Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Writing Magazine

Art imitating life imitating art? Tom Hanks, one of the world’s best-known screen stars, is to release his first novel next year and guess what it’s about? The clue might just be in the title, The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece. Said to be a ‘wildly ambitious’ novel about the making of a film inspired by a comic book. ‘Every character in the book does something I’ve experienced while making a movie,’ Hanks told People. ‘Even the foolish moments are some kind of stunt I’ve pulled or mistake I’ve survived.’ Well, they do say you should write what you know. And there is the theory that first novels are very often, in some way, autobiographical. The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece isn’t Hanks’ first foray into fiction. In…

Last but oh-so-not-least, let’s share the love for literary late bloomers. 80-year old debut author Jane Campbell’s short story collection, Cat Brushing, has recently been published by riverrun. ‘“Cat Brushing” was the first story I’d ever tried to write. And I wrote that when I was 77,’ she told Slate. It was published in the London Review of Books, and on the back of that, Jane got an agent who advised her to write more stories about old women. Jane rolled up her sleeves in no uncertain terms, and got on with it. ‘I wanted to present old women that weren’t like... stereotypes but were fully formed human beings. You know, sometimes they kill themselves. Sometimes they fall in love,’ Sometimes they kill someone else. Sometimes they have passions, and…

Since agencies by and large only accept electronic submissions, most writers use word-processing software (Microsoft Word, Google Documents, Scrivener, to name a few) to author their manuscripts. However, these programmes can be daunting and difficult to navigate, particularly for first-time users. We’re here to demystify the process of writing digitally, and to give you our best tech tips and tricks! An ode to Track Changes Track Changes is a function of Microsoft Word that, when enabled, helps you keep track of edits to a document, with changes that can be accepted or rejected at a later time. If you’re working in Word, you should find Track Changes under Tracking in the Review panel. Once you toggle on Track Changes, you can essentially redline your work. Deleted words or paragraphs will…

It has been twenty months since I became a content creator on TikTok, or, more specifically, BookTok. For those unfamiliar, BookTok is a niche little corner on a video-sharing social media app. Cute, right? It has been twenty months since my life did not revolve around creating/ editing/posting content, accepting/ reading/reviewing advanced reader copies, and interacting/fielding notifications in my comment section. Twenty months since BookTok launched me into the book industry, first as a reviewer, then as a selfpublished author, and soon, as a traditionally published one. Such is the power and influence of BookTok. What’s the BookTok effect? BookTok took the print industry by storm in 2020 and is largely responsible for the increased profit margins since. The BookTok hashtag was used 12.6 billion times in 2021 and has…

Anne Wilkins lives in New Zealand with her husband, two teenage daughters and three cats. She is a primary school teacher, but was previously a lawyer specialising in family law. Anne has written a children’s novel (currently unpublished) and many short stories, some of which are published in various anthologies. She enjoys writing stories with a twist, and so this seemed the perfect competition for her to enter. Her love of writing is fuelled by coffee, reading and hope. “Hurry up Jess.” “We’ve all done it.” “It’s your turn.” My turn. They were patient before, but now they’re getting angry with me. My friends. “Told you she’s gone weird.” The others mumble in agreement, but they’re still waiting. “Truth or dare Jess - which one?” “Truth,” I mumble. The three…

© Jasmine Aurora TAP HERE To read an extract from The Coming Darkness ‘Before the coronavirus lockdowns, I was a writer and producer of live theatre – but those activities, reasonably enough, were swiftly made illegal. So, I sat quietly in my study and wrote The Coming Darkness instead. It’s set in 2037, when everything that troubles us today is the same “but more so”. Environmental degradation has caused major population movements and, in Paris, there’s an underclass of unregistered citizens they call “Blanks” living parallel lives. Transgenic diseases persist in waves. Someone wants to bring it all crashing down – the hyperconnected world – and set back the clock of technological advance by fifty years or more. My hero has to try and stop them. ‘I have an alarm…

SHARE YOUR NEWS To feature in subscribers’ news contact: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk ‘You know, addictions have a terrible reputation,’ writes subscriber Sarina Wheatman. ‘It is a mental health illness that is so stigmatised that most people feel it is a choice made by terrible selfish people. Terrible and selfish are consequences of untreated addiction, but this stigmatisation is not helpful when trying to get the right kind of help. My fourth book, Communication and Connection (AKA Relapse Prevention), is an attempt to change the narrative. ‘I came late to the world of writing – Idisliked school so much I left as soon as I was able. My own illness then took over until fate took me in hand and I was able to find a way out of addiction’s enticing grasp. Training…

‘I am pleased to announce the publication of my latest novel, Learnin’ the Family Business; the story of a low-level New York Mafia family living in the 20th century,’ writes subscriber Michael J Richards. ‘Starting in 1926, it follows the Carabillos through Tony Carabillo, Franco, his son, and Gary, his grandson. It ends in 1991. ‘As well as the stories of each of the Carabillo generations, Learnin’ the Family Business follows the social, political and criminal changes that transformed the USA over the years. ‘Research into all three aspects took up a lot of time, of course, but it’s been a fascinating two-year writing journey. ‘As my fellow historical writers will recognise, it’s finding the small details that are the most vexing. ‘How did someone make a cup of coffee…

VISIT https://writ.rs/onlyorange TO READ THE STORY This month’s story has a main character who isn’t particularly sympathetic, for reasons we’ll discuss in detail. In Only Orange we meet Jeanne, who is on holiday with her family and finding herself reacting badly to her brother’s girlfriend, Audrey. As always, you will get the most out of this masterclass if you read the story for yourself: https://writ.rs/onlyorange. Jeanne’s troubled personality is central to the story, and we’re going to look at how the author holds our interest and makes us want to keep reading even though the narrator is someone who is quite uncomfortable to be with. Along the way, we’ll look at some other key features of the story including the themes of different people seeing things differently, and the nature…

COLD COLD WINTER Snow has fallen overnight, Everything covered In a carpet of white. I’m warm and snug, So I plan to stay Safe inside On this cold cold day. Soon the children Will come out to play Making the most Of their snow Play day. Snowmen made With joy and laughter; Sadly, they will Melt soon after. Next there are Make do sledges Disappearing From view Behind the hedges. I can hear The screams of joy From all the little Girls and boys. How long will This carpet Of white remain, No doubt to disappear As fast as it came On this cold cold Winter’s day? In the past, there used to be a perceived distinction between poems written for young and adult readers. While there was always a…

