New Things: An Issue, A Contest, The A3 on Instagram

Posted April 14, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-04-12 at 14.47.30 Inspired by the How to Turn Food Into Words Writing Map, this month’s contest theme is Dinners. The A3 Review invites you to submit short stories, poems and artwork about the things that happen round a table. Or after dinner. Or in the build-up to a meal. School dinners and candlelit dinners. Dinners with friends and work dinners. Create stories out of dinners you remember and dinners you wish you could remember.

Visit our Submittable page here for more suggestions and inspiration. Follow us on Twitter, too. A bit late to the party, but we’ve recently made it to Instagram! Read pieces from back issues, and see more closely what we’re up to here at The A3 Review. Click here to visit us on Instagram.

The April deadline is the 22nd. As always, 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.

One more bit of news (drumroll, please)… Issue 6 is here! That means we’ve been around for three years already. Take a look at the new issue by clicking here. The contributions to Issue 6 take us from Sicily to Los Angeles via the Outer Hebrides. Oranges, fire, Lenin, kittiwakes and Dali’s Crucifixion are just some of the people and things glimpsed along the way.

Join us on our journey at: http://thea3review.com/

Keep writing!

The Woods, the Trees, and The A3

Posted March 16, 2017

Filed under Competitions, literary magazine

We’re busy as beavers here at 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.

Try a FREE taster of the Writers’ HQ Short Story course!

Posted February 26, 2017

Filed under Workshops

The next round of Writers’ HQ’s 6-week online Writing Short Fiction course starts on the 20th of March but you can try out a FREE taster week HERE!

Writing Short Fiction

6 Week Online Course from Writers’ HQ

Starts 20th March, £140 (Get 10% off when you use promo code SHORTSTOPS10 before the 12th of March!)

Short stories aren’t just easier versions of the novel. They’re a broad, complex and rewarding art form in their own right. Writers’ HQ’s new online writing short story course will help you see the bigger picture and compress it into short stories with real punch.

Short stories have been here since the dawn of time. Based in the oral tradition (stop sniggering at the back), they’re the apocryphal family legends our grandmas/weird uncle used to tell us over Christmas dinner; they’re the school-yard urban myths; the sleepover ghost stories; the soliloquies in our diaries; the wine-soaked rants to that random person you cornered in the kitchen at that party after so-and-so dumped you. Short stories are all around us. <cue X-Files theme>

But super short stories are not super easy for writers, natch. In fact, the shorter your story becomes, the harder it is to distil what really matters onto the page. I would have written a shorter letter, so the famous quote goes, but I didn’t have the time.

So what makes truly great short fiction? The kind that leaves you dribbling, slack-jawed, slap-faced when you finish it. The kind you remember forever, like some weird dream-memory. Well. We can’t write it for you, but we can give you a nudge, a shove, and a poke with a sharp stick (whatever floats your boat) to help you on your way. With the help of writing prompts, advice from award-winning short fiction writers, inspiring exercises, and our awesome little online community, you’ll come out the other side at least one fully formed short story to call your very own.

TRY OUT A FREEBIE WEEK HERE AND BOOK YOUR PLACE! (Don’t forget to use promo code SHORTSTOPS10 to get 10% off when you book before 12th March.)

Words Away January Salon: Writing Short Stories with Stella Duffy

Posted January 15, 2017

Filed under Salon

Words Away is a new series of monthly creative writing salons taking place at the Tea House Theatre Cafe in London. Each month, over tea and cake or a glass of wine, writers Emma Darwin and Kellie Jackson meet up with a different guest author for a focussed discussion on aspects of writing fiction. The audience plays a key part in the evening; exchanging ideas, asking questions and with a chance to socialise after.

We have some great guests lined up for 2017 including, Ruth Ware, Essie Fox, Sara Grant and Francis Spufford.

Our next salon, Writing Short Stories with Stella Duffy, is on Monday 23rd January at 7.30pm. All welcome.

Venue: Tea House Theatre Cafe, 139 Vauxhall Walk, London, SE11 5HL

Cost: £10 to book online or or £12 on the door.

For more info and to book: wordsaway.info

Orange as Inspirational Fruit

Posted December 13, 2016

Filed under Competitions, Lit mag

oranges The holiday season is on its way, but don’t let that distract you from writing… and entering The A3 Review’s last monthly contest of 2016.

This month’s theme is Orange Things: an antidote to the grey winter weather (or to echo the sunshine if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere). Deadline for entries is 24th December. We won’t be expecting you to address festive topics (do people still put satsumas into Christmas stockings?) or even The Donald’s tan and hair dye!

We’re looking for short fiction, poetry and artwork that reflects the complexity and uniqueness of ‘orange’ – an ancient word and one of the few which (fun fact alert) has no direct rhymes in English, only half-rhymes.

