Wising Up Press

03/02/2024

Wising Up Discussions: Complex Allegiances: Constellations of Immigration, Citizenship & Belonging

Saturday, March 16 4-5:30 pm EST

If interested in joining us, write us at [email protected]

Universal Table/Wising Up Press. COMPLEX ALLEGIANCES: Constellations of Immigration, Citizenship & Belonging. A Wising Up Anthology. Editors, Charles Brockett, Heather Tosteson, Anna Steegmann. Naturalized Citizenship Project. Community Readings.

03/02/2024

We are redistributing this call with all submission guidelines included.
Our website is older, so some people have been having trouble accessing the link.
SEND MANUSCRIPTS TO: [email protected]
Out of Line—Who Defines?
Halfs, Steps, In-Laws & Belonging
A Wising Up Anthology
Families! We all have them. But which is the "real' one if there are—and there always are—several definitions of family to choose from? Obviously, it's the one that assures us of our full inclusion. But it's not that straightforward. We choose a partner, become core to an origin story, and, at the same time immediately became in-laws, fringe players in someone else's story. This is even more true with half and step attributions, for both parents and children. What is the impact of being defined as "half" or "step" to your own sense of loyalty, responsibility, affection, belonging? To your understanding of family? What is the effect of defining someone else that way in terms of their sense of sense of centrality, stability? Are these attributions useful, accurate, or even relevant when 50% of American families are remarried or recoupled? Is there any way to avoid them?
We invite stories, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry that explore the intricacies of the in-law, half, and step-conditions from every position—parents, children, grandchildren, grandparents, uncles, aunts—and what it means for those many of us who oscillate between these conditions, often in more than one family constellation.
Deadline: 3/15/24
SUBMIT TO: [email protected]
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
We make final editorial submissions on all submitted manuscripts only after the submission deadline.
Electronic submissions only, either Word or RTF.
Prose ≤ 5,000 words. Poetry ≤ 5 poems.
Payment in copies
Submit manuscripts electronically
We consider dual submissions and previously published work only if informed of this at time of submission.
Previously published work must be accompanied with a list of where and when it has been previously published, including on the internet.
We do not pay reprint fees. It is the author's responsibility to get needed permissions.

02/02/2024

We are redistributing this call with all submission guidelines included.
Our website is older, so some people have been having trouble accessing the link.

SEND MANUSCRIPTS TO: [email protected]

Out of Line—Who Defines?
Halfs, Steps, In-Laws & Belonging
A Wising Up Anthology

Families! We all have them. But which is the "real' one if there are—and there always are—several definitions of family to choose from? Obviously, it's the one that assures us of our full inclusion. But it's not that straightforward. We choose a partner, become core to an origin story, and, at the same time immediately became in-laws, fringe players in someone else's story. This is even more true with half and step attributions, for both parents and children. What is the impact of being defined as "half" or "step" to your own sense of loyalty, responsibility, affection, belonging? To your understanding of family? What is the effect of defining someone else that way in terms of their sense of sense of centrality, stability? Are these attributions useful, accurate, or even relevant when 50% of American families are remarried or recoupled? Is there any way to avoid them?

We invite stories, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry that explore the intricacies of the in-law, half, and step-conditions from every position—parents, children, grandchildren, grandparents, uncles, aunts—and what it means for those many of us who oscillate between these conditions, often in more than one family constellation.
Deadline: 3/15/24
SUBMIT TO: [email protected]

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We make final editorial submissions on all submitted manuscripts only after the submission deadline.
Electronic submissions only, either Word or RTF.
Prose ≤ 5,000 words. Poetry ≤ 5 poems.
Payment in copies
Submit manuscripts electronically
We consider dual submissions and previously published work only if informed of this at time of submission.
Previously published work must be accompanied with a list of where and when it has been previously published, including on the internet.
We do not pay reprint fees. It is the author's responsibility to get needed permissions.

12/26/2023

WISING UP ANTHOLOGY: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Out of Line—Who Defines?: Halfs, Steps, In-Laws & Belonging
A Wising Up Anthology
We invite stories, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry that explore the intricacies of the in-law, half, and step-conditions from every position—parents, children, grandchildren, grandparents, uncles, aunts—and what it means for those many of us who oscillate between these conditions, often in more than one family constellation.
Deadline 3/15/24. Fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry. Guidelines:

Wising Up Press home page. Universal Table/Wising Up Press. CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS: Out of Line, Who Defines? Halfs, Steps, In-Laws & Belonging, A Wising UP Anthology Deadline: 3/15/24 NEW PUBLICATIONS: WHOLENESS, A Wising Up Anthology, The Power of the Pause:The Wonder of Our Here and Now, A WIsing....

02/07/2023

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR LATEST BOOKS . . .