The Discoveries 2023 writer development programme from The Women’s Prize Trust is inviting entries from aspiring women novelists. Now in its third year, Discoveries is a development programme aimed at discovering talented and original new female writing voices in the UK and Ireland. It is run as a partnership between The Women’s Prize Trust, Audible, Curtis Brown literary agency and Curtis Brown Creative. Prizes will be given for novel manuscripts by unpublished writers in any adult genre. Submit the first 10,000 words and a synopsis between 500 and 1,000 words. Novel manuscripts do not have to be completed. The winner will be offered representation by Curtis Brown and £5,000. All six shortlisted writers will be offered a mentoring session with a Curtis Brown agent and a free place on a…

Win $100,000 and publication in the Nine Dots Prize 2022/2023 in this contest for creative solutions to contemporary problems in society. Now in its fourth cycle, the Nine Dots Prize was established in 2016 to reward innovative thinking that provides creative solutions to issues facing the modern world. Entrants are invited to send a 3,000-word response to a question. This year’s question is: ‘Why has the rule of law become so fragile?’ The winner will receive $100,000 to expand their response into a short book of between 25,000 and 40,000 words for publication with Oxford University Press. To enter, submit the 3,000-word response, an outline of how the idea could be expanded into a short book, and a justification of your ability to complete the book within a given time.…

In what is excellent news for authors, Amazon is changing its policy that allows the return of ebooks for an automatic refund within seven days of purchase, regardless of how much has been read. It is a policy which some authors have complained has costed them a considerable loss of income. Under the new rules a refund will only be issued if less than 10% of an ebook has been read, essentially now making the terms the same as if a customer downloads a free sample of the book, which consists of the first 10%. The change will come into effect by the end of the year and is a result of a campaign by the Society of Authors and its US equivalent, The Authors Guild. The latter issued a…

The next quarterly Henshaw Press Short Story Competition is inviting entries up to 2,000 words. The prizes are £200, £100 and £50. Entry costs £6 per story.The closing date is 6 January 2023. Website: www. henshawpress. co.uk Slam poetry champion and beatboxer Jasmine Gardosi has been named as Birmingham’s Poet Laureate 2022-24. Iona Mandal is the newYoung Poet Laureate. Former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is the latest expert to teach a BBC Maestro course. Carol Ann’s 14-lesson Writing Poetry course went live on 6 October. Literature Wales has established its new official home at theTy Newydd Writing Centre in Gwynedd. Its headquarters were formerly in Cardiff Bay. ‘My books are character-driven. I don’t have plots; I have situations, I have stories. I’m a good storyteller. But plot! When I…

Wyldblood Press is a UK-based independent publisher of science fiction and fantasy. ‘We have a quarterly magazine, which features around ten short stories each issue, and we upload original flash fiction (up to 1,000 words) to our website every Friday,’ said editor Mark Bilsborough. ‘We also put out anthologies, collections and classic novels. From next year we’ll be adding original novels and novellas too. We take stories from around the world.’ Wyldblood is a lockdown startup. ‘We published our first story in July 2020,’ said Mark. ‘There are plenty of science fiction and fantasy imprints in the States but not too many over here in the UK, particularly for magazines, and we wanted to redress the balance. The extra time on our hands that we found in lockdown provided the…

Spiral is a new online service for audiobooks, and possible rival for Audible. According to director Kate Bland, it’s not attempting to offer, ‘every single book that’s ever been made into an audio, but we are selecting what we hope is a really wonderful array of international books and translations’. The format clearly has some similarities with Audible, in that you can buy books individually, or subscribe and get two ‘Spiral Editions’ included with your subscription each month, plus access to exclusive content in section of the website called murmurations. Spiral also offers original audiobooks, which it either co-publishes or offers ‘in partnership with the UK’s independent publishers’. Currently there isn’t a Spiral app (and apparently no plans for one), which may be a drawback for some listeners, and the…

Win a £2,000 first prize for short stories up to 8,000 words in the The Plaza Prizes Short Story Competition. There is a first prize of £2,000 and second and third prizes of £300 and £100. The top ten shortlisted entries will be published in the Plaza Prizes Anthology, which will be launched at the awards ceremony in August 2023. The judge for the Short Story Competition is Roland Watson-Grant. Enter original, unpublished short stories between 1,500 and 8,000 words. All entries must be original, unpublished short fiction, and may be in any style or form. The entry fee is £16 for the first entry and £8 for any subsequent entries. The closing date is 30 November.   Website: https://theplazaprizes.com/competition/short-story/…

Shepton Snowdrops 2023 Poetry Competition is inviting entries. The theme of this year’s contest is ‘Let Nature Thrive’ The 2023 Shepton Snowdrops Poetry Competition will be judged by nature poet Wendy Pratt. There are prizes in three categories: • 18 and over: £200, £70, £30 • 12 to 17: £100, £40, £30 • 11 and under: £50, £20, £15 Enter original, unpublished poems in any form, no longer than 30 lines, on the theme. In the adult category, entry is £5 per poem and writers may submit up to five poems. The young poet categories are free to enter, and writers may submit one poem. The Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Project includes the 2023 Snowdrop Festival between 13 and 19 February 2023. The closing date is 8 January 2023. Website: www.sheptonsnowdrops.org.uk…

The Edward Thomas Fellowship Poetry Competition 2023 is open for entries for the Edward Cawston Thomas Prize. Enter original, unpublished poems on any subject, no longer than 40 lines. The winner will receive £150. There are two runnerup prizes of £75 and up to six highly commended prizes of £25. Winners will be invited to read at the AGM in Hampshire in March. The judge is poet Jane Draycott. The entry fee is £3 per poem. Writers may enter up to three poems. The closing date is 15 January 2023.  Website: www.edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk/…

Manchester-based Carcanet Books is open to poetry submissions from 2 January 2023 to 20 January 2023 for three of its imprints; the New Poetries anthology series, the six times a year PN Review journal and the Carcanet Collections. It is suggested you check out its catalogue to see what is published, as well as the PN Review journal which is described as ‘an index (or fever chart) of their interests and enthusiasms’. Full-length poetry manuscripts in English or translation are invited whilst novels, short stories, children’s prose/poetry and academic, biographical and other non poetry-related titles are not wanted. Submit your work as a pdf document which includes your contact details for a response.  Details: email: submissions@carcanet.co.uk; website: https://writ.rs/carcanet2023…

