This is a new venture. Cloud Lake Literary was created as a space to uplift and support skilled and talented writers and artists. It was created to give readers a new venue to find fresh writing, new voices, and entertaining stories they can’t find anywhere else. It was created to give back to the community of writers and readers that have shaped who I and the Cloud Lake Literary team have become.
As a child, I devoured books. Like so many others, I hid with a flashlight in the dark reading through all of my books and soon thereafter all of my mother’s books. I was hooked on stories and the art of storytelling. I became familiar with the local library in my very small rural town and the used bookstores nearby. Access to books and stories was free, or nearly so, and therefore something accessible for all people.
I studied these stories and the sociological, political, and philosophical impacts they had upon society during my graduate and undergraduate degrees. I studied the classics of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Austen to the more contemporary Thomas King, Julian Barnes and the more commercial YA Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar (which was the subject of my final graduate report marking it as comparative to Michel Foucault’s Panopticon prison system - bizarre but interesting). I’ve presented my research at international conferences. I’ve spent years working in book stores. I have served the local writing community and am the current President of the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop. Without question, writing and reading is in my blood.
It is also in the blood of the Cloud Lake Literary team - they are readers, writers, and artists. They are inspired by stories. They have TBR piles as high as the ceiling. They write stories. They publish stories. They make and create and sell their work in both literary and visual art spaces. They are a product of the literary and storytelling landscape and they have gathered together to produce Cloud Lake Literary for you. Please visit the Team page to meet each of them.
Writers require spaces; they require homes and avenues to share their work with a wider audience. They require places to be read, to be heard, to be understood. At this time, we have provided four avenues for writers to submit their work for possible publication. We will be publishing fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature (up to and including YA stories). Details can be found on our Submit page. Twice a year we will produce for you a magazine filled with the latest and greatest “must-read” stories in these categories from writers across Canada.
In the meantime, our website is active. Impressions is our onsite blog where we have book reviews, interviews with authors, lists of exciting books that must be read, and we’re developing a tips section for all you writers out there. In addition to this, we have a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Search for us at Cloud Lake Literary. Lastly, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to ensure you receive a copy of Volume One of our digital magazine which we are providing free of charge.
We are new and we are growing. Pages will continue to be updated. The Cloud Lake Literary team will continue to grow. We are building something great and we hope you enjoy this space and the magazine we are creating. If you’re a writer, consider submitting your stories to Volume One. If you’re a reader, dive in to Impressions until our first digital magazine is released in September. If you’re both a writer and a reader - we hope you’ll do both: share your stories and explore Cloud Lake Literary.
In the meantime, Happy Writing and Happy Reading,
Jodene