Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Writing Magazine

Tina Jackson Content Editor It’s never more important to hold onto the things that really matter to us – like writing – than in tough times. Writing is how we make sense of the world. More than that, though, it can be a useful way of adding to the pot, which is why, in this issue, we’ve put together a six-page special on freelancing. Whether you’re new to selling your words for money or a seasoned pro riding out a changing marketplace, turn the pages and get your freelance mojo fired up. The biggest worry for many new to freelancing is how to have the ideas in the first place, which is why the introductory piece is all about making money from writing about what you love. It’s worked for…

One of the things that contemporary literary fiction can do better than anything else is make its readers see, and understand, things that are not just outside their experience, but beyond their comprehension. This is what Guy Gunaratne does, outstandingly, in their novels, first in 2018’s multiaward-winning In Our Mad and Furious City, set on an urban estate in the aftermath of a killing similar to that of Lee Rigby, and now in their new book, the unsettling, unforgettable Mister, Mister, which tackles with nuanced insight one of the most difficult topics of our time. In this layered, lyrical, tender and terrifying tale, Guy puts the reader inside the head of Yahya Bas, a young, disaffected poet who becomes radicalised and finds himself, at the beginning of the book, in…

When I first started writing, I sold a humorous article with the title of My Overflowing Sewing. It was about a large and beautiful basket I’d been given that held secrets because, inside, it held so many unfinished projects. One item was a half-finished little cardigan knitted for a baby who was now in at school. There was a rag rug I had once imagined would make an interesting project, and a difficult patterned sweater. When I finally returned to the sweater the wool was rotten from old age. Now I have a file of stories begun and never finished. Over the years I’ve given up on knitting, sewing and rag rug making but I have become better at completing things. Things concerned with writing, that is. So, should I…

Each month in WM, we feature creative writing by our subscribers. Selected pieces will be published in WM and we pay £50 for prose and £25 for poetry, and provide a minicritique explaining what made the pieces stand out to us. This month, inspired by this month’s thoughtprovoking Creative Writing Building Blocks article on the importance of empathy for writers, we’re inviting submissions on the theme of ‘Someone Else’s Shoes’. Submit prose (fiction and creative non-fiction) up to 500 words and poems up to 40 lines to wmsubmissions@ warnersgroup.co.uk. Include your subscriber number. The closing date is 31 July.…

A few months back, my mental health took an almighty nosedive, writes subscriber Kayleigh Manley. It wasn’t just one thing, but a perfect storm of anxiety, stress, and unfathomable heartache. I was broken. Lower than I think I ever thought possible. Most of my days and nights, I sat and did nothing but cry or overthink myself into a neverending spiral of despair. Everything I loved stopped being important. Especially my writing. I hadn’t written in months. The willingness had fizzled away. I no longer wanted to write. The very thought of doing anything other than cry, filled me with dread. ‘I’m not a good writer.’, ‘I’m never going to produce anything anyone will ever want to read.’ ‘I’m lazy and unoriginal’. This is what I’d told and convinced myself.…

• Unless they’re at a football match or a rock concert, as a race the British certainly tend to be reserved, undemonstrative, or even boring. But, dig a little deeper, and some of us turn out to be bubbling cauldrons of emotion which occasionally boil over. What kinds of motivating incidents might make your own apparently ordinary, unremarkable characters boil over? • As a novelist, it’s your job to work out what makes your characters tick: why they might or might not behave in ways that no one who knows them would expect. How could you make the unexpected believable? • Encourage your readers to become emotionally involved with your characters, and to care about them. Then it won’t matter if these people are accountants, civil servants, shelfstackers in Tesco,…

Amber Caravéo was the editorial director at Orion Children’s Books, and Joanna Moult edited Cressida Cowell and Alex Shearer, among others, at Hodder Children’s Books. They joined forces to establish their boutique literary agency representing writers of children’s and young adult (YA) books. Why did you leave publishing to establish Skylark Literary? Being a literary agent involves all the same skills we needed as editors, but with added freedom. In the major trade publishers, the further you progress up the ladder, the more your time is taken up with strategy, profit-and-loss charts, and project management, rather than actually working with authors on their wonderful books. Unsurprisingly, it was the creative work with authors that we particularly loved, so setting up our own literary agency allowed us to get back to…

This year’s categories are novel, short story and flash fiction. For 2023, Mslexia is inviting entries from women writers for the following fiction prizes: • Novel: The first prize is £5,000. The judges are Sophie Hannah, Natasha Onwuemezi and Sophie Lambert. Finalists will receive feedback from The Literary Consultancy and other development opportunities. Enter the first 5,000 words of a novel manuscript by an unpublished novelist (at least 50,000 words). Longlisted writers will be asked to produce the full manuscript and a synopsis. The entry fee is £26. • Short Story: The first prize is £3,000. Three additional finalists will each get £100, and the winners and three finalists will be published in Mslexia. The winners and eight shortlisted titles will be published in an ebook anthology. The judge is…