The Uncover Liverpool arts bulletin is looking for writers wanting to contribute to its ‘what’s on’ guide to arts and culture in the city and the surrounding region. It is a project by Open Culture, an independent social enterprise encouraging engagement with the arts, particularly for those who might think the arts are not for them. The guide can be accessed online or by signing up for a regular e-newsletter. Articles and features are wanted on gigs, theatre, music, exhibitions, oneoff events, comedy, days out, festivals, literature, talks, workshops, arts jobs and opportunities. Although most pieces are around 300-500 words long, anything longer can be considered. It is not necessary to be a published writer to contribute; you only need to love writing and the area. ‘Just send us something you’ve…

Small international presses Rivercliff Books & Media are a new imprint of Wetware Media, LLC, and ‘welcome submissions from all over the authorial map – fiction, nonfiction, essay – from both new and established authors.’ They publish books, audiobooks, and a podcast of short fiction and nonfiction. Currently open to ‘submissions of wellcrafted fiction and non-fiction books.’ The team particularly want ‘titles that can be successfully adapted for film and television.’ Novellas, 30,000 to 50,000 words, and nonfiction and novels, 50,000 and 90,000 words, may be in most narrative styles and forms of fiction. No horror, sci-fi, or dystopian work. The team are also seeking compelling literary nonfiction. Submit the first chapter or first 25 pages of the book through a personal Hey Publisher account. Rights and royalties are discussed.…

Published by the Scottish Mountaineering Press, Creatives is a digital publication ‘which promotes, reimagines and is inspired by the beauty of the Scottish landscape’. Submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, visual arts and videography are invited. Within these genres editors are looking for ‘fresh concepts, unconventional experiences and journeys, humorous or even tragic insights, unfamiliar characters and mythologies, subjective and objective research’. For fiction, submit no more than three pieces of less than 2,500 words. Poetry submissions should not exceed more than four poems or six pages. Non fiction submissions, which includes essays, memoir and interviews, should be no more than three pieces up to a total word count of 2,500 words. For interviews, first send a proposal with your potential questions and the presentation medium eg. text, video, audio or mixed.…

It was a first for me. I’ve had reviews about my non-fiction books but had never received actual fan mail before. It was about a prize-winning story I’d written. The sender of the fan mail had taken the time to find my email address and tell me how much they’d enjoyed reading my story. That short email meant so much to me. On bad days – and we all have them – I’ve turned to it often. It cheers me up and lets me know that there are people out there who enjoy my writing. So, why have I only sent two of these in my lifetime? How many have you sent? How many books have you loved, maybe even re-read because you’ve enjoyed them so much? Writers who have…

The next instalment of the quarterly Flash 500 Flash Fiction competition is open for entries of original, unpublished short fiction in any style or genre, up to 500 words. There is a first prize of £300, a second prize of £200 and a third prize of £100. The results are announced around six weeks after the contest has closed, and the three winners of each quarterly competition are published on the Flash 500 website. There is an entry fee of £5 for one story, and £8 for two. The closing date is 31 December.  Website: https://flash500.com/flash-fiction/…

The 2022 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards Shortlist, as chosen by bookshops, are: Fiction: Heaven, Mieko Kawakami; Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, Juno Dawson; Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin. Nonfiction: Ghost Signs, Stu Hennigan; Otherlands: A World in the Making, Dr Thomas Halliday; The Transgender Issue, Shon Faye; Without Warning and Only Sometimes, Kit de Waal. Poetry: Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in her Head, Warsan Shire; The Fire People: A Collection of British Black and Asian Poetry, Lemn Sissay; Limbic, Peter Scalpello; 100 Queer Poems edited by Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan. Young Adult Fiction: All That’s Left in the World, Erik J Brown; I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston; The King is Dead, Benjamin Dean; When Our…

The longlist for the 2022 William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2022 is: Be Good, Love Brian: Growing Up with Brian Clough, Craig Bromfield; The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey; 1999: Manchester United, the Treble and All That, Matt Dickinson; Le Fric: Family, Power and Money: The Business of the Tour de France, Alex Duff; I Love This Game, Patrice Evra; England Football: The Biography: 1872-2022, Paul Hayward; God is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke, Cycling’s Great Wasted Talent, Andy McGrath; My Hidden Race, Anyika Onuora; Scoring Goals in the Dark, Clare Shine with Gareth Maher; Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorised) Biography of Golf ’s Most Colourful Superstar. Alan Shipnuck; Expected Goals: The Story of how Data Conquered Football and Changed the Game…

Mandrake is open for submissions of weird, Gothic, supernatural and horror writing for issue 2, up to 1 December. Submit one story or piece of non-fiction/up to two poems. Website: www. mandrakejournal. com A Message from Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky’s collection of war speeches, will be published on 24 November by Random House imprint Hutchinson Heinemann. All the President’s proceeds will be donated to the United24 run by the Ukrainian government to collected charity donations. Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the 2022 Booker Prize for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. He was presented with the £50,000 award by HM Camilla the Queen Consort at a ceremony on 17 October. Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe is to co-write a memoir of the six years she spent imprisoned in Iran…

Saba Sams, who was featured in WM’s My Path to Publication slot the March issue, has won the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2022 for Blue 4eva, which was taken from her acclaimed debut short story collection, Send Nudes. Saba was presented with her £15,000 prize by chair of judges Elizabeth Day on BBC Radio Four’s Front Row. ‘When I first read Blue 4eva, I was engrossed by its transportive atmosphere, its masterful telling of complex family dynamics and the sense of building tension,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Saba Sams is adept at wrongfooting our assumptions, creating a set of unique, multidimensional characters with rich internal lives, and viewing it all through the lens of a 12-year-old girl. It’s such an achievement to be able to do that in…

Published four times a year, the Newfoundland and Labrador based Riddle Fence magazine contains previously unpublished works of fiction, non fiction, poetry, visual art, reviews and features from writers worldwide. Simultaneous submissions will be considered with the usual proviso. Non-fiction essays can be on the arts, particular artists or culture and art as an idea or a cultural practice. Creative non fiction with a strong narrative drive is also wanted. The word count for fiction and non fiction is 3,000 or a little longer ‘if it is brilliant’. For poetry submit no more than 10 pages of 3-5 poems with each poem on a separate page. Include them in a single, preferred Word document (.doc), attached to an email. With all submissions include a cover letter with your name and…

