“[I]f it doesn’t ring true to me, I don’t care to write it.” —Stephanie Macias
On Wednesday, February 11, Stephanie Macias will teach “Submit Your Stories to Literary Journals and Magazines.” In this class, students will learn when and where to submit their short stories, as well as how their stories are received by editors on the other side.
Stephanie Macias is a Latinx writer, artist, and musician living in Austin, TX. She received an MFA in fiction from the University of Texas at Austin and has received support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and Vermont Studio Center. Her stories have been shortlisted for The Masters Review Best Emerging Writers anthology, a finalist for the Jesmyn Ward Prize, longlisted for the DISQUIET Prize, and nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize four times. Her work has appeared in StoryQuarterly, Brink, No Tokens, Southern Humanities Review, Crazyhorse, and more. She is the managing editor at American Short Fiction.
Here’s what Stephanie had to share with us:
Who are your earliest influences? What people and books made you a writer?
British literature at the very beginning—Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë. Then Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Isabel Allende for permission to see myself in a book and to look beyond our “reality.” And the reason I started writing short stories: Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove.
What writing challenges have you faced? What have these challenges taught you about your process?
I wasn’t able to acquire an agent for a book I worked on for four years. I’d say I’m still trying to understand it, but even so, I’m writing. I’ve written so much since then. Writing is a grounding, healing act.
From your perspective, what’s the most rewarding part about being a writer?
The work! Sitting at my desk in the throes of invention. Taking my questions about that invented story out into my everyday life and having them answered by living and reading.
Who do you write for?
First, myself. Then… I guess still myself. I mean to say, if it doesn’t ring true to me, I don’t care to write it.
What do you hope writers will learn from your course?
I hope they’ll learn that submitting work to literary journals and magazines is a brave and vulnerable act and that they’re not alone in this endeavor. Then I hope to bring some organization to that process. And finally, I’d like them to welcome rejection as a real and rewarding part of the process.
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Thanks, Stephanie!
Click here to learn more about Stephanie’s upcoming class.
