Sundress Resources for Writers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Like everyone, our thoughts are heavy during this time. COVID-19 has no doubt changed us already in countless ways—emotionally, physically, and financially. In the face of global suffering and community mourning, we want to share some of our resources in the hope of meeting the diverse needs of our community.

Poets in Pajamas (PiP), a Sundress Publications live-feed online reading series produces poetry readings for an online audience. Readers read from their own work for fifteen minutes and then engage in a Q&A for an additional ten or fifteen. PiP has archived readings on their Facebook page and though they had booked out their readers for the year, they expanded their capacity for new readers in the hope that they can support writers with canceled events or launches.

As part of Sundress’s ongoing commitment to service, we recognizing that COVID-19 is causing hardship by cancelling readings, launches, tours, and other needed promotional efforts. To combat this, Sundress Publications is now accepting submissions for consideration for inclusion in our new review series, Sundress Reads. We’re looking to write featured reviews for books with release dates from February 1-April 30, 2020.

As part of our ongoing commitment to women and non-binary authors, The Wardrobe highlights work from recent published collections in all genres. Each month, we present a list of all participating authors and presses, and once per week, our editors will promote a single author, reprinting a selection of work from the published collection. Think of it as a kind of “Best Dressed” feature, but without all the tabloid snark. Currently accepting submissions.

Craft Chaps is a series of substantive essays by contemporary writers on creative writing practice. Each chap focuses on one aspect of craft and also contains a writing exercise and bibliography for further reading. They are freely downloadable at Sundress Publications and can be printed and stapled as 5×8 booklets. Through offering chaps from different perspectives and literary communities, we encourage students to resist “universal,” often cis, white, male notions of “good” literature.

Sundress Publications is proud of the 2019 Best of the Net Anthology. This project continues to promote the diverse and growing collection of voices who are publishing their work online. This anthology serves to bring greater respect to an innovative and continually expanding digital world in the same medium in which the work was originally published.

Sundress Publications supports beestung, cahoodaloodling, Rogue Agent, Stirring, and the podcast, ShittyFirstDrafts. Many of these are open for submissions and all are available online for reading or listening.

CookBook is a video series by the Sundress Academy for the Arts and hosted by poet/food-enthusiast Darren C. Demaree. Each episode features food and a long conversation. Guests include writers/artists/publishers/community members/musicians/ecstatics from all over the world.

Sundress makes our chapbooks available for free to download online. Some recent examples include To the Bone, by Angela Narciso Torres; Wolf Daughter, by Amy Watkins, and more.

Sundress endeavors to be a writer-centric organization. It is out hope to support writers always but especially during this time. If you have ideas for how we might do that, our inbox is always open. But no matter what, we wish all of you health and success in all that you do.

A 501(c)(3) non-profit literary press collective founded in 2000, Sundress Publications is an entirely volunteer-run press that publishes chapbooks and full-length collections in both print and digital formats, and hosts numerous literary journals, an online reading series, and the Best of the Net Anthology.

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