THE POWER OF THE PAUSE: The Wonder of Our Here & Now
A Wising Up Anthology
Heather Tosteson & Charles Brockett, Editors

Universal Table/Wising Up Press: THE POWER OF THE PAUSE: The Wonder of Our Here & Now, A Wising Up Anthology. The fifty-two talented writers in this anthology help us explore, through poetry, fiction, and essay, the hidden gifts of pause, voluntary and involuntary, how it may help us recalibrate, re...

02/07/2023

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR LATEST BOOKS . . .

Fiction
UNCOMON & OTHER STORIES
William Cass

The broad range of characters in William Cass's moving second short story collection, Uncommon & Other Stories, all share a fascination with right action—how we know it, when we know it, and what that knowledge asks of us—in real time or in retrospect. Cass's stories are deeply rooted in the pa...

02/07/2023

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR LATEST BOOKS . . .
Poetry
A MOTHER SPEAKS, A DAUGHTER LISTENS: Journeying Together Through Dementia
Felicia Mitchell

Universal Table/Wising Up Press. In n Felicia Mitchells moving and insightful poetry collection, A Mother Speaks, A Daughter Listens:Journeying Together Through Dementia, were invited to share one mother-daughter dementia journey from the early days of a womans life through years in a nursing home a...

02/07/2023

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR LATEST BOOKS . . .

Memoir
MY BROTHER SPEAKS IN DREAMS: Of Family, Beauty & Belonging
Catherine Anderson

Universal Table/Wising Up Press: My Brother Speaks in Dreams: Of Family, Beauty & Belonging by Catherine Anderson. In this moving and thoughtful memoir, Catherine Anderson candidly chronicles the barriers that made life difficult for her brother Charlie in an era that only gradually came to accept p...

02/07/2023

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR LATEST BOOKS. . .

A LITTLE BOOK OF LIVING THROUGH THE DAY
Poems During a Pandemic
David Breeden
http://universaltable.org/librarypoetry/littlebookofliving.html

02/07/2023

WHOLENESS, A Wising Up Anthology
Wholeness is an emergent phenomena, real as life, breath, consciousness—and, like them, can't be explained or predicted by its component parts. It's that something more that heals and reveals possibilities we could not see before. It can change what follows. When and where have we experienced a sense of wholeness? How did we recognize it? How did it shift our ways of being in ourselves, with each other, with what lies beyond? Can it be described? Shared? Does it require a sense of wonder—or create it? Deadline 4/15/23. Fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry. Guidelines:

Wising Up Press home page. Universal Table/Wising Up Press. CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS: The Power of the Pause 4/15/22 Deadline NEW PUBLICATIONS: Adult Children: Being One, Having One & What Goes In-Between; Trucker Rhapsody & Other Plays,; Source Notes, Seventh Decade; Something Like Hope & Other Storie...

01/11/2022

SECOND SATURDAYS WISING UP DISCUSSION GROUP
February 12, 2022 4-5:30 PM EST

SHIFTING BALANCE SHEETS: Women's Stories of Naturalized Citizenship & Cultural Attachment
A Wising Up Anthology

In this anthology, thirty-four women and girls from twenty countries, now living all across the U.S., reflect on their journeys to naturalized U.S. citizenship - journeys that invite all of us, native and foreign born, to consider what it means to choose to be an American. Women from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, England, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Taiwan and Zambia join American mothers whose Chinese daughters have become naturalized citizens through adoption in describing their unique journeys to naturalized citizenship—wondering what womanhood, family, love, cultural identification, intellectual curiosity, professional ambition, material need, war, revolution or chance have to do with it. Their stories invite us all to think more generously and intentionally about the invitations and expectations inherent in citizenship —and our shared responsibility to shape, nurture, and celebrate the constantly changing We in We, the People.

We understand our Wising Up Anthologies as conversations, ones that allow us to explore complex subjects in inclusive, often surprising ways, where listening and learning from each other is as important as self-expression. We have started these discussion groups to actively facilitate these connections between readers as well—readers who may never meet each other in real space but can in real time. In the last year we piloted several groups and are encouraged by the response. What strikes to us each time is the mysterious mediation of a book, how it helps us connect in ways that are authentic, invitational, open-ended.

SHIFTING BALANCE SHEETS: LOOK INSIDE

To register and receive a zoom invite, write us at [email protected]

SECOND SATURDAYS 2022 SCHEDULE

To order, go to our Wising Up Press Bookstore or purchase through major booksellers. Kindle and Apple versions available.

12/15/2021

WUP and personal page-Second Saturdays

Come Join Us!
Second Saturdays Wising Up Zoom Discussion Groups
SURPRISED BY JOY
January 8, 2022 4-5:30 EST

Having just published our seventeenth Wising Up Anthology, we thought it would be interesting to develop a network of readers across the country who would enjoy exploring together, in real time if not in real space, some of the major themes we focus on through our anthologies. We look forward to starting the new year with some shared meditations on joy.

Check out SURRISED BY JOY
http://universaltable.org/libraryanthologiesgz/surprisedbyjoy.html

Learn about our Second Saturdays Discussion Groups
http://universaltable.org/wisingupdiscussions.html

If you're interested in joining us, write us at [email protected]
and we'll send you an invite and list of selected readings.

