I like to contribute to anthologies. You can tell that with a quick look at my Amazon author page. The short stories are a great way to experiment with new styles, techniques, and genres, and some calls for contributors have a narrow focus that can spur some interesting ideas.
This past month, the League of Utah Writers has published two anthologies, and my role differs between them.
The League published "Strong at Broken Places" on November 30th. This one was a lot of fun for me since I helped to pick the theme, contributed a story to it, helped to judge the stories, and got to write the foreword. The theme is based on an Ernest Hemingway quote, "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." I took that quote and chose to emphasize the idea of strength gained through adversity. My story in that volume is a fantasy story called Living on Borrowed Time where a young man is falsely imprisoned and meets a deranged magician the evening before they're both to be executed.
Then, on December 14th, "Beyond Behives: Poetry & Prose Commemorating Utah's First 125 Years of Statehood" came out. I wrote a poem for that one based on an overnight winter scouting trip I took once to Peter Sinks, one of the coldest places in the lower 48 states. It's record low is -69°F. Rogers Pass in Montana has a record one degree colder, and Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska holds the record of -80°F.
If you're looking for opportunities to contribute to things like that, check with members of your local writing community, or visit the Submission Grinder for ideas on where to submit stories and poetry.
