For many of us, reading is a means of escaping the clamor of the real world for a brief time. The theme of the current issue of Instant Noodles is “Sanctuary.” If you’re seeking to give your brain a respite from the news feed, head on over to read the latest issue, curated by the members of Old Scratch Press!
Instant Noodles is open for submissions for our Winter issue! If you have a piece that fits our “Gravy” theme and is on the light-hearted side, please check out the submission guidelines here! We try to fill our Winter issue with fun and mayhem, so please remember that HUMOR, not melancholy is our ask for this issue!
Old Scratch Press is also seeking new members to join our collective! If you write short form pieces (like flash fiction, poetry, or flash memoir), and you’re interested in working with our collective to publish your collection of work, check out our submission guidelines at Duotrope to see if we might be a good fit! The submission window closes on August 31!
“My prose and poetry is about daily human life, the small moments in the hometowns of contemporary America,” says writer and poet Virginia Watts. “Through my work, I hope to celebrate the unique characteristics of close-knit communities, shared family histories, local war heroes, larger-than-life characters. I am interested in exploring the concept of home, whether that is a city, suburbia, rural life, the far future. Why does one person leave while another stays? Why do some people go back? What haunts those who never do?”
Ten dedicated writer poets comprise the Old Scratch Short Form Collective, with the goal of working with the Devil’s Party Press, a small independent publisher, to bring to fruition the concept of publishing chapbooks of poetry and short form prose under the imprint Old Scratch Press.
Virginia Watts is the author of poetry and stories found in CRAFT, The Florida Review, Reed Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Permafrost Magazine, Broadkill Review among others. Her poetry chapbooks are available from Moonstone Press. She has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. A short story collection is upcoming from The Devil’s Party Press.
On her website she introduces herself by stating, “I have always been drawn to creating with words. In fifth grade, I began staying inside during recess to write stories. I didn’t care about the taunts of “nerd,” because once my pencil hit the paper it never stopped flying until the bell rang. I wish I’d kept those notebooks. I do remember one entry was entitled “Peanut Butter and Peas.”
To enjoy Virginia’s poetry and prose, there are no shortage of opportunities available just by googling her name, but here are links to two notable poems you might enjoy. The first poem published by Two Hawks Quarterly is entitled “The News” and the second one, first place winner of the Joan Ramseyer Poetry contest, is entitled “Choose a Memory to Keep.”
If you’d like to learn more about Virginia’s writing practice and sources of inspiration, this link to her interview with Dark Lane Books will provide more insight.
And don’t forget to visit our Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter to find out what our contributors are up to and the latest poetry news. Thank You as always for your support.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 