VOLUME 25, ISSUE 32 | AUGUST 8, 2025 |
THE FAME FACTOR Some of us want that IT factor, where people recognize you for being a writer. Some of us like being recluses. I lean to the second, but if you publish long enough, you'll be recognized in public. This
week I took the two grandsons to school to meet their teachers since both parents could not get away from work. I was happy to. I even gave the English/Language Arts teachers my rack card, letting them know that their student's grandmother was happy to speak. They were thrilled. The fun part, however, was when a reader recognized me in the hallway between teachers, tugged on my sleeve and said, "You're C. Hope Clark. I read all
your books, your blog, everything!" We laughed and I thanked her. Of course the grandsons witnessed that. The nine-year-old said, "Wow, I want to be famous like that." I laughed out loud and said," Then find something you love to do, own it, and work hard at it. You don't just decide to be famous." Lesson taught and
hopefully learned. I'm still laughing at him thinking I'm famous. Bless his little heart. But I'll take the admiration and the fact he's proud of his grandma. |
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Meet your webinar hosts… Nicole Breit is a multi-award winning author whose work has been widely published in Canada and the US. Her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in Room, Brevity, The Fiddlehead, Pithead Chapel, Swelling with Pride: Queer Conception and Adoption Stories
and Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction. Nicole’s award winning lyric essay “An Atmospheric Pressure” was selected as a Notable by the editors of Best American Essays 2017. She is the co-author of Bloom: Letters on Girlhood with Claire Sicherman (Caitlin Press, 2025).
Rowan McCandless is an award-winning author of fiction and creative nonfiction who writes from Treaty 1 territory. Her debut memoir,
Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments, co-won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book in 2022 and was a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Award for Nonfiction. She has been longlisted for the Journey Prize, won the Constance Rooke Creative Non-fiction Prize, and received gold for One of a Kind Storytelling at the National Magazine Awards. Rowan is the CNF editor
with The Fiddlehead.
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TRIED AND TRUE WORDS
Recently a long-time fan wrote me, saying she kept some of my words for ready reference. She came across a particular essay that really resonated with her, and she asked that I repeat it, because what applied
years ago, still applies today. It's pretty evergreen, I think. "The world is hurting, and it doesn't know how to stop hurting. That's why you ensconce yourself in your writing space and find your happy place. Not only because you need it for your peace of mind, but because others still need good stories for escape, for enjoyment, for self-help, for
stimulation. Create your happy place. Make yourself want to go there. Then disappear in your stories. Show the world that negativity is not going to win." Sure, it's easy to say chin up and all that, but we have bad days. Sometimes it's politics. Sometimes it's family. Sometimes it's the fact life didn't turn out quite as we'd hoped. Writing is what I use to level the day.
Writing is what I use to disappear from the horrors.
Writing is what I use to feel better about myself. Develop the habit. Writing is worth way more to you than simple publication. It taps a part of you nobody can lay claim to. It's all yours.
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Whether you're just starting out or you've been writing for years, this book will help you finally understand what makes a story work—and how to fix the ones that don't.
-Sept 1, 2025 - Signing Edisto Bookstore, Edisto Island, SC - 3-5 PM -Sept 9, 2025 - Chapin Library, Chapin, SC - 1-2 PM -Oct 13, 2025 - Edisto Art Guild, Edisto Island, SC - 7-9 PM -Oct 14, 2025 - Moncks Corner Book Club, MC Train Depot, 100
Behrman St, Moncks Corner, SC - time TBD -Nov 22, 2025 - Christmas Market - 8AM-2PM - ICRC Rec Ctr, Chapin, SC
Email: hope@chopeclark.com to schedule events, online or otherwise. “You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important. Art would not be important if life were not important, and life is important.” — James Baldwin (1924–1987)
<<If you have a success story you believe was prompted by FundsforWriters, please share with us! Send to hope@chopeclark.com >>
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What Skills Do Writers Need to Moderate AI-generated Content?
