enjoying this February that's just swimming right on by! I've always enjoyed Motivation Monday posts, but my favorite ones are stories that show us something being put...
Happy Wednesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We can't believe it, but it's January 24th, which means... we already only have one week left in the first month of 2024! Since there's only one month left in this month, if you'd like to be considered for our...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! I hope you're having a wonderful start of your week. I have a bit of a rough update for you today relating to the XL Bully Ban in the UK and Wales (find our previous post about this here), but I also have a unique,...
Happy Thursday, readers, writers, and shark fans! ...and Happy 1st Birthday to Lit Shark! We knew this day was coming, but now that it's here, we're reeling. It's so exciting, isn't it? It feels like we just got started yesterday, so how could it possibly be a year...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! For this week's Tuesday Tip, we want to talk about something that seems to be plaguing everyone more than ever, whether they're in the creative space or not: the pain of comparing ourselves to other people and what we...
Happy Friday, readers, writers, and shark fans! And happy first weekend of 2024! If you're looking for something to read this weekend or are looking to relax a little this weekend before we really ramp up next week, we've got you! Issue 4 of Lit Shark Magazine is...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! Happy Holidays, however you celebrated, and Happy New Year! I hope 2024 has been good to you so far. I took a much-needed break away from my desk (in all of its digital forms) for the first time in 2023 to celebrate the...
Hi readers, writers, and shark fans! As you know, Lit Shark is here to celebrate literature and conservation and also to share news and updates about both of those subjects. Unfortunately, not all news is good news. The Book Community on X (Twitter) and TikTok has...
Happy Tuesday, readers, writers, and shark fans! We love Motivation Mondays and Tuesday Tips around here, so today, we thought we'd share an interesting series of tips from Goosebumps YA horror author R.L. Stine. We recently sat in on an interview between some of the...
Unless they go in totally delusional, most creatives know that their journey to success may not be the smoothest or easiest journey they’ve been on. Actors and writers are referred to as “starving artists” by those critical of working creatives for a reason. ...
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...
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 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:...
UPDATE: We've shared a new post with an update on the XL Bully Ban, as well as a submission opportunity to work with Lit Shark and to support XL Bully Dogs, their families, and the animal rescues who are advocating for them. You can find that post here. We hope you...
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.