You know that story you’ve been meaning to write? The poem sitting in your notebook? The idea you’ve been carrying around for three weeks while telling yourself you’ll get to it “soon”?
Well, this is your official notice. “Soon” is today.
The Instant Noodles Lit Mag Al Dente Writing Workshop with Robert Fleming takes place today at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific), and we’d love to see you there.
Whether you’re a writer, poet, artist, or creative dabbler who occasionally stares out a window pretending to work, this free online workshop is designed to help spark ideas, answer questions about submissions, and get you thinking about our upcoming Al Dente issue.
No fancy credentials required. No publication history required. No secret literary handshake required.
Just bring yourself, your curiosity, and whatever creative project has been lurking in the back of your mind.
Seats are limited, and once the workshop starts, you’ll have to live with the knowledge that everyone else is talking about writing while you’re reorganizing a drawer or scrolling social media.
Thinking about submitting to the upcoming Instant Noodles Lit Mag issue, Al Dente?
Before you hit “send,” join Editor Robert Fleming for a free online workshop on Saturday, June 13, at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific).
This informal session is designed for writers, poets, and artists who want to learn more about the theme, explore ideas, and discover what kinds of work might be a good fit for the issue.
Literary magazines can sometimes feel intimidating from the outside. This workshop is an opportunity to ask questions, generate new material, and connect with fellow creatives in a welcoming environment.
Whether you already have a submission in progress or are still waiting for inspiration to strike, you’ll leave with fresh ideas and a better understanding of where your work might fit.
Attendance is free, but seating is limited.
Reserve your spot today and help us make the next issue of Instant Noodles Lit Mag something special.
Every June, Pride Month invites us to celebrate the LGBTQ community, but it also offers an opportunity to remember the writers who came before us. Long before rainbow flags appeared in storefronts and city parades filled the streets, LGBTQ writers were telling their stories, often at considerable personal risk.
For much of recorded history, openly writing about same-sex relationships or gender identity could result in social ostracism, censorship, imprisonment, or worse. As a result, many writers learned to communicate indirectly. They hid meaning in metaphor, coded language, and carefully crafted characters whose experiences reflected realities that could not be openly discussed.
Yet the stories persisted.
Ancient poets such as Sappho, writing on the Greek island of Lesbos more than 2,500 years ago, created works that expressed love between women with remarkable honesty and beauty. Centuries later, writers including Walt Whitman explored themes of affection, companionship, and identity that continue to inspire readers and scholars today.
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw LGBTQ themes emerge more visibly in literature, though often behind a veil. Writers such as Oscar Wilde challenged social norms through wit, satire, and storytelling, while others concealed their identities entirely to protect themselves and their careers.
The twentieth century brought both tragedy and progress. Books dealing openly with LGBTQ experiences were frequently banned, challenged, or removed from shelves. At the same time, courageous authors continued to publish stories that reflected lives rarely represented in mainstream literature. Works by writers such as James Baldwin, Rita Mae Brown, Armistead Maupin, Audre Lorde, and many others helped expand the literary landscape and offered readers the powerful experience of seeing themselves on the page.
Today, LGBTQ literature spans every genre imaginable. Romance, horror, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, memoir, poetry, and children’s books all contain stories written by and about LGBTQ individuals. Readers can find characters whose identities are central to the story, as well as characters whose identities are simply one aspect of richly developed lives.
That may be one of the most important developments of all.
Representation matters, but so does normalization. LGBTQ characters no longer exist only to explain themselves or justify their place in the world. They can be heroes, villains, detectives, astronauts, poets, parents, dragonslayers, and everything in between.
Literature has always been one of humanity’s most powerful tools for understanding one another. Stories allow us to step into lives different from our own and discover shared hopes, fears, joys, and struggles.
This Pride Month, we celebrate not only LGBTQ writers, but the generations of storytellers who continued writing when doing so was difficult, dangerous, or unpopular. Their work expanded the literary world for everyone who came after.
And because of them, more voices than ever are able to tell their stories openly, honestly, and proudly.
Happy Pride Month!
What’s your favorite LGBTQ-authored book? Mine is Tales of the City! In the 90s PBS (I think) made it into a mini series and I loved that too.
🙂
Dianne
OSP is part of CWP, which is a member of the Safe Space Alliance.
Hey there authors, have you submitted yet to Instant Noodles Volume 6 Issue 2:AL DENTE?
Al Dente: In cooking, pasta or risotto al dente (/ælˈdɛnteɪ/, Italian: [al ˈdɛnte]; lit. ’to the tooth’) is cooked to be firm to the bite, requiring a brief cooking time. The term also extends to firmly-cooked vegetables. In contemporary Italian cooking, it is considered to be the ideal consistency for pasta.
What does al dente mean to you? To your neighborhood vampire it probably means something different. How about to the prospector mining gold?
Send us something that you haven’t overcooked!
Submissions close on July 5, 2026; the issue publishes SEPTEMBER 1, 2026.
Every issue of Instant Noodles Lit Mag starts somewhere.
A line scribbled in a notebook. A strange image that won’t leave you alone. A poem that refuses to behave. A story that exists everywhere except on the page.
