We have gathered an exciting collection of original poetry, short stories, reflections and nature photography from the following writers and photographers. While most are from Michigan, we also welcome and include those with strong ties to this great region.
With great appreciation to the following for allowing us to share their talents with you, here is our list:
CONTRIBUTORS
Kate Allore
Elizabeth J. Bates
Milton J. Bates
Suzi Banks Baum
James Bogan
Monique Bova
Thomas Ford Conlan
Art Curtis
Mono D’Angelo
Dan Dueweke
Linda Nemec Foster
Hailey French
CJ Giroux
Katie Gray
Sheryl Greene
Isabella Gross
Caroline Helmstadt
Betsy Hayhow Hemming
Stephen Hooper
Deda Kavanagh
Taylor Keiser
Kelly Suzanne Kelley
Elizabeth Kerlikowske
Bridget Klaasen
Katy Klimczuk
Gloria Klinger
Katie Koziara
James Lenfestey
Jeanne Blum Lesinski
Ellen Lord
Raymond Luczak
Paul Maxbauer
Karen Nemecek
Doug Pfaff
Jeremy Proehl
Greg Rappleye
F.W. “Skip” Renker
Jennifer Uehlein Reynolds
Philip Rice
Carol Ritter
Katherine Roth
Kim Ruley
David “DJ” Savarese
Ralph James Savarese
Gary Merrill Schils
Moon Seagren
Melissa Seitz
Becky Serrano
Michael Sipkoski
K. Matthew Springfield
Edd Tury
Robert Vivian
Karen Walker
Lindsay Way
Neil White
Ellen Schettling Whitehead
Sara Wright
Glen Young
Greg Young
Watch for Walloon Writers Review Eighth Edition Release Date – June, 2023!
Thank you so much for supporting Walloon Writers Review! We have closed our Call for Submissions for our upcoming Eighth Edition. We are very honored by all of the amazing materials that have come in over the past several weeks. Please watch for updates on our release date in Late Spring-ish 2023!
If you have interest in submitting your original northern Michigan and UP inspired creative writing or nature photography, consider joining our E-Mail List for updates about Walloon Writers Review!
Exploration has long been a hallmark of life in Northern Michigan. Whether the exterior ups and downs of the hills and streams, from the North Country Trail to the Great Lakes Circle Tour, or the interior insights revealed while sitting on a deserted beach or in the hollow of a storm-felled spruce tree, the idea of exploration is an integral part of what it means to recognize this region.
Walloon Writers Review welcomes your creative writing and photographic imagery illustrating the many ways to explore Northern Michigan. In short story, poetry, drama, or other imaginative written formats, or in color or black and white photographs, we challenge you to share how exploration–interior or exterior–demonstrates the mystery and the magnetism of our beloved region.
–Glen Young
Guidelines for Submissions for Walloon Writers Review
February 1 – March 15, 2023
Thank you for your interest in sharing your northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula-inspired creative writing and nature photography with Walloon Writers Review. We accept submissions through Submittable. Our reading fee is $6.50 which helps offset the cost of producing this regional publication and we make a donation to an area non-profit with part of your fee.
This year, please limit to two (2) submissions total. All submissions will receive acknowledgement of receipt, will be reviewed and an email with be sent to you with our determination. We are accepting original materials for our 8th Edition. We regret that due to staff size, we are unable to provide individual feedback.
We accept the following for consideration:
Short Stories(4,000 words or less)
Poetry
Other styles of creative writing and prose
Nature Photography (no people in the image, please)
Walloon Writers Review is produced in print to celebrate the unique elements of this amazing region and intentionally designed to share, pick up and put down to read, and have out on the porch magazine table, cabin bookshelf, at camp, in the library and bookstores in the Michigan section. To ensure a variety of ages and backgrounds enjoy the collection, we only accept materials that can comfortably be shared with a general audience. All submissions are required to be about, inspired by and reflective of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
All accepted materials will be included in our upcoming edition which is printed and distributed through Ingram, available in Michigan independent bookstores and online at Bookshop.org; BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com. Our audience finds us at bookstores, online, in social media, at the library, in sponsorship of public radio and print advertising. We are honored to have our entire collection available at the Library of Michigan.
Since this is an annual collection, expect to see both familiar contributors and new voices. We welcome both.
Authors/Photographers retain North American Rights to their submission. If accepted, you are granting Walloon Writers Review permission to publish and include your submission as part of our collection. Should you re-publish the same work, we request notation that this was originally published in Walloon Writers Review and cite edition and year.