Win a full novel report in the competition for unpublished novels and novellas. Now in its fifth year, the Page 100 Competition from independent publisher Louise Walters Books invites entries of p100 of a novel or novella manuscript. The competition is for unpublished novel and novella manuscripts of a minimum 20,000 words. Shortlisted writers will be asked to send their full manuscripts. The winner will receive a full manuscript editorial report for their novel or novella. Two runners up will each receive a submission package report, and three shortlisted writers will receive feedback on their p100. The entry fee is £5. Free entries are available on request for working class/ low income writers. The closing date is 20 August.  Website: www.louisewaltersbooks.co.uk/…

B Cubed Press is a small press devoted to publishing thought-provoking anthologies. The editorial team currently seek stories for Alternative Leadership, an anthology about leadership. The team seek stories about ‘leadership by the under-represented, by those too often forced to watch as those less qualified, less capable rise in a system that cannot see the value of diversity and change.’ They want stories about ‘broken barriers of all kinds.’ Submit stories, 100-5,000 words, essays or poetry. No AI submissions. Deadline is 1 August. Payment is ‘US$.03 a word upon publication, plus a share of the profits. Website: https://bcubedpress.wordpress.com…

Existere – Journal of Arts & Literature, is a biannual Canadian magazine published by York University’s Writing Department in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The title publishes short fiction, non-fiction, poetry, book reviews and interviews from writers anywhere in the world. The title was founded in 1978 and is currently on volume 42. There are no specific guidelines with regard to style or subject matter, but Existere is a prestigious university-based literary journal which has published award-winning writers and poets such as Jacob Scheier, David Lomax and Oliver Rice. Submissions should be under 3,500 words. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Existere purchases first publication rights for six months and retains the right to reprint or publish electronically after that time. Payment is between $50-$250 Canadian. You…

You might not believe it but it’s true, the Liars League holds monthly readings of themed short stories at The Phoenix in London. Their basic principles are ‘Writers Write, Actors read, Audiences listen, Everybody wins’. They are looking for 800-2,000 word short stories, flash fiction and standalone novel extracts which have not been previously published in print or online, broadcast or have won any other competition. The upcoming theme with a deadline of 3 September, for a 10 October event, is Doom and Gloom, which must be ‘invoked or interpreted as a central part of the story’. There is currently no payment made for the selected stories but works are published on the website and considered for future print anthologies by Arachne Press. Authors also get a reading by a…

Northwest Review is the University of Oregon’s literary journal with a difference. The team like to publish novellas which they think are ‘perfect for that in-between space–fiction too long for a short story, too brief for a novel.’ Currently the team seek ‘works that journey through that ‘Other space’ only a novella can fill. Think about 20,000 to 50,000 words.’ They welcome topics that make the mainstream uncomfortable, or perhaps it’s experimental. Fiction and poetry subs open shortly but nonfiction, visual art and translations subs are currently open. For prose, submit one story or essay. ‘There are no restrictions on content, style, or word-count. Flash fiction is accepted for online publication on the Northwest Review website. Submit two stories, each story no more than 1,000 words. Website: https://nwreview.org…

Looking annually for a new full length play, including TYA (Theatre for Young Adults), the free to enter Woodward/ Newman Award has a first prize of $3,000 plus a full production. All submissions will be considered for eight forthcoming production slots for Indiana USA-based Constellation Stage and Screen’s mainstage season. Submissions must be unpublished although plays published independently are eligible. Plays should have a running time of 75-135 minutes whilst TYA plays should have a complete running time of over 40 minutes. Submit no more than two plays per year including a bio, play synopsis and production history, cast size and character breakdown. Submissions made before 1 September 2023 will be considered for the 2024-2025 season while later submissions will be considered for the 2025-2026 season. All plays will be…

Win a £10,000 book deal with Canongate in the competition for underrepresented nature writers. The biennial Nan Shepherd Prize, named in honour of the author of The Living Mountain, was set up in 2019 to celebrate nature writing and provide an inclusive platform for new and emerging nature writers from underrepresented backgrounds. The winner’s prize of a Canongate book deal with a £10,000 advance also includes editorial mentoring. The competition is for writers from the UK and Ireland who have not published a full-length work of fiction or non-fiction with a trade publisher. To enter, submit a one-page synopsis of a narrative non-fiction book that in some way engages with nature or the environment plus chapter outlines, and a 7,000-word sample. Manuscripts do not need to be completed before submission.…

