Short Story September

A new campaign to get everyone writing short stories kicks off this week.

Short Story September is a month-long initiative set up by independent press, Dahlia Publishing. Following their first short story festival, the aim of the project is to celebrate the short story form online as well as raise the profile of British short story writers.

Writers can follow the campaign via a dedicated blog which will offer daily prompts and feature a showcase of writing by authors with published collections. Authors featured during the campaign include ShortStops Founder, Tania Hershman, BBC National Short Story Prize Winner, Sarah Hall, and rising stars, such as CG Menon.

Writers also have the chance to win some fantastic prizes in a weekly competition supported by generous partners, including The Word Factory, Bristol Short Story Prize and Comma Press.

Writers can sign up at http://shortstoryseptember.co.uk/. Follow us on Twitter @dahliabooks and use the hashtag #ShortStorySept to join the conversation.

Short Story September launches on 1st September, so sharpen those pencils, power up the laptop, let’s do this!

You’ve read Bunbury, now listen to us!

Hello to you all from Bunbury Magazine!

We’re just dropping by the give you a quick update on what we are up to at Bunbury HQ.

Did you know we’re now doing podcasts? Well we are. This is a very exciting development and means you won’t be too long between bouts of Bunbury. Currently, we are running two.

Bunbury Speaks, which is a monthly interview podcast with a twist. As well as talking to some very special people about writing, inspirations and all manner of other things, each guest contributes to a chain story, taking a starting point to some very interesting places. Currently, there is one episode available where the guest is our very own poetry editor Malika Street.

Just Write Speaks, the recording of our monthly spoken word event. There are open micers and special guests bringing a huge variety of rhymes and words to your ears. There is almost 6 months worth of events live right now, with guests including Rose Condo, Genevieve L Walsh, Broccan Tyzack-Carlin and many more!

Both of these can be found by clicking the lovely photo below.

This month, we have Joe Williams as our special guest. If you are in or around Manchester, please drop by. There are open mic slots available as well as the chance to compete in the Haiku Death Match. Search Just Write Speaks on Facebook or follow the link to the event right here – Just Write Speaks June.

If you enjoy the podcasts, please consider subscribing and reviewing us on iTunes while you are there.

In other news, Bunbury is still open for submissions. The theme is run and we are looking for short stories, poetry, flash fiction and all manner of writing. Details of our submissions guidelines can be found below.

That’s all from us, folks. Before submitting, consider looking through some past issues to see the kind of thing we do. You can get to our past issues through our website.

Much love and keep scribbling,

Christopher and Keri.

Happy 2nd Birthday, ShortStops! How’s The Short Story Doing?

2nd_birthday_cakeYes, it’s hard to believe but ShortStops is two years’ old today! It was November 2013 when I finally got my act together, inspired by all the wonderful short story activity in the UK & Ireland, to set up the site – as a hub, as listings, as a dynamic and ongoing celebration. I was going to wow you with some data – how many wonderful lit mags and live lit events there are now, etc.. etc.., but why freeze the picture today, and what are numbers anyway? Instead I invite you to wander around the site a little, peruse our lists, find something new to read, or a new place to send your own story, or an event to go to, check out everything that’s happening!

I do want to take this chance to thank all the tireless and dedicated editors of lit mags, organisers of live events, short story publishers, organisers of competitions, workshops – who so often do what they do for the love of the short story, of writing, of reading, not for the fortunes to be made! Thank you all for doing what you do, and thanks in particular to those of you who have been involved in ShortStops over the past 2 years, who have made the site even more dynamic, even more of a celebration. And, of course, to readers and to writers, without whom all of this wouldn’t exist.  Keep doing it! We need you!

So, how’s the short story doing? Well, from where I’m sitting, it’s all looking pretty fabulous, frankly. I’m off to have some cake now…

Tania xx

VOTE FOR US! WORDS AND WOMEN SHORTLISTED FOR A SABOTEUR AWARD!

Words and Women are delighted to announce that they have been shortlisted for a National Saboteur award in the ‘best one off event’ category.  The nomination is for this year’s International Women’s Day celebration held on March 8th at the Forum in Norwich. The literary event with a difference saw not only the launch of Words and Women: Two, a second anthology of contemporary women’s writing from the East of England but also the performance of four newly commissioned texts for ‘About,’ an Arts Council supported project which explores the relationship between women and place.