Writing Submissions
Please submit your original creative writing via Submittable in a Word file. We can not accept .pdf due to design delays. Additionally, we ask that you proofread your work before hitting send. Pages riddled with typographical errors are distracting to the quality of your materials and slow our process considerably. Occasional misspellings and typos can occur but, unfortunately, we may have to decline any drafts that are too full of errors to read.
Nature Photography Submissions
Please submit your photography directly through Submittable. While you may send your image file to editor@walloonwriters.com, please use Submittable with a note to look for your photography in our email with your name. Your fee can be paid directly through Submittable. Please email us if you have a challenge. Please be sure to include your name, contact information, image title, location, if separate from title, and copyright symbol or name for copyright.
Again, nature photography is to be about and taken in northern Michigan and or the Upper Peninsula. We are also again reminding all that the photography submissions must be your original image, must not contain any people, and we would appreciate the general location of the photo.
Simultaneous Submissions: We offer a14 day withdrawal notification after acceptance should your work be accepted for publication elsewhere.
Walloon Writers Review will run our Call For Submissions from FEBRUARY 1, 2023 until MARCH 15, 2023 for our upcoming print edition. Our expected release date is tbd in early Summer, 2023. We notify you via Submittable of receipt, acceptance or decline. If your piece is included in the upcoming edition, you will receive advanced notification of release date, one copy of the edition mailed to you and recognition online and in our promotional channels. Everyone can expect email from Walloon Writers Review on a semi-regular basis regarding promotions, readings and other business. Should you have any questions, please email us at editor@walloonwriters.com.
We ask that you consider supporting Walloon Writers Review and the Michigan authors and photographers included in the magazine by purchasing a copy at a Michigan independent bookstore or online at Bookshop.org and pick a bookstore to benefit, as well.
All North American Rights are retained by authors and photographers and by submitting materials, selected contributors agree to allow publication, use for promotional purposes and distribution of their submission by Walloon Writers Review. (Expect to see your name in a few places!)
Note: Previous editions are available at our list of outstanding Michigan independent booksellers or online. See “Where to Find Walloon Writers Review” for more information.
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2023 is an odd one for sure. You may have heard that we’re missing the snow that piled up to the top of the mailbox and brought all the thrills of deep drifts to region in November and into December, and then, just as quickly, disappeared. Up in the UP, however, that magical part of our region is full throttle into winter…they’re deep into it with more snow to fall this week! Need a fix? Head up over da bridge and go play in it! For those of us who troll under the Big Mac, as we all say, stick around…it’s sure to change again in 10 minutes or so. Skiers: thank goodness for snowmaking machines!
Our literary magazine is off to a strange start, as well. Our 2023 planning schedule has been tossed and we start planning sessions all over due to the Clobber 19 virus that apparently takes 19 days off you’re life, disrupts your brain and obliterates deadlines, plans and just costs a lot money. We all share this awful chapter one way or another. It’s a good reminder to get outside, get fresh air, breathe in the pines, look for some stars, and wave to the deer just for kicks.
Today is an important observance of Martin Luther King, Junior, who delivered one of the most passionate and incredible speeches to all Americans. While he didn’t write the speech alone, his goals and insights shaped a draft to a final powerful impassioned call to action. Ample opportunities to learn more about diversity, equality and inclusion are finally bursting through mainstream outlets. Outstanding articles and books are readily available at all at our delightful book stores and online as well. It’s a good time to peruse a different perspective. Walloon Writers Review strives to be inclusive to all who interact with our publication and our company and we are learning how to do this in a more meaningful and comprehensive manner.
Also for readers, today marks another important date: Don Quixote was published over 400 years ago on January 16, 1605 and is listed as one of the first complete novels ever. #amwriting fans will be inspired – over 500 million copies have been sold to date. Think of how many languages!
Here at Walloon Writers Review, we are using our time to get rolling. While we are not presently tilting at windmills, we are aiming for an exciting Eighth edition of this collection of northern Michigan stories, poetry and nature photography. We are so honored that poet and writer Glen Young will continue his role for this upcoming edition!
So, eventually, you can expect to hear a Call For Submissions alert —ummm – soon-ish. Our theme for this upcoming edition is Exploration. While intentionally vague, we think this theme may serve as one that opens the door to new perspectives on the amazing northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula region. Explore for yourself and /or share your exploration with our readers.
