Minerva Rising

08/07/2024

Monday Writing Prompt:

Begin a horror story set entirely in the daylight. How do you build tension? Make it scary? Without the cover of darkness, where do the monsters hide?

Remember to submit the first 150 words of your Monday Writing Prompt to us through DMs for the chance to be highlighted in next Monday’s post. DM submissions will remain open until Friday, July 12th, at 11:59pm. We’re excited to read what you write!

01/07/2024

Monday Writing Prompt:

Write a story that begins with a particularly unusual dream.

Remember to submit the first 150 words of your Monday Writing Prompt to us through DMs for the chance to be highlighted in next Monday’s post. DM submissions will remain open until Friday, July 5th, at 11:59pm. We’re excited to read what you write!

28/06/2024

As lovely June nears its final few days, we wish to honor Pride Month once again. Since education is an ongoing effort, and the end of June does not signal the end of q***r joy nor the battle for LGBTQ+ rights, we've compiled a list of books for anyone interested in learning more about Pride.

These books tell stories, track histories, and offer valuable insights into navigating life.

We hope you gain a favorite read or some tidbits of new information!

26/06/2024

We're thrilled to announce Kristina Moriconi as the winner of our 2023 Memoir Contest!

Kristina Moriconi is a writer and visual artist whose work has appeared in a variety of literary journals and magazines including The Comstock Review, Map Literary, Memoir Magazine, About Place, and The MacGuffin. She is the winner of Terrain.org’s 11th Annual Nonfiction Contest (2021) and her lyric narrative In the Cloakroom of Proper Musings was published by Atmosphere Press in August 2020. She lives outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband and two dogs.

Her winning memoir, What Becomes of a Body, will have a publication year of 2025.

24/06/2024

Monday Writing Prompt:

Describe a perfect summer day.

Remember to submit the first 150 words of your Monday Writing Prompt to us through DMs for the chance to be highlighted in next Monday’s post. DM submissions will remain open until Friday, June 28th, at 11:59pm. We’re excited to read what you write!

17/06/2024

Monday Writing Prompt:

For today’s prompt, let us investigate temperature and sensation. Imagine you or a character are caught in either of the two extreme temperatures—intense heat or the biting cold. Explore how this may affect you/them.

What does the body do to acclimate? How does the mind react? How prepared is this person for the temperature?

Remember to submit the first 150 words of your Monday Writing Prompt to us through DMs for the chance to be highlighted in next Monday’s post. DM submissions will remain open until Friday, June 21st, at 11:59pm. We’re excited to read what you write!

10/06/2024

Those in the Midwest and the South are currently witnessing the merging of cicada Broods XIII and XIX. These two broods clamber up from the tree roots every 17 and 13 years, respectively, but this is the first time the two events have coincided since 1803. What a feat of nature to live through.

Imagine you're experiencing something for the first time in 17 years. You're older now—hair changed, more lines around your eyes, and more years under your belt—and perhaps you approach the world more cautiously. What are you experiencing? Do you react differently now that 17 years have passed?

Remember to submit the first 150 words of your Monday Writing Prompt to us through DMs for the chance to be highlighted in next Monday’s post. DM submissions will remain open until Friday, June 14th, at 11:59pm. We’re excited to read what you write!

05/06/2024

New creative nonfiction piece up in the Keeping Room!

Here’s a snippet from Eileen Cunniffe’s “We Are Doing Our Best”:

“We are everywhere, the middle-aged, aging daughters and sons. Watch us folding walkers and wheelchairs into trunks, and then unfolding them again in handicapped spaces or next to sidewalk cutouts. Watch us as we fold and unfold fragile parents in and out of cars that are somehow always too large and high or too small and low to make these transfers as smooth or as safe as we all might wish they could be.

Check out minervarising.com to read more.

03/06/2024

Happy Pride Month from Minerva Writing Press!

For today’s Monday Writing Prompt, we remind ourselves that Pride is both a celebration and a protest. Let your writing take you in either of these directions: describe a party or a protest. Who’s there? What are you celebrating or challenging? Are there banners, signs, chants, songs, etc.? Are you excited, nervous, or a mix of both?