There are first prizes of £250 in the poetry and short story categories. The Hastings Book Festival Competitions are for short stories up to 2,500 words and poems up to 40 lines. The short story judge is VG Lee and the poetry judge is John McCullough. Winners in each category will receive £250, and runners up get £100 and £50. In each category there is also a Sussex Prize for local writers. All entries should be original and unpublished. The entry fees are £7.50 for one, £13 for two and £20 for three. The closing date is 14 July. Website: www.hastingsbookfest.org/competitions…

So, you’ve written the book you’ve planned for months and it’s not getting enough interest. It’s time to question what’s getting in the way… and this is where editors, and their synergy with an author, can be a game-changer. I’ve worked with several highprofile authors during my career, and it’s been so interesting to see how each has engaged with the editorial process. Once a book has been submitted, the relationship between an author and editor is key. In fact, what editors and agents don’t tell you is that – as well as writing a sparkling manuscript they badly want – they’ll also need to know how well they can work with you. A strong relationship can work so well in collaborating to take a book to the next level;…

Still Alive! is, not just, as you might guess, ‘a magazine about people who are still alive’, but also about other things that have arguably passed their sell-by date. As founder Erin Somers explains in ‘A Letter from the Editor’ at https://www. stillalivemag.com/articles/a-letter-from-the-editor, it did all rather start as a joke, one based around the idea that when a famous person dies someone who hasn’t died yet will inevitably say that they didn’t even know they were still alive. But now it’s a real live American quarterly print magazine, extracts from which you can read on the Still Alive! website. The debut issue, launched in the spring, contains writing on Clint Eastwood, Margaret Court, Buzz Aldrin, Joan Baez, a very old turtle called Jonathan, Chubby Checker, shopping malls, Tippi Hedren…

The Clive Awards Playwriting Competition is a new venture of New York’s Fellowship for Performing Arts which has a mission to produce theatre ‘from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience’. Submissions are open to playwrights worldwide and the winner will initially receive $10,000 and a further $15,000 during a collaborative development process. A second prize winner will receive $5,000 and a further $10,000 during a collaborative development process. Both developments will result in live or virtual staged readings. Plays should have a running time of 60-100 minutes, a maximum cast of six and not have been previously produced or published. Up to two plays may be submitted and they should not be currently under option or commission elsewhere. Adaptations will be considered but musicals are not eligible. Submit…

Entries are invited for the Best Novel Opening for Children and Young Adults and Best Picture Book Text. The Searchlight Writing for Children Awards is an international competition with a mission to support and champion aspiring writers for children. In addition to cash prizes, winning and shortlisted entries are featured in a Pitch Book, which is sent out to literary agents and publishers. Entries are currently invited for: • Best Novel Opening for Children or Young Adults 2023. The first prize is £1,000. Send the first 1,200 words of a novel for readers aged seven to 18. Manuscripts don’t need to have been completed. The judge is Silvia Molteni of PFD Literary Agents. The entry fee is £14. • Best Picture Book Text 2023. The first prize is £500. Enter…

Dahlia Books is a small British independent publisher of ‘contemporary, original fiction and champion regional and diverse voices.’ Dahlia Books is ‘passionate about pushing for change....to be more reflective of the multicultural society we live in.’ Dahlia only publishes short stories – collections of fiction and short stories from UK-based writers (not single stories). Dahlia loves publishing diverse voices and actively encourages submissions from first-time writers. Submit work with a cover letter, an outline and the first three stories, or the first 10,000 words, whichever is longer. Address the cover email and letter to editor Farhana Shaikh. Dahlia Books publishes Present Tense, a literary magazine of new writing: poetry, flash fiction, short stories, and creative non-fiction with a strong sense of place. The magazine is published biannually in print, and a…

The first Curae Prize for writers who are also carers has been announced as being won by Kate Blincoe – fiction, ‘Reborn’ – and Helen O’Neill — creative nonfiction, ‘ALP650’. The Prize was launched in January for short works up to 4,000 words. The winners each receive a £500 bursary as well as practical writing support in the form of workshops and coaching. Renard Press will publish the winning pieces, plus the shortlisted works in an anthology with profits going to carers’ charities this November. You can find out more about the Curae Prize at https:// thecuraeprize.uk/about/ GD…

Ever get too close to a book? Before I penned my first novel, I assumed that once you’d finished a manuscript, then edited it, then edited it again; then printed and proofread, then proofread again (just in case), you’d feel something close to euphoria. The culmination of several months’ work now finessed and finished. Ready to be read. Surely this should be a moment in which you sit back and bathe in the kind of warm glow that can only come with fulfilling a life’s ambition? Sadly, it’s not the case. When I’ve finished and edited a book, I tend to absolutely hate it. I’m so close to the plot that I can no longer see it as anything but predictable. I am bored of my characters, bored of my…

