dipity's 2025 Pushcart Prize Nominees & Community Announcements
see our pushcart prize nominees and learn more about upcoming submission opportunities plus our issue no. 5 status
Hi! It’s Jazz Marie (VFORROW) I am excited to announce our six 2025 Pushcart Prize nominees! Do note although it’s 2024 these are for the next calendar year when decisions are made. It was extremely tough to decide from all our online submissions, chapbooks, and upcoming print cat-themed issue—as always I wish we could nominate way more because I truly loved all of them! Here they are:
DIPITY’S 2025 PUSHCART PRIZE NOMINATIONS
“Tug of War” by Molly Seale — online tank poem
“Disorganized Attachment: The Bird” by Sara Amis — online tank poem
“Bildungsroman” by Karen Rigby — online
“c’mon kitty” by Julia Yong — online tank poem and upcoming in the WHISKER FACTORY print issue no. 5
“Blue Voyage 1” by Matt Hanson — online
“3:15 pm: poem for the parasitic jaeger” by Brendan Walsh — november ninth (a dipity. press poetry chapbook)
If you missed our past nomination events, you can typically find those in the web version of the Substack news section or visit the nominations section on our website.
Chapbook Releases
If you haven’t yet, definitely order our first two poetry chapbooks Reasons to…Evolve by Emma Louise Wells and november ninth: poems written when i was supposed to be working from home by Brendan Walsh in the series here on the “Chappies” site page to compare shipping and delivery costs. Also, remember you can make an additional donation to poets directly on our website.
We have two more wicked cool poetry chapbooks coming up in 2025 which are under construction in terms of artwork which will take quite some time—more progress will be made after Dipity Lit Mag issue no. 5 is finished up and we’re onboarding a few more volunteer readers who will help tackle poetry feedback requests through our Help Desk which is closed for now, but you can hop into our Discord from our Help Desk page to ask a question directly or send an inbox message from the Staff page at the very bottom of it. Eventually, I’ll add back the previous contact page.
NEW PODCAST EPISODES
We have THREE BRAND NEW awesome Hummingbird Blink: Nectar Poetry podcast episodes this month which you can watch on the Spotify app under Dipity Literary Magazine or now on our new YouTube channel as well! I haven’t shared the videos I just uploaded out there a ton yet but I will try to add to the channel over time so subscribe if you’d like. Most seem to follow on Spotify though.
You can listen to Brendan Walsh discuss his poetry chapbook “november ninth” in episode no. 136, watch Alyssa Troy from our Q&A no. 8 read her “I Find Comfort in the Zodiac Signs” poem, and share what started her writing journey in episode no. 135. Also, check out the spoken word episode of Sylvia Marie in episode no. 134 “Wounds that ooze” — Sylvia’s will also be available to stream on our other channel sometime in the near future.
We may have a few more Season 3 episodes before the end of 2024 or some may carry into Season 4. Also, if you prefer audio only check out the Apple podcasts library. We have a huge gap on Apple again due to the integration of Spotify music starting out on earlier episodes of Seasons 1 & 2. Our reading format changed in Season 3.
SYMPHONIC CHALLENGE 24’
We still have on our to-do list to do a very short mini-episode on the Hummingbird Blink: Nectar Poetry podcast to announce the dipity. Symphonic Challenge winner of 2024 as soon as possible most likely sometime before 2025 is the estimate—it is being worked on-stay tuned! Almost all of the album/song-inspo-focused poems now have new fun visuals in the online tank too-check those out—most are in the ProtagonistLit app as well in the meantime! After this, we’ll open up the 2025 round sometime too.
PROTAGONISTLIT APP UPDATES
We have more poems and short stories from the past going back to 2022 available to read under our profile now. Search for Dipity Literary Magazine and give us a follow on there! I took the time to upload about 160 works (not all are live yet nor linked up to writers’ profiles), and still have a ways to go through our past print issues as well as most of our online publications, some from our Q&A publications, etc. are now available to read for free or will be soon to read in the Protagonist (iPhone) mobile app. The print/issue publications will typically have a wall, but not all of them. I’m gradually adding more poets/writers. Eventually, our fun Q&As and writer interviews will also be placed in the ProtagonistLit app. A reminder that in the distant future, you’ll get an email to claim your profile later on.