Remember to submit the first 150 words of your Monday Writing Prompt to us through DMs for the chance to be highlighted in next Monday’s post. DM submissions will remain open until Friday, June 7th, at 11:59pm. We’re excited to read what you write!

31/05/2024

As May draws to a close, we want to honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as well as Mental Health Awareness Month, one last time. Since education is an ongoing effort, we’ve compiled a list of books for anyone interested in learning more about either subject.

These books tell stories, track histories, and offer valuable insights into navigating life.

We hope you gain a favorite read or some tidbits of new information!

29/05/2024

The Keeping Room magazine is always open for submissions! Send us your fiction, creative nonfiction, and book reviews. All writers selected for publication will be paid $25.

Also, stay tuned for updates to our Women and the World and Cultivating Inner Wisdom sections. We have some exciting changes coming your way!

Link in bio to submit to The Keeping Room.

27/05/2024

Monday Writing Prompts are back!

In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness month, let’s make a list with a twist. Inspired by the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, write out:

* 5 things you can see
* 4 things you can touch
* 3 things you can hear
* 2 things you can smell
* 1 thing you can taste

However, see if you can list elements that you or your characters don’t encounter often.

Now, imagine a story that includes one sensory element from each category. What is your character seeing, touching, smelling, etc? Ground them in their world through their senses.

Submit the first 150 words of your Monday Writing Prompt creation to us through Instagram DMs for the chance to be highlighted in next Monday’s post. DM submissions will remain open until Friday, May 31st, at 11:59pm. We’re excited to see what you write!

20/05/2024

New creative nonfiction piece up in the Keeping Room!

Here's a snippet from Andreea Ceplinschi's "Chicken Feet":

"maybe it was fear that replaced the warmth of your hand holding mine that one time on the dirt road to grandma’s house, when time was still thick and summer lasted years, tied down in blooming honeysuckle vine, dragging our tiny feet through knee-high warm breath of grass, unafraid of what else slithered there."

Visit minervarising.com to read more.

12/04/2024

New Creative Non Fiction piece up at the Keeping Room!

Sonata by Julie Lockhart

As a musician used to resolution, I dangled on the precarious trapeze of the F #."

And a reminder that we are always open for submissions!



https://buff.ly/3VOBJjY

10/04/2024

Though we are no longer accepting poetry for the Keeping Room, our online lit journal, that doesn't mean we don't celebrate all the beautiful work we have had the honor to publish, like this piece WHITE BOYS THINK THEY OWN ALL THE CREEKS by Leah Jones

"First boy to kiss me without
asking. First to call me chicken-sh*t when I said
it’s getting dark and my body was pulled hard
into reeds full of katydid high notes – so long that
I smell dirt on the skin of every man."

We are currently accepting fiction and nonfiction!

Read WHITE BOYS THINK THEY OWN ALL THE CREEKS (poetry) by Leah Jones, new in The Keeping Room magazine for women, Minerva Rising Press

08/04/2024

Monday Writing Prompt! We love when you share bits of our process with us!

Your spring garden is finally blooming. The tulips are opening, the daffodils are swaying in their finest frilly skirts. But a flower you have never seen before has just popped up. You are sure you didn't plant it. And something is incredibly strange about this flower....

Continue the story!

05/04/2024

A new piece just dropped in the Keeping Room!

Grandma Helen by Stacy Alderman up in the Keeping Room@StacyAnneWrites

"The forgotten-about portrait made me sad, made me wonder why it wasn’t hung on the wall. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask these questions, so I turned off the lights and shut the door, my pr***en gaze flickering to the faded frame, thinking that it looked just about as lonely as I felt – at home, among friends, and especially at school."

https://buff.ly/4aHwNBD

room !

Read "Grandma Helen" (CNF) by Stacy Alderman, new in The Keeping Room magazine for women, Minerva Rising Press

03/04/2024

Italian Grandmothers Shared My Pregnancy by Deborah Clark Vance

A sweet and poignant nonfiction piece we published last year! Our nonfiction inbox is low at the Keeping Room, so send us your work!

