Are you a flash fiction, poetry, or short memoir writer with a finished manuscript—or one nearly ready to go? Old Scratch Press, a collaborative collective supported by Current Words Publishing, is now accepting applications for two new members to join us in 2026.
We’re a tight-knit, skill-sharing group that publishes each other’s books, runs the lit mag Instant Noodles, and supports each other with editing, design, marketing, and community.
We are hosting meet and greets on August 6th and August 13. To be invited you have to send a small sample. There are no fees to submit, and there are no fees to join, and there are no fees to publish your collection. There are no fees. Who else you gonna find to collaborate with who dedicates an entire issue of a literary magazine to that most magical of elixirs… gravy? If you’re eager to grow as a writer and be part of something creative and weird and wonderful, we’d love to meet you.
June is Pride Month! It’s a time to recognize and celebrate people in the LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month is about love, acceptance, and being proud of who you are. One great way to celebrate is by reading books that share LGBTQ+ voices and stories.
Books help us understand each other. For LGBTQ+ people, reading stories with characters like them can help them feel seen and accepted. For others, reading these stories builds empathy and helps us learn more about people who may be different from us.
Books can also teach us about LGBTQ+ history, struggles, and victories. Reading is a powerful way to show support during Pride Month, especially when you buy books written by LGBTQ+ authors.
If you’re looking to add some pride to your bookshelf, we have two authors at Old Scratch Press who recently published books of poetry that would be great additions to your to-be-read list!
On May 1, Morgan was awarded Second Place in the Delaware Press Association Communications Awards for her book, The Song of North Mountain which was released by Old Scratch Press in May 2024. Not only did Morgan write the poems in this collection, she also did the interior artwork and illustrated the book’s cover. North Mountain is part of a 55-mile mountain ridge in the northern Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Morgan says her collection of poems is a love song to that ridge.
Here is her poem, Ghost Light, which won also won Second Place in the DPAC Awards in its category.
Ghost Light
Looking back along the ridge a thin rib of light briefly illuminates the forest floor and silhouettes trees stark against winter sky. Look too soon and you miss the mystery of Dillon’s Mountain’s brief farewell to nightsky and stars and sweet Venus. Look too late and the slumbering giant lumbers slowly into its ordinary dayspring. But if you should, by chance or intent, catch the moment, you will see life and hope renewed in a sudden shaft of dawnbreak.
Robert Fleming is a gay man who writes and creates art about gay, transgender, and universal themes. After coming-out, he published in LGBTQ magazines. He says that when he” stopped obsessing about being gay”, he realized that his sexual orientation is only one part of who he is. This enabled him to write on universal human themes and crossover into publishing in straight magazines.
For pride, one his favorite poems is one he wrote, Passed Over , that was published in 2020 in Trees In A Garden Of Ashes by Local Gems Press. Robert is grateful to James Wagner, the editor of Local Gems Press, who published many of his gay and transgender works.
For pride 2025, Robert recommends to submit to publish in Oddball magazine that has categories in nonsexual orientation and pride (LGBTQ). You can find submission guidelines here.
Robert is the author of the Amazon best-selling visual poetry book, White Noir.
We’re looking to add members to Old Scratch Press! Here’s the deets: Old Scratch Press (OSP), a poetry and short-form collective sponsored by Current Words Publishing, is seeking two new members to join us starting at the end of 2025. Your book would be slated for publication in 2026–2027, pending a successful trial period.
OSP is a collaborative, grassroots press focused on uplifting fresh, bold voices in poetry, flash fiction, and creative non-fiction. We publish three books per year, along with Instant Noodles Lit Mag (3 issues/year), which is curated and edited by our members. To learn more about our work, we invite you to explore past editions of Instant Noodleshttps://instantnoodleslitmag.com/ and OSP-published books https://oldscratchpress.com/catalog/.
As a member of OSP, you will:
Receive a free publication of your manuscript (poetry, short prose, hybrid, or a mix of writing and art).