By Dan Brotzel Businesses increasingly use AI to draft and edit content – blog posts, case studies, training outlines, policy documents, contracts, presentations and more. I heard about a life-writing company that uses AI to ghost books
based on an interview transcript, and only brings in a human to edit and sense-check the final draft. Many may deplore this direction, but it’s rapidly becoming new work for writers. Rather than create from scratch, people take AI drafts and ‘make them human’. This requires a slightly different skillset to that required of a traditional content writer. At least businesses understand AI content alone won’t cut it. In fact, the request is often just that:
‘make this sound like it’s not AI’. Everyone’s using it, but no one wants to be caught doing it. So how do you ‘humanise’ AI content? Get rid of the obvious telltale AI icks Nothing wrong with an em dash in its place, but the likes of ChatGPT use them to excess. Other telltale signs include the gratuitous use of emojis
and a number of cheesy almost cliche constructions. For example: ‘The result? Increased sales, and a delighted client.’ Another would be the overused ‘Not X but Y’ pattern. As in: ‘This isn’t just an upgrade. It’s a whole new experience.’ And another would be colons in titles, e.g. Humanising AI: Best Practices for Editors. AI loves clusters of three, too, often alliterated. Bots overdo it. As in: ‘This is a huge improvement, and it’s all down to Acme plc’s
enthusiasm, experience and expertise’. Look out for words that AI can’t resist. These tend to be words you’d never use yourself, such as ‘delve’, ‘amplify’, ‘leverage’ and – oh dear Lord, it’s everywhere – ‘spearhead’. There are good tips here and a brilliant big list here. Review structure and syntax Structure is complicated, but AI likes to think it’s easy. It likes to construct a piece as a simple list of points
1>2>3>4>5, for example, whereas a more interesting human approach might be something subtler such as 5>1>2>3>3.1>3.2>4>4.1>4.2>4.3>5 revisited.
This simplistic approach to structure is underlined by excessively repetitious sentence lengths and a slavish application of transitional and linking phrases such as ‘moreover’, ‘consequently’ and ‘furthermore’.
Remember that AI tools are designed to convey plausibility. Not
truth, but truthiness. Sometimes when you spend a long time with an AI text you start to spot whole sections that are redundant, repetitious or completely out of place.
Look at tone and cliche
Look out for dead language and cruddy business metaphors. AI is always talking about ‘paving the way’ or ‘embarking on a journey’, about ‘today’s fast-moving digital landscape’ or ‘our complex, rapidly-evolving global economy’. Attempts at empathy begin
with hollow expressions like: ‘It’s important to note that…’ These issues are connected to the wider issue of tone. AI tools work hard at it, but tone is a fuzzy thing where humans clearly have the upper hand. If you work regularly for a brand or business, for example, you’ll have an instinctive sense of the words and phrases it would use or avoid – whether your brand would say ‘gifts’ or ‘pressies’, say, or whether your CEO is a ‘your sincerely’ or an ‘all the best’ kind of
person. Real-world ignorance AI tools are famous for ‘hallucinating’. One example I saw just recently came from entrepreneur Brad Feld, who confronted the latest version of the AI tool Gemini about erroneous facts it had provided him on the subject of… Brad Feld. Hilariously the AI ended up groveling for making stuff up. So again, ignore how plausible the words sound. Check how they measure up to your knowledge of the real world. Check facts and stats. Try injecting some first-person pronouns
and real stories. You can find more good advice here. Humanity When I look at AI-generated content that has been generated from a human input I’m familiar with, such as a talk or an interview, I often find all the interesting bits missing – the touches of humour and opinion, the verbal flourishes, the little anecdotes that bring warmth and context. Put those back in. Add in some quirk and mess and surprise. Perhaps, just
perhaps, the machines haven’t quite taken over yet.
Sure you can tell human language from AI writing? Check your skills with these quizzes
BIO - Dan Brotzel’s latest novel is Thank You For The Days (Bloodhound Books). He also writes widely on Medium.