Words and Women’s trademark warmth, eclecticism and vibrancy was on show in Norwich as organisers Belona Greenwood and Lynne Bryan hosted a range of outstanding women writers from the region, reading their winning entries featured in the anthology. Words were intermingled with live music from Anna Mudeka and Sithabele Dube. There were stunning performances from actresses who took on the roles of 16th century Jane Sellars, found ‘idle at Trowse,’ a woman on a pilgrimage of grief, a railway woman’s quest in wartime Britain and a young prostitute, Anguish, incarcerated in a 19th century lunatic asylum, directed by Adina Levay of Chalk Circle Theatre Company and supported by the Arts Council.

‘The event drew a great audience of men, women and children, a range of ages and people travel from as far away as Peterborough and Cambridge to be with us.’ Said Belona Greenwood.

‘It is a really exciting to be shortlisted for this category. We want to encourage people to vote for us. It’s easy, just click on the link.’   VOTE NOW!  http://www.saboteurawards.org

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Rozzy Burt as ‘Anguish’ in Counting the Pennies by Tess Little, one of the ‘About’ commissions supported by Arts Council England.

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Lora Stimson reading her winning story, ‘Cornflake Girl’ at Words and Women on IWD, March 8th..

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‘Words and Women: Two is an excellent anthology of imaginative and superbly written pieces.’ RM Bond-Webster, Eastern Daily Press.

Writing Maps Launches 6 New Contests and a New Issue

The A3 Review, Issue 2It’s all happening! Spring has got us sprung. We’re launching 6 new Writing Maps Writing Contests all at once AND we’re launching Issue #2 of The A3 Review.

You can read more about The A3 Review here. It’s a lit mag that behaves like a map. All contributions are under 151 words and up until now have been written in less than a week. But things are changing – we’re giving you more time to write, more time to tweak, more time to procrastinate. The next six Writing Maps Writing Contests are being launched in one go. There’s a small entry fee, and bigger cash prizes.

The themes for the upcoming Writing Contests are:

  • March: SUPERSTITIONS, Deadline 28 March
  • April: PLAYGROUND GAMES, Deadline 25 April
  • May: TEA & COFFEE, Deadline 23 May
  • June: GREEN THINGS, Deadline 27 June
  • July: JOURNEYS, Deadline 25 July
  • August: HANDS, Deadline 22 August

Read the full details here.

The two winning entries from each month will appear in Issue #3 of The A3 Review and will constitute the shortlist. The three overall winners from the shortlist will receive prizes as follows: 1st = £150; 2nd = £75; 3rd = £50. All winning entries will receive contributor copies, Writing Maps and other goodies.

The Things What We ‘Ave Been Doing

The last we spoke to you lovely folks at Short Stops, we were announcing the release of the latest issue of Bunbury Magazine, the Unexplained Special. The response to this issue has been phenomenal and we want to thank all you lovely Short-Stoppers for coming by and reading it along with all the regular Bunburyists.

We do know as well that Short Stops has new visitors every day. We would not want all you wonderful folks to miss out so once again, here is a link to the Unexplained Special.

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We here at Bunbury do not rest on our laurels however! We have been working tirelessly to make the experience for our readers and followers as immersive as possible. Last year, we started a blog of our own; a place where we could have a rant and rave about this, that and the other. Since then, we have upgraded to a fully fledged site with as much detail about who we are and what we do. It is home to our blog (more on this in a moment) and details of upcoming issue and more (again, there will be more on this in a moment!) Come and have a look at our new shiny-dancing website here: www.bunburymagazine.com

Firstly, we would like to welcome a new member of our team. Rhea Seren Phillips who is joining us as Executive Editor. She has had many fantastic poems and stories printed in Bunbury in the past and it is a genuine pleasure to have her on board. You can click on her name just above for more details about her.

Our Editor and co-creator has also started a rather insane challenge. This year, for the entire year, allllllll year, he will be writing a poem a day, with no regard to his sanity whatsoever. In fact, so far, there have been days where he has written more than one. We think he’s a closet masochist to be honest. You can catch up on the entire thing at the #PoemADayForForAYear blog and come and get involved on our Twitter account, @MagazineBunbury with the #PoemADayForAYear hashtag.