DARK LIGHT SHINING WM’s favourite bearded magus Alan Moore delivered a savage take-down of the entire US superhero comics industry in What We Know About Thunderman, the story at the heart of his recent story fiction collection, Illuminations. Although ‘short’, in this case, is relative –What We Know About Thunderman is a novel-length pulp tale sandwiched between some actual short stories. Moore’s history as a glorious subversive who upended the conventions of graphic novels from the inside with Watchmen lends a ring of insider truth to the jaw-dropping bizarro weirdness of What We Know About Thunderman. In it, Moore, who has gone on record that he is ‘done with comics’, reveals a seamy underside to the creation of American superheros that depends on an addictive ‘insane alternative reality’ that dehumanises…

One of the most depressing aspects of the Salman Rushdie stabbing is the way that it so quickly became folded into our ongoing obsession with the so-called culture wars. It is extraordinary and saddening that when writers as august as Philip Pullman, Antony Horowitz and Ian McEwan talk about cultures of fear, self-censorship and death threats, they are not talking about the ravings of fascistic theocratic nutjobs, but their colleagues in the publishing business, other writers, readers. People who love books. Just to be clear, I don’t think that there are many writers who post death threats on Twitter – if any – but the objects of fear are not some clearly defined ‘other’ but people who just a few years ago would have simply been assumed to be in…

TAP HERE To read an extract from The Whistling 'I been writing for most of my life. In my younger years, I tried a few times to get a foot on the publishing ‘ Ihave ‘ Ihave ladder but it led nowhere – but as I have later learned, I had gone about the whole process in the wrong way by submitting directly to publishers with an unfinished novel. I know now that most publishers will not accept submissions unless it is through an agent and I needed to finish the novel first. ‘Then came children and I found it impossible to juggle writing and being a mum so had to stop. However, when my children reached their midteens, I began to seriously consider my own future and what…

SPOTLIGHT ON... Ayr Writers Ever suffered from imposter syndrome? That was how I felt when I went along to my first Ayr Writers’ meeting, in January 2020, writes Maggie Morton. Yes, I had written some poetry, but I was a babe in arms compared to the talent there. Published novelists, poets, children’s authors, non-fiction article writers and journalists – success filled the room. Fortunately, my worry was unfounded – my new companions were talented and welcoming in equal measure. Phew. Located on the SW coast of Scotland, Ayr Writers’ Club – at 52 years old – remains one of the biggest and most accomplished clubs north of Hadrian’s Wall. As many other groups discovered, going virtual during the pandemic kept Ayr Writers active; however, online meetings could never truly match…

‘When I first started writing (too many decades ago than I care to remember!), I took a Writers Bureau course and subscribed to Writing Magazine,’ writes subscriber Esther Chilton. ‘The course was invaluable and taught me how to write, and gave me the confidence to start sending my work out to magazines and to enter competitions. But it was when I won a Writing Magazine competition that I truly began to believe in myself. I went from strength to strength and now write full-time. ‘My passion is for fiction and I love writing short stories. Two years ago, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when I was asked to judge a regular short story competition. I relish reading all the wonderful stories the entrants send in. A writer’s…

‘Like many writers, I was a book loving child who was always telling stories but I fell into the trap of growing up,’ writes subscriber Michelle Mclean. ‘It was a journaling exercise on “what did you love doing as a child” many years later that brought me back to creative writing. ‘I took a short course and tried a writing group but it wasn’t for me. I needed a level of accountability and structure that would make me show up for myself. So I enrolled to study with the Open University. ‘Studying the craft was intimidating but fulfilling. It also took a lot of organisation around work and family commitments and there were a few bumps along the way, a global pandemic being one. The joy I felt when I…

Newspapers, whether national dailies or local weeklies, can be real treasure troves for research and help writers tap into both current and historical matters. Content When you start your research, identify whether it’s the national, regional and/or local papers that are most likely to give you the information you need. Also consider whether you’d like to consult broadsheets and/or tabloids. After this, decide which newspaper section(s) might be the most suitable. News stories are the most obvious reason to research newspapers, but they also contain other types of content that may give you surprisingly useful information. Family notices, such as those relating to births, deaths, marriages and anniversaries, can be helpful for family history research. Obituaries contain information on notable people. Such information can be used for family and local…

The 2022 Exeter Novel Prize is inviting entries. Win a £1,000 first prize in the competition for unpublished novels by unrepresented authors The Exeter Novel Prize is an annual award from Creative Writing Matters, which is given for the first 10,000 words of an unpublished novel manuscript by an author who is not currently represented by a literary agent. There is a first prize of £1,000 and five runners up will each receive £100. The final judge will be literary agent Hellie Ogden from Janklow and Nesbit UK. To enter, send the opening of the novel and a synopsis not longer than 500 words. The total word count must be no longer than 10,000 words. Novel manuscripts may be in any genre, including children’s and YA. All entries must be…

Discover Magazine is a US bimonthly popular print magazine and website covering science, technology, mind, health and the environment. The editorial team is looking for stories that enlighten, inform and get readers excited about science. A great Discover story should be grounded in research with a strong narrative and an accessible, conversational tone. The ethos is that science is for everyone. The print mag has seven columns, each of which require an approximately 1,200 word article each issue. See the full guidelines at www.discovermagazine. com/pitch-guide for details about each, but they are: Vital Signs – Medical mysteries (pitch Alex Orlando, aorlando@discovermagazine.com); Planet Earth – Nature, geology, flora, fauna, glaciers, fossils (Marisa Sloan, msloan@discovermagazine.com); Piece of Mind – personal experiences of psych/neuro research (Timothy Meinch, tmeinch@discovermagazine.com); History Lessons – forgotten moments…

