About

Ground is a bi-annual literary journal and writing collective publishing new fiction from our collective and from new  authors invited to contribute by the editors. 

All genres are published except overly sex-driven or violence-centric stories. The only requirement is that that stories feel good to read; they are grounded in the experience of the characters. This creates a cinematic and embodied reading experience.

Ground is executively edited by Seth Harwood. 

Seth has written ten books, including the the bestsellers Everyone Pays, In Broad Daylight, and Jack Wakes Up, as well as The Maltese Jordans, Young Junius and two other novels in the Jack Palms Crime series, two short story collections, and a novella set in Kurt Vonnegut’s World.

He got his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and has been teaching writing and coaching writers ever since, most recently through Harvard and Stanford.

Seth has led private online workshops for authors since 2014. More on Seth’s coaching and teaching services can be found at writewithseth.com. His fiction lives at sethharwood.com 

Authors are invited by Seth to contribute based on their ability to ground the reader and tell an engaging story. Assistant Editors are Rich Ferri and Jenn Fickley-Baker. They are members of the Ground Fiction Writing Collective and attempt to veto Seth's more questionable decisions.

First, while there are many like it, this one is ours. The Ground Collective began as a critique group, or writing circle. Ground is our effort to publish together and promote the work of the writers we work with to improve our craft. 

Second, when we critique stories we often ask each other if the reader feels grounded while reading the story. The concept of grounding the reader is central to our craft, and when a reader is grounded, the result is a 

an engaging and visceral, almost cinematic sense of story. A grounded reader is not confused. They truly see and feel  the setting and the characters. They feel transported,  grounded in another place and time and sometimes, even, another reality. 

This is what we strive to achieve in our stories, and we hope that you, dear reader, will experience when you read the stories in Ground Fiction.