While we are talking Twitter, we have started a new prompting challenge on Twitter. Every Monday, Thursday and Saturday we will be posting a prompt for all you lovely people to write some micro-poetry. Send your responses to the hashtag #bunburyezine.

What else, what else. Oh, the content for the magazine for the next issue! We really want to announce some very exciting plans for the next issue but unfortunately our hands are tied so all we can say is this:

Last night, we sat writing an interview and then making it all fanciful for one of our favourite *redacted*. *redacted*, who played *redacted*. *redacted* will be talking to us about *redacted* and just about anything really! I almost wet myself when we made contact and *redacted* agreed. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, we also have *redacted*, who played *redacted*, talking to us about *redacted*. Oh my, it was almost too much for us!

Speaking of the next issue, as always we are looking for submissions from you lovely folk. The theme for the next issue is ‘Power’, so whether you write short stories, flash fiction, poetry or do art, photography…you know what, you know the drill by now, come and send us what you got! The new email address is submissions@bunburymagazine.com

One very, very last thing! On 17th February we are holding the latest of the Do The Write Thing events at Bar Ten on Silver Street in Bury, just outside of Manchester. It’s a fun-filled extravaganza of spoken word, games and drinks! If you can, get over as it’s always a great night and it’s also the night of Editor Keri’s birthday! Double the reason to get along! You can find more information about it on the link just above or on our Facebook event here: Do The Write Thing Birthday Edition.

That’s it for now, dear Short Stoppers and Bunburyists. Come say hello some time. We miss you!

Writing Maps Launches New Map and October Contest

Writing the Family AlbumThis month’s Writing Maps Writing Contest coincides with the official launch of the new Writing Map, Writing the Family Album, inspired by Sergei Dovlatov’s book Ours.

The prompt for October’s Writing Contest is: Write about a cousin, then and now. In no more than 150 words tell the story of a cousin, yours or a fictional character’s, as they were then and as they are now. As always, you can write this as a short story, a graphic story, a snippet of memoir, a poem, or a prose poem. Fiction or autobiography, SF or mis mem, erotic or academic. In 150 words.

The contest prompt coincides with the launch of our latest Writing Map, Writing the Family Album, in which you’ll be inspired to turn the family album – your own, or the characters you create – into a rich collection of stories.

Please make sure to view our full guidelines here or on the Writing Maps website by clicking here. In brief, the main rules are:

Entry is free. One entry per person. All genres welcome. All writers welcome. 150 words max.

Deadline is 25 October 2014.
The two winning entries will be published in The A3 Review, Issue #2. Winners will also receive two copies of the Writing Map, Writing the Family Album.
Good luck and good writing!

Transportation Takes a Look at an Island in the City

Fully crowdfunded and landing in book form this Winter, the short story collection Islands and Cities is inviting writers to write about what they know when it comes to islands, and when it comes to cities. Over the last few months the Transportation website has seen London editor Sean Preston write about a coup in the Isle of Dogs (over two parts), Tasmanian editor Rachel Edwards on the first published Aussie book, a three-part love song to Tasmania by author John Bryson, Scott J Faulkner on arts consumership in Tasmania, a comment on the island that is Cuba, a short piece of fiction from American author Tom Badyna, as well as many others and more to come from authors selected for the short story collection itself.

N Quentin Woolf, Will Ashon, Ben Walter, Tadhg Muller, Susie Greenhill, and Adam Ouston are joined by new writers that were selected during a submission process. These writers include Ian Green, whose short story Audiophile was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The story can be read here.

Transportation: Islands and Cities is set for release this Christmas and will be available to pre-order soon.

Transportation islands and cities

Transportation: A young ‘Islander’ and the boats of Tasmania.

Joanna Walsh and Chris Power at The Horse Hospital

On 19th October, writer Joanna Walsh will be reading from her collection, Fractals, and talking short stories with The Guardian’s Chris Power.

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“For those interested in new innovations in short fiction, I highly recommend Fractals by Joanna Walsh.” (Deborah Levy)

“Walsh’s closest literary ally is probably Lydia Davis, with whom she shares a brevity and starkness of expression… Walsh’s refreshing humour – sometimes biting; sometimes absurd – lends her work a poingnancy that is genuinely affecting.” (Will Rees, The Times Literary Supplement)

Entry by donation, for the benefit of the event’s venue, The Horse Hospital, London, which is under threat of closure.