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AMBROGGIO PRIZE FOR POETRY
https://poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes/ambroggio-prize
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline September 15, 2025. The Ambroggio Prize is a $1,000
publication prize given for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation. The winning manuscript is published by the University of Arizona Press. Poets may translate their own work or collaborate with a translator who may or may not be a poet. The poet and translator must share the $1,000 prize. The original manuscript in Spanish must be between 48 and 100 pages, typed single-spaced. STEEL TOE BOOTS AWARDS IN POETRY AND PROSE
https://www.steeltoebooks.com/submit
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline September 1, 2025. Each award winner receives book publication, a $500 prize, and a $1000 social media and advertising promotional package. All books submitted are considered for publication outside of the prize. In
addition to the winner, we will look to publish 1-2 other titles. The $500 prize is an advance against royalties. INTREPID WRITING COMPETITION
https://intrepidtimes.com/writing-competition-a-book-led-me-there/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline August 31,
2025. Open internationally. The winning writer will receive a prize of $300 USD as well as publication on Intrepid Times. Up to four runners-up will also be selected for publication and paid our standard publication fee. Pieces must be original, factual, and not published elsewhere online. The maximum word count is 2000; pieces that exceed this limit will not be considered. WILLOW SPRINGS SURREALIST POETRY PRIZE
https://inside.ewu.edu/willowspringsmagazine/surreal-prize/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 1, 2025. We are looking for poems in the surrealist tradition and its many iterations. Winner receives $1000 for a single poem to be published in the Spring issue of the Willow Springs magazine. Submit a packet of up to three
poems in one file. THE ANTHONY GROOMS SHORT FICTION PRIZE
https://www.theheadlightreview.com/submissions
$18 ENTRY FEE. Deadline August 31, 2025. The winner will receive publication (a perfectly bound book with a full color or black/white cover), an award of $750, and
25 copies of the book. Manuscripts are not to exceed 12,500 words. The content may include a single story, multiple stories, multiple flash stories or a stand-alone novel excerpt. Any submission that exceeds this word count will not be considered. FIDDLEHEAD'S SHORT FICTION CONTEST
https://thefiddlehead.ca/contests/fiction
ENTRY FEE $35 CAD for resident, and $50 CAD for outside Canada. Deadline September 1, 2025. The Fiddlehead will not publish submissions that have been AI-generated or have been developed using AI as a tool. One Short Fiction entry is one piece (6,000 words maximum). You will receive a one-year subscription to The Fiddlehead. The winning entry will be published in Issue 306 (Winter 2026) of The Fiddlehead and on the
website. There is a publication payment in addition to the contest prize. The current publication payment rate is $65/page. Winner receives $2000 CAD for Best Short Fiction.
GRANTS / FELLOWSHIP / CROWDFUNDING VIRGINIA CENTER FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS
https://www.vcca.com/apply/
Deadline September 15, 2025. VCCA Fellows are selected by peer review on the basis of professional achievement or promise of achievement in their
respective fields. Separate review panels are created for each category (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting/screenwriting, children’s literature, performance, film/video, book arts, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, music composition, etc.). Location Mt. San Angelo in Amherst, Virginia. NOTE: Applications for VCCA’s residency program at Le Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France, and International Exchange programs are are accepted once a year for residencies the
following year. These opportunities are available only to Fellows who have already had a VCCA residency in Virginia. Also deadline September 15, 2025. CURTIS BROWN CREATIVES SCHOLARSHIPS
https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/breakthrough-scholarships
Curtis Brown Creative – the only writing school from a major literary and talent agency. We've been helping writers tell their stories since 2011. We're the writing school led by literary agents. We'll help you tell your story – from first idea to final draft. HW Fisher Novel-Writing Scholarship for Writers of Colour - deadline August 31, 2025. Breakthrough Scholarship for Fantasy Writers with
Low Income - deadline September 21, 2025. Breakthrough YA & Children's Fiction Scholarship for Writers of Colour - Deadline October 5, 2025. ILLINOIS ROAD SCHOLARS
https://ilhumanities.org/apply-to-be-a-road-scholar#apply
Deadline
August 29, 2025. The Illinois Humanities’ Road Scholars Speakers Bureau invites Illinois-based writers, storytellers, historians, humanities scholars, folklorists, musicians, and living history actors, among others, to share their expertise and enthusiasm with people throughout Illinois. Speakers who are selected to join our Road Scholars Speakers roster will receive a set amount per presentation based on the mileage and event format. This amount is intended to cover a $300
