Crossways #2 is now online! Enjoy poetry and short fiction from both emerging and established authors. Crossways publishes a broad selection of work from around the world but we have a particular interest in writing with an Irish connection.
Come visit the site and you are bound to find something you’ll like.
Yes, take a stroll down to the crossways and see who you might meet! It’s fabulous and it’s free! We look forward to seeing you there.
Well hello to you all from Bunbury Magazine, and a (possibly slightly late) Happy New Year 2019 because by golly that January was a long one! We hope you are all well and sticking to your resolution like the good ones that you are.
We’re back to let you know that WE’RE BACK! Bunbury has landed with a brand new issue. Number 18. Bunbury is now officially able to vote and drink. It’s applying to university and revising for A Levels. It’s a busy time at Bunbury HQ.
To the important part. The issue is available for you now and, for the very first time, you can literally get your hands on a copy! That’s right, we’re in print! You would not believe how excited we are about this. Bunbury 18 now comes in both physical and digital formats: the physical features all of the poetry, short stories and flash fiction. The digital comes with bonus content, including the Art & Photography section, Serials and Our Edinburgh Fringe 2017 feature! It’s a corker.
The physical copy is £5 and comes with an activation code to download the bonus content for free OR you can get the full digital version downloaded to your gadgets for £5. Choose your destiny below.
Bunbury Issue 18: The Hunt Physical Edition
Bunbury Issue 18: The Hunt Digital Edition
We went with the theme of ‘The Hunt’ because Editor Keri was the loudest in the meeting room that day and started pretending to hunt everyone around the office. We don’t know why… We were afraid to ask.
Still, she’s stopped now and that’s the main thing.
We also thought it would be a darn good prompt. We hope it was.
This issue is another very special one, from the words, to the people, to the art, it’s just splendid from cover to cover.
As always, we’re bringing you excellent short stories, poetry, flash fiction and more alongside the usual stunning art work and in this one, we present for your delectation and delight, our adventures at the Edinburgh Fringe festival through our annual interviews. Also, allow me to take this opportunity to say that if you’ve never been to the Fringe, you really should. It’s a month of mayhem and wonder. Plus, haggis! What more could you ask for?
OTHER NEWS
Bunbury Issue 19 is now open for submissions. The theme for this one, you ask? Infinity we answer. As always, a big concept for you lovely, talented people to get your creative chops in to. For all of our guidelines for submitting to us, click on the submissions poster below. There’s lots of lovely info there!
Some of you may also know that we run spoken word events in our home town of Bury. If you didn’t know, you do now! They are also back up and running for 2018. The first one of the year was an absolute belter and we’re ramping up for the next one. It’s on 27th February in The Old White Lion in Bury. Our headliners are the absurdly talented Benjamin Guilfoyle and Fiona Nuttall. If you’re in the area (or even if you aren’t) come along. We have open mic spots available. For all the information, you know what to do (click the poster which will take you to a Facebook event where you can tell us you are coming!)
That’s all for now folks! As usual, come and find us on Facebook (Bunbury Magazine), Twitter (@BunburyPublish) and wherever they are serving a fine gin.
Tah-tah for now, dear Bunburyists!
Christopher and Keri.
Palm-Sized Press’ ‘Retrospective’ zine is now available for pre-order, and those who purchase their copy by 31 October will be entered for a chance to win one of the last copies of Mslexia’s sold out Indie Press guide.
Indie Presses (£12.99 RRP) is a comprehensive catalogue of more than 400 independent literary presses (around 200 literary magazines and 250 small independent book publishers) operating right now in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, though many of those listed also accept international submissions. Compiled by the team at Mslexia, it’s a vital resource for all writers.
For each copy of the zine you buy, your name will be entered into the giveaway!
For more information, see the website or online shop.
Popshot Magazine is now open for short fiction and poetry submissions for its 18th issue. Find out what their editors are looking for below:
With seventeen beautiful issues under our belt (you can see them all here), we’re hoping to make our eighteenth edition the brightest and most brilliant one yet.