You can buy a ticket here.

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Writing Maps Launches New Lit Mag and September Contest

This month’s Writing Maps Writing Contest coincides with the official launch of the new Writing Maps lit mag, The A3 Review. Read more about the lit mag and order a copy by clicking here.

The prompt for September’s Writing Contest is: Write about something happening for the first time. Tasting something for the first time, doing something for the first time, going somewhere for the first time. Start with the words “The first time…” You can write this as a short story, a graphic story, a snippet of memoir, a poem, or a prose poem. Fiction or autobiography, SF or mis mem, erotic or academic. In 150 words.

NOTE: You must start with the words “The first time…” Be creative, outrageous, think small and intimate (“The first time we…”), think intergalactic (“The first time they landed on…”), think biography (“The first time Virginia Woolf…”), think beyond the expected (“The first time before the first time…”).

Please make sure to view our full guidelines here or on the Writing Maps website by clicking here. In brief, the main rules are:

Entry is free. One entry per person. All genres welcome. All writers welcome. 150 words max.

Deadline is 27 September 2014.
The two winning entries will be published in The A3 Review, Issue #2. Winners will also receive a copy of The A3 Review, Issue #1 and the new Write Around JW3 Writing Map.
Good luck and good writing!

Writeidea Prize longlist is announced

Twenty stories have been longlisted for the inaugural Writeidea Prize, from over 300 entries.

The titles of the longlisted stories are available on the Writeidea website. Writer names are still under wraps until judging is complete.

Top prize is £500, plus five finalists’ prizes of £100 each.  There is a local prize of £500 for the best entry by a Tower Hamlets writer.

The shortlist of six will be announced on Monday 13 October, and the winner revealed at the Writeidea Festival on Sunday 16 November.

Congratulations to all on the list.

More details at www.writeideafestival.org      Twitter @writeideafest

WONDERLANDS – White Rabbit’s storytelling walk

celebrating at our final destination

celebrating at our final destination

A storytelling walk from Vauxhall through Nine Elms via New Covent Garden Market and ending at Battersea Power Station, taking in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s new commission in the River Thames.

Tour guides Derek and Daisy Elm invite you to join them on a walk from Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, via Covent Garden Flower Market right to the magnificent Battersea Power Station.

This theatrical promenade performance is brought to you by award winning White Rabbit, who create site specific performances, installations and spoken word events for many venues including at the National Theatre, Southbank Centre and Birmingham Rep.

an enchanted night **** Total Theatre

who’d have thought storytelling could be so much fun – Daily Express

When: Sunday 14th September 2014. 2.30pm-4.30pm

How to get there

Nearest Tube: Vauxhall

Meeting point at 2.15pm: Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, SW11 5HL

Tickets

£3 includes booking fee and tea

ages, 14+

For tickets please visit http://totallythames.org/events/info/white-rabbit-walk

Please note tickets must be purchased before the event, there are no tickets available on the day. The ticket price of £3 includes tea, a goody bag and some flowers from Covent Garden Flower Market

Writing Maps’ August Writing Contest & The How to Write a Story Map

How to Write a Story: Writing MapThis month’s Writing Maps Writing Contest coincides with the official launch of How to Write a Story: A Writing Map to Help You Hunt for and Create Stories.

The prompt for August’s Writing Contest is: Make a creative list of red things. Write this list as a list poem, or in the form of a short story, a graphic story or a snippet of memoir. Fiction or autobiography, SF or mis mem, erotic or academic. In 150 words.

For inspiration, you can check out Joe Brainard‘s I Remember or Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book, as well as many of Cole Porter’s lyrics. This is cheating! And this is a simple definition of a list poem.

Please make sure to view our full guidelines here or on the Writing Maps website by clicking here. In brief, the main rules are:

Entry is free. One entry per person. All genres welcome. All writers welcome. 150 words max.

Deadline is 23 August 2014.
The two winning entries will be published in The A3 Review, the Writing Maps Journal. This is the last month to qualify for the journal’s inaugural issue. Winners will also receive 2 copies of the new Writing Map.
Good luck and good writing!