honorarium as well as necessary lodging and meals. SHEARING FELLOWSHIP
https://blackmountaininstitute.org/fellowships/apply/
Deadline September 30, 2025. Eligible applicants must have published at least one book with a trade or literary press, and will need to
submit a letter of application, a CV, and a writing sample. The fellowship includes compensation of $46,500 paid over a nine-month period; a nine-month-long letter of appointment; eligibility for optional health coverage; office space in the BMI offices on UNLV's campus; housing (fellows cover some utilities) in a unique and vibrant arts complex in the bustling district of downtown Las Vegas—home to The Writer's Block, our city's beloved independent bookstore. There are no formal teaching
requirements for fellows. Instead, fellows will maintain office hours (10 per week) and engage in a substantial way with the local literary community by planning and holding workshops, craft talks, events, and other programming of their own design. Location Black Mountain Institute, an international literary center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada. SUREL'S PLACE
https://surelsplace.org/month-long-residencies/
Deadline September 1, 2025. Surel’s Place supports artists. Knowing of the significant value you add to our individual and collective lives, we aim to give you the time, shelter, and professional support your work deserves. In exchange, we ask you to offer art experiences to our community. Garden City supports artists and
their work, and as a resident, you will be valued and appreciated for the energy, ideas, and dedication that you bring to our city. The program is open to professional visual, literary, and performance artists: painters, writers, musicians, architects, filmmakers, and choreographers… any artist who needs a place to focus. Includes: one month residencies (more time may be possible, but must be justified within the application), free rent, free utilities, free wi-fi, modest living stipend of
$100 per week, $300 travel stipend, use of well-maintained bicycles for transportation, free or discounted tickets to art events and movies, free marketing via our website, Facebook, targeted emails, online public calendars, and press releases, free professional event hosting including catering, curating, and logistics. Location Garden City, ID.
FLYER TALK
https://www.ibpublishing.com/apply/travel
Looking for freelance writers who can keep Pacific Time office hours to write approximately 300-word news briefs at $35 a pop (usually 1-2 stories a day). We provide the story, you provide the
content. Must be able to provide a quick turn around on assignments. Easy cash for writers already working at their desks. Aviation and travel experience or interest a plus. Check us out at FlyerTalk.com. THE BULLETIN
https://thebulletin.org/write-for-the-bulletin/
The Bulletin
publishes articles written by the world's leading science and security experts, who explore the potential for terrible damage to societies from manmade technologies. We focus on ways to prevent catastrophe from the malign or accidental misuse of technology. Our primary coverage areas are nuclear risk, climate change, and other disruptive technologies that could pose an existential threat to humanity. Pays $2/word. FLORA
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stuvanairsdale_flora-california-native-plant-society-activity-7353833185484460032-cNhc/
Looking to build a stable of qualified freelancers to help me round out Flora, the quarterly member magazine of the California Native Plant Society. Writers with
nature/science-writing clips (either print or web) and facility with reporting, interviews, and tight print deadlines. Bonus points if you are confident with a camera and have experience delivering your own photos. Pay varies by piece but generally starts at $.75/word for writers. Story lengths vary from 250-word FOB news items to 3,000-word features. OREGON HUMANITIES
https://oregonhumanities.org/rll/contributor-guidelines/
Oregon Humanities publishes essays, photographs, films, audio recordings, data visualizations and infographics, and other media that explore the thoughts, perspectives, and experiences of Oregonians. Work is published in Beyond the Margins, our online essay series, or in print in Oregon Humanities magazine. We exclusively
publish work by Oregon-based creators. Payment ranges from $200 to $300 for shorter online pieces and $500 to $1000 for personal essays and features; payment varies depending on the length and complexity of the piece, and whether it is an original, commissioned work or a reprint or adaptation of an existing piece. For accepted stories we pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. FLAME TREE PUBLISHING - ANTHOLOGIES
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/topic/call-for-submissions
Deadline August 24, 2025. As an indie publisher of speculative fiction, we publish a wide range of anthologies made entirely
from open submissions, and it's a big part of our mission to support new and diverse voices. These are professional, paid opportunities aimed at both emerging and established writers - with the chance to be published in beautifully produced hardbacks, distributed globally. Story length is most likely to be successful at 2000 – 4000 words. The Valkyries: The Valkyries will be published in our Myths, Gods & Immortals series which
