October 21, 2014

If not for Writer’s Relief, I would still just have drawers of unseen work. I’m grateful for the careful balance you guys provide of a gentle push and a steady understanding. Just putting words on paper makes me feel overexposed and anxious. It’s so difficult to let anyone read the work. You guys have been a blessing. Also, getting tons of rejections helps me get more clinical and less over attached to my pieces. I’m truly grateful for your guidance and proficiency in this tender process.

Thanks again,

Cathy A.

September 24, 2014

I just started writing short stories two years ago, and last year, I was encouraged to start submitting to magazines. I sent one off and had no success. Then I heard about Writer’s Relief. I have a busy life and only so much time for writing. I was daunted by how long it was taking to research magazines and journals, determine where to send my stories, and submit them. I figured, why not give Writer’s Relief a try? So, I sent them my first story. They gave me 25 or so places to send it—and a month later, it was accepted by a literary journal! I was stunned and ecstatic. It was a magazine I would never have found on my own. Since then, I have had eight acceptances in all—in just one year!—and I’ve been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a couple of anthologies. I could NEVER have pulled this off without the help of Writer’s Relief. They really keep me in a productive groove, and they proofread and format all my work. They know the publishing industry so well, answer my questions, and solve my problems. I have newborn twins, so now I have even LESS time to write, and what little time I do have is precious. I want to spend my time creating, not managing my submissions and my fledgling fiction career. Writer’s Relief has been a godsend. Someday soon, they will help me get my first book published. Thank you, Writer’s Relief!

Doug Sovern

August 12, 2014

Pardon the cliché, but sometimes getting your writing published can feel like climbing a mountain! Writer’s Relief has helped make my trek a lot easier by doing the footwork that I simply don’t have time to do: writing cover letters, researching publications that would be interested in my work, and submitting my writing according to each journal’s specific guidelines. The result? Writer’s Relief has helped me place my work in ten literary journals in the last two years. I have now published across three different genres, including creative nonfiction, short fiction, and poetry. Writer’s Relief has helped me significantly enhance my resume. With each new acceptance, I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment that my work is not only making it into the world, but is appreciated by people who are experts in their field. Thanks, Writer’s Relief, for helping this writer achieve her goals.

Emily Eddins

May 21, 2014

April 30, 2014

Before Writer’s Relief, I wrote but would not call myself a “writer.” Writing for me was an insular, meditative act—a sort of private love affair with words. Writer’s Relief gave me (and continues to give me) that essential ingredient that makes me a writer: Readers. Writer’s Relief does this in a variety of ways:

• First, it locates the journals right for my work. (Fourteen poems and short stories accepted in two years!)
• Second, it uses a submission cycle that keeps me focused and productive. Each cycle is long enough that I am almost always able to have new work ready, but short enough that it deters procrastination.
• Third, it relieves me of the mind-numbing details that would otherwise deter me from ever putting anything in the mail to anyone.

Finally, and most important, Writer’s Relief’s knowledgeable and responsive staff members have acted as true collaborators. They have been creative, thoughtful, and innovative. They have provided tailored submission strategies, Web design, tremendous proofreading, and gentle prodding when I need it. There is no question in my mind that without their support, I would still be the silent, one hand clapping.

Laura Schulkind

April 2, 2014

I’m a successful client in that you guys helped me find my agent, who helped me get my book published.

Ron F

April 1, 2014

Dear Writer’s Relief,

I wanted to share with you a few images that I hope will convey how much the Peter K. Hixson Memorial Award has meant to me and my writing journey. All of these moments resulted from your generosity of heart, friendly approach, and organized, efficient, submission process, for all of which I am most grateful.

First invaluable moment: A phone call from someone I didn’t know saying, “We loved your writing!” It is one thing for my mom to tell me I can write and an entirely different and much more rare thing to hear it from a complete stranger, much less one whose business is writing. That is a nugget of hope that I will remember and refer to when the inevitable rejection letters come.

Second: logging into the online database and seeing that my work was actually out there in the world being read by a slew of journals. I’ve read enough advice about publishing to know how the submission game is supposed to be played, but I have never mustered the organization or the gumption to actually send a story to 25 outlets at once. It’s magical.

Third: receiving another thanks-but-no-thanks email and thinking, “Oh well, that’s just one journal; there are others,” instead of, “Oh God, not another one, bring on the Ben & Jerry’s.” Getting used to rejection might be the greatest of the many gifts this award gave me. All the staff members I worked with at Writer’s Relief put in each email, “Remember, rejection is just one step closer to publication.” When I began the process with you, I thought, that’s easy for you to say. By the end, I believed it.

With much gratitude,

Rachel Henry (a 2013 Peter K. Hixson winner)

March 22, 2014

Dear Writer’s Relief:

I have an agent now and a publisher. You guys were so awesome in helping me get here (and I tell all my writing friends to use your service). Thank you for everything!

Shelly K

March 19, 2014

I would like to thank the Writer’s Relief staff, all of whom I know only by email and the occasional phone call. Without them, I would have to sacrifice precious writing time to the tedious, exhausting process of submission. Writer’s Relief does the heavy lifting, leaving me free to write and experiment (lots of that lately); the two-month submission deadlines keeps me comfortably at the grindstone. It’s also nice to know that there is someone out there who doesn’t know me but cares enough about my poetry to “get it out there.” I’d be a drained, blithering idiot without their services, their kindnesses, and their genuine belief in the quality of my work. Thanks, everybody, thank you. Shalom.

Christopher Kuhl

March 5, 2014

Writing, at the very core of our being, is a way of making meaning of our lives, so if you’re a writer, you know that. The hard part for me, since I had many obligations and distractions, was moving from the knowledge of writing’s importance to a sustained engagement with writing. Two influences helped me make the transition. The first was a wonderful book entitled The Writer’s Way by Julia Cameron that guides and focuses creativity with small but mighty steps over a period of months. The second was Writers Relief, which, once I’d written the poems, helped me polish and send them to journals that might be interested. All that remains for me is the wonderful, wonderful play with words that is poetry.

Lynn Hoggard

January 29, 2014

When I found the ad for Writer’s Relief two and a half years ago in Poets & Writers Magazine, it was a godsend. I had been submitting poetry to literary journals for two years, and with 54 submissions (which seemed like an epic number) had managed to get three poems published. But the process had been laborious―just finding the journals and then following the guidelines for sending the poems―and I was ready to give up. I was happily surprised to be accepted into the Writer’s Relief program.

That opened up a whole new world. The team at Writer’s Relief is warm, supportive, and professional. Just being connected with them helped me feel more a part of the writing community. Now, with eleven poems accepted for publication in this last year or so, I have a much more dynamic sense of being a poet, being a member of the poetry community, and being a part of the history of writers and the written word.

Best of all, my writing has improved under the pressure of the bimonthly submission process. I always had a regular writing schedule, but the new structure has given my work more focus. And with the publication credits has come increased self-confidence. I really couldn’t say enough good things about Writer’s Relief for those who would like to be published writers.

Betsy Martin