Get 10 free copies of your book and keep 100% of your royalties.
Participate in monthly OSP meetings (except December and August).
Proofread and support fellow members’ books and contribute to blog and promo efforts.
Be invited to monthly marketing meetings hosted by Current Words Publishing.
Join a supportive community of working writers committed to mutual aid, creativity, and literary growth.
We’re looking for:
Members who are kind, reliable, and team-oriented.
Writers with a completed or nearly completed manuscript ready for publication in 2026–2027.
People who can commit to at least two years of active participation.
Writers who reflect diversity in identity, perspective, or experience—including (but not limited to) people of color, LGBTQ+ writers, disabled writers, and others underrepresented in publishing.
Applicants who are not full-time creative writing faculty. We aim to support writers who do not already have institutional resources or access.
Writers who have a track record of publication (a few poems, flash pieces, essays, etc.), and a clear desire to communicate something meaningful through their work—someone we can respect as a fellow writer and collaborator.
A note about our trial period:
New members will begin with a six-month trial period before we formally commit to publishing your book. This ensures a good fit and gives everyone time to build rapport, share work, and participate in OSP activities.
To apply:
Please send the following:
A brief cover letter introducing yourself, why you’re interested in joining OSP, and how you’d contribute to the group.
A short author bio (3–5 sentences).
A brief personal essay (500–750 words) about your writing journey. Feel free to include publication history (with links or footnotes) and anything you’d like to share about the manuscript you hope to publish.
A sample of your manuscript-in-progress (up to 10 pages).
Applications will be reviewed collectively by current OSP members. Finalists will be invited for a short conversation via Zoom.
If this sounds like your kind of creative home, we’d love to hear from you!
Here I am with Linwood Jackson, President of the Delaware Press Association.
On May 1, I was awarded a Second Place in the Delaware Press Association Communications Awards for my book, The Song of North Mountain. This was my veryfirstever book released solely under my name, and the award presentation was exactly one year after the book hit publication.
I am quoting the judge, whose name I don’t know, in their comments regarding the award. “This is a beautifully crafted collection of poems that takes readers on a journey through nature, personal reflection, and the deep connection between the land and the human sprit. With vivid imagery and emotional insight, You (sic) capture the essence of the North Mountain landscape, blending personal growth, exploration, and the rhythms of life. The poems are rich with sensory details and metaphor, drawing readers into the natural world where every “rustle of leaves, shift of light, and breath of wind carries meaning.” I find that your writing, both introspective and outward-looking, intertwines the inner and outer worlds, exploring themes of solitude, contemplation, and the passage of time with tenderness and reverence, giving the collection a meditative quality.”
Many of us, particularly of my generation, suffer from imposter syndrome, that feeling that we’re really just pretending to be . . . smart, kind, good at what we do, talented, strong, etc. I’ve been writing since I was a teenager. Mostly doggerel, lines about angst, loss, imaginary friends, and wry observations. As I’ve aged and matured, so has my writing. I’ve discovered poets other than those I was raised on (Longfellow, Holmes, Browning) and many who write in rhymed and metered verse.
College introduced me to more complicated poetry – Ferlinghetti, Hopkins, Stevens, Auden, Eliot, Yeats. And then, foreign writers, like Rumi, whose ideas were so very different from those I had been immersed in.
So, I still wrote, but still privately, only sharing sparingly, for I still did not consider myself a “good” poet.
Well, I guess I am now. This anonymous judge really liked my work! The DPA, in their wisdom, selected judges that were not from Delaware. Delaware, being such a small state, is one where everyone knows everyone else, especially in communications and writing. So all I know about this anonymous judge is that he or she is not from around here. And, they liked my work.
Being a creator, whether in writing, arts, crafts, or just about anything, we have the angels and devils on our shoulders. One says, “Perfect. Absolutely PERFECT. Don’t change a thing!”
The other angel is the voice of the imposter. “Really? You expect anyone to like this? What balderdash! This is ROTTEN!” So we hide our creation away, or simply refuse to edit it.