I do have most of the online tank completed—but not all poems and short stories have a new visual/digital collage from me created quite yet—still working on those.
Download the ProtagonistLit App from the Apple app store [here] and ensure your iOS version is up to date. You still have to hit the upper left back button a bit to get to your previous selection—they are adding more really cool features—ironing out the app and formatting for typically will be all left aligned as it’s a mobile view with limitations there so it won’t be 100% identical there akin to the Substacked publications.
Please don’t forget to drop into our website’s online tank section from our cat challenge that closed—a few new poems are up and more are coming soon! You can subscribe to our website’s online tank via the Dipity Lit Mag button homepage then scroll beneath the typewriter to input your e-mail address.
NEW IN THE ONLINE TANK
“Evening running on a gravel farm road” by Rob Briwa
“Accepting the Gifts with Proper Gratitude” by Ellie J. Anderson
OTHER ITEMS
Issue no. 2 and no. 4 are undergoing redistribution still for exterior side alignment updates and updated end pages—so some older hiccup listings are still up actually, but very very minor things so they may go out of stock at some point, but will return soonish—no. 4 will be last so that might not be until 2025 but you can order the other paperback version of it through our website or read it digitally on Cafeyn’s subscription site or mobile app.
ISSUE NO. 5 CALLS & REMINDERS
Please ensure that you get community bonus section materials in by October 31st or November 15th is the last-minute cut-off point. We are still waiting on quite a few items for the bonus middle section(s) and this issue will have a slightly new layout. I hope to release it in late December or ASAP.
We’re always looking for unique photography donations throughout each year, especially towards the end as well. Feel free to reach out on that too! Sometimes we re-open the bucket in Submittable on/off throughout the year.
The online tank will be open until about mid-November. Podcast subs will be open for the rest year and possibly a few new categories. Some of the interview questions for fun will change slightly in 2025 too. I don’t always send e-mails on new categories/volunteer reader staff open calls so monitor our Submit Work page too.
Remember if you had work published through Dipity Lit Mag or Dipity Press in the past you can share it on our primary podcast anytime you’d like—there’s a new Submittable check box option. Poets can also share other publications etc, or their self-published poetry collections, work from elsewhere for fun, etc. just ensure it follows the format guidelines in the series.
The new micro-chapbooks submission and artwork/artist Q&A categories probably will not open until issue no. 5 is completed.
CRICKETS COMING SOON & CHANGES
From Nov-Dec you will see less activity from Dipity Lit Mag as issue no. 5 is prioritized and the remaining publications for 2024, but I may have some things set to scheduled in advance. Submissions will still be open online along with a few new category challenges—some deadlines will probably be extended a tad.
We have just dropped from 80% of categories being initially free to submit to—down to 50% of submission categories across each year. I definitely hate fees, but this Substack is free without a paywall along with our podcast plus our online tank so we have to address this by restructuring our submission categories slightly.
OUR TOP 20 SONG RECS FOR OCTOBER
I wouldn’t say these are Halloween-themed songs listed below but we do have a separate fun spooky playlist with Dracula, Frankenstein, and Hocus Pocus vibes out on Spotify under dipitylitmag. Nov-Dec recommendations will probably be skipped and we may switch to season-based recommendations. Check these awesome songs out—add faves to your playlists:
Thanks for your support! ~ Jazz Marie Kaur (VFORROW).
Any other thoughts, comments, or shares?
We appreciate anyone who takes the time to comment, subscribe here, pledge support to our Substack, donates directly to help fund future community projects on our website, visits the gift shop, or buys us some pizza slices over there. Stay tuned for more Substack shares and interviews. Thanks again for your support and have awesome days ahead!