The annual Ditmar Awards recognising achievement in Australian speculative fiction were presented in October in Canberra at Conflux 16, the Australian National Science Fiction Convention. The awards are named in honour of Australian fan and artist Martin James Ditmar ‘Dick’ Jenssen who financially supported the awards at their inception in 1969. The winners of the 2022 awards were: Best Novel, The Bridge, J.S. Breukelaar, Meerkat Press; Best Novella or Novelette, ‘Ariadne, I Love You’, J. Ashley-Smith, in Ariadne, I Love You, Meerkat Press; Best Short Story, ‘The King in Yella’, Kaaron Warren, in Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign, Hippocampus Press; Best Collected Work, Tool Tales, Ellen Datlow and Kaaron Warren, IFWG Publishing Australia.…

The leading UK awards for fantasy fiction were announced in September, with the British Fantasy Awards 2022 being presented at FantasyCon at Radisson RED Hotel in Heathrow. The winners were: The Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel & The Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer: She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor); The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel: The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward (Viper Books); Best Collection: Never Have I Ever, Isabel Yap (Small Beer Press); Best Anthology: Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction, ed. Xueting C. Ni (Solaris);Best Non-Fiction: Writing the Uncanny, ed. Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst (Dead Ink); Best Comic/ Graphic Novel: The Girl from the Sea, Molly Knox Ostertag (Graphix); Best Novella: Defekt, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom);…

Win a signed copy of the lavish new edition ofThe Watkins Book of English Folklore by Neil Philips, featured in WM Oct, by entering the free contest on LoveReading by 20 November. Website: www. lovereading.co.uk/ competitions Tracey Coker has won the BPA First Novel Award 2022 with White Yams. Stacey Halls has topped the Women’s Prize’s public vote on top young female writers. As part of the Breakthrough Mentoring Programme, Curtis Brown Creative is offering nine months of mentoring to five disabled writers. The mentoring will run from November 2022 to August 2023. Jiaqi Kang has won the £2,500 2022 White Review Short Story Prize for Class of 1985. ‘I do not believe in writer’s block. I started writing when my kids were little, and I could plop them in…

A new project for playwrights living in the UK will see Hull Truck Theatre working in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company and RSC Partner Theatres to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. The 37 Plays project is for ‘contemporary plays that capture the stories of our nation’. Submissions are invited for comedy, tragedy and untold history scripts. Submissions should be original, completed and unproduced stories that are not under commission. Scripts can be between 1 and 100 A4 pages long and must be written in a 10pt font or above. They must be written predominately in English although other languages or dialects can be used if a translation is provided. Submissions are open from 1 January 2023 and close on 31 January 2023. Do not enter your…

Launched in 2012, Zombies Need Brains LLC is a US small press specialising in speculative fiction anthologies. Founder and editor Joshua Palmatier has recently announced four new anthologies, already fully funded via Kickstarter, with a deadline of 31 December 2022. The anthologies are: Dragonesque, Game On!, Artifice & Craft, Solar Flare. You may submit up to three stories to each anthology, each of which should be no longer than 7,500 words. No reprints or previously published material. Use standard manuscript format and include the title of the story, your name, address, and email, word count, and pseudonym if applicable. Stories must be submitted in electronic format to the Zombies Need Brains Moksha site for the appropriate anthology at http://zombiesneedbrains. moksha.io. If you submit more than one story, make each submission…

The quarterly WOW Women on Writing Flash Contest is open for entries of fiction between 250 and 750 words until 30 November. Prizes are $400, $300 and $200 plus Amazon gift certificates and publication.The entry fee is $10. Website: www.wowwomenonwriting. com/contest.php Film actor Russell Crowe’s £5,000 donation to independent Norwich bookshop Bookbugs and DragonTales has enabled the bookshop to stay afloat. Crowe’s generosity means he is now entitled to a gold loyalty discount card at the shop. Juno Books, a new queer intersectional indie feminist bookshop, has opened in Sheffield, with a mission to support a greater representation of women and marginalised people in the world of books. An Antiques Roadshow guest was stunned to find that the 19th century illustrated book, Drawings by the De Alwis Family, was valued…

Mslexia Women’s Pamphlet Competition 2022 offers a prize of publication from Bloodaxe Books and £250 in the contest for women poets. The competition is for collections no longer than 24 pages. (Up to 20 poems of any lengths, as long as each page contains no more than 40 lines of poetry. Poems may have been previously published, but not as a collection. The winning collection will be published as a pamphlet by Bloodaxe Books and the writer will receive £250. A selected poem for the collection will be published in Mslexia. This year’s judge is Imtiaz Dharker. The entry fee per collection is £20. The closing date is 5 December.  Website: https://mslexia.co.uk/…

CutBank is a well-established literary magazine, founded by the Creative Writing programme at the University of Montana. The team of professors and students who publish CutBank twice a year like ‘compelling poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction’. The team like to discover and develop new writers and their work, and welcome work from all writers everywhere. They like work which intrigues, stimulates and leaves a reader wanting more. The CutBank team hold prestigious annual competitions for fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, chapbook contest and the new All Accounts and Mixture: A Celebration of LGBTQ Writers and Artists competition. Find full details on the website. General submissions are open from 15 September to 1 February for poetry, no more than five poems of visual art, five files per submission, fiction, and creative nonfiction…

Win cash prizes as well as gold, silver and bronze medals for short stories in the Wenlock Olympian 2022/2023 Competition. The Wenlock Olympian Writing competition is arranged by the Wenlock Olympian Society in collaboration with Much Wenlock and District U3A ‘Writers on the Edge’. Enter original, unpublished short stories no longer than 2,500 words to win prizes of £150, £50 and £25, plus gold, silver and bronze Wenlock Olympian Society medals. This year’s judge is Emma Cooper. The entry fee is £5 for one, £8 for two and £12 for three. The closing date is 23 November.   Website: www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/creative/…

The Pride Book Café team pride themselves on being the best place for diverse storytellers. Their imprint Aurelia Leo is an independent, ‘Nebula Awardnominated, and BSFA Awardwinning publishing house for diverse genre fiction: romance, mystery, thriller and suspense, horror, science fiction, and fantasy.’ Currently closed to unsolicited full-length submissions, but the editorial team are always open to submissions for PRIDE Quarterly, a genre fiction magazine for QTBIPOC creators. They also want subs for their anthology: FABLE: An Anthology of Horror, Suspense and the Supernatural. Stories may range from 1,000 words up to novellalength 39,999 words. Submissions should be one of the following genres: ‘horror, mystery, crime, thriller, and/or suspense.’ They like protagonists who are ‘Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, or/and People of Colour (QTBIPOC)’. They enjoy ‘settings outside the United States…

