Articles by Steve Semken

I run my own blog now, and recently I wrote a little series about show, don’t tell. Most writers have heard that phrase before but struggle to understand what it means. Here is the introduction of my series. If you want to read my original post, click here. You can learn more about show, don’t tell […]

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A tiny year-in-review blog post for 2014. This year several changes to the press occurred, primarily, for the first time I had interns, who each in their own way did wonderful and remarkable tasks: editing, organizing an entire anthology, planning events, some marketing, read submissions, and much more. Each intern truly made me appear much […]

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Exciting News! from http://midwestbooksellers.org/2014/10/midwest-connections-picks-december-2014/ Chasing Weather: Tornadoes, Tempests, and Thunderous Skies in Word & Image A Photography and Poetry book by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Stephen Locke. September 19, 2014. Paperback, $25.00. Ice Cube Press. ISBN: 9781888160826 “The sky is made of rivers before and after they became rivers,” Caryn writes in Chasing Weather. “Weather is the great leveler, the great unifier. We’re […]

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A few months ago, I started “The Query Seal’s Den” blog to show potential authors how not to write a query letter. I like showing real examples of what not to do. Today, I’ve decided to list the things that make a great query. So here we go: Clear Writing Many writers try to sound […]

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To Make a Book By Stefanie Brook Trout, Ice Cube Press Intern, editor Prairie Gold: Anthology of the Heartland   I grew up in Western Michigan, the youngest of three daughters. We didn’t have a lot of money for extras, but my mom could never say no if my sisters or I asked her to […]

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Shortly after Steve brought me on as an intern to Ice Cube Press, I tapped into my natural audacity and floated the book proposal that would become Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland to Steve Semken, my ever-cheerful boss. Despite my lack of former publications (i.e. none), Steve agreed to publish the book through Ice […]

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Coming soon: Intern Jenni Moy will be begin a query consultation blog series called “The Query Seal’s Den: Thoughts, Advice, and Help with Query Letters.” She will be critiquing queries made up by the press. No queries sent to Ice Cube Press will appear on the blog. We hope that through this new series people […]

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It is not unusual for teen girls to hold obsessions. Boy bands, Disney channel stars, the occasional young wizard in training, they all work their ways into our hearts at a moment when such adoration feels new and exciting and—often melodramatically—all consuming. My seventeen-year-old self was no exception. However, the recipient of my fixation happened […]

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I’ve been meaning to zip off a blog post recently, and I thought some more thoughts about successfully submitting to a publisher would be appropriate. For the first couple of pointers on the subject, check out the first blog here. While my colleague makes some interesting points about craft in writing, any great writer can […]

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