Light has a multitude of meanings and (nearly) all of them are positive. They cover illumination, enlightenment, weightlessness, discovery and delicateness. This is what we would love to fill this issue with: fiction and poetry that gifts our readers with a more vibrant view of the world. In our most recent issue, a prose poem called Giraffe by Bryony Littlefair quietly embodied this feeling of tiptoeing towards the light. The positive reaction from readers all over the world was a joy to observe, and for the Light issue, we would love to see more of it.
If you’re interested in seeing your writing published and illustrated in Popshot’s eighteenth issue, head to our submit page for the full submissions guidelines. As always, we’re open to contributions from anyone, anywhere in the world. Whether you’ve been published in Popshot before or never been published anywhere, every submission is welcomed and given the time it deserves.
Finally, if you’ve never actually read an issue of Popshot before, we would encourage you to pick one up. In the last four issues of the magazine, two-thirds of our contributors have either been print subscribers, digital subscribers or have read a copy of the magazine before. So, if you would like to increase your understanding of the work we publish — whilst supporting Popshot at the same time — pick up a copy or subscribe.
Hello from all at Short Fiction…
We are thrilled to announce this year’s competition longlist, which you can see here. Huge congratulations to all who made the cut, and thank you to everyone who entered – some 450 stories.
The shortlist will be announced on Friday 16th June, the winner shortly after.
A bit of an announcement… A little heavy-hearted, but we’ve concluded that Issue 10 will be our final print edition. It’s been an amazing journey, one we owe most thanks to founding editor Anthony Caleshu. In ten years we’ve published around 120 short stories from across the world, discovering along the way some fabulous new voices, writers who have gone on to great literary successes. It’s been a delight to edit their work, to commission illustrations to accompany it. A glance at our back issues are, we hope, testament to the quality of fiction we’ve put out there.
In short the literary journal is a niche publication, one that must constantly battle for existence, and although we will continue to publish fiction online, to grow our archive of stories, we are no longer in a position to put out a physical book. We thank you all for your support over the years – some of you might even possess all ten issues – and by way of gratitude, we’ve reduced the last box of Issue 10s to just £5 each. So if you want to grab a piece of history, best be quick.
Our ever popular short story masterclass continues online, a 5-week course you can sign up for here. More and more of our students are seeing work written here published, including in one case an entire collection. Next course kicks off on June 18th and dates for future ones will appear soon.
There remains some wonderfully innovative journals out there, their presence vital in the unveiling of exciting new voices, authors who may never emerge without them, so we urge you to support them when you can.
For now, in terms of things you can touch and feel, farewell…
Tom Vowler
Editor
Well, hello from all of us at Bunbury Magazine to you, Dear Bunburyists,
We’re not quite sure on the etiquette for how late we can wish you all a Happy New Year. We think after about 15th January it becomes a little awkward but, you know what? This is the first issue of 2017 so you’re getting it…
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We hope your 2017 has gotten off to a rollicking start. Ours has been a nice peaceful affair here so far. That’s what we’re going with anyway. In reality, we have been running around like blue-proverbialled flies getting this next nugget of loveliness together for you! We make it sound like a chore, don’t we? It really is not!
Once again, we have been blessed with some of the finest writing from around the world. It has been an honour to read all the words sent in to us. Not only that, but we have some wonderful art to bring to you (the front cover is more than a little spiffy, we’re sure you’ll agree!)
Without further ado, you can download this new issue for the (not so) new year by clicking on the gorgeous link picture below, kindly given to us by Vincent Davis.
As always, we recommend a £3 donation, which is really good value for all the joy we are bringing to your Kindles/Laptops/Eyes. However, if you would like to donate £15 to our support network for grass-roots creativity, we will send you a copy of The Bunbury Creative Anthology. Simply email us on bunburymagazine@gmail.com with your details when you have paid and we will put it in the post for you.
As well as all this, last year we had the pleasure of putting together two incredible features for you. As usual, we took our annual trip up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As usual, we spent five days legging it from one venue to the next, making sure we caught up with the very best shows at the Fringe and boy, did we see some utter crackers! This issue’s feature brings you the very best of The Fringe 2016.
As well as this, we are thrilled to bring you a feature on Evidently, one of Manchester’s premier spoken word nights. Honestly, if you love performance poetry, get down to this bad boy. We don’t care that you don’t live in the area. Travel! We interviewed the headliners and open mic guests to give you a flavour of what Kieren King and Ella Gainsborough, the eminent creators of Evidently, organise.