Willow Springs is a biannual print journal with an editorial team aiming to publish ‘the finest in contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as interviews with notable authors’. Put together by the students and professors of the MFA programme at Eastern Washington University, the team accepts ‘fiction and poetry submissions between the 1st of September and the 31st of May, but nonfiction is open year-round. The team seeks submissions which surprise and move the reader, and ‘welcome and encourage work from all writers… particularly writers whose perspectives and experiences are often underrepresented in the literary world.’ Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but not reprints or multiple subs. Poets, submit no more than five poems and put them all in a single Word document. Prose works, three pieces of flash under…

A publisher with a ‘love of lowbrow and pop realism’ London-based Korero Press has a particular focus on ‘kuston kulture, street art, illustration, erotica and horror’. Its list consists of illustrated books so novels are not wanted. It is advised you familiarise yourself with their publications before submitting. Check out their website and social media links. If you have a book you think will fit, submit your contact details, a one-page covering letter and a detailed synopsis which should include chapter headings, an introduction and sample illustrations or photographs. Include also a market analysis of who you see as your potential readership, details of any similar titles and why you think your book is different. Details: email: info@koreropress.com; website: www.koreropress.com…

Enter short fiction on the theme of ‘Anxiety’ for The European Writing Prize 2023. The European Writing Prize is the most prestigious of the writing competitions organised each year by the European Society of Literature. The Prize is a free-entry international competition for original, unpublished short fiction between 1,500 and 3,500 words. All entries must be on the theme of ‘Anxiety’. The winner will receive €50, lifetime membership of the European Society of Literature, and publication in its quarterly journal. The closing date is 1 January 2023. Website: www.litsoceu.com/ writing-prize…

The Furious Gazelle accepts short fiction, micro fiction, poetry, short plays, novel excerpts, and creative nonfiction and subs for its Things That Make Us Furious column in satirical essay, listicle, or rant form. Authors and publishers may submit a book for review consideration. Prose, essays, fiction and nonfiction, no more than 7,000 words please. If submitting flash, please limit subs to five individual pieces. Poetry, any style, one to five pages please. For plays limit the sub to 20 pages. Rights and payment are discussed on acceptance. Website: https://thefuriousgazelle.com Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction publishes ‘well-known and emerging writers working in the extremely brief essay form, craft essays and book reviews.’ Submit flash non-fiction essays no longer than 750 words, and Craft Essays no more than 1,200 words…

The editorial team at The Wandering Wave Press need submissions for their anthology: An Anthology of Unconventional Stories. The team are looking for ‘genre authors who cross boundaries.’ They want ‘Authors whose stories twist the tropes to showcase in a cross-genre anthology of stories that entertain, but read fresh and new.’ These stories, 1,000 to 10,000 words, will be ones difficult to classify into a single subgenre, or that push against the genre’s boundaries. No reprints or multiple subs but simultaneous subs are permitted. Email the story in Word format – double-spaced, 1-in. margins, 12pt. Times New Roman font, header with page numbers and story title – and don’t forget a cover page. Put the story title, author, contact email, word count, genre(s), and a brief (under 200 words) statement of…

A rriving at Heathrow not long ago, it was apparent that some elements of the travel industry remain in a post-Covid chaos of delay and seeming disorganisation. The impression given to visitors arriving here must be appalling – sorry, I must resist a rant! Nevertheless, in recent months many people seem to be catching up on after a Covid-dictated period of travel not being possible. In many cases people saved money during the pandemic; I spent little or nothing on holidays for some two years. Places dependent on tourism have suffered and this presents an opportunity to write about what might be called the nontravel side of travel. In Thailand, where I holidayed recently, things are gradually getting back to normal and the complex entry requirements of recent times have…

Is there a particular place that affected who you became as a writer? For Italian novelist and poet Andrea Banjani, one house in particular was formative. Writing in Domus, Andrea recalls the weekends spent in a house near Turin airport where he sat upstairs, with a friend, in an attic watching the planes. ‘I especially remember that world split in two,’ he writes. ‘The kitchen and two bedrooms downstairs... and our post upstairs that was like a tree house, a world we created above the clouds. ‘It was perhaps the most important house I’ve ever stayed in,’ he continues. ‘The only one where writing and not knowing how to live didn’t come into conflict but gave a right of citizenship.’…

£250 TO BE WON The winner will receive £200, with £50 for the runner-up, and publication in Writing Magazine for both. The choice is yours for this annual competition to end the year – any story, any style, any genre. It’s up to you. Just make sure it’s a winner! Your story should be 1,500- 1,700 words. The closing date is 15 January. SEE P62 FOR ENTRY DETAILS, FULL RULES AND ENTRY FORMS STILL TIME TO ENTER – £250 TO BE WON With its closing date of 15 December, there’s still time to enter last month’s competition for creative non-fiction. Prizes and length are as above. See p62 for full details.…

Every Wednesday afternoon All Seasons Writing Group meets at Warrington Disability Partnership, writes Cilla Shiels. They can be seen beavering away, writing a collection of short stories, poems and anecdotes, some for the first-time putting pen to paper. Their latest book, Version 3, went on sale in paperback and ebook on Amazon from Wednesday, 12th October and promises to be a good read. They make an ideal Christmas or birthday present, and all royalties are donated to Warrington Disability Partnership as a way of thanking them for hosting the group at the Centre. The group is a solid base run throughout the year for everyone with or without disabilities who wish to write.…

‘In 2015 I inadvertently embarked on my novel-writing journey believing that my first book, The Asylum Soul, would be a one-off,’ writes subscriber Mal Foster. ‘As I was about to rest on my laurels, I quite unexpectedly began receiving numerous requests such as, “When is your next book out?” and getting some very generous reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and elsewhere. ‘It didn’t take too long for me to realise that some people were actually reading and enjoying my work. I had also caught the “story-telling” bug, so inevitably, a second, third and fourth novel was always forthcoming, again harnessing some great reviews. ‘Now though, I was at a crossroads wondering where my next book was coming from. In the end, following a short spell in hospital last summer, and with…

