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GRANDE DAME LITERARY

WOMEN WRITERS VIBRANT VOICES

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Half-Known

They met on the 5th of July, and by autumn, had fallen in a strange rhythm: sharing a bed and kissing at night, all under the label of friendship. He’s going out with another girl now, and they’ve started a strained, limited friendship since, with minimal physical contact. He misses their emotional closeness and connection and she misses his arms around her at night. It’s her birthday and they’re on a ski trip with some mutual friends. “Hello,” he says, stepping into the

Short Stories

E.Q. Lean

2 days ago

465

In the winter of 1955, I was a young girl from Queens who yearned to become a famous writer. My childhood had been unremarkable. I had loving parents, a few honest friends, and a modest, pleasant apartment overlooking a busy street. I went to a good school and passed the time writing poems and stories filled with different characters who had more interesting lives. Thinking back, I should have relished in the repetition and routines—the stability of my life. Though dull and g

Short Stories

Faye Klutke

2 days ago

How Dolly Saved Me

I am weeping nearly as loudly as I am singing Dolly Parton’s “Just Because I’m a Woman,” as I drive the Turner Turnpike from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. Hurtling down the turnpike through uncontrollable tears may sound risky, but I know people who read the newspaper while making this trek. Or trim their nails, apply mascara, work on their laptop or even change their shoes, for Chrissake. The flat, straight road which rides atop treeless plains does not speak to my soul’s geograph

Short Stories

Rebecca Hinshaw

2 days ago

Judgement Day

“Why would someone want to dig around in my memories?” I said. “Long ago and some best left forgotten.” “But you haven’t forgotten, have you Mrs. Mac? Yours goes back to, what age did you say?” Haley laughed and made the “snuk, snuk” noise I’d told her about, when my dad took me out of church and spanked me for being a hellion and me, embarrassed at not being able to control my snorty sniffles when we came back in. “Dad said later I would have been three. Apparently, it cur

Short Stories

Lois Hibbert

4 days ago

Home

“You live in an apartment? I think it must be cute,” offered my friend naively when I reluctantly admitted I lived in the apartment complex everyone called Fat City. I coveted her home, her two-parent household, her sunken bedroom, her thriving Barbie collection. Much like Molly Ringwald’s character in Pretty in Pink (“I don’t want you to take me home, okay?!”), I was petrified to ever let anyone in my hometown see where we lived, whether it was the green shag apartment in

Memoir

Nicole Irizawa

5 days ago

A Raven in an Apple Tree

When I was a child, my father taught me a trick about how to make yourself wake up at a certain time if you didn’t have an alarm clock handy or even how to remember something you had to do the next morning when you went to bed. He said that what you should do was to picture a blank blackboard, like the kind I knew from school, and then picture yourself picking up a piece of chalk and writing on the blackboard exactly what you wanted to remember the next day. “Try it and see,”

Short Stories

Eleanor Lerman

Feb 25

Marvelous Peggy

My dreamscape shifts, images fading in and out of consciousness. The flickering movie speeds up, then slows, finally resolving into something recognizable: My kitchen. The room is filled with a flat light that casts few shadows, the middle world. A dark-haired woman sits at my cherry wood dining table, examining bone china teacups neatly arranged on a silver tray as if I'd been expecting company. "Your mother loved these," the woman says, holding a translucent white cup wit

Short Stories

Jesse Devyn Crowe

Feb 25

The In Between

There is a certain time of day I call the in-between. The sun is still there, and yet it has already begun to descend. I love this hour because nothing feels final. Not day. Not evening. The light shifts. The day exhales. For a moment, I am not reaching for what comes next. It feels like crossing time zones midair, where two realities exist at once. I have lived here before. Between diagnosis and acceptance. Between goodbye and silence. Between the woman I was

Poetry

Carol Ornstein

Feb 25

The Inheritance

Delisia considered herself to be the good daughter. Blond and slight, she had majored in economics before going on to get a master’s degree in architecture, her ambition driving her to apply for scholarships and marry her way into a higher income bracket. Even an early divorce had not lessened her stature in the family hierarchy as her parents reacted kindly by saying that they hadn’t really liked the husband all that much. Aline, three years younger, was certainly no black s

Short Stories

Sylvia Sensiper

Feb 23

The Autumn Puzzle

Every autumn, a puzzle takes over our house—and, somehow, our lives. What starts as a small box of scattered cardboard quickly grows into a season-long obsession. It’s part hobby, part decoration, part social experiment, and part silent competition between family members who all claim to ‘just be helping.’ We have a folding table that migrates from room to room depending on the season, chasing the best light like a spoiled cat with commitment issues. Sometimes it’s in the liv

Essay

Helaine Fiedler

Feb 23

2 3 4 5

Has someone else read your work?
Yes. Progress to #2. No, have someone else take a look.
We all think we've written something marvelous.
Did the person give you constructive feedback or was it a friend being nice?
Yes, constructive. Progress to #3. No, it was someone being polite.
Friends are great, but a fellow experienced writer or editor will tell you what is missing.
Are you willing to make changes and deletions?
Yes. Progress to #4. No, ask yourself why not.
Read through the suggestions and comments, take a break, and then decide what changes you can make that will enhance the reader's experience.
Did you check for typos and adhere to the journal's formatting?
Yes, you are ready to submit. No, means it needs a last look.
Formatting mistakes and too many typos can disqualify your work.

GRANDE DAME LITERARY

WOMEN WRITERS VIBRANT VOICES

International Women's Day Flash Event
The day was a success. Thank you writers and readers.
READ AND ENJOY

NEW! find everything in one place. See the full journal, subscribe to our newsletter to learn about upcoming submission opportunities, or search for your favorite authors and titles.

RECENT POSTS

Half-Known

465

How Dolly Saved Me

Judgement Day

Home

A Raven in an Apple Tree

Marvelous Peggy

The In Between

The Inheritance

The Autumn Puzzle

Ready
to
submit?

STAY IN THE LOOP

GRANDE DAME LITERARY

WOMEN WRITERS VIBRANT VOICES

International Women's Day Flash Event The day was a success. Thank you writers and readers. READ AND ENJOY

NEW! find everything in one place. See the full journal, subscribe to our newsletter to learn about upcoming submission opportunities, or search for your favorite authors and titles.

RECENT POSTS

Half-Known

465

How Dolly Saved Me

Judgement Day

Home

A Raven in an Apple Tree

Marvelous Peggy

The In Between

The Inheritance

The Autumn Puzzle

Ready to submit?

STAY IN THE LOOP

International Women's Day Flash Event
The day was a success. Thank you writers and readers.
READ AND ENJOY

Ready
to
submit?