SHARE YOUR SUCCESS To feature in subscribers’ news contact: tjackson@ warnersgroup.co.uk After nine novels in paperback, my next novel, Caesar’s Soldier, is being published in hardback, writes subscriber Alex Gough. My first novel, Watchmen of Rome, was published in 2015, and I have experimented with both ebook publishers and self-publishing. However, my current publisher, Canelo, has brought all six books of my last series, the ancient Roman Imperial Assassin series, out in paperback and they have also been published as audiobooks. My new novel is the start of a four-book series about Mark Antony, Caesar’s general and Cleopatra’s lover. But Mark Antony was much more than a sidekick. An accomplished general, a wit and a high-liver, he is a true larger-than-life character, and my series charts his life story along…

WRITE TO REPLY Salman Rushdie made a pre-recorded video appearance via Zoom at the Hay literary festival in June in which he announced that: ‘I’m trying to write a book about the attack on me – what happened and what it means, not just about the attack, but around it. … It will be a relatively short book, a couple of hundred pages. It’s not the easiest book in the world to write but it’s something I need to get past in order to do anything else. I can’t really start writing a novel that’s got nothing to do with this … So I just have to deal with it.’ The event marked Rushdie’s first appearance of any sort since he was attacked in New York last year, resulting in…

1. When and where did your journey as an author begin? I have been writing in one form or another all my life. Having lived abroad for most of it, back in the snail mail days I used to write long (sometimes humorous) letters home. My first completed novel, Vlad the Inhaler, was written for children. But then I turned to crime with five books in the DI Sterling series published by Headline Accent. 2. What is (or has been) your proudest moment as a writer? Getting an email from a reader who threatened to do a Stephen-King-style Misery on me because I’d killed off one of her favourite characters! It brought home to me that I must be doing something right to elicit such a strong reaction. 3. Who…

Welcome words for a safe passage Footnote Press and Counterpoint Arts have joined forces to create the 2023-2024 Footnote x Counterpoints Writing Prize, a new £15,000 writing award for writers from refugee and migrant backgrounds. The award launched on 19 June, at the start of Refugee Week UK. The new prize is for narrative non-fiction that is centred around ideas of displacement, identity and/ or resistance. Any writer, published or unpublished, with a refugee or migrant background living in the UK is eligible to enter. Writers entering the award do not need to have completed their manuscript. The winner of the award will receive a £5,000 advance against publication by Footnote Press. The winner and two runners up will also have the opportunity to go on a week-long writing residency…

The Kavya Prize celebrates writing by Scotland’s ethnically diverse communities. The prize was founded by Indian/Scottish author Leela Soma and is run in association with the School of Cultural Studies at Glasgow University. The 2023 New Writers Award is for unpublished Scottish writers of colour. The winner will receive £500, professional development opportunities and a week-long writing retreat at Moniack Mhor. To apply, send a writing sample up to 3,500 words. The closing date is 31 July.  Website: www.gla.ac.uk/schools/critical/scholarships/ kavyaprize/…

Win novel writing courses including mentoring in the contest from The Writers College. The international competition for unpublished novelists is inviting proposals for novels in any genre. Include the first three chapters up to 6,000 words and a synopsis. The winner will receive a Write A Novel Course and an Advanced Novel Course. The runner up will receive a Write A Novel Course and the third-placed winner will receive a critique of the first 10,000 words of their novel. Entry is free.  The closing date is 31 July. Website: www.thewriterscollege.com…

Win a £1,000 first prize in the new flash fiction competition.The Subbub Prize is a new competition for original, unpublished flash fiction no longer than 500 words. There is a first prize of £1,000 and second and third prizes of £200 and £100. The judge will be Jonathan Pinnock. Each writer may send up to three entries. All entries must be submitted via the new submission system, Subbub. The fee is £5 for one or £10 for three (submitted at the same time). The closing date is 31 August.  Website: https://subbub.org/prize/…

The Hungur Chronicles are ‘short stories, poems, articles, and illustrations related in some way to vampires, especially those on other worlds.’ Submit original stories no more than 8,000 words, preferred length no shorter than 3,000 words. Spooky horror is fine but avoid ‘gore, intestines, entrails, giblets, brains, etc.’ Make characters well developed so that the reader can connect to the character, and to care what happens to them. For poetry, submit one to three original poems, preferably shorter than 100 lines. Articles around 1,000 words related to vampirism may also be submitted. Payment is US$10.00 for articles ,US$5 for a poem and US$25.00 for a story, story reprints, US$12.00. Website: www.hiraethsffh.com…