Last but not least, the exciting news! We’ve been short-listed for Best Magazine in this year’s Saboteur Awards. Thank you so much to all those who voted for us to get to the short-list. Last year, we came third. This year, we want to win. We want to win for all the writers, artists, comedians, performers and all round magnificent people we have featured in all 15 issues. To vote for us, click on the picture below. (While you’re there, please vote for Evidently, stars of this issue, for Best Regular Spoken Word Show!) We’d really appreciate it.
Anyway, happy new year again. Yeah, yeah, we know it’s too late for all that. Just go and read the magazine, will you?
Much love and keep scribbling,
Christopher and Keri.
As you remember, last year, Bunbury Magazine had the great honour to be short-listed for Best Magazine at the Saboteur Awards.
This year, we want to go one better and win!
To do this, we need your help. We would love to have your vote for best magazine. A vote for us is a vote for every poet, writer, artist, comedian, every beautiful creative we have featured in our pages.
It has been our great pleasure and joy to bring you the finest writing and art & photography from around the world for the past 4 years. We want this recognition not just for us but for everyone that has made doing Bunbury as amazing as it is. In case you need more encouragement, here are some of the gorgeous front covers we have had:
You have to vote in three categories this year in order for your vote to count so while you are there, could you please vote for our anthology, The Bunbury Creative Anthology, as Best Anthology, and our Editor Christopher Moriarty’s book Lightspeed as Best Short Story Collection? It would mean an awful lot to us!
PS – if you click on the picture, you can get the book!
The Anthology is the best of the first 12 issues of Bunbury Magazine. We had so much fun reading everything again and making the editorial decisions. It was out first foray into physical publishing and having recognition for this would be amazing.
So just to remind you, please, please vote for:
Best Magazine – Bunbury Magazine
Best Anthology – Bunbury Creative Anthlogy
Best Short Story Collection – Lightspeed by Christopher Moriarty
You can find the link for voting right here:
We’re busy as beavers here a
t The A3 Review, assembling Issue #6 and choosing the overall cash-prize winners. The issue will be out in early April, and we’re wild about the fact that ShortStops’ own Tania Hershman will be our Guest Writer!
Meanwhile, talking about wildness, Issue #7 is already, ahem, logging up entries for our March contest on the theme of Forests and Woods (deadline is March 25th).
Woodlands have inspired writers and artists for hundreds of years – now it’s your turn. Submit stories, poems and art inspired by the arboreal! Whether it’s tropical, mystical, tundral (is that even a word?!), or your own backyard. So many folktales and fairytales happen in forests. Find a story you love and update it. Think “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Hansel and Gretel”, and Baba Yaga. Think: Robin Hood or Tarzan. Be outrageous. Be controversial. Surprise us with new takes on old stories.
For more inspiring prompts, check out the Writing with Fabulous Trees Writing Map (see pic).
And for even more ideas and inspiration, and details about prizes, visit The A3 Review’s Submittable page. You can also purchase all back issues on The A3 Review‘s site.
We welcome short stories, flash fiction, poetry, comics, graphic stories, a snippet of memoir, photographs, illustrations, and any combination of the above. The only restriction is a word-limit of 150 and images should fit well into an A6 panel.
Good luck and keep writing!
PS. The A3 Review‘s editor, Shaun Levin, is running an online writing course, starting on the 24th of April. Click here for all the details.
We are now open for short fiction and poetry submissions for the 17th issue of Popshot.
The future has always been a fascinating concept. It’s the more mysterious, inspiring sibling of the past and present. While the past has been concluded and the present is predictable, the future (especially the distant future) lives only in our heads. It can be whatever we choose it to be. It is the pinnacle of imagination; the ultimate blank canvas to project our dreams, aspirations and fears upon.
The word has been scribbled down on our list of themes for five or six years. Each time we considered it in the lead up to a new issue, there was always another theme that felt more timely. However, global events of the last few months have turned that on its head. Following the recent publication of The Hope Issue, we now can’t think of a theme more timely than this one.
Thus, it is with great excitement and eagerness that we open the doors to literary submissions for our 17th issue on the theme of ‘Future’. For the full submissions guidelines, head to popshotpopshot.com/submit and make sure you send in your short fiction or poetry long before the deadline of January 26th.