1. When and where did your journey as an author begin? Probably back in the 1950s in Scotland. As a child, my mother would encourage me to write ‘wee stories’ to pass the long, dark winter nights. Never one to resist a challenge, I wrote a book – aromance, no less – the pages of which I sewed together with wool. Life got in the way until, nearly seventy years later, I joined a creative writing class and got the bug again. Then, having had a short story published, I decided it was time to be more ambitious. 2. What is, or has been, your proudest moment as an author? Without doubt my proudest moment was having my first novel The Runaway Wife published at the ripe old age of…

Some stories take a long time to get out onto the paper. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If we take Neil Alexanders’s example, then 15 years was what it took – and that has paid of handsomely with The Vanishing of Margaret Small (Bonnier/ Embla Books), published in November. A part-time teacher from Whitstable in Kent, Neil’s laudable efforts have produced a historical mystery with a dual timeline. Margaret, 75, is a major Cilla Black fan who, shortly after the singer’s death, begins receiving sums of money signed ‘C’. She’s convinced it must be the late Cilla B – but how is that possible? To find out, she has to journey back in her memories almost 70 years, when she was ‘vanished’ to a long-stay institution for children…

Win a £2,000 first prize in the Mslexia Poetry Competition 2022 for single poems. The competition is inviting entries of original, unpublished poems of any length, on any subject, by writers who identify as women. The first prize is £2,000. The second prize is £500, and the third £250. There is also a £250 Unpublished Poetry Prize for the best poem by a previously unpublished poet. The winners and six additional finalists will have their poems published in the March issue of Mslexia. This year’s judge is Helen Mort. There is an entry fee of £10, which allows each writer to submit up to three poems. The closing date is 5 December.  Website: https://mslexia.co.uk/…

Unbound is an online crowdfunding publishing system akin to Kickstarter, but specifically for books. Last year the platform launched Unbound Firsts, dedicated to publishing, ‘two debut books from talented writers of colour every year’. The inaugural titles, to be published in June 2023, are Solange Burrell’s Yeseni and the Daughter of Peace, and Paul David Gould’s Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants. Burrell grew up in Bristol and currently lives in Canada with her family. Her novel is about Elewa, who lives in a small West African coastal village in 1748. She has a gift that allows her to see events from any point in time, and then she begins to see visions of life on barbaric slave ships. Can she alter the course of history? Paul David Gould…

Canadian Eerie River Publishing has an editorial team devoted to horror in all its forms. Currently the team want stories for the last of the Elements series. This four-part book series is dedicated to horror from the elements. Opening to subs on 1 December the team seek ‘stories of horror with the theme of wind’ and an R rating. Some fantasy elements are allowed but the overall feel of the stories must be horror genre. ‘Aim to scare.’ The Wind Elements book will be full length, 70,000 words, published as an ebook and paperback. Stories for the book are limited to 1,500 to 7,000 words. Format work using 12 pt Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing. Put the story title at the top of the work and keep name and…

Win a five-night writing retreat worth £645 in Foxes’ Retreat Winter Solstice Competition 2022. The competition from independent Foxes’ Writing Retreat is inviting entries of original, unpublished creative pieces of writing up to 1,500 words, in any form, inspired by the picture on the contest page of the Foxes’ Retreat website. The winner will receive a fully catered writing retreat worth £645. There is a second prize of a 1:1 writing coaching session worth £40 and a third prize of a place on an afternoon writing workshop held on Zoom, worth £35. The entry fee of £25 includes written feedback on the submitted piece of writing. The closing date is 21 December.  Website: www.foxesretreat.com/competitions…

Previously unpublished poems, including translations of poetry, are invited for Rattle, a quarterly journal whose content consists entirely of unsolicited submissions. All submissions are automatically considered for the Neil Postman Award in which editors choose one poem published during the previous year and award a prize of $2,000. There are two categories open to submissions, General Poems and the online Poets Respond. General Poems may be of any length and a maximum of four poems may be submitted. The submission of more than a single poem is preferred. Editors are looking for poems that move them, make them laugh or cry, teach them something new and ‘are unique, insightful and musical stand out, regardless of style’. The editors appreciate submissions that are of a style or subject matter that has…

Write a love letter to the UK’s capital city to win a £500 prize in Love Letters to London 2022. The competition from The London Society invites entries up to 500 words on this year’s theme, which is ‘making connections’. Londoners and non-Londoners alike are welcome to send pieces of writing celebrating London and reflecting on why they love the city. In the open and poetry categories, there are prizes of £500, £250 and £100. In the under 12 and 12-18 age-group categories, there are winners’ prizes of £500 and four runner-up prizes of £150. The school of the two category winners will receive £250- worth of books. Love letters to London may be in any style, including poetry, fiction, reportage etc. Entries may have been published elsewhere, but they…

There is an old (military) saying that time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted. If – when – you get a book published, how many copies it sells depends on many disparate factors. It is worth considering how a reader picks which book to buy and also about how you should relate to such factors (some of which need consideration before publication and even before writing). At a recent writing group meeting I attended this was discussed and the following seemed to those present to be amongst the most important factors influencing book buyer choice: • Genre • Cover art, title and subtitle (or strap line), which go together • Blurb • (Anticipated) content • Reviews and awards (often on the cover) and online • Price • Social media and…

The Sudden Fiction contest from The Plaza Prizes is for short, sharp stories no longer than 1,500 words. The competition is for stories sightly longer than flash called ‘smokelong’ – because they can be read in the time it takes to smoke a cigarette. The winner will receive £1,000 and there are second and third prizes of £300 and £100. The top ten shortlisted entries will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology in summer 2023. The judge is Tara Laskowski. Enter original, unpublished short fiction in any style or form, with a maximum of 1,500 words. The entry fee is £14 for the first story and £7 for any subsequent entries. The closing date is 30 November.  Website: https://theplazaprizes.com/competition/suddenfiction/…

Winning poems from the Guernsey International Poetry Competition 2023 will be displayed on Guernsey buses.  The Poems on the Move competition is inviting entries of poems no longer than 14 lines. 21 winning poems will be displayed on buses, and a selection of these will also be used to create a display that will first be shown at Guernsey airport, then all over the island. There are also cash prizes in three categories: • Open poetry: £1,000, £500, £250 • Channel Islands poetry by writers resident in the Channel Islands: £250, £50, £30 • Young people’s poetry: £250, £50, £30 This year’s judge is Jackie Kay. The entry fee is £4 per poem or £10 for three. Entry in the young poet’s category is free. The closing date is 15…