I think we’ve all been there. The fact is, creating is a matter of taking risks. Making changes. Wondering if what we have written can be said better. And having the courage to play with it. Editing. Changing the recipe. Adding a stroke of color.
I can certainly attest that every single poem and sketch in this book was analyzed, edited, and reworked (and rethought) at least 5 times.
Ghost Light, the poem I included in my last blog, was awarded a Second Place, also. This judge commented that “Your evocative, photographic-like details set the ghost-like mood and scene from the beginning. . . .” And, ‘the last stanza is particularly well-turned — “by chance or intent,/ catch the moment, . . . in a sudden shaft of dawnbreak.’”
The judge noticed. They noticed the internal rhyme, the alliteration, the combining of words to create a new meaning. These are ‘tools’ I labored over, hoping the reader would listen to these words and how they created an atmosphere, a feeling, a response.
We all too often hesitate to read out loud, to ourselves or to anyone else. But it is important. Whether we read to a child, or are read to, there is a chance for us to escape into the word picture created by the author. That’s what I try to do — create word pictures for you to explore.
Reprinted by permission from one of his blog posts available at Davidfulcher.com
When I was young, before I had written a word of fiction, I believed that all writers lived a glamorous life. Ernest Hemingway in particular seemed to embody this image – traveling on safari, sport fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, drinking whiskey as if he were a fish himself – doing almost everything except writing.
The writer Ernest Hemingway in his later years.
Now that I am older and wiser, I know that Hemingway wrote for hours each day, making him one of the more disciplined writers of his time. But the larger-than-life Hemingway was a more appealing character to imagine, and therefore the one my younger self gravitated towards.
So, I am writing this post to the new breed of writers out there to let them know some of the disciplines they will find useful in their writing lives, and leaving the catching of Marlins to Salt Water Sportsman Magazine.
Bait the hook and try to catch something big. It’s more difficult than you think.
What Writing is Really Like…Computer Programming
Computer Programming is all about language and syntax, and so is writing. I know something of this as programming is my day job. I have often spent hours debugging some code, only to find that a misplaced semi-colon or comma was the culprit. Writers also will find themselves laboring over the usage and placement of punctuation, understanding that punctuation in the wrong place can change the entire meaning of a sentence.
What Writing is Really Like…Project Management
Project Managers track task and project status, in addition to schedule, budget and other project elements. As your writing career grows, you will quickly find yourself in need of a spreadsheet, database or other tool to know what you’ve submitted where, when to send a query letter, relevant contact information for publishers and publications, etc. You will also need to track readings, book fairs, online interviews, etc. on your Outlook or Google calendar. These demands will intensify as your writing becomes a fulltime occupation, and as you began to spend more time collaborating with others.
What Writing is Really Like…Marketing Executive
While the big publishing houses have marketing resources of their own, new writers trying to make a name for themselves in small independent presses will find themselves on their own to promote their work. You will be faced with questions like which social media channels reach the biggest (or more importantly, the most relevant) reading audiences, and does it make sense to subscribe to marketing service to promote your books. Additional considerations involve creating your own author’s website and blog, all of which may require you to acquire new skill sets. Your ability to effectively promote your work becomes even more critical if your work is self-published.
What Writing is Really Like…Accountant
While writing is an art and not a science, sooner or later you will be focused with financial decisionsand issues related to your writing. These may be simple decisions such as whether to enter a writing contest that charges a fee, or whether to hire an independent designer to design your author’s web site. Other more complicated issues will involve reporting any book sale royalties on your income taxes or tracking the sales tax to be submitted from cash sales at a book fair. And when you’re finally ready to take the leap and go fulltime, the big financial question: how much will I have to make on my writing to make a living?