Colin Barrett wins the 2014 Frank O’Connor Award

Young Skins Front Cover - web FRANK O’CONNOR INTERNATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD WINNER 2014


World’s Most Valuable Short Story Collection Prize Celebrates Its 10th Year

 

 

 

 

The Munster Literature Centre is pleased to announce that, in its tenth year, the winner of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award is Irish author Colin Barrett for his debut collection Young Skins. The €25,000 award is the single most lucrative in the world for a collection of short stories and is named after the writer whom W.B. Yeats described as the Irish Chekhov. The award has been hugely influential in raising the profile and esteem of the short story form in recent years. Previous winners have included Haruki Murakami, Edna O’Brien, Ron Rash and Yiyun Li amongst others.

The award is co-sponsored by Cork City Council and also by The School of English, University College Cork and was founded to encourage publishers to issue more collections of stories by individual authors – and to acknowledge Cork’s special relationship with the short story: not only Frank O’Connor but also William Trevor, Elizabeth Bowen and Sean O’Faolain hail from Cork.

The international jury for the award consisted of Irish poet Mathew Sweeney, Anglo-Canadian novelist Alison MacLeod and American novelist Manuel Gonzales. Patrick Cotter, Artistic Director of the Munster Literature Centre selects the jury and acts as non-voting chairman.

Explaining the judges’ decision MacLeod said of Barrett’s début ‘How dare a debut writer be this good? Young Skins has all the hallmarks of an instant classic. Barrett’s prose is exquisite but never rarefied. His characters — the damaged, the tender-hearted and the reckless — are driven by utterly human experiences of longing. His stories are a thump to the heart, a mainline surge to the core. His vision is sharp, his wit is sly, and the stories in this collection come alive with that ineffable thing – soul.’

The book was first published in Ireland by the Stinging Fly Press in 2013, and has been published in the UK this year by Jonathan Cape – it is set to be published in the United States by Grove Atlantic in spring of 2015. The book will be published in translation in the Netherlands by De Bezige Bij, in November 2014 and in France, Editions Rivages in 2015.

Patrick Cotter, Award Director said: “I’m grateful we can continue to offer this lucrative award in difficult economic times. Huge kudos to Cork City Council and UCC for supporting this unique award into its tenth year. As a life-long lover of the short story form I’m delighted the award is going to a brilliant book, but as an Irishman I can take special pride that a book by a new, young, genius Irish writer can hold its own against the best in the world and win the award in this milestone year.”

 

Colin Barrett

Colin Barrett grew up in Mayo and studied English at UCD. After graduating he worked for several years with a mobile phone provider in its Dublin headquarters, continuing to write in his spare time. Ultimately, he left his job to do an MA in Creative Writing at University College Dublin. In 2009 he was awarded the Penguin Ireland Prize and he received bursaries from the Arts Council in 2011 and 2013. Young Skins is Colin’s first book. His stories have previously featured in The Stinging Fly magazine, as well as in the anthologies, Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails (Stinging Fly Press, 2010) and Town and Country (Faber and Faber, 2013).

He is thrilled and surprised to learn he won the award “Consider me knocked splendidly sideways by the news. It’s a bewilderment and honour to be awarded the 2014 Frank O’Connor prize. The shortlist was superb, and the role call of previous winners – including living legends like Edna O’Brien and Haruki Murakami – is humbling. Many thanks to those who helped me along the way, especially the Stinging Fly Press, who first published Young Skins and were instrumental in its creation, and a deep thanks to the judges, the organizers, and to the Munster Literature Centre for continuing to care about the short story” 

The award will be presented to Barrett in September at the closing of the Cork International Short Story Festival which is the world’s oldest annual short story festival.

 

Out Now! Issue 7.1 of Flash

The twelfth issue of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine is now available.

It features new stories from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Ethiopia, France, India, Ireland, Sri Lanka, and the USA. It opens with the winner of the UK’s inaugural National Flash Fiction Youth Competition (2014), ‘Unborn’ by Seeun Choi, a talented A-level student at Cardiff Sixth Form College. The competition was organized by Flash and the Department of English, University of Chester; it was judged by the editors and leading flash-author David Gaffney. For further information and to read the two runners-up, see Flash’s website.

The issue’s ‘Flash Presents’ section contains four pieces – ‘A Harbinger’, ‘Doctor Chevalier’s Lie’, ‘Old Aunt Peggy’, and ‘Ripe Figs’ – by Kate Chopin (1850–1904), a writer of subtle and often poignant fiction set mostly in 1870s and 1880s Louisiana, in the post-Civil War American South.