Bellevue Literary Review is a specialist award-winning independent literary journal which ‘probes the nuances of our lives in illness and in health.’ The editorial team publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry which ‘brings together the perspectives of patients, caregivers, family members, students, healthcare professionals, and the general public.’ The team want and welcome work from ‘a diversity of voices from all communities and all walks of life.’ They publish two volumes a year of literary work which arises from a medical setting and seek ‘high-calibre, unpublished work, broadly and creatively related to our themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body.’ Currently they are open to general submissions, as well as submissions for the 2024 BLR Literary Prizes. Submit fiction and non-fiction, no more than 5,000 words, preferred range…

Planet Scumm is a US print science fiction magazine published as a paperback book three times a year. It was born out of the editorial team’s reverence for the ‘bizarre science fiction magazines’ of the pulp era and each issue features around 10 science fiction, slipstream, horror, and other genre stories about the strange and fantastical. Currently up to issue 14, the title is relaunching soon following a hiatus since last autumn. Editor in chief Tyler Berd says the editorial team ‘cherish how the structure of sci-fi naturally acts as an open forum for philosophy, anxieties, and thought experiments.’ The next reading period is this summer, but a date wasn’t available at the time of writing, so check the website at www.planetscumm. space/submit, which also contains the full guidelines. Planet…

Quagmire is a brand new literary magazine located in the Canadian prairies. The editorial team publishes one print issue annually and release weekly short fiction and poetry online. It offers revenue sharing to all the print published writers. Submit fiction between 1,000 and 3,000 words, and one to five poems. Include a brief – no more than 500 words – cover letter. Payment for online publication: CAN$25 for fiction and CAN$12.50 per poem up to 5 poems. Payment for print publication is CAN$50 for fiction and CAN$15 per published poem, up to 5 poems. PDRLS Website: https://www.quagmiremagazine.com…

The Theatre Three 25th Annual Festival of One Act Plays has staged 132 world premieres from 102 playwrights since its inception in 1998 and is now on the lookout for submissions from writers worldwide. Between five and seven plays will be selected for ten performances each on Theatre Three’s Second Stage in Port Jefferson, New York. Playwrights will be awarded a $150 stipend, four complimentary tickets and copies of playbills, postcards, articles and reviews. Although plays should be unproduced, plays which have received a staged reading or an on-line production will be eligible. The cast size should be a maximum of 12 and plays should have a playing time of no more than 30 minutes. Setting must be simple or suggested. No adaptions, children’s plays or musicals. Submit your play…

It will be clear to any reader of this magazine that if you regard writing as any sort of business you need to do some, probably regular, research – about writing itself and about the publishing industry and the people with whom you hope to interact. One vehicle for some of this is to attend the London Book Fair (which I did in April). First, I must mention one silliness. In the interests, they said, of sustainability, there was no map of the exhibition layout available as you checked in. Maps on boards only had stand numbers on and looking at a downloaded map of Olympia on a tiny screen was a nightmare everyone I spoke to agreed was nonsense. So, should you go next year, if the policy is…

The annual international contest is for poetry in translation. The Stephen Spender Prize is an annual contest for poetry in translation, with an open category for adults as well as two categories for young poets. The open category is for English translations of poems in any language (up to 60 lines) plus a commentary in English no longer than 300 words. The prizes are £1,000, 500 and £250. The entry fee is £10 per translated poem. The three winners’ work will be published in the 2023 Stephen Spender Prize booklet and online. The closing date is 14 July.   Website: www.stephen-spender.org/stephen-spender-prize/…

Original satire and humour are invited for End of the Bench, a sports humour magazine based in America. Content includes Fake News eg ‘Baseball Hall of Fame Unveils New Interactive Exhibit on Fighting With the Umpire’ and ‘NFL to Play Game on the Moon, Launch Space Division by 2025’ See website to read these stories and more. The only consideration when writing for this magazine is that it must be about sport. Submissions of letters, quizzes and one-liner jokes are also welcome but payment is only made for long-form submissions.  Website: https://eotbsports.myshopify.com/pages/write-for-us…

Diva magazine is for LGBTQI women and non binary people and invites pitches of article ideas. It aims to ‘spotlight all that is fresh, funny, exciting, controversial and cutting-edge’ in the LGBTQI community and is not afraid to tackle tough topics. Check out the website to see content which includes news and interview features including British and foreign features, provocative opinion pieces for the Diatribe section, reviews and previews, cartoon strips, fashion, and photographs and vox pops on lesbian venues, especially those outside London.. When pitching your story idea the editorial advice is to make it short, snappy and attention catching. You will only be contacted it your idea is of interest. Payment for published content is via discussion on an individual basis. No payment is currently made for content…