What Writing is Really Like…Lawyer
Finally, you will be faced with legal issues during your writing career. I’ll give you a real-life example. Unbeknownst to me, a designer at one of the publishing companies used an image on my book cover that was copyrighted. Several years later, I was contacted by the copyright holder demanding a correction, and I referred him to my publisher. The publisher finally admitted the mistake, and at their expense, corrected the cover. Other examples include understanding reprint rights for your previously published stories and interpreting contractual agreements with publishers when you begin to get your first professional sales of your stories and novels.
So, there you have it – instead of being glamorous, the above disciplines can be tedious, if not downright boring. However, these skills will propel your writing career much further than your ability to bait a hook.
You can read more of David Fulcher’s posts and learn about his books here.
To learn more about the latest Old Scratch Press publications click here.The Song of North Mountain by prizewinning author Morgan Golladay is just one of several exciting new chapbooks! To learn more about Old Scratch Press and our poetry an short form collective follow us on WordPress at Oldscratchpress.comDav
Big shoutout to Morgan Golladay! Her short story “Under the Rhododendrons,” featured in HALLOWEEN PARTY ’23 (Gravelight Press), snagged second place in the National Federation of Press Women’s national short story competition.
Morgan also just wrote, illustrated, and released her first poetry book, THE SONG OF NORTH MOUNTAIN, which is up for a National Book Award!
Causey Mansion in Milford Delaware is a beautiful spot to meet and greet poet/artist Morgan Golladay, author of the Song of North Mountain. Learn more about the historic mansion here. The event will be held in the gardens from 1-3 p.m.. Purchase your copies in advance online or purchase one at the event. Either way, Morgan will be there to autograph! The location is 2 Causey Avenue, Milford Delaware 19463
Editorial praise is just beginning. Here are a few samples:
“Sometimes stark, but always beautiful, these free verse celebrations of North Mountain introduce a seasonal sense of environmental transitions to the observer and reader’s eye, with time’s passage changing everything and nothing…Aside from a personal visit to North Mountain, there is no better way of appreciating its beauty, impact, and presence over the eons than through The Song of North Mountain.” MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
This book is a praise-song of poetry and art for Golladay’s beloved mountains. With an eye for detail and ease of language, her poems revere and embrace the elements and seasons of nature. Accompanying her poetry, her art further conjures the scenes we are taken to. From Vincents Wood to the Devils Throne, the writer takes us along, like all good poetry, until we feel as if we, too, have been there. I think I’d do well to heed what the writer says: Look too soon and you miss the mystery
Morgan Golladay’s The Song of North Mountain is a wonderful love song to where she grew up, “to the hills, rivers, and ridges of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.” And Golladay is the perfect guide for this voyage, perceptive, kind, and empathic. I urge you to purchase her fine book that also contains her own fine original artwork: sit back in a comfortable chair and travel with her to this most beautiful part of our country. As Golladay invites the reader to accompany her and writes in “Back in the Woods” (p. 69),
I experienced the magic and awe of a creation larger than I could imagine.
“Rest with us,” whispered the granite. “Breathe with us,” crooned the breeze. “Stay with us,” encouraged the trees.
Learn more about Morgan and her poetry here. And don’t forget to follow Old Scratch Press on Facebook. Thank you for reading.
I was thrilled today to have the privilege to mail three new Old Scratch Press books off to the National Book Awards! If you follow all of our doings around here you may have seen this post from last year, where I was lucky enough to do the same thing!
Gosh, you know, we’re going up against the big guys when we send our books in to the National Books Awards. Most of the other books being sent in are going to have been written by well-established poets with a long history of publication, or brand new poets being championed by their mentors who are the big guys in their fields, and those other books are also going to come from traditional (read as: large and monied) presses or university presses, which, like the big publishing houses, also have lots of disposable income and connections. I got my MFA; I know how that all works. And still, I don’t care about the competition. I care that we have wonderful poets. Morgan Golladay has been writing her poetry throughout most of her adult life, and salting it away for “someday,” and Nadja Maril and Gabby Gilliam have been submitting and getting small wins with their writing for years now, and why isn’t their writing as deserving as anyone else’s? It absolutely is! It gives me a total thrill to just think about getting them into this contest, where they get a chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with the “big guys.” And get this—Carolyn Forché is one of the judges this year! Carolyn Forché! It’s mind-blowing to think that a poet from our little collective is going to be read by her. I still remember how my teachers raved about Carolyn Forché’s book THE COUNTRY BETWEEN US back in the ’90s. We read it and discussed it over and over with reverence. The idea that she’ll be reading one of our books? It’s just wild.
