Landslide Lit(erary) Wants your Poetry and Prose about Growing Older, Bolder, Wiser.

We are always looking for essays, memoir, poetry, and fiction on our general theme — the challenges of growing up, growing older, looking forward, and looking back. Times of identity crisis. Stories of food and music, citizenship and parenthood, hardship and resilience. All are welcome in this space!

About our special theme for summer 2024

Now and then, we choose a theme that seems relevant to the season. In summertime, we often journey to places we love or want to explore. Rarely, is our trip free of obstacles. Plot emerges from how we cope with those obstacles. Consider the quote attributed to Leo Tolstoy (and John Gardner):

There are only two plots. A stranger comes to town and someone goes on a journey.

The storytelling structure known as “the hero’s journey” frames the journey best (The hero, in this case, is you!). The hero takes a journey for a purpose but discovers trouble. Such journeys ends in self-discovery.

What we are looking for —

We love strong narratives, inventive language, and vivid scenes. We love poetry, fiction, literary journalism, short memoir, and personal essay that is accessible but rich with imagery and insight. We love the melody of language. We love to be surprised.

We believe that identity is a lifetime discovery process, not confined to adolescence. We humans fail and succeed, sin, atone, and forgive, suffer and triumph. We are always growing up, growing old, looking forward, and looking back.

What we are not looking for —

Even if you are Paul Simon, we do not want a list essay — fifty ways to leave your lover, for example. We do not want advice columns or tips on becoming a smashing success in 40 days. We want evergreen stories and poems thoughtfully composed and revised. Medium.com is an international platform. We are eager to hear from our global family. The writing life creates a bond between us!

General submission guidelines —

Submissions are welcome on a rolling basis. You do not have to write to the chosen theme!

We prefer unpublished fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

For prose, we prefer a minimum of 500 words/a maximum of 2,000 words.

We accept reprints at least one year after publication, and with attribution.

Writers publishing on Landslide Lit retain full rights, of course. Medium.com is a unique platform. So check out the Medium.com Terms of Service.

How to submit to Landslide Lit (erary) —

Here is a helpful site for beginners on Medium.com. You need not be a paying subscriber to publish. But you must create a profile on the platform.

Here is how you add a story to Medium.com.

Here is how you add a piece to our publication.

Before you submit a draft to our publication, you must 1)be a user and 2) be added as a writer to our platform. Pitch your writing-in-progress to Kimberly, here. Include your full name and your Medium.com username.

Editing is a collaborative process. We reserve the right to make developmental editing suggestions and small copy edits.

Why we named our publication after a Fleetwood Mac song?

Our original inspiration for this Medium publication was the lyric from the song, “Landslide,” written by Stevie Nicks (1973)when she was a struggling young artist. She wrote the song in Aspen while gazing at the mountains and wondering about her future in music. Though many believe this song is about aging, Nicks wrote with her father in mind. When she speaks of children getting older, she is speaking of herself.

“So during that two months I made a decision to continue. ‘Landslide’ was her lyric for that decision. [Sings] ‘When you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills’ — it’s the only time in my life that I’ve lived in the snow. But looking up at those Rocky Mountains and going, ‘Okay, we can do it. I’m sure we can do it.’” — Stevie Nicks

Listen to Stevie Nicks sing “Landslide” HERE.

About the editors —

Bonnie Omer Johnson and Kimberly Garts Crum are writers, teachers and editors. Kimberly is an essayist and Medium writer and teaches memoir and personal essays at Shape & Flow Writing Instruction, currently on Zoom. She specializes in the developmental editing of memoirs. Bonnie teaches college English and writes fiction, memoir, and book reviews.

We love publishing emerging and experienced authors! We are seasoned editors, having curated, assembled, and published a 352-page anthology, The Boom Project: Voices of a Generation (Butler Books, 2019) of poetry and stories, memoir, and personal essay by persons born between 1946 and 1964 (Butler Books, 2019). Check out our YouTube Channel, The Boom Project Book, with poets and writers featured in the published anthology.

Thank you for considering Landslide Lit(erary) as a home for your work.

Be Safe. Be Strong. Write forward!

Kimberly Garts Crum MSW, MFA and Bonnie Omer-Johnson MFA