The theme for this year’s contest is ‘Between’. Now in its fourth year, The Ovacome Writing Competition is in aid of ovarian cancer support services and awareness projects. There is a first prize of £250 and a runner-up prize of a £50 Waterstones book voucher. Winning stories will be published online. The competition is for original, unpublished short stories up to 1,500 words, on the ‘Between’ theme. Stories do not have to be about health or ovarian cancer. The entry fee is £8. The closing date is 15 September. Website: www.ovacome.org.uk/Event/writingcomp-2023…

The Indie Book Awards 2023 were announced on 23 June as part of Independent Bookshop Week. That was too late for WM’s deadline, but the nominated titles for best Fiction were: Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver; You Made a Fool Out of Death With Your Beauty, Akwaeke Emezi; Best of Friends, Kamila Shamsie; The Leviathan, Rosie Andrews; Young Mungo, Douglas Stuart; Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel (Picador). You can find all the shortlists and details of the winners in all categories at www.booksaremybag.com/IndieBookAwards/ Shortlist GD…

One of the puzzles of being an agent in the last couple of years is the way that publishers will with unyielding insistence wag their heads and talk about how difficult market conditions are at the same time as proudly announcing huge growth. Bloomsbury just posted a 15% sales jump (and 16% in profitability) and publisher of the year, Simon and Schuster, can boast a truly epic 21% year-on-year increase in sales. These are staggering figures especially when one considers that the books market is pretty definitively a mature market. Although, is it? Covid lockdowns definitely saw both a ‘time to read that classic’ and a ‘completed Netflix’ effect and for the first time in a century the book market actually grew. Has that continued? Is the buoyancy of the…

She thought she saw the Queen of Hearts descending from a wall. She looked again and found it was the Duchess in a shawl. ‘If only it were mine,’ she said. ‘But I am far too tall.’ She thought she saw the Jabberwock swimming in a pool. She looked again and found it was a walrus on a stool ‘If only I could help,’ she said. ‘It does seem very cruel.’ She thought she saw a Cheshire cat grinning in a tree. She looked again and found it was an angry Tweedle-dee. ‘Don’t fret,’ she said ‘for it’s too late, your rattle’s lost at sea.’ She thought she saw a vorpal sword go prancing in the park. She looked again and found it was the hunting of the Snark. ‘What…

Solmaz Sharif was born in Istanbul but later settled in America where she gained a degree from UC Berkeley and NYU. She won awards including the Pen Center Literary Prize for her first collection of poetry, 2016’s Look. I ask if a poet’s day can be structured. ‘Yes, of course,’ she replies. ‘And I’m sure many are, but I find that structure is a privilege afforded to very few, so a willingness to hold lightly to the patterns of the day has been key for me. For example, I teach. That means, in my case, every fourteen or fifteen weeks I have an entirely new schedule, a new routine. Then there is the whole petulant bit. It is not easy to get me to sit and do something at a…

I’ve been writing nearly as long as I can remember, penning my first ‘novel’ aged six, featuring the exploits of my luminous green toy bear. The story was scrawled in an exercise book – lavishly illustrated by the author – and spawned numerous sequels. Each instalment had a brutal ending and as soon as I finished one story I’d move dispassionately on to the next. Oh, to be so dauntlessly efficient today! I have always loved the wonderful sensation of making a book. When I was eight I was imitating Enid Blyton and in my teens it was Ann Radcliffe, and I’d print these books on A5 paper, glueing and stapling them together, designing dustjackets, itemising my backlist, giving deep consideration to the recommended retail price. But publication was a…

Over the three long years that I have been working on my debut novel, The Life I Owe Her, I have often looked at the Subscribers’ News and wondered if it might one day see my name on this page, writes Allison Meldrum. In March, I finally published my domestic suspense thriller The Life I Owe Her, available in ebook and paperback via Amazon, and have been thrilled by the initial reaction from early readers. My story is informed by a coming together of two themes which I hold dear, namely parenthood and friendship, with a heartbreaking moral dilemma at its core: What would you sacrifice for the best friend who saved your life, if all she wants is one of your children? As I mentioned in one of my…

When asked what I write it’s easier to answer, ‘Everything, except poetry and pornography,’ writes regular WM contributor Lynne Hackles. I call myself a butterfly writer because I’ve had a go at so many things – greeting cards, advertisements, comic strips, and short stories. I’ve been a ghostwriter and worked for a local newspaper. It took lockdown for me to realise that there was something to add to the ‘poetry and porn’. I had never had a novel published. I found a copy of one written twenty years ago, read it and thought, ‘Not bad but could do better.’ I had twenty years more experience so rewrote the whole thing and, after a few tries, found a publisher. Cahill Davis Publishing took me on and Gail Lockwood and Her Imaginary…