To familiarise yourself with the kind of work we publish, buy a copy or subscribe from just £10 a year.
It’s all go in the world of Structo.
Issue 16 was released into the world in mid-October, featuring 94 pages of outstanding fiction and poetry, alongside photography from Minoru Karamatsu and an interview with Minae Mizumura, novelist and author of The Fall of Language in the Age of English.
Around the same time, issue 15 was shortlisted for the Stack Award for Best Original Fiction. The nominated story was Paula Hunter’s wonderful ‘3 for 2’. The winner will announced at a ceremony in London on November 23rd.
Finally—for this brief roundup at least—came the announcement that Structo is now accepting rolling submissions. Send in your best.
Hello dear Bunburyists!
We have had quite the busy time of it here at Bunbury Magazine HQ! Firstly, we would like to introduce you to our new addition, Siân S. Rathore who has climbed aboard and will be taking care the poetry. Taking it for walks, feeding it, making sure it gets enough affection. Most importantly, Siân will be editing it. This makes us happy. We’re thrilled to have her on board as her achievements and skill-set are amazing. We look forward to working with her on other projects in the future too!
At the beginning of August, Co-directors Christopher and Keri only went and blinking got married, becoming Mr & Mrs Moriarty! In true form, they had a poetry slam, the winner of which was Fiona Nuttall who won a canvas painted by Keri. They cut the cake with a chainsaw so, pretty standard stuff really.
After that, we went to Edinburgh for the Fringe festival as we do every year. We had a great time and, as usual, we handed out our interview packs, made new friends and met up with old ones too. There are lots of pictures and reviews on our website, bunburymagazine.com to look at from our trip. The Edinburgh Fringe special feature will be out later on in the year so we’ll keep you up to date with that.
Anyhoo, back to this issue. The theme was Atmosphere and we have loads of wonderful things for you to gaze upon and get cosy with including an interview with the wonderful and always lovely David Hartley, some fabulous art and photography and the usual selection of top class fiction and poetry and much, much more.
To get your hands on the latest lovely package of joy, click on the gorgeous front cover below (it was done by the amazingly talented Rachael Broadhurst. As always, it is available for Pay-What-You-Like (though we do recommend £3 for all the hard work our team puts into it.)
We really hope you enjoy this issue as much (if not more!) as previous ones. We always are taken aback by the quality of pieces submitted to us. We say it every time, if it wasn’t for your submissions and kind words, we wouldn’t be here.
We will be back in December with our Terra-themed issue. This will also include the fruits of our trip to Edinburgh, with loads of interviews from some of the stars of the Free Fringe. In the meantime, please do check in with us on social media. We have them all and everything!
Thank you all so very much, sit back, relax and bathe your eyes in Bunbury!
Much love,
Christopher & Keri Moriarty
Dublin-based print and digital literary magazine, Into the Void, seeks fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art for Issue Three. There is no theme. We want work that screams out from inside you and grabs hold of us. We want to read what you have no choice but to write. Unpublished and less established writers have as good a chance as any—it’s all about the writing. The deadline is December 25th and there is no fee to submit: https://intothevoidmagazine.com/submissions/
The annual Into the Void Poetry Competition is also currently ongoing. Judged by Heath Brougher, poetry editor of Five 2 One Magazine. Prizes of up to €150 + published on website + others. All details here.
We accept poems of all forms and styles of up to 80 lines with no minimum line or word count. We’re looking for musicality, economy of words, vividness, evoking of the senses, voice. Poems can be about anything at all, and of all shapes.
FICTION
We publish almost exclusively literary fiction, however, we’re open to anything if it’s extremely well-written and has some sense of depth. We’re interested in stories that grab and enthral and refuse to let go. We prize beautiful, unique prose but clarity is a must. The most important thing we can tell you is this: Stories, always, always, always, are about people. Everything else is secondary. Write the story you simply must write–the one that screams its way out of your fingers because it needs to be read.
NONFICTION
We accept essays of up to 4,000 words, on any topic, that convey passion and truth, be it personal or issue-focused. We want essays that bite.
