Writers' organizations and communities

Lists of/Links to Writers' Organizations

Writersmarket.com Organizations - An alphabetical list of selected writers' organizations. This list is easier to navigate than other WM databases since it's only six screens. However, it is not comprehensive; for instance, the Maryland Writers' Association is not on its list.

Local Writers' Associations and Groups by State - This page offers a comprehensive list of state and regional writers' organizations and associations, but [WARNING] it's on Squidoo, which means it's a web page maintained by an individual and not an organization, so it may disappear or be altered at any given time.

Poets and Writers Literary Organizations -A short/selected list of major writers' organizations.

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Individual Organizations/Associations of Note
[Note: Inclusion here does not mean an endorsement on my part; I am just noting their existence/availability.]

American Independent Writers

National Writers Union (NWU) - The only labor union that represents freelance writers.

The International Association of Writers -  (Scroll down their home page, and you'll find a list of "Best Writer Organizations," which includes themselves, SCBWI, NWU (see above), and the American Society for Journalists and Authors.)

Writers' conferences and residencies

Here are a few sites to get you started. Writers' organizations will list annual (and, sometimes, regional and smaller) conferences on their web sites, so be sure to check the pages of those organizations in which you have an interest.

• Writers’ Conferences and Centers - A (.org) web site sponsored by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs

• Poets and Writers Conferences and Residencies Database

• Writers Market Conferences database

Literary publications, contests and submissions guidelines available on the Web

In a continued effort to plump up the "Writers' Tools" section of this blog (and for my own use, so I'll have one place to put all these links), here is a list of useful and FREE (non-subscription) web sites for writers yearning to be published in literary journals:

• Literary Magazines :The NewPages Complete List - an A to Z listing of literary magazines, online and print, with links to their web pages. [Note: Newpages.com also has links to Writing Contests and other useful stuff, so check it out.]

• Poets & Writers Literary Magazines  - presents info in a useful column format, so you can see right away which journals accept electronic and simultaneous submissions, and what their reading periods are. Offers a search and a browse feature, as well.

• O. Henry Prize Stories has lists of journals from which it has drawn stories over the years arranged by frequency. It also offers a list of alphabetical Index of Literary Magazines, which gives contact info and web site only for each. The list appears selective (as in journals from whose works they take submissions for the O. Henry Prize) rather than comprehensive.

• The Best American Short Stories anthologies does not seem to have a similarly helpful web site; their web site offers only the barest of details. However, if you look at a paper copy of the most recent anthology, it lists American and Canadian magazines that print short stories.

• Finally, before entering a literary contest, you might want to check it out against the Writer Beware web page: Warnings About Literary Fraud and Other Schemes, Scams, and Pitfalls That Target Writers.