Category Archives: The Delmarva Review

Community of writers…helping each other grow on the Delmarva Peninsula

25 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in Inspiration, Maryland, Poetry, The Delmarva Review, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing and publishing today

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Wilson Wyatt Interviewed - The Talbot Spy

Wilson Wyatt Interviewed – The Talbot Spy

Video interview, by The Talbot Spy, highlights the significance of a growing “writers’ community” across the tri-state Delmarva Peninsula. Part 2, Video link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GWoGf1Y4DI

Today’s digital age gives local writers everywhere the ability to reach a worldwide audience.  Regional borders are disappearing.  This technological phenomenon, combined with dedicated volunteers, has spawned a vibrant writer’s community across the Delmarva region of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.

The Eastern Shore Writers Association (ESWA), Bay to Ocean Writers Conference, new critique groups, writers’ workshops, book clubs, Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild (RBWG) and many writers’ groups are growing at a healthy pace in the region. Website www.easternshorewriters.org.

The Delmarva Review, in its sixth year as a quality literary journal, is attracting prose and poetry submissions from hundreds of writers across the U.S., far beyond regional borders. Website www.delmarvareview.com

It’s a wonderful time to be a writer.  Of course, along with opportunities for writers to reach a vastly greater readership, the Internet also gives readers more reading choices than ever before.  The quality of writing has never been more important, as readers become the discerning gatekeepers of good writing.

The strength of an active writers’ community is writers inspiring each other to improve their work, share marketing and distribution experiences, and become successful.

These and other subjects were discussed in the two video interviews by The Talbot Spy:  http://talbotspy.com/arts-2/

Interview on Talbot Spy: “Wilson Wyatt, Man of Words, Part 1”

28 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in Inspiration, Maryland, The Delmarva Review, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing and publishing today

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Wilson Wyatt, "Man of Words"

Wilson Wyatt, “Man of Words”

The strength of a writers’ community is the support it provides writers, chiefly from other writers, editors, and educators…in the forms of learning, improving, and sharing our experienced information.  We give to enrich each other.  Our rewards are immeasurable.  An example of a thriving writer’s community is on the Delmarva Peninsula, home of the Eastern Shore Writers Association, The Delmarva Review (a literary journal), the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference, critique groups, and many other organized opportunities for writers…all provided by volunteers.  This is one of the messages in Part 1 of a video interview by Talbot Spy and Spy Publications publisher, James Dissette.

You can find the interview on Talbot Spy.com, at the following link (or you can paste in your browser).

http://talbotspy.com/wilson-wyatt-promoting-eastern-shore-writers-part-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wilson-wyatt-promoting-eastern-shore-writers-part-1&utm_source=Talbot+Spy+Subscription&utm_campaign=53578889ad-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a41d88584-53578889ad-290397505

Or…link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Y0SfcNIJc

The value of a “writing community”…transcending borders

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in Inspiration, The Delmarva Review, Uncategorized, Writing

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Hal Wilson, of the Eastern Shore Writers Association, interviews Ron Capps in Public Radio Delmarva’s studio (WSDL, Salisbury). - Photographed by Wilson Wyatt

Hal Wilson, left, of the Eastern Shore Writers Association, interviews Ron Capps in Public Radio Delmarva’s studio (WSDL-FM, Salisbury). – Photographed by Wilson Wyatt

Several friends are currently publishing their literary work. With each, a writing community contributes to the achievement.

I think of this from time to time. Why do I volunteer to help other writers? Does a writers’ community really benefit writers?

The answers are powerful affirmations.

A writer once told me of a desire to publish more work in local publications, but opportunities were diminishing. Does that sound familiar?  I asked why he was thinking locally when he could consider a much larger universe…beyond local borders.  A little nudging, and assurances from a larger community of writers, expanded his vision and potential. His determination was fueled for the hard work to complete and publish books capable of reaching a vastly greater audience…now a major accomplishment for the author.

Another example is about a combat veteran of five wars, Ron Capps.  Parts of his story have been told in the national media and are still being unveiled.