"Elsa and Adele, our closest neighbors, became part of my daily life. Their mission was to teach me pregnancy rules, the ones everyone around there had heard for generations. At first, I didn’t take them seriously. But as I grew to feel Elsa and Adele’s earnestness, I took note. The rules warned of consequences: the aunt who almost died from washing her hair during the quarantena—the forty days of rest after childbirth—ignoring the rule that said not to get your head wet because it could cause illness; the sister’s permanent pain since putting her hands in cold water; the grandmother who miscarried days after sitting on a cold stone. And they fortified me with woolen undershirts to protect my kidneys from cold drafts, stressing the dangers of extreme heat and cold."

Read the Rest at the link in our bio!

https://buff.ly/3vmc7Ap

Read "Italian Grandmothers Shared My Pregnancy" (fiction) by Deborah Clark Vance, new in The Keeping Room Magazine for women, Minerva Rising

01/04/2024

Monday Writing Prompt!

Write a shopping list. Put items on it that you need right now, but also fantastical, whimsical or silly items. When you are done, imagine a story about who the shopping belongs to!

Example of a shopping list:
Milk
Eggs
Miniature horse
Rice noodles
Assorted glass beads
Vinegar
Pink wig

We love hearing in the comments what comes up for you! And a reminder that our online literary journal, The Keeping Room is always open for submissions!

29/03/2024

An older nonfiction piece from the Keeping Room, that sticks with us.

Glimpses by Anne E. Beall

"A few months ago, I looked up and realized you were walking along the sidewalk in front of me. You walked as if you weren’t sure of yourself—not convinced you had a solid place on this earth. Your backpack had telltale signs of adolescence—small stuffed animals on key rings hung off the back, along with ribbons and stickers. Your clothes were a bit too tight, but you would say it’s the fashion. You were on the cusp of womanhood, and I longed to tell you it would all be fine. Growing up can be difficult, but you would manage this. I almost called your name, but it wasn’t you. Just someone who transported me to a memory of you a long time ago.

I see you everywhere, even though we are estranged."

We are always looking for more fiction and creative nonfiction at our online literary journal, The Keeping Room. Submit now!

Read "Glimpses" (Creative Nonfiction) by Anne E. Beall, new in The Keeping Room magazine for women, Minerva Rising Press

27/03/2024

We have stopped taking poetry submissions, BUT that means we get the chance to highlight some women-run poetry presses that we love. Sundress Publications, is not just a press, they also run a residency, a poetry festival, and monthly local and online readings and workshops. They just announced a micro grant for Palestinian Writers, and are taking applications for their artist residency on a beautiful farm in Knoxville Tennessee right now. They work tirelessly for their authors, and they have some of the most enthusiastic and warm staff we have ever met. We love Sundress Publications!
Check them out:
https://buff.ly/3x5bWd7

All work published at Sundress or any of its publications retains the author's original copyright and may not be reprinted without the author's express written consent.

22/03/2024

Since it's Women's History Month, AND, we are small woman-led press, we want to take our next couple posts to tell you about some of our other favorite women-run presses. First up, is the beloved, Perugia Press. Their mission is "too support and celebrate women’s voices in print, one excellent book at a time." They publish ONE stunning books each year, through their annual national contest for first or second books of poetry by women, and they truly put their all into the book that comes out, from design, to author mentorship, to editing, and marketing. Check them out!
https://buff.ly/3t7pgIL

19/03/2024

Monday Writing Prompt

Create a word association bank. Put on a timer for three minutes and write down every word that comes to your mind. At the end of your three minutes, circle 5 words. Now give yourself a page to use all 5 words in a coherent and connected way. What have you started writing? A Poem? A short story? An essay?

Or use this word bank one of our staff came up with:

Field, jar, dog, fence, Ohio, white paint, brush, Tom Sawyer, raft, log, Bohemian Redwoods, grove, water, Sasquatch, erratic, monkey, capuchin, dog, bear, Winnie the pooh, honey, pool, slime, green, naked, color, desert, hot pink, ferris wheel, Six Flags, Superman, hamburger, cotton candy, lemonade, lemon, blood, billboard, Vancouver, boyfriend, Korean supermarket, rice cakes, kimchi, hot dogs, mustard, campfire, hills

18/03/2024

Monday Writing Prompt

Interview a character. Write a list of interview questions for one of your characters, and write down their answers. This is a great way to get into their head!