In the third-ever ‘Flash Essay’, ‘Samuel Beckett’s Faint Fiction’, Tim Lawrence reminds us that the great playwright and novelist was also author of haunting, lyrical fragments that might best be regarded as flashes. Alongside the essay, ‘The Cliff’ is reprinted, translated from Beckett’s original French.

Flash Reviews’ ranges from the humorous (Flash Fiction Funny) to the serious (Flashes of War), the masculine (Beasts and Men) to the feminine (The Kind of Girl), and concludes with a novella-in-flashes (Liliane’s Balcony). Each review is accompanied by a sample story.

To order a copy of the issue, or to subscribe to the magazine, visit the website: http://www.chester.ac.uk/flash.magazine

Writing Maps: May Contest and Box of Maps

Writing Maps Box SetWriting Maps, the illustrated posters with writing inspiration and story ideas, launches its 3rd monthly Writing Contest. The May contest coincides with the launch of the Writing Maps Box Set, and this month’s two winners will receive the box set, along with publication in A3, a new fold-out literary magazine to be published every six months. The first issue will appear in September 2014.

The challenge is to write a 150-word piece in response to the Prompt of the Month.  May’s Writing Maps Writing Contest opens 17 May 2014. Deadline is: 24 May 2014. Yes, we’re the quickest contest in town! Click here to visit the site for submission guidelines and the May prompt.

April’s prompt was inspired by the new Write Up Your Street: A Neighbourhood Writing Map. The prompt was: Write about something someone told you about your neighbourhood: a rumour, an urban myth, an event, a local hero/villain, a landmark or a building that’s no longer there. Tell the story in their voice or your own, or the voice of a fictional narrator. The winning entries were: Mark Bicton’s “Grave Robbers” and Francesca Brooks’ “I Came to Find You”.

Adam Foulds, SAND Journal and unknown writers making it

This month is proving a very exciting one for Visual Verse contributors. As well as having Booker Prize nominated author Adam Foulds headlining on the site, we are thrilled to announce a collaboration with the Berlin based literary journal, SAND.

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More of that shortly, though. First, Kristen Harrison (Visual Verse curator) and I want to thank all the contributors who made the March Visual Verse our best month since we launched last November. Our image was by artist and illustrator Denise Nestor: a precariously balanced tower of birds who seemed to be sleeping, or dead. The writers loved it – so much so, we had 80 submissions in one month, which was unprecedented. Each piece was astonishing: carefully observed and written to make every word carry weight. The chapter as a whole is a thing of beauty in itself, it is fascinating to see how one image can bring so many responses.

Some of my favourite lines: ‘What does the sheep think of the sky?’ in Tristan Forster’s elegiac prose poem; Sarah James’ wonderfully  forensic piece, with the line,  ‘the delicacy of coiled intestines and death plucks song’ and of course our lead writer Adam Marek’s short story, with its simple control of voice: ‘The cheese was all prickly. Like battery tops. We fought the cheese was bad, but when we noticed the same taste was in everyfin, we realised it was our mouths.’

This month is lead by another Adam – Adam Foulds, whose Booker nominated ‘The Quickening Maze’ and ‘The Broken Word’ are poetry laced with violence and despair. The perfect choice for this month’s image, by photographer Marcus Bastel. I absolutely love reading all the submissions we get each day, and even more taking part in the conversation about them that is growing on twitter. I read and consider everything  – there are only a couple of rules – it must be 50-500 words, written in the space of one hour in response to the image. It should not have been published anywhere before.

Those who submit find new opportunities opening up for them too. I’m delighted to say that Berlin-based SAND journal will be featuring Visual Verse in their next issue. In consultation with us, they have selected four pieces to publish in SAND Issue 09, both in print and online. SAND exposes fresh literary talent from Berlin and beyond and we are proud to be featured in it.

I can’t wait to read what the month will bring. If you are thinking of submitting, the only thing I would say is  – you won’t regret it. Visual Verse is all about collaboration between what you see and how you write, you, us, our readers: art and words. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you. Enjoy!