If you have a query for Lisa, please send it by email to lisacuttsenquiries@ gmail.com Q In my novel I have a person aged sixteen who rides a motorcycle to and from the scene of a crime. His pillion passenger is the murderer. What would the charges against the sixteen-year-old be? Is murder or manslaughter likely? Bernard Taylor via email A A possible charge for the sixteen-year-old is conspiracy to murder, which carries the same sentence as murder. The police would need to prove that the sixteen-year-old knew or had some knowledge of what was going to happen, rather than merely an innocent person who had given someone a lift. It would, naturally, depend on whether he had taken part in the murder. The police would carry out enquiries in…

The £20,000 prize is open to writers who publish their work through Kindle Direct Publishing. The competition is for original books in any genre first published through Amazon’s KDP programme between 1 May and 31 August 2023. Books have to made available in ebook and print formats for sale through Amazon. The award shortlisting is based on customer feedback. A panel of judges will then select the 2023 Kindle Storyteller Award winner. The first prize is £20,000 and a merchandise package to support the book on Amazon. co.uk. Each finalist gets a Kindle Oasis e-reader. Books must be at least 24 pages long, and must not have been published anywhere before, in any language. Entry is free. The closing date is 31 August.  Website: https://www.amazon.co.ukb?ie=UTF8&node=12061299031…

Win a £2,000 first prize for a story up to 250 words. The Edinburgh Flash Fiction Awards are run by Scottish Arts Trust, which also runs the Edinburgh Short Story Awards. The Flash Fiction Awards are in two categories. • The Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award is an international competition for stories up to 250 words. The prizes are £2,000, £300 and £150. • The Golden Hare Award for Scottish Flash Fiction is for all Flash Fiction Award entrants who are resident in Scotland. There is a prize of £500. The chief judges are Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh. The entry fee is £7 per story.  Website: www.scottishartstrust.org/flash…

War Monkey Publications is a small USA press specialising in speculative fiction with elements of horror and dark fantasy. Currently the editorial team seek submissions for From The Yonder: Volume V. The anthology is to be ‘a horror, short-story collection of regional legends and tall-tales from around the World.’ Submit short stories, 1,000 to 7,500 words. The stories must be ‘based upon a regional/cultural legend or tall-tale from any location or culture in the World.’ Keep to the horror genre but inclusion of elements of other genres is welcome as a minor aspect of the story. Think of ‘ghosts, hauntings, alien abductions, monsters, demons, spirits, witches, etc... don’t rehash the legend itself or write an essay on the tall-tale.’ No excessive blood, gore, foul language or erotica. Deadline is 31…

The new £2,000 scholarship is for new students at the University of Sutherland in September. The scholarship has been set up by bestselling author from the North-East, Glenda Young, and will include expert support from Glenda on how to break into the publishing industry. Applicants for the scholarship should be enrolled on the B.A. in Creative and Professional Writing, and must be from Sunderland, and the first person in their family to study at university. Website: www.sunderland.ac.uk/more/news/story/bestsellingauthor-launches-support-package-for-new-writers-2140…

Anthophile is a UK-based website which publishes interviews related to the botanical. However, the editors are launching a biannual magazine of the same name, which is to be published as a 250-page book. It will explore ‘the close relationship each person has with plants and flowers, not only in their gardens but in their work, lives and homes.’ The title will take the reader on a journey across cultures and continents into a world of flowers – from garden blooms and wildflowers to exotic and tropical varieties – ‘all brought to life in a beautiful, high-minded kaleidoscope of a magazine that will incorporate photography, art and illustration, alongside cutouts, foldouts, and removable reproductions of artworks.’ The intention is that reading it will feel like accompanying an eccentric plant obsessive as…

Unpublished speculative fiction and poetry is invited from writers of all backgrounds for Orion’s Belt, an online literary speculative fiction magazine which specialises in ‘the strange and poignant and awe-inspiring stories that have a cosmic scale and intimate personal stakes’ says editor in chief Joshua Fagan. Stories/poems must be less than 1,200 words. There are no restrictions on form or style for poetry and ‘boundarypushing, experimental poetry’ is encouraged. With all submissions the speculative element must be significant. To gain a good understanding of the kind of pieces wanted check out the website to read past issues of the magazine for free. The website also has a list of ‘tendencies, formats and ideas’ which the editors appreciate. The submission window closes on 1 September. Payment for published work is $0.08…