brings together the new and ancient through familiar stories with a fresh imaginative twist. Odysseus: This submission theme offers the chance to reassess the reassessments; to present the fully formed, rounded and complex figure that is Odysseus, from his point of view and as others see him, as he faces the challenges of living up to the expectations put upon him. Romantic
Fantasy Short Stories: Ideal submissions will weave emotional tension such as longing, betrayal and love into epic fantasy worlds depicting prophecies, injustice and conflict. Africanfuturism Short Stories: For this open submission call, the stories should be set in and about Africa – whether that's a future Africa, an alternative Africa or a parallel Africa, the choice is yours. The genre implies a lean towards science fiction rather
than fantasy, and towards positive scenarios and concepts, but of course is open to interpretation. JOURNALSTONE
https://journalstone.com/journalstone-submissions/
We want horror in all its forms—from literary to weird, Gothic to psychological, and (almost) everything in between. We’re looking for amazing stories from amazing authors,
regardless of race, gender, religion—if you’ve got something good, we want it. (Please do not submit YA, romance, erotica, or religious fiction; we do not deal in those genres. Also note that anything involving vampires, werewolves, zombies, or serial killers will be a hard sell, currently.) MAVERICK PUBLISHING
https://maverickbooks.co.uk/about/
Maverick has over 500 titles across the formats of picture books, early readers, graphic reluctant readers, junior fiction and middle grade. We believe that, with everyone leading such busy lifestyles, it is important for children to spend time with adults sharing and engaging over books. O'BRIEN PRESS
https://obrien.ie/submissions
As an Irish publisher, we have found it increasingly important to have authors who are available to attend local events in bookshops, schools and libraries. As such, while we are open to submissions from authors all over the world, we are much more likely to publish authors based in Ireland. We publish mainly children's fiction and non-fiction, adult non-fiction and a select
number of adult novels. We generally do not publish poetry or academic works. SPLIT LIP PRESS https://www.splitlippress.com/
SHORT STORY/FLASH FICTION book manuscripts: January 1st through March 1st.
OPEN PROSE CHAPBOOK manuscripts: April 1st
through June 1st.
NOVEL/NOVELLA book manuscripts: July 1st through September 1st.
ESSAY/MEMOIR/NONFICTION-HYBRID book manuscripts: October 1st through December 1st.
We ask for a full manuscript rather than an excerpt/query. Split/Lip Press is dedicated to publishing boundary-breaking fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid books. SEVEN STORIES PRESS
https://sevenstories.com/imprints/seven-stories-press
Our primary imprint, Seven Stories, publishes political non-fiction, literature in translation, and other works of the radical imagination. TRIANGLE SQUARE
https://sevenstories.com/imprints/triangle-square
Works of radical imagination for young readers. Please forward the newsletter in its entirety. To reprint any editorials, contact hope@fundsforwriters.com for permission. Do not assume that acknowledgements listed in your publication is considered a valid right to publish out of ours.
C. Hope Clark
E-mail: hope@fundsforwriters.com
140-A Amicks Ferry Road #4
Chapin, SC 29036
http://www.fundsforwriters.com Copyright 2000-2025, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326 Our subscriber list is NOT made available to others. Use information listed at your own risk. FundsforWriters gives no warranty to completeness, accuracy, or fitness of the markets, contests, and grants although research is done to the best of our
ability. FundsforWriters finds open submission calls, contests, and markets from a wide variety of sources, including Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer
newsletter, Erica Verrillo's blog, Authors Publish, Poets & Writers, Duotrope, Winning Writers, Write Jobs Plus, LinkedIn Jobs, Emily Stoddard, and other newsletters and online sites. Many announcements are submitted directly to FundsforWriters. All must be paying opportunities. Contests must pay a minimum of $200 first place. Submit potential listings to hope@chopeclark.com **Note that FundsforWriters.com places paid advertising in this newsletter. ALL ads are related to writers and the business of writing, screened by FundsforWriters to make sure the information is suitable for writers and their endeavors to improve their careers. While the mailing list is
not sold to third parties, other parties do advertise in the newsletter, to include the occasional solo ad. You will not receive this newsletter without your permission. It's physically impossible since recipients must opt-in, giving us permission to send the newsletter. If at any time you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, click the UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of each newsletter. We want you to enjoy this newsletter at your pleasure, not be forced to read anything you do not wish to
receive. Direct any complaints, suggestions, and accolades to Hope Clark at hope@fundsforwriters.com. We are an anti-spam site. | |
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