Did you discover anything new? Share below!

15/03/2024

A reminder that we are always open for submissions! We love reading your work and we pay!
https://buff.ly/3zTfdrz

13/03/2024

Up at The Keeping Room, Matriarchs by Sarah Stubbs.

"I want a yoga instructor with b***s. Real b***s, not those piss-poor B cups; not even C or D will do, although that’s progress. No, I need a yoga instructor with great flapping double F’s, the kind of b***s that make you hot in summer but keep you warm in winter, the kind you have to lift to scrub the sweat out from under them, the kind where you fold a blanket into the creases beneath them to prevent sweatiness in the underboob."

room

Read "Matriarchs" (fiction) by Sarah Stubbs, new in the Keeping Room magazine for women, Minerva Rising Press

11/03/2024

Monday Writing Prompt:

This is a fun one! Grab a book closest to you, flip to page 10, and use the first line as a prompt. Comment what line you got below!

08/03/2024

Introducing Karen George, author of our newest story collection, How We Fracture!

About Karen:
Karen George is author of the poetry collections Swim Your Way Back (2014), A Map and One Year (2018), Where Wind Tastes Like Pears (2021), and forthcoming from Kelsay Books Caught in the Trembling Net (2024). She won Slippery Elm’s 2022 Poetry Contest, and her short story collection, How We Fracture, which won the Rosemary Daniell Fiction Prize, was released by Minerva Rising Press in January 2024. She is the recipient of grants from Kentucky Foundation for Women and Kentucky Arts Council, and earned an MFA in Writing from the Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing. She retired from a career as a computer programmer/analyst to write full-time. She lives in Florence, Kentucky, enjoys photography and visiting museums, forests, cemeteries, historic towns, and bodies of water.

2. What did you publish with Minerva/What is it about?
How We Fracture, is a collection of modern-day short stories told from female points-of-view of teenagers to women in their fifties and sixties at points of fracture in their lives. The stories delve into conflicts surrounding financial instability, reproductive rights, body image, sexuality and sexual preference, relationships, illness, death of loved ones, aging, infertility, addiction, and mental health. The main characters are students, visual artists, fashion designers, a legal secretary, house sitter, vet assistant, jewelry maker, a collector of miniatures, a nurse, and a breath facilitator. Most of the stories are set in Kentucky, and they are braided with imagery of how we are connected to, and nourished by, the natural world.

3. What is the dream you have for your book now that it is out in the world?
I'm looking forward to having a launch party/reading, doing many in-person and online readings near my home and the surrounding states, taking part in the Kentucky Festival of Books and other similar state events, celebrating with my MFA community at their annual Alumni Celebration of Recently Published Books. I'm hoping to have some radio interviews/readings, and some reviews of it published in literary journals. I'd like to apply for, and win, some after-publication awards.

4. What is something you realized/learned while writing the book?
I more fully realized how much I love writing short stories. I've completed two novels and started a third one, but they're early attempts, and I haven't returned to them in years.

5. A quote from the book
This is quote from the last story of the book, "The Dance," near the very end:
"Because one thing I know is dancing creates energy, and the movement of two people in harmony generates healing, and my husband has danced me through the worst times of my life. Maybe he’ll out-dance the cancer, because Boomer is hard to throw away. He keeps curving back, heading for home."

Grab your copy now!

https://buff.ly/3SdaDRu

04/03/2024

Monday Writing Prompt!

Write a spell. Pick a spice, a plant, and a vessel
Example: oregano, violet, teacup.

What do you do with these three items, what spell does it create?

Example: Mix oregano and violets in the teacup. Leave out overnight, in the morning sprinkle the mixture on feet, and walk in the direction you are led. What you are seeking will be at the end of the path.

Comment your's below!

press