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Our calls for submissions roundup for October is here! Good luck sending your work out into the world.

Free write with today’s photo prompt.

In today’s guest post, Literary Mama reader Andrea Jarrell shares her practice of grace and gratitude.
Whether someone else said community vs. competition or the phrase simply popped into my head one day during a yoga class, I can’t say for sure. The tension between the two struck me when I first started practicing at a new studio. I was the outsider, comparing the lithe bodies around me to what I felt inside – frustration, struggle, and a desire to give up. Yet community vs. competition has continued to be my mantra. Years into my yoga practice, when I’m tempted to think, Look at me! Look how high my leg is! this mantra is more important than ever.

Welcome to Literary Mama Rewind! Every few weeks we’ll round up some of our favorite essays, stories, poems, columns and reviews from the Literary Mama archives relating to a particular theme. Even once we leave school, there is always more to learn. As these Literary Mamas show us, life’s lessons never stop coming.

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Today, as the seasons change, free write about what you wish to keep and what you will cast away.

At the Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the US, I snapped up a stack of classics from a used book tent. Find out more about these selections and other staff and contributor picks.

Banned Books Week starts Sept. 27th.

Our Writerly Roundup blog series features a curated collection of articles on the craft of writing and the creative life that we don’t want you to miss. In The Essay in Parts at Assay Journal, Steven Harvey (@THEsharvey) and Ana Maria Spagna (@amspagna) tag team to present a thoughtful and compelling overview of the different elements of the essay form. […]

For each issue of Literary Mama, Literary Reflections shares a writing prompt inviting our readers to respond. Our editors provide feedback on these responses, and we post our favorites on the blog. This month’s writing prompt is inspired by Jennie Robertson’s essay, “She Writes,” and Miriam Mandel Levi’s essay, “Raising Readers: A Mother’s Tale From The Trenches.”

In today’s guest post, Literary Mama reader Lori Duffy Foster reminds us to live.
I was proud of myself.
All four kids were appropriately dressed, and we had made it to the high school recognition night on time. We’d even picked up my mother-in-law on the way. It was a huge success for me, considering all I had tried to juggle that week.