Page to Stage
A GENERATIVE READING SERIES
THEME: SOUTHERN GOTHIC
What is Page to Stage?
Page to Stage is a guided program to help you turn a story from an idea to a complete work ready to be performed at a live reading. Each quarter we release the theme of which all of our events for those three months will be centered.
Over the course of the quarter, we will host a generative writing workshop, revision workshop, live reading workshop, and the Fiction Sessions Reading Series. You do not have to attend all of the events to participate, though we do encourage you to take on the challenge.
Our Schedule
TUESDAY, APRIL 7 • 6 - 8 PM • BIG COUCH (CLASSROOM): Page to Stage Generative Writing with prompts to Southern Gothic stories. Led by Desiree S. Evans.
MONDAY, MAY 4 • 6 - 8 PM • BIG COUCH: Revision Workshop with exercises to help you polish your piece. Led by Maurice Carlos Ruffin.
MONDAY, MAY 11 - MONDAY, MAY 25: Submission period open for The Fiction Sessions: Southern Gothic
TUESDAY, JUNE 2 • 6 - 8 PM • BIG COUCH (STAGE): Performing Your Prose Workshop. Led by Daphne Armbruster.
SUNDAY, JUNE 28 • 7 - 9 PM • BIG COUCH (STAGE): The Fiction Sessions Reading Series
We’re exploring the darker themes of the American South this quarter—hidden histories; unsettling—if not downright sinister—family dynamics; suspicious characters with unknown motives; and, unforeseen events that bring our past back to haunt us. Social isolation. Racial disparities. Sexual tension. Beauty in decay. Ghosts both real and imagined.
Beloved by Toni Morrison, Wise Blood by Flannery Connor, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, Swamplandia by Karen Russel, Yonder Stands Your Orphan by Barry Hannah, Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz by Poppy Z. Brite , now known as Billy Martin, can kick off your Southern Gothic reading journey.
Southern Gothic
The Fiction Sessions Submission Rules
This reading series is an opportunity open to all writers, regardless of prior publications, agented or not, published or not, etc. Third Lantern Lit welcomes and encourages submissions from writers of all races, color, religion, gender, gender identity, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, and military status.
Five readers will be chosen at random through a randomized number generator. Each reader will be given a 7-minute reading slot (around 1,000 words).
This is a live, public reading. Please only submit if you will be in town for the event.
Submission to this event does not transfer any Intellectual Property Rights to Third Lantern Lit.
The Fiction Sessions Reading Series is live streamed to the Third Lantern Lit Instagram.
Submission guidelines
Submissions must follow the reading cycle’s chosen theme. This quarter is SOUTHERN GOTHIC.
We are only accepting previously unpublished fiction pieces.
The work that is submitted to Third Lantern Lit will be the work the writer will perform on stage. The submission may be a short story or excerpt from a novel. Please submit the 1,000 word cut you would like to perform.
AI submissions are strictly prohibited and submissions generated using AI will not be accepted.
All work submitted must be work owned by the author and not plagiarized from the work of others. This is a no tolerance policy. Failure to adhere to this will result in a ban from all Fiction Sessions events.
Stories that contain gratuitous violence, racism, sexism, trans- or homophobia, etc. will not be considered.
We are not accepting erotica (sex is fine, but nothing NC17 for this particular series) or fanfiction.