Blog 13: Vela

Vela gives women the opportunity to write without the pressure to conforming to a male style of writing. It was founded by Sarah Menkedich. Contributions of work were made by she respected.  Eva Holland, Lauren Quinn, Amanda Giracca, Simone Gorrindo and Molly Beer contribute greatly. Most of the stories published were from one of these contributors. The organization does not publish work about the struggles of women rather it’s a place to be free of restrictions. The essays chosen to be posted are about journey. Vela rather not post essay about vacation trip but about the personal experience which occurs when someone does beyond their comfort level to dive into another culture. The journey could also be an intrinsic journey to self-growth. The following were found while searching through the tables

• Currently there are 8 master heads and 10 contributors. Feasures are used to organize the magnitude of essays posted. The feature tabs topics are environmental, motherhood, essay, ethics, family, home, identity, immigration, home, journal, lyric essay, and the outdoors.
• The “On Writing” tab organizes writing about academia, feminism, education, motherhood, money, books, bookmark, MFA, the gender gap, the writing life, women in publishing and women we read this week.
• Has been “been highlighted in The New Yorker, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Longform.org, and elsewhere. Vela stories have been selected as “notable” by The Best American Essays, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Sports Writing.”
• Donations are carried out each year through kickstarted. It’s a great organization which help raise money. In October they raise over twenty eight thousand dollars. The money is used to pay their writers.
• The guideline for submitting work it standard. They ask that if work is sumited simultaneously, than the writer is responsible for sending the founder an e-mail message, if their work was accepted elsewhere. Segmented essays must be between 2,000-6,000 words.  A short letter and bio must also be included.

I found it interesting that there was a story well written in English and Spanish by the founder. The story was about being a “gringa” and using that to sort of show off. I also read a story about a personal journey that taught a girl that it was better to be herself even though she admired and loved her older sister.