BellaOnline Press Release

BellaOnline Launches Mused  to Showcase Literary and Artistic Talent

New Literary Review and Art Site Debuts on Winter Solstice

BellaOnline, a Web site dedicated to providing a voice for women, has launched Mused, a new venue for writers and artists.

"While winter conjures thoughts of dormancy, winter solstice heralds the lengthening of daylight and is actually the beginning of renewal. It is fitting that Mused launches on Winter Solstice 2007 to offer fertile ground for creative talents," said Lisa Shea, BellaOnline publisher.

According to Shea, "Mused, a new literary review, expands BellaOnline's mission to help aspiring writers of all ages, backgrounds, and interests to reach a larger audience."

BellaOnline is a network of more than 400 writers, primarily women, hosting sites on a variety of topics.  "This was a wonderful beginning for us," Shea says, "but we wanted to reach more people. When I read the biography of Clarina Nichols, an 1800s women's rights speaker, it reminded me that, not that long ago, women were dismissed as not being capable of speaking on issues. One of the things Clarina worked on was publishing women's prose and poetry."

A century later, Shea found there was still a dearth of venues for publishing her short stories. She laments that even a supportive community such as BellaOnline has had to turn away writers with wonderful ideas and interesting stories. That encouraged Shea to develop the BellaOnline Literary Review, a site that encourage writers and artists and promotes a wider audience for their works.

As with BellaOnline, the effort is based on volunteers and a community spirit. "Our volunteer editorial board shares a love of art and the written word; all are well-published and learned wordsmiths themselves," says Editor in Chief Jill Florio.

In keeping with the BellaOnline mission, the premier issue of Mused  showcases the work of women, and some men, on themes of empowerment, helping others, and appreciation for the environment captured through prose, verse, and art.

Says Florio, "We are exceedingly proud to show off the work of our fine contributors. Our cover image, by Deb Bonam, is a revealing mixed media artwork concerning women and empowerment...her Fury-like Sorcerer is yet another facet of the Muse that inspires. You can sense the epic tale unfolding ‘behind the scenes.'"

The contributors range from photographers, to doctorates in linguistics, to Phi Betta Kappa scholars, to great-grandmothers.

"Our written entries display short stories, poems, and essays chosen to both delight the mind and provide examples of each genre at their best," Florio says.

The site will be updated quarterly, on solstices and equinoxes.

Submissions to Mused are open to writers of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction as well as artists who create photography and visual artwork that can be represented in a two-dimensional magazine. For legal reasons, submissions must be authored by individuals who are 18 years or older.

See https://www.bellaonline.com/review/issues/winter2007/

BellaOnline provides an encouraging, supportive publishing community for women. It provides free training, support, and promotion so writers may reach their personal and business goals. BellaOnline aims to provide reliable, high-quality, helpful, trustworthy content, at no cost, in a low- advertisement environment for millions of visitors.

BellaOnline can be found on the web at https://www.bellaonline.com, or contacted via email at Contact BellaOnline.com

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