12/15/2021

NEW PUBLICATION

Trucker Rhapsody & Other Plays by Toni Press-Coffman

http://universaltable.org/libraryfiction/truckerrhapsody.html

Universal Table/Wising Up Press: Trucker Rhapsody & Other Plays by Toni Press-Coffman. These five highly topical plays by Toni Press-Coffman remain relevant to current social divides. Written over the last forty years, they movingly explore the nature of idealism, its distinctively American forms—w...

12/15/2021

New Publications

ADULT CHILDREN: Being One, Having One & What Goes In-Between
http://universaltable.org/libraryanthologiesaf/adultchildren.html

Universal Table/Wising Up Press: ADULT CHILDREN: Being One, Having One & What Goes In-Between, A Wising Up Anthology. In this Wising Up Anthology, fifty writers explore—with zest, angst, humor, humility, anger, and love—through stories, poems, memoirs and creative non-fiction, our constantly chang...

07/21/2021

WISING UP READING FOR INSIGHT DISCUSSION GROUPS
JOIN US . . . BRING A FRIEND . . . MAKE NEW ONES . . .

RESCHEDULED:
VIEW FROM THE BED: VIEW FROM THE BEDSIDE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 4:00 PM EST

Using stories, poems, and memoirs from the anthology View from the Bed: View from the Bedside, we will explore the experience of illness from different perspectives—men and women in the midst of it or looking back, doctors and nurses seeking to alleviate it, families trying to stay the course.

READING FOR INSIGHT GROUPS: http://universaltable.org/readingforinsight.html
SIGN UP: [email protected]

Universal Table/Wising Up Press. Wising Up READING FOR INSIGHT DISCUSSION GROUPS. Bi-monthly. Begin June 12, 2021. Enroll by May 15, 2021.

06/29/2021

WISING UP PRESS
READING FOR INSIGHT DISCUSSION GROUPS

VIEW FROM THE BED: VIEW FROM THE BEDSIDE
Saturday, August 14 4-5:30 EST

We will all at one point or another experience illness—the bed—and caring for those who are ill—the bedside. In this year of pandemic that reality has felt very close to many us. The experience of illness is unique, intensely particular, private, often incommunicable—and also universal. It changes us and the people around us in ways we need to understand, need to share. Some of these stories, depending on where we're standing or lying, bedside or bed, can feel irreconcilable. But are they? Using stories, poems, and memoirs from the anthology View from the Bed: View from the Bedside, we will explore the experience of illness from different perspectives—men and women in the midst of it or looking back, doctors and nurses seeking to alleviate it, families trying to stay the course.

Groups will be small to allow for participation.

To look inside, sign up, order books:
http://universaltable.org/readingforinsight.html
Write us:
[email protected]

http://universaltable.org/libraryanthologiesgz/viewbedviewbedside.html

Universal Table/ Wising Up Press. Look Inside the latest Wising Up Anthology: View from the Bed: View from the Bedside. Thirty-eight contemporary writers explore the different ways we talk about, to-and through-each other at the doctors office, hospital and sickbed. One surgeon celebrates his first....

05/24/2021

FLIP SIDES
Truth, Fair Play & Other Myths We Choose to Live By
Spot Cleaning Our Dirty Laundry

Spot cleaning wouldn't be necessary if we didn't have beliefs and ideals—or if they didn't need to be continuously reconciled with the exigencies of raw life. This evocative and thought-provoking collection from thirty-six authors of poetry, essay, and short fiction allows us to explore many dimensions of these tensions—from our participation in systemic harms to the most intimate of ones, from dramatic instances of both good and bad faith to quiet, almost unnoticeable ones. They are organized by the dilemmas they explore: race, nationality and culture, class and community, family dynamics, faith.

http://universaltable.org/libraryanthologiesaf/flipsides.html

Universal Table/Wising Up Press: FLIP SIDES: Truth, Fair Play & Other Myths We Choose to Live By & Spot Cleaning Our Dirty Laundry, A Wising Up Anthology. Spot cleaning wouldnt be necessary if we didnt have beliefs and ideals—or if they didnt need to be continuously reconciled with the exigencies o...

05/06/2021

Let's get positive. Join us for a Wising Up conversation about THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS—and our own experiences of giving and receiving it.

Saturday, June 12 4:00-5:30 pm EST
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS, A Wising Up Anthology
http://universaltable.org/libraryanthologiesiz/kindnessofstrangers.html
KINDNESS GALLERY
http://universaltable.org/kindnessstrangersgallery1.html

WISING UP READING FOR INSIGHT GROUPS
http://universaltable.org/readingforinsight.html

[email protected]

Universal Table/Wising Up Press. Wising Up READING FOR INSIGHT DISCUSSION GROUPS. Bi-monthly. Begin June 12, 2021. Enroll by May 15, 2021.