Editor Interview: The Pen Parentis Writing Fellowship For New Parents

Literary genius parents

We admire Mom Egg Review and Mutha Magazine and Raising Mothers for parenting essays — but what we truly love are really edgy and crazy off-the-deep end zines and experimental fiction that works and staggering illustrated art publications of all kinds - Pen Parentis is breaking the stereotype of what people should expect from parents. Just having a kid should never end a literary career: eight of the last ten Nobel Prize Winners had kids! We want to show that parents write all kinds of things--they're not just mommy bloggers.

We select a winner from the entries and our publishing partner (Dreamers Creative Writing) does the actual publishing - our readers are diverse and we select our Fellowship Winner NOT based on genre or a particular style but mostly for the writer achieving what they set out to do. We choose our first-readers for their excellent taste in a broad selection of fiction.

We reward the talent and dedication of parents to the art of literary writing - we do not publish parenting essays and many other parent-centric literary magazines focus only on the topic of parenthood. We prefer brilliant writing on other topics, but written by parents. (of course we will sometimes choose a story about parenting. It is entirely based on the talent of the writer and not the subject or particular style.

When we say send us your best work, we really mean it. The talent pool is extraordinary. Please don't send trunk stories. We want new work.

Keeps to the word count. Follows the rules. Is original work with NO use of AI. …And knocks us emotionally out of the ballpark, fully transports us, or makes us laugh out loud.

They think we want them to write about their kids or their parenting. We don't. We want them to write something amazing (it can be about parenthood but it certainly doesn't have to be)

We do not read cover letters until after we have chosen the winner. Our judging is entirely blind and goes through many rounds. We are frequently surprised and/or delighted by the biographies of the writers we select.

We read every piece.

Our first round is simply to determine if the rules were followed - word count, formatting, etc. Second round is a simple yes/no. The shortlist is analyzed and then sorted and then for the final round, real discussions happen.

Since we only judge the contest once per year, I will defer this to the year-round editors.

We do not edit which is why it has to be perfect - we are so disappointed when we find typos or glaring unintentional errors in a submission. The word count is always under 1000 words - pay attention to details before submitting.

We are an award.

We are proud to be supported by The deGroot Foundation for the cash prizes. Marketing and administrative costs are supported by reading fees. We have a long term partnership with Dreamers Writing magazine to publish the winner. They do an incredible job.

The winning Fellow gets to read at the pen parentis literary salons alongside established authors who are also parents. Their work is published online in Dreamers Writing and the editor may also publish the piece in print. For a full year, the fellow is mentored in our organization and included in a cohort of other writer parents. For the rest of time, the Fellows meet annually online to catch up on success stories.