Preti Taneja
Editor, Visual Verse

 

Myths of the Near Future: Revolution issue out now

Myths of the Near Future #3: REVOLUTION is out now. Download it on Kindle or on your desktop reader – it is free until Thursday 3rd April. If you are under-25 you can submit your work now for #4, the MONEY issue. Here’s a word from co-editors Jonny Aldridge and Jessica Bellman…

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“Beauty, no doubt, does not make revolutions. But a day will come when revolutions will have need of beauty” – Albert Camus

This is ‘Revolution’. For us at Myths of the Near Future, it is pretty aptly named, as issue #3 saw huge changes in our approach. We will be publishing three themed editions a year as ebooks, giving them away for free for the first five days of publication and compiling them for a print compendium at the end of the year. We also had a successful launch event in association as part of the 2014 Student Writers’ Toolkit hosted by Writing West Midlands.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the quality and diversity of literature you can read. We have super-charged free verse poetry from Richy Campbell; gothic-style flash fiction from Callum Heitler; a dystopian short story from Sam Roberts; a scathing article from Michael Hetherington; and, yes, thanks to Elliot Mason, even some rhyming couplets! Plus we’ve got an interview with one of Granta’s Best Novelists 2013 and John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winner, Evie Wyld. Our writers have gathered here from Manchester and Miami, from Greece, Fife and Stoke-on-Trent.

Some of the poetry here is more revolting than revolutionary, like Richy Campbell’s world where “Cleaners drag refuse trolleys,/brimmed by knotted bags that trail fetid snakes”, but we found these more subtle approaches to revolution to be the most rewarding. Read together, these pieces give a unique insight into the minds of young writers in 2014. Myths, and the NAWE Young Writers’ Hub to which we’re affiliated, is really proud to be backing upcoming talent; and it warms our hearts to think that, for some of the under 25s featured here, this is their first publication credit.

Editing a literary magazine was new to both of us – and we’re proud to say there were no tears or bloodshed – so we hope that you enjoy the final product as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.

To the future!

The Editors,
Jonny Aldridge and Jessica Bellman

Myths of the Near Future publishes young writers that deserve to be read and is currently free in the Kindle store

New Writer & New Luggage from The Casket

The Casket Logo

The Casket of Fictional Delights welcomes a new Guest author this month Lauren Bell with her Flash Fiction ‘Current Girl’.  Lauren lives in Birmingham and recently graduated from Birmingham City University.

Also arriving this month the seventh Tube-Flash audio – ‘Keep your Luggage with you’  featuring the six most recent Tube-Flash stories.  Tube-Flash audios are recorded by professional voice over artists and actors & there are tube sounds just to add authenticity.

Train with no background

Happiness is Wanting What You Have by Stephanie Brann

Values Laid Bear by Stephen Ryder

Transubstantiation  by Zoe Fairbairns

The Landed Sea Witch by Delijah Sakaki

The Belvedere-Kensington Interaction by Eric Carlton

Up the Hammers! by James Brinsford

Tube-Flash audios are available free on Apple iTunes as podcasts

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Get Issue 1 of Bare Fiction Magazine for FREE

ImageWith Issue 2 of Bare Fiction Magazine just a couple of weeks away, we are rather understandably excited. We think you should be too.

Issue 2 is packed yet again with excellent poetry, fiction and plays from an array of fantastic writers such as Hannah Silva (shortlisted for this year’s Ted Hughes award), David Pollard, Ira Lightman (a regular contributor to the BBC Radio 3 programme The Verb), Siddhartha Bose, Angela Readman (winner of the Costa Short Story Award 2013), Rachel Trezise, Tania Hershman, and Niki Orfanou.

As if all the great content in Issue 2 was not enough, in Issue 3 out in July we’ll have brand new work from J.S. Vilares, Jane Roberts (shortlisted for the Bridport), Martin Malone, and Rebecca Goss (shortlisted for the Forward Prize) to name but a few.

How do I get Issue 1 for FREE?

Click through to our special offer subscription post on the Bare Fiction Magazine website and follow the simple instructions to share this offer with your friends on Twitter or Facebook. Once you have done that, our limited offer subscription button will magically appear and let you place your order.

See below for full contents listings for Issues 1 & 2 of Bare Fiction Magazine.

Full contents list for Issue 1 of Bare Fiction Magazine

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FULL CONTENTS LIST FOR ISSUE 2 OF BARE FICTION MAGAZINE

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