So, lovely people following our progress as a collective and a press, please join me in crossing your fingers and blowing on one of these:
as we send Gabby, Nadja, and Morgan off to the National Book Awards to try their luck!
And hey, dear reader of this blog, why not snag a copy for yourself in a show of support?
Flash prose, poetry, and essays inspired by her kitchen, garden, and family memories; Nadja Maril’s chapbook, RECIPES FROM. MY GARDEN is a sensual feast for the soul. Drawing upon her life experiences as an artist’s daughter, antiques dealer, journalist, and author; Maril mines simple objects for meaning and creates a lavish buffet.
Editorial Praise for RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN
“Suffused with the tastes of cilantro, mint, and cucumber fresh from a garden, the smell of salt air from the ocean’s edge, the familiar scent of coffee and tobacco from a father’s hug, or the simple pleasure of the sounds of clicking insects through a backdoor screen, Nadja Maril’s lovely and sensitive RECIPES FROM MY GARDENis a feast for the senses and a balm for the spirit. While exploring personal memories that touch on abstract questions of identity and history, Maril also reminds us of the tiny yet profound comforts of earthly existence.” –Aaron Hamburger, author of HOTEL CUBA—
“In RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN, Nadja Maril casts a richly sensual literary spell. From the deft and resonant garden-inspired pieces that find the taste of ‘summer’ in basil and celebrate the ‘welcoming gaze of sunflowers,’ to the sharply observed portraits of small yet potent memories— buying a perfect dress with her mother; baking a cake ‘too beautiful to be cut’– Maril mines moral and spiritual meaning from everyday life. The promise Maril makes about a ‘chicken and rice’ recipe is true of this whole vibrant chapbook: ‘soul nutrition it will provide.’ ” –Elizabeth Searle, novelist and scriptwriter (A FourSided Bed; I’ll Show You Mine)–
“RECIPES FROM MY GARDENcelebrates the splendor of traversing a literary life and surviving the time of Covid. Nadja Maril’s first collection of poetic prose, flash memoir, and poetry introduces us to her family, her nurtured garden, and the myriad spaces she navigates to cope with our world. With true artistic excellence, Nadja’s words yearn for an understanding of what troubles us, inviting us into a landscape of riddles, questions and puzzles.” –Indigo Moor, author of Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something—
“[RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN] is a treasure of small love stories: odes to beloved kitchens, and vegetable gardens, and the simple joys of a blooming sunflower. It is a book of memory and of pleasure that speaks of the love of family across many generations. The passed-down recipes inside the pages are themselves the most generous kind of love letter.” –Susan Conley, author of Landslide—
[In NO OCEAN SPIT ME OUT] Gabby Gilliam’s verse preserves the feel of the summer farm, contrasting its fertile brightness with the struggle between grief and the sudden absence of connection to family and place. Belonging and the struggle to continue remembering clash on the page, while the passion for life’s diverse and tactile experiences dazzle the reader with tantalizing gasps of zucchini, crab apples, and blackberry wine. Each poem gives the reader their own lingering taste of her ghosts. -Kim Malinowski-
NO OCEAN SPIT ME OUT is a captivating debut collection of poetry that delves deep into the intricate tapestry of family dynamics and personal evolution. Within its 30 poems, the collection embarks on a profound journey through the stages of coming of age, navigating the complexities of familial bonds, grappling with organized religion, and ultimately, embracing the essence of self-acceptance. Whether you’re seeking solace in the shared experiences of family relationships or searching for introspective insights into the nuances of identity and faith, this collection offers a profound and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition.
