Articles by Steve Semken

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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I’m really grateful for my internship at Ice Cube Press. I’ve gained more experience from working here for the past few months than from most of the college classes I have taken for the past three years. One of my duties is to read queries and manuscript submissions. When I’m reading manuscripts, I’m grading three […]

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When I started as an English major at University of Pittsburgh, I found myself constantly banging my head against the wall trying to scratch out “great stories.” For anyone who may not know, Pitt possesses a wonderful English department with many very talented professors, and (nearly) all of the fiction creative writing professors have an […]

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If you’re like me, then you spend an hour a day creeping on writing forums. Not too long ago, I stumbled upon a forum question asking how long it took to write a book. I was surprise to read that most people finished writing a book within a year, sometimes including editing. Sometimes I feel […]

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When I began writing back in my early years of high school, I imagined that all established authors spent their days writing and their nights partying. I imagined plenty of alcohol and smoking by men in fedoras. I pictured high unwieldy stacks of paper and the incessant drone of typewriters. In essence, I dreamt up […]

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When I sought an internship with Ice Cube Press, no one asked me outright, “So, Lance, why publishing?” I suppose the answer seems self-explanatory to those who know me. Now, I’m a second-year graduate student seeking an M.A. in English at Iowa State University, and publishing likely appears to be the most direct professional route […]

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