Market Spotlight: Agnes and True

Yesterday India celebrated its 75^th Independence Day, and what a grand celebration it was. Coming close on the heels of our best-ever Olympic performance, the spirits of patriotism ran high everywhere, helped along by new movies that showcased the bravery of our soldiers who fought and won several key wars.

In other, non-patriotic news, I had a story published in Canadian literary journal Agnes and True. The story is called Daughtering is not a Word.

 A little about the story itself – I’d been wanting to write a mother-daughter story for a while but something that veered away from the norm. On this occasion I chose to show the daughter, a young mother herself of a newborn, struggling to come to terms with her identity as a homemaker despite being qualified, and having to entertain her mother who’s a globe-trotting jet-setting executive.

When I felt I’d done justice to the story, I sent it to a few select venues, among them Agnes and True, which I’d come across on Duotrope. As I usually do these days, I’d read a few stories of this literary journal and liked the style as well as content. I thought that my story might fit the overall tone and aesthetic they are looking for.

I sent across the story to them via email as per their submission guidelines, and settled in for a long wait. Here’s where the waiting game kicks in, and writers need to exercise patience, because good things take time. I got a positive response almost 5 months later. Over the weeks that followed, a single round of editorial changes took place. After a month of acceptance, my story was published and I received my payment.

You can check out their submission guidelines. Being a Canadian literary journal, they are definitely focused on stories from Canada, but they definitely look at fiction from outside as well.

They are currently closed to submissions until 15^th September, so you have sufficient time to revise and send out your stories once they open up.

Do let me know in the comments if you have published any stories recently!