The Canada-UK Foundation is a UK-based charity which promotes Canada in the UK through education and crosscultural collaboration. The editorial team are looking for ‘budding writers with a connection to both Canada and the UK’ who have not professionally published more than five articles. They say, ‘if you have a story to tell, send us your pitch.’ You might be a Canadian living in the UK, a Brit married to a Canadian, someone with family in both countries, or any other connection. Right now the editors are especially interested in stories about science and technology, climate, artificial intelligence and indigenous affairs, but will also consider more personal pieces, for example, about your inspiring journey to a new country or a recipe that reminds you of home. One pitch will be…

Tape Collective has a call-out for pitches that offer alternative and personal perspectives on film/art/culture. Payment is from £60 per accepted piece.   Website: www. tapecollective.co.uk It was announced as WM was going to press that author and publisher Carmel Callil, who founded feminist imprint Virago Press in 1973, had died aged 84. Colleen Hoover’s It Starts With Us has been named as W H Smith Book of theYear. Icon Books has been acquired by Amberley Publishing, following its recent acquisition of Quiller Publishing in June 2021. In a bid to protect independent bookshops from online retailers who offer to deliver books for as little as €0.01, the French government has proposed a €3 minimum delivery fee on all online book orders of less than €35. ‘Nothing comes easily. If…

Autumn House Press is inviting entries of debut full-length fiction for its 2023 RisingWriter Prize.The winner will receive $1,000 and a $500 promotional travel grant. All finalists will be considered for publication. Entry is $25.The closing date is 30 November. Website: www. autumnhouse.org/ submissions/risingwriters-prize/ Bookouture founder Oliver Rhodes has launched a new publishing venture, Storm Publishing. Marple, a new collection of 12 new short stories featuring Agatha Christie’s much-loved sleuth, features stories by some of contemporary writing’s finest women authors, including Val McDermid, Elly Griffiths, Kate Mosse and Naomi Alderman. The British Library hosted An Evening for Salman Rushdie on 10 October, featuring appearances by Mona Arshi, Melvyn Bragg, Kathy Lette and AlanYentob.  ‘I haven’t experienced all the things that the children in my lift have experienced, otherwise I’d be…

Poetry publisher Broken Sleep Books has a submission window open for poetry pamphlets up to 30 November. Pamphlet submissions may be between 15 and 40 pages. Individual poems within the pamphlet may have been previously published,but Broken Sleep prefers that at least 50% of the manuscript should consist of previously unseen poems. Poems may be in any style or genre, and on any subject. Include a brief biography and synopsis in the pamphlet submission. Broken Sleep pays 10% royalties and five free author copies. Broken Sleep authors may buy unlimited copies of their book at 50% discount. Website: www.brokensleepbooks. com/submissions…

The Romantic Novelists Association has announced the shortlists for their Industry Awards 2022. The ten categories and shortlists are as follows: The Romantic Bookseller of the Year: Tea Leaves and Reads; Words & Kisses; Inclusion Award: Mills & Boon; Rebecca Slorach; Claire Wade; Indie Champion of the Year: Alliance of Independent Authors; Clare Flynn; Lizzie Lamb; Library or Librarian of the Year: Daren Kearl; Sharon Whitehouse; Indie Editor of the Year: Alison May; Emily Shelton Poole: Cover Designer of the Year: Lucy Murphy; JD Smith; Narrator of the Year: Anne Dover; Helen McAlpine; Susie Riddell; Media Star of the Year: Claire Fenby; Rachel Gilbey; Anne Williams; Agent of the Year: Clare Coombes; Kate Nash; Hannah Schofield; Publisher and/or Editor of the Year: Boldwood Books; Charlotte Ledger; Sara-Jade Virtue. The RNA’s Industry…

Blackbough Poetry has a call out for anthology submissions in response to T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, which was published 100 years ago. Submit between 21 November and 31 December.  Website: www. blackboughpoetry. com/events Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell has a signed a two-book deal for a children’s adventure book series.The UK publisher will be Scholastic UK. Louise Kennedy has won the £5,000 John McGahern Prize for a debut book of Irish fiction for her short story collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac. London photographer Soulla Petrou is running a Kickstarter to self publish Rewind, a collection of her work exploring dance music culture, for charity. Soulla, who was a friend of murdered journalist and former MixMag editor Dom Phillips, will be donating proceeds to Unijava,…

The quarterly Stand magazine has a 70-year British and world literary heritage to be proud of, and publishes both established and new writers of poetry and fiction for a worldwide readership. It is edited from the University of Leeds School of English in collaboration with the University of Bolton’s School of Arts and America’s Virginia Commonwealth University. Poets should submit a maximum of 4-6 poems and fiction submissions of under 3,000 words are preferred. All submissions must be previously unpublished and not be simultaneously submitted to other journals. Details: email: engstand@leeds. ac.uk; website: www.standmagazine. org/submissions…

Submissions for the next round of WriteNow, Penguin’s development programme for new writers from under-represented backgrounds, opens on 7 November. This round is for commercial fiction, with writers invited to submit in the genres of crime, thrillers, family drama, comedy, romance and love stories. The WriteNow programme has been designed to give writers the tools to navigate the publishing industry and launch successful careers as authors. Writers accepted on the programme receive a free workshop, feedback, year-long editorial development and £1,000. Writers applying for Write Now should be unpublished, unsigned writers based in the UK and coming from a background or community underrepresented in publishing. To apply, send a 1,000-word writing sample. Submissions are open until 8 January 2023. Website: https://www.penguin. co.uk/company/creativeresponsibility/writenow/this-yearsprogramme…

The editorial team at Shooter likes to support ‘emerging writers of literary fiction, creative non-fiction, narrative journalism and poetry.’ Published biannually, in January and July, the team publish ‘themed issues in winter and summer, and runs competitions for short fiction during winter/spring and poetry during summer/autumn.’ They also run a monthly flash contest online. Currently the team seek submissions for the winter 2023 issue. The theme is: ‘On the Body.’ They want writers to submit short stories and non-fiction of 2,000 to 6,000 words and/or no more than three poems. Simultaneous submissions are fine but no reprints or multiple subs. Submit by email. Attach files and include a brief biography in the body of the email. Don’t forget full contact details. Save files in Word format, please 1.5 or double…