Publications - California Writers Club

The Bulletin

The Bulletin is CWC’s member newsletter, published 3-4 times per year. It includes informative articles on topics of interest to writers, plus CWC news updates and announcements of members’ literary achievements. Generally speaking, publishing opportunities in The Bulletin are limited to current CWC members. Exceptions may be made for submissions from authors who have distinguished themselves in their genre or area of expertise, especially if they have been branch guest speakers.

The Bulletin is sent to all members in pdf format as an email attachment. To read a pdf of the current issue click here.

Bulletin — Back Issues

Submit to CWC Bulletin

Our CWC Bulletin includes a number of features about which our editorial team wants you to be aware. First and foremost, its contents now include:

Submissions. We want to feature the works of our California Writers Club, prose writers, poets, and essayists. We are looking for striking, well-written material that’s ready for print. Please send your material (500 words for prose and up to 100 lines of poetry) to editor@calwriters.org. To help with your submissions, here are some important guidelines:

File type: Word document (*.docx)
Typeface: Times New Roman, 12 pt. font
Featured Prose: We will consider a flash fiction submission or an excerpt from a longer short story, novel, or memoir, etc. The maximum length for any prose submission is 500 words. We are looking for work that will intrigue readers. The piece must stand on its own.
Featured Poetry: You can send in as many as three poems (in one file) for a total of 100 lines.
Featured Essayist: We accept personal essays and essays on writing. Please limit yourself to 500 words.
It is the CWC policy that the CWC Bulletin will not print gratuitous vulgarity, obscenity, explicit sexual content, or political or religious rants or proselytizing.

Upcoming Branch Events. Please send in news releases or articles (maximum 250 words) about upcoming branch events that would be of interest to the entire CWC membership. Let nearly 2,000 fellow members know about what your branch is doing to reach out to your greater communities and increase your visibility. For example, are you doing public readings for different organizations? Holding book fairs, contests, conferences, or other special events? Reaching out to schools? One person at each branch should be designated to submit this material to editor@calwriters.org. Your submission should include details such as title, date, time, cost, registration, Zoom link, etc., in the event members of other branches want to participate.

We will also be running articles about the CWC board and other news of interest to the state’s entire membership.

Deadlines for all submissions for our quarterly CWC Bulletin are February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15. Publication dates are a month later on March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15.

We hope you enjoy and are inspired by the CWC Bulletin. If you have any further questions, you can contact our editorial team at editor@calwriters.org.

The Literary Review

The Literary Review was launched in this new book format only a few years ago, It is on its way to establishing itself as a CWC institution—a juried collection of superior poems, stories, fiction, and nonfiction by members of the CWC. The previous iteration was in a magazine format.

Vision and Verse

Vision and Verse (two editions) is a fusion of art, photography, prose and poetry in a beautiful tabletop book format. The multi-talented artists and writers featured within the pages have come together to create a dialogue between their respective mediums. The collection showcases the beauty of visual art married with the magic of the written word.

The Smalls Too

California Writers Club (Author), Les Bernstein (Editor), Linda Loveland (Illustrator), Kim Winter (Illustrator), Robin Gabbert (Contributer)

Welcome to The Smalls Too, the California Writers Club publication from the 2026 “Big Contest for Small Poems and Prose.” Shakespeare wrote “Brevity is the soul of Wit” and Churchill said, “If I had more time I would have written a shorter book.” Hopefully, you will find brevity is not the enemy of depth, more often it is its precondition. The selected entries in this anthology share a quality of compression and deliberate economy. The writers come from different traditions and temperaments. Their poems and short prose burst with lived experience… grief, wonder, the absurdity of the human condition and so much more. It is a miraculous feat that all of this can fit inside 8 lines of poetry and 75 words. There is a certain stamina, discipline and particular courage required to write briefly.

The Smalls

The Smalls is an anthology filled with selections from the CWC “Big Contest for Small Poems and Prose.” Each book is a vibrant collection of unique voices chosen from submitted entries from CWC members. Each selection in the anthology serves as a testament to the power of language, using as few words as possible. The poems and short fiction may be small in words, yet the ideas and emotions they capture are large in impact.