The theme for 2025: Anthology Call: America as Patchwork Quilt
As Chautauqua looks to 2025, we invite you to explore what it means to be American or to live in this land?
Through various roads, paths, and networks, people become American. Some have always been here. Some people didn’t “come” to America, but were stolen, forced here. Others came looking for opportunity. Some walked endless miles to cross borders seeking refuge. No matter, we settle and make a life. We carry with us things that are important parts of our identity—food and drink, beliefs and traditions, art, commerce, sport, leisure. And hope.
We build a community. It shapes us just as we shape it. The ancestors, the generations before us, the history of the country all have a hand in molding us.
Some find a place that feels welcoming, and others find hardness and challenge. We become warp and weft, provide structure and texture, feel the pull and the push, the stitching and unstitching of our humanity.
We invite you to “say it plain,” as Langston Hughes wrote, to sing your America. Submit your poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, micro-essay, and flash fiction that explores what it means to live in America, to be American.
Please include with your submission a 50–150 word bio, email and mailing addresses, and any comment you would like to make regarding your submission and the 2025 theme.
Submission Deadline: June 1, 2024
Welcome!
Friends of the Chautauqua Writers' Center, formerly known as Chautauqua Literary Arts Friends, is a volunteer organization associated with Chautauqua Institution that works year-round on behalf of the Writers' Center. During the nine-week summer season, the Friends provide opportunities for writers to present their work and meet other writers, organize writing contests and other special events, support scholarships for young adult writers, and lend support to the Writers' Center at Chautauqua.
FCWC weekly events include co-sponsorship of readings, receptions and book signings by the Writers' Center writers-in-residence ; open mic sessions; informal writing critiques; and Authors Hour readings. FCWC also sponsors special events throughout the season, such as a Week One reception for anyone interested in the literary arts at Chautauqua; a Book Fair showcasing local authors; the nationally acclaimed Pinsky Favorite Poem Project reading; and writing contests for all ages.
FCWC works closely with Chautauqua’s Director of Literary Arts to support programs seeking to enhance the Chautauqua experience for all lovers of writing and literature. We welcome new members to our friendly group and would encourage new members to get to know us by volunteering for one of our events. Annual dues are $20 per person. Benefits include FCWC newsletters, advance notice of upcoming Writers' Center workshops, workshop fee discounts for assistants; waived fees for writing contests, and support of scholarships for aspiring young adult writers attending Chautauqua Writers' Center workshops for the first time.
Note: Your name, address, and email will be automatically captured from your Submittable account information.