Write about the colour orange and its associations with places: an orange beach under an orange sun with melting orange ice-lollies. Write or draw the moods and situations associated with orange: warmth, fire, energy, danger. Or explore the association of orange and religion: Irish Protestant links with Orange in France, the meaning of the colour for Hindus and Buddhists. The Dutch House of Orange.

Visit our Submittable page for more inspiration.

“Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now’.” Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast.

Each month we choose two winning pieces for publication in our six-monthly journal. All winning entries receive Writing Maps and contributor copies, while three overall winners for each issue receive cash prizes totalling £275.

Follow us on Twitter and sign up to our newsletter. And if you’re looking for detailed, knowledgeable and forward-looking feedback on your short fiction, editors KM Elkes and Shaun Levin offer a critique service for writers. To find out more about it, click here.

Writers’ HQ 6 Week Online Short Fiction Course Starts 10th October

Posted September 26, 2016

Filed under Workshops

Short stories aren’t just easier versions of the novel. They’re a broad, complex and rewarding art form in their own right. Writers’ HQ’s new online writing short story course will help you see the bigger picture and compress it into short fiction with real punch.

Try a FREE week of the course here!

Running for 6 weeks from 10th October, this online course is structured to work around busy lives and work schedules, and to support writers of all experiences. With the help of inspiring exercises, writing prompts, advice from award-winning short fiction writers, fantastic published examples, thought-provoking literary analysis, and a great little online community, you’ll come out the other side with plenty of ideas and at least one fully formed short story to call your very own.

Writers’ HQ is an arse-kicking, procrastination-busting writing organisation based in Sussex (with plans for global online domination). Their motto? Stop f**king about and start writing. With online courses, local writing retreats and workshops, Writers’ HQ is here to help writers get the words out of their heads and onto the page with as little angst as possible.

Inspire us with your true travel tales

Posted May 4, 2016

Filed under Competitions

Here we go! Launching the 2016 Ouen Press Short Story Competition

Ouen Press are pleased to extend an invitation for writers to submit an original short story in line with this year’s theme – ‘The Journey’. Winning authors will receive cash prizes and be published in an anthology early in the New Year. This follows on from the success of last year’s competition and subsequent publication of the winning entries in Last Call & other short stories.

The short story must be true, but can be about a journey in any setting, of any distance, or at any time. The judges will be particularly interested in well-written pieces about encounters that have profoundly thrilled, possibly terrified or provided humour. The ideal submission will elicit a strong emotional response conveying travel experiences where the writer’s life has been transformed or enlightened as a result.

Deadline for entries is 31^st October 2016 – full information and rules of the competition, which is open to writers worldwide, can be found at www.ouenpress.com

For updates on our activities – come follow us on Twitter @OuenP

NEW for 2016 – We’d be thrilled if you Like our Facebook page

Writing Maps’ July Writing Contest & The Big Gay Writing Map

Posted July 22, 2014

Filed under Competitions, writing prompt

This month’s Writing Maps Writing Contest coincides with the official launch of The Big Gay Writing Map: Story Ideas for Anyone Who’s a Little Bit Different.

The prompt for July’s Writing Contest is our toughest challenge yet! Write a sex scene without using gender-specific pronouns and without using any punctuation (except a full stop/period at the end, if you want to). This could be a story, poem, graphic story or snippet of memoir. Fiction or autobiography, SF or mis mem, erotic or academic. In 150 words, gender-neutral and punctuation-free. Enjoy!

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 26 July 2014.
The two winning entries will be published in A3, the Writing Maps Journal, and winners will receive 2 copies of the new Writing Map.

Good luck and good writing!

Writing Maps June Contest and Pack of Notebooks

Posted June 21, 2014

Filed under blog, Competitions, literary magazine, short story prize, writing prompt

Writing Maps, the illustrated posters with creative writing prompts and story ideas, launches its 4th monthly Writing Contest. The June contest coincides with the official launch of the Writing Maps Pack of 5 Notebooks, and this month’s two winners will receive a complete pack of notebooks, along with publication in A3, a new fold-out literary magazine. 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. June’s Writing Maps Writing Contest opens on 21st June 2014. Deadline is: 28 June 2014. Did you know we’re the quickest contest in town – one week between announcement and deadline!

The prompt for June’s Writing Contest is a title. Write a story, poem, graphic story or snippet of memoir called “Ode to My Notebook”. For some extra inspiration, check out Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to My Suit” or Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons. As always, we’re looking for pieces that are quirky and intense, that give us a glimpse into private worlds, and that make us feel nicely awkward. In 150 words, show your notebook (or a character’s notebook) some love!