As a very capable writer, Ron decided to use writing to apply his experiences to three new and meaningful purposes.  First, writing enabled him to face and manage the horrors of combat that were relived in his mind daily.  It was a means of confronting and healing.  Appreciating this strength, he initiated a major project to teach other combat veterans, and their families, writing techniques for their healing and expression.

He recognized the value to show the rest of the world, through veterans’ writing, that there were other costs of war we don’t think about, that aren’t reported by the daily media. Only one percent of Americans are engaged in military duty today. Combat veterans, through writing, can “bear witness” for us to comprehend the personal impact of combat and war. As a society, we can become better informed before making decisions about going to war.

This week, two of us from the Eastern Shore Writers Association, hosted  Ron at the Public Radio Delmarva station (WSDL-FM) in Salisbury, Maryland, to record a special radio segment, “The Writer’s Edition,” about his experiences and inspiration to create the Veteran’s Writing Project, veteranswriting.org.  It will air on June 28, contributing his message to a new audience.

Ron Capps also wrote a powerful personal essay that will be published in The Delmarva Review’s sixth edition, in October, expanding the reach of his story among literary readers (www.delmarvareview.com).

These stories “bear witness” to a writing community helping writers in their work while contributing something meaningful to a far greater audience.  The value of a writing community transcends us…it transcends borders.

The Value of a Literary Review…along the road to good writing

07 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by in The Delmarva Review, Writing

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The Delmarva Review, vol.5 – 27 authors, nine states, D.C., and three other countries

The Delmarva Review published its fifth annual edition of prose and poetry this week, rising competently at the far end of the writing spectrum, known to discerning readers as literary writing.  I say the “far end” of the spectrum, because it is the place reserved for literature as an art.  This is the place where art and craft combine in the writer’s quest for excellence…aspired to by many, but attained by few.

That sounds intimidating, and perhaps it is to some writers.  But to others it is a rewarding journey.  A literary journal like The Delmarva Review attracts hundreds and hundreds of submissions for the few that are finally published.  Of course, there are space limitations.  For the aspiring and persevering writer, publication in the review is a well-deserved achievement.  Even the best writers receive rejections, but selection for publication is always an occasion to be celebrated.

The Delmarva Review is one of some 3,300 literary reviews around the world.  That sounds like a lot.  But, when you consider there are over 200,000 commercial magazines in production, literary reviews are, indeed, at the small end of the spectrum. It’s interesting that they are growing in numbers, not diminishing.

For those who would like to know more about literary reviews, their purpose and history, I recommend an excellent article by an experienced editor-writer, Paul Soderberg, “The Secret World of Literary Journals,” available to read online at: http://thefeatheredflounder.com/2012/05/the-secret-world-of-literary-journals/

Today, as I and my talented editorial associates stuff envelopes with copies of  The Delmarva Review, to be on their way to readers, this concludes a year of difficult work. “Difficult” because it has been a year of choosing the final stories, essays, and poetry to publish in our fifth edition.  However, like for the authors, it is an occasion to celebrate.  The reward is treating our writers with the respect they deserve and producing a literary journal of quality for readers with high expectations.

We will now wait…and wait…for the comments…for our own critical review.  For you see, even the editors can face rejection.

Of interest to writers, the submission period for the sixth issue of the Review is from November 1, 2012 to February 28, 2013. We publish a print edition as well as a downloadable digital edition, available at Amazon.com. You can see the website for copies, guidelines and a submission link: www.delmarvareview.com

As executive editor of The Delmarva Review, I am thankful for the remarkable talent and generous spirit of all the people who worked on this edition.  All contributed as volunteers.  They include fiction editors Margot Miller and Harold Wilson, nonfiction editor George Merrill, poetry editors Amanda Newell and the late John Elsberg, managing editor Mala Burt, designer Laura Ambler,  copyeditor Jeanne Pinault, and our prose readers, who help to discover the best work. Thank you, as well, to our publisher, the Eastern Shore Writers Association, a nonprofit organization that supports and believes in the literary arts.

Back and front cover – The Delmarva Review, vol. 5  (Click on image to enlarge)