For more details and the guidelines on how to submit, see our submissions page: https://intothevoidmagazine.com/submissions/
Long Story, Short Journal exists to serve writers. We were established in 2012 in order to provide a home to longer short stories within the Irish and international publishing scene where word limits are often 3000 words or less. Within such limitations, how can writers strike more than one note or create work with intricacy and complexity?
After years of trying to gain funding for paying writers via ‘tip jars’ and funding applications, we’re moving on to our readership with a crowdfunding drive. We acknowledge that not everyone can afford subscription fees, so we’re keeping the journal free to read. For those who have a little spare change, please check out our Indiegogo page!
There’s a special perk going out to those who donate €20 or more: ‘Sunset Drinking the Black Ocean’, a digital anthology of diminutive forms such as flash fiction, portraits and prose poems–all by former Long Story, Short Journal contributors including Mary Morrissy, John McKenna, Danielle McLaughlin and Matthew Sweeney.
If you’re short on cash, we’d love a share or a reTweet! Show that long story love! #PayMoreThanExposure !
We need your help to print the second holdfast print anthology!
All you creatives out there will understand the importance of being paid for your work, even if it is great to get your work out there on any platform possible. The holdfast magazine anthology will not only be a beautiful paperback, but all profits after printing and postage go directly to the writers and artists that make the magazine possible. As our team edit holdfast in their free time just for the passion, we need to raise funds in order to pay our contributors.
After winning the British Fantasy Society award for best magazine last year, we’re determined to make this issue even better than volume 1, with more fiction, articles and illustrations. The content is ready to go, all we need is YOU to make this happen!
Go check out our awesome perks that include paperbacks, tote bags and art prints!
holdfast tote bags being hand screen-printed by our logo designer Faye McNulty!
And don’t forget the deadline for our Brexitlit fiction supplement is coming up on 15 August! So go over to our submissions page for more details!
Summer issue of Jotters United is Live.
Despite having been on our list of potential themes for a while now, there’s something that feels rather timely about the theme of Hope. Although the mainstream media would probably have you think otherwise, it’s not that these are dark times or that hope is needed any more than it has been in the past. This isn’t the first occasion that we’ve had the threat of a lunatic in charge of a major superpower. Or that Britain has been on the cusp of a possible European fallout. Or any other current cause for concern outside of world politics. But for something as inherently timeless as hope, there is something that makes it feel strangely opportune.
Hope treads an intriguing path between darkness and light, positivity and negativity. It is the ground for believing that something good may happen, typically from a place where it hasn’t. And that dynamic from bad to good, wrong to right, dark to light is why we’ve decided to name Hope as the theme of our 16th issue — which is now officially open for literary submissions.
If you would like the opportunity to have your short fiction or poetry published and illustrated in the next issue of Popshot, find out the full submissions guidelines at our submit page:
Part of the interview series by Laura Perrem, Long Story, Short Journal Contributing Journalist.
Photo copyright Walter Nguyen
I find it very adolescent to view death through a romantic lens and struggle to reconcile its urgency with the blandness and discomfort of daily life.
–Yaron Kaver
Long Story, Short Journal presents the next instalment of our interview series: a conversation with Yaron Kaver, author of our January 2016 story ‘The Dead Soldier’s Sister’. Interview series by Laura Perrem.
Laura Perrem: Where are you now?
Yaron Kaver: These days I live, write and work in New York City. Well, mostly, I work. Sometimes I write. And I’m starting to suspect the twist ending will be that I’ve actually been living this whole time…
LP: What does a typical writing day look like for you?
YK: At the Idea-Gathering Stage, I look like just another smartphone zombie, because I use email drafts to store ideas as they come throughout the day. At the Outlining Stage, I look like a TV detective mapping out his serial killer case on the wall (minus the string—I have never used string). The Actual Writing Stage is when it gets really boring. I try to produce about two pages a day, and by “try” I mean “fail”. If I’ve written five pages a week, I count that as a success.
LP: It would be difficult to discuss “The Dead Soldier’s Sister” without talking about the relationship between David and the dead soldier’s sister. Their relationship grows very organically. Can you speak a little bit about how this idea developed for you?