If you’ve been looking for a reason to finally sit down and create something, consider this your invitation.
On Saturday, June 13, at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific), Instant Noodles Lit Mag Editor Robert Fleming will host a free online Al Dente Writing Workshop designed to help writers, poets, and artists generate ideas, get inspired, and learn more about submitting to our upcoming issue, Al Dente.
Whether you’re a seasoned contributor or someone who’s never submitted a piece before, you’re welcome to join us.
The workshop is free, but space is limited.
Bring your imagination. We’ll provide the noodles.
Register today and join us for an evening of creativity and community.
Some families have stories they tell over and over.
Others have stories they never tell at all.
Tonight, Current Words Publishing welcomes Susan Burgess-Lent, author of When All the Girls Stopped Singing, for a special Reader Series event exploring hidden histories, family secrets, and the stories that shape our lives.
Join us live on Zoom at 7 PM Eastern (4P Pacific) for conversation, reading, writing, and community.
Susan will discuss writing about lost, forgotten, and hidden histories, read from her novel, and answer audience questions. We’ll also offer a short writing prompt, an optional Pass the Mic session for readers and writers, and some attendees will win an autographed copy of When All the Girls Stopped Singing.
Whether you’re a writer, a reader, a family historian, or simply someone fascinated by the secrets hidden in ordinary lives, this is an event you won’t want to miss.
The event is free, but you’ll need to reserve your spot.
Hey there authors, have you submitted yet to Instant Noodles Volume 6 Issue 2:AL DENTE?
Al Dente: In cooking, pasta or risotto al dente (/ælˈdɛnteɪ/, Italian: [al ˈdɛnte]; lit. ’to the tooth’) is cooked to be firm to the bite, requiring a brief cooking time. The term also extends to firmly-cooked vegetables. In contemporary Italian cooking, it is considered to be the ideal consistency for pasta.
What does al dente mean to you? To your neighborhood vampire it probably means something different. How about to the prospector mining gold?
Send us something that you haven’t overcooked!
Submissions close on July 5, 2026; the issue publishes SEPTEMBER 1, 2026.
INSTANT NOODLES LIT MAG is seeking contributors for our upcoming issue, Al Dente — and we want your work
If you’re an indie writer, poet, or artist, join us Saturday, June 13, at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific) for a free online workshop to spark your creative energies and learn where to send completed submissions.
Hosted by Robert Fleming of Old Scratch Press, Instant Noodles Lit Mag, and the Rehoboth Beach Wrier’s Guild.
Seats are free, and limited. Three lucky participants will win a signed copied of an Old Scratch Press book!
Don’t forget to visit! Voted one of the “Best Online Literary Magazines of 2024”, miniMAG lets OSP loose on Issue 198
Intense. Short. Weekly.
That’s how miniMAG describes itself. A short, intense, and weekly literary magazine specializing in short-form poetry, flash fiction, and flash non-fiction that you can rely on to offer a giddy mix of unpredictability and variety.
Voted one of the Best Online Literary Magazines of 2024, with each issue miniMAG serves up a potent deployment of text and image, a real seed bomb of words and color. A welcome arrival in my inbox for some time now, I loved the concept right from the start.
There’s something for all tastes in miniMAG, whether it’s punchy, wacky short stories or surrealist poems, intriguing essays or wild flights of fancy, graphic art or pictures drawn with big, thick crayons, delicate line art or great booming splashes of color… miniMAG has it all, set into a slick template that remains reassuringly the same: black pages, white type.
When Alex, miniMAG’s editor, agreed to let Old Scratch Press produce an issue, I was stoked. And it was great fun seeing it all come together. At 30 pages, it’s a little longer than usual, but hopefully just as intense.
And just as multifaceted, seeing as all ten OSP members contributed work:
Robert Fleming supplies much of the art (some of it ICE-themed), including two visual poems. OSP’s newest member, Beatriz Fernandez, contributes two poems and a photo. That most Neapolitan of Californians, Alan Bern, presents two photo-poems, while Virginia Watts provides two poems and a flash-fiction piece titled “War”. Dianne Pearce gives us a taste of what to look forward to from her upcoming poetry collection, “In The Cancer Cafeteria”, with a poem, a short story, and two collages. Gabby Gilliam is also here with a piece called “Reawakening”, while R. David Fulcher turns things spooky with “The Weird of the Water”. Nadja Maril supplies three poems and a photo of the most Napoleonic rooster you’re ever likely to see, while Morgan Golladay brings things to a thoughtful close with her poem “Sky Cast”. As for me, I’ve got two illustrated poems and a piece of flash fiction in there, and a couple of illustrations thrown in to boot.
For a collective work by a short-form collective, I really can’t think of a better vehicle than miniMAG. To read it, visit miniMAG and subscribe, or stop by miniMAG Press While you’re at it, recommend it to some of your friends, or all your friends! And also come visit the OSP members’ Subs too! And if you have a Substack yourself, let us know so we can drop by.
So, a special thank you to Alex at miniMAG for letting us take on Issue 198. It was a real pleasure, and I hope you’ll have us back in the not-so-distant future!
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 