Our theme is optional – a guidepost for where you may let your creativity take you. Let’s examine Exploration as the theme for this upcoming edition: Maybe you would like to get started already. Maybe the theme doesn’t really work for you or you already prepared your selection for this upcoming edition. Not to worry. Our collection will not be limited or organized around this theme but, it seems to apply. There are so many things to explore in this great part of the world!
We will update you on timeline and you’ll hear the Call For Submissions in the first quarter with plenty of time to decide your course of action. We do not anticipate publishing or distributing before summer.
To keep our community up to date, we would like to ramp up Updates from Contributors! What a great way to let others know what you’ve been up to since we last read or saw your piece! Please feel free to email book covers and release dates, inclusion in other publications, news and exciting awards you would like to share with everyone to editor@walloonwriters.com.
Thanks to everyone for your interest and support of Walloon Writers Review. Have a question? Suggestion? Feel free to reach out to editor@walloonwriters.com.
Wishing you a delightful holiday season! As we close in on the rush to wrap up gifts, batten down the hatches before the blizzard covers our region in snow and bake just one more holiday treat to savour the season, we hope you will pick up a copy of Walloon Writers Review or order online directly from the amazing independent bookstores in this region and around the state.
This edition is brimming with moments of our region….182 pages and features newbies and notables, published and first time to contribute to our unique collection. There is something for everyone to connect to…trees, fish, lakes, forests, islands and favorite places.
Visit McLean & Eakin, Between the Covers, Horizon Books, Bay Books, Snowbound Books, Parallel 45, Adams Madams, The Bookman, Reader’s World and more to dive into poems, stories and stunning photography inspired by northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. We are honored to offer exceptional creative writing and nature photography from local contributors and those who pass through our region or make seasonal nests here and return each year to experience this amazing place.
Visit us in the new year for information about our Call For Submissions for the 2023 edition. We will post details in January.
Autumn Palette by Jennifer Uehlein Reynolds Copyright 2021
Inside Walloon Writers Review Seventh Edition, you’ll find a celebration of the amazing experiences only found in this part of the world. Our collection shares the seasons, the adventures, the interactions with nature and with others in a special region from just above the middle of the lower peninsula to the outreaches of the Upper Peninsula.
One of the outstanding photography submissions this edition is by photographer Jennifer Uehlein Reynolds. We are honored to include with amazing photograph that has already been recognized by an area art gallery for its beauty. You’ll find more of Jennifer’s photography interspersed with outstanding short stories, poetry and musings in writing and in even more nature photography.
Walloon Writers Review On The Air at WNMU-FM90 Northern Arts & Culture with Hans Ahlström
This fall, WNMU-FM 90 included a reading and interview with Milton Bates, one of our returning poetry contributors. His readings are from his poetry included in this edition of Walloon Writers Review. We would like to thank Hans Ahlström, host of Northern Arts & Culture, as well as several other programs on the Marquette-based public radio station for sharing a little bit about the contributors who make Walloon Writers Review special!
Beautiful cover by East Jordan photographer Karen Walker
We are so excited to announce, on behalf of the exciting Contributors to this edition that Walloon Writers Review Seventh Edition is released and in bookstores! This collection is exciting and features a number of short stories, wonderful poetry, vivid nature photography, exceptional creativity, and many new and returning contributors. This is our largest edition at 182 pages!
There is something incredible about the passion and creativity inspired by Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. In story, reflection, moving and vivd poetry, and beautiful nature photography, this collection offers really incredible writing and images true to the spirit of the region. We are so honored to welcome many new photographers to our collection!
Check out our tab – “Where to Find Walloon Writers Review” for booksellers in the region and beyond!
out out to our amazing designers, including Angela Saxon, Heather Shaw, and the whole team at Mission Point Press in Traverse City! Thank you for helping us realize such a beautiful publication.
Here are some snaps from our Seventh Edition Contributors Launch Gathering held last week at the beautifulWalloon Lake Wineryin Petoskey!
Walloon Writers Review is pleased to announce the names of the Contributors included in the upcoming release of Walloon Writers Review Seventh Edition. We are so excited to share this collection and hope you will enjoy the materials included by these talented writers and photographers as much as we do.
Watch for our Release Date announcement coming soon!
We are honored to share this list of contributors who make our upcoming 182-page edition exceptional.
We invite you to read wonderful poetry inspired by Michigan’s spectacular northern region and Upper Peninsula in Walloon Writers Review! Our “edition 6”, released last Spring, is still available on the shelves at area bookstores or online at Bookshop.org, Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com!
walloon writers review 