YK: To a certain extent, David’s relationship with the sister follows my relationship to her character as a writer. She started out as a “story solution,” a personification of David’s otherwise solitary obsession. His initial perception of her is similar to my own—it’s all about her functionality. What can he get out of her? What could I get out of her? From that point on, we progress along parallel tracks. What he gets from her is like what a junkie gets from a dealer, a fix, a rush. What I get from her is pushback, conflict. The more time he spends abusing her, the more time I spend creating that tension between what he thinks their relationship is about, and what it actually is. By the end of that process, the story belongs to her. She is the more fully realized of the two of them.
LP: “The Dead Soldier’s Sister” is set within a long-established and complex political/cultural/socio-geographical situation. At one point David’s routine is interrupted by “yet another suicide bombing”. Can you speak a little bit about how you approached framing your story within this context.
YK: As cliché as it sounds, I always thought of this story as being “universal.” I find it very adolescent to view death through a romantic lens and struggle to reconcile its urgency with the blandness and discomfort of daily life. You don’t need to be living in Israel for the idea of mortality to become the temporary focal point of your teenage existence. But for the story to work, David had to feel real, and his world had to be lived-in and precise. So rather than run away from my biography, I mined it for specificity. On the one hand, the setting allowed me to feel confident in the details of the world and its characters, having lived through the 90s as a teenager in Israel. On the other hand, it presented the risk of melodrama (and, as you mentioned in your next question, politicization). I made an effort to avoid sensationalizing the extreme events, not just for artistic considerations, but in order to get closer to the truth. Terror was a part of life, and so was downplaying the severity of its effects.
LP: Are you conscious, while writing, of your own political views and how much they should, or could, come through your writing?
YK: In an ideal world, my stories would never bring the word “politics” to mind. The reality, of course, is that just by being born Israeli or Palestinian you are forced into a lifelong ambassadorship of your country and people. This conflation of individuals and governments is debilitating, inside and outside of writing. If I’m political at all in my work, it’s in the effort to insert private, non-contentious moments into the large, dehumanizing narrative that tends to take shape—good guys vs. bad guys, David vs. Goliath, etc.—polarized views that, to my mind, leave no viable solution on the table save for the utter destruction of one side.
LP: What are you working on now?
YK: After all that, would you believe I’m working on a comedy?
Yaron Kaver has written for Israeli television and translated screenplays for hundreds of Israeli films and shows. His fiction has appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Read Short Fiction, Fractal Magazine, MonkeyBicycle and Crack the Spine. His short story “And the Oscar Goes to Jail” won first prize in the 2014 Mark Twain House Humor Writing Contest. He has a BFA in Film and Television from NYU and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Read another story by Yaron Kaver (‘And the Oscar Goes to Jail’) at Read Short Fiction.
Laura Perrem is a Fine Art graduate of the Crawford College of Art and Design. She practices in both visual and written media. Her written practice includes poetry, short stories and art criticism. She has had poetry published in the Belleville Park Pages and is working towards her first collection of poetry.
Walter Nguyen is a French photographer. View more of his work on Flickr.
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After the resounding success of our latest issue of Popshot (which is looking likely to become our bestselling one of all time) we’re even more excited than usual to announce that literary submissions for our forthcoming issue are officially open.
Through The Curious Issue and The Outsider Issue, our last two editions have focused in on the introverted and peculiar sides of humankind. For this issue however, we’re turning the tables and looking to explore the extroverts, the travellers and the adventurers to create a collection of short stories, poems and illustrations that will roar with energy and spirit.
For the full submission guidelines, head to our submit page and make sure that you send in your short fiction or poetry long before the deadline of January 20th. We would also recommend reading the recent article by our editor which shines a light on what kind of writing we’ll be looking out for.
Love, Sex, Romance
Space romance opera? Sex and sorcery? The Red (hot) wedding?
Deadline 15 Jan 2016
In this issue we’ll be looking at that element of the human experience that levels all barriers and spans all narratives. Desire, attraction, relationships, whether riding a horse across fantastic landscapes or spiralling through space, love almost always has a place in our most beloved speculative fiction. For this issue we want stories that explore this in some way, whether it’s horror, urban fantasy or space opera, sparks will fly. We are particularly interested in stories and articles that contain diverse relationships. Please look through the submissions guidelines for info on how to submit. (Remember we are a speculative fiction mag, so that means fantasy, SF, horror, magic realism, dystopia, and general weird stuff)
ShortStops 