“Sometimes stark, but always beautiful, these free verse celebrations of North Mountain introduce a seasonal sense of environmental transitions to the observer and reader’s eye, with time’s passage changing everything and nothing…Aside from a personal visit to North Mountain, there is no better way of appreciating its beauty, impact, and presence over the eons than through THE SONG OF NORTH MOUNTAIN.” —MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW—
From the mighty pen of artist and author Morgan Golladay comes THE SONG OF NORTH MOUNTAIN, a transformative collection of poetry and art celebrating the famous and mystical North Mountain of Appalachia. North Mountain, a wildland in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of western Virginia, has been recognized by the Wilderness Society as a special place worthy of protection from logging and road construction. The Wilderness Society has designated the area as a “Mountain Treasure.” Morgan Golladay brings her readers to dwell in the reverence of this wonderful wilderness. Golladay is an award-winning author who was raised on North Mountain and lives in coastal Delaware as part of a thriving artist and author community. All words and art in this book are by Golladay.
Two OSP Founding Members, Morgan Golladay and yours truly Robert Fleming, won awards at the Delaware Press Association professional communications contest 5/1/2024 in Newark, DE. Escorting Morgan through the entrance, she answered my dress question: “my Old Scratch Press T-shirt is not fancy enough for a banquet, best black only.” I wore a tight shirt to accentuate my pecs, in-case there was anyone looking for a date. At a banquet, you must send the right signals.
Here is the low-down on who won which awards:
Morgan Galladay won first and second place in short stories: single story for “Under the Rhodendrons” published in Halloween Party ’23: Halloween Party ’23: Keeten, Jeffrey, Heron, Robert Lewis, Goodridge, James, Golladay, Morgan, DeCicco, Kim, Dickerson, Marc, Howd, Eric Machan, Machan, Katharyn Howd, Paige, Michael, Cantu, Juan: 9781957224503: Amazon.com: Books
“Second Christmas” published in Solstice, volume 3: Solstice: A Winter Anthology (The Solstice Winter Anthology Series): Pearce, Dianne, Doyle, Anthony, Golladay, Morgan, Watts, Virginia, Johnson, John, Fitzgerald, Christian, Aakaash, Buffy, Fulcher, R. David, Crandell, William F., Pearce, Dianne: 9781957224039: Amazon.com: Books and honorable mention in creative verse: single poem for “March Wind” published in Instant Noodles: MARCH WIND – Morgan Golladay – INSTANT NOODLES (instantnoodleslitmag.com)
What’s next for Morgan: At the banquet Robert spilled ranch dressing on Morgan’s black skirt. Morgan screamed she will immediately send her suit to the dry cleaner. Robert agreed to pay for his stain. While Morgan is waiting to pick up her dry cleaning, she is promoting her upcoming book Song of North Mountain, published by Old Scratch Press: DPP CATALOG – Devil’s Party Press, LLC (devilspartypress.com)
Robert Fleming won third place in creative verse: single poem for “Cheese Sonnet #263” published in Four Feathers Press: rhythms of Southern California
Honorable mention in Graphics and Design for “Timothy Gager is with Ellis Elliott at Boston Harbor with the Dire Literary Series.”
Robert Fleming won third place in creative verse: single poem for “Cheese Sonnet #263” published in Four Feathers Press: rhythms of Southern California
honorable mention in Graphics and Design for “Timothy Gager is with Ellis Elliott at Boston Harbor with the Dire Literary Series.”
At my club house gym yesterday, a neighbor approached me to purchase my book White Noir:
After showering, I delivered my book to my neighbor who invited me inside and paid me, after I signed my book. That was the end of the neighborly encounter because the neighbor’s husband, watching tv on the couch, sneered at me. I promptly departed my neighbor’s house, as the husband rose and walked toward his pistol.
Unwounded, I created three graphic images for Four Feather’s Press upcoming publication: Landmarks of Southern California. Learn more about the author here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOAb33t1NFc
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 