Pseudopod is a genre magazine in audio form, for mature audiences only. The editorial team seek horror: dark, weird fiction. They like ‘the whole spectrum from grim realism or crime drama, to magic-realism, to blatantly supernatural dark fantasy.’ They publish ‘highly literary stories reminiscent of Poe or Lovecraft as well as vulgar shock-value pulp fiction.’ They ask writers to be original, that means avoid ‘vampires, zombies, and other recognizable horror tropes unless they have put a very original spin on them.’ Submit online. The team allow ‘one original and one reprint story per author.’ Stories should be between 1,500 and 6,000 words, 4,500 words being the preferred length, and flash fiction, under 1,500 words. Payment is 8 UScents per word, Website: https://pseudopod.org…

The annual RSL awards are for first-time writers of non-fiction. The RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction were launched by the Royal Society of Literature in 2017 thanks to a bequest from author Giles St Aubyn, who died in 2015. They are intended to support new writers to complete their first book of non-fiction. This year’s judges are Richard Holmes, Afua Hirsch and Fiona St Aubyn. Writers may submit themselves, and agents and publishers may submit on an author’s behalf. The closing date to submit for the 2023 award is 25 August. Website: https://rsliterature.org/award/rsl-giles-staubyn-awards-for-non-fiction/…

The new contest is for writing by entrants with a connection to UK Children’s Services A new anthology, In the Blink of an Eye, is to be created, which will connect a poetry anthology created by the staff and residents of Tyson House Children’s Home in Bradford in 1993 with new work from 2023. As part of the project, writing workshops will be held at Cartwright Hall in Bradford during August  To enter the competition, send poems up to 40 lines or short stories up to 1,000 words. Entry is free. Each writer may send up to two pieces. There are prizes of book vouchers for the winners. Entrants must be staff or residents, past or present, with a connection to UK Children’s Services. The closing date is 30 August.…

The contest from Writing East Midlands is for poetry and short fiction. The Aurora Prize, run by Writing East Midlands in partnership with the Society of Authors, is a national and international competition for outstanding new poetry and short fiction. The winner in each category will get £500 and feedback on their entry from a literary agent or editor, and a year’s free membership of the Society of Authors. The second prize is £150, and the third prize is a day course from Writing School East Midlands. There are regional prizes of £100 in each category. This year’s judges are author Joanna Cannon and poet Casey Bailey. Entries must be original and unpublished, and may be on any theme or subject. Poems should be no longer than 60 lines, and…

Matthew Warren is the new European News Editor at Science, a magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. He is particularly interested in stories covering science policy and research issues in the UK/ Europe. Send your pitch by email to mwarren@scienceint.co.uk Put ‘Pitch’ in your subject line. Essential to follow the full guidelines at www. science.org/content/page/ freelancer-guidelines. You can pitch non-UK/Europe news to ScienceInsiders at insider@aaas.org. For pitches about currently embargoed research contact Online News Editor David Grimm at dgrimm@aaas.org. If you think your story has potential as a longer piece for the print version of Science magazine, send it to science_news@ aaas.org and it will be matched up with the appropriate editor. You can also directly pitch to specific…

The North East Playwriting Award is a new venture for playwrights from or based in the North East of England. The Award offers a winning playwright a commission fee of £10,000 plus a production for a play of a minimum 70 minutes at Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne. With a commitment to young talent, there is also a second commission award of £7,000 for a 16-25 year old playwright to write a play of under 70 minutes. Adaptations, reimaginings, dance or circus works are not wanted. Enter plays which are ‘brave, bold and ambitious in theme and drama, that are diverse and dramatically theatrical’ by playwrights who have unique voices and are passionate about the story they want to share with an audience. Submissions may be a full-length play…

Travel involves getting from A to B, but it offers many options for so doing. It was Dionne Warwick who sang Trains and Boats and Planes and even that trio leaves out a good deal. There are certainly moments when travelling is pleasurable, but much – most? – of it is, in my experience, a chore. Time moves on and things happen that improve things. For example, the range of modern airliners has removed the need for fuel stops on long-haul flights that extended the whole journey. New hazards have appeared too. Take electric cars, which have added the phrase ‘range anxiety’ to the language. I have one friend whose new car seems to have added a nightmare quality to journeys of any length, as its stated range has proved…

The Romantic Novelists’ Association’s 2023 conference will take place at Imperial College, London from 11-13 August and is suitable for writers at all stages of their career. Both traditionally and independently published authors are welcome. Among those taking part will be Sophie Hannah, Rachel Hore and Liz Fenwick, as well as representatives from the Big Five publishing houses. Along with a full programme of talks and panels, there will be practical sessions on using software such as Scrivener and Canva, as well as opportunities to learn everything from writing the perfect pitch letter or synopsis, to supercharging social media, newsletters and marketing, creating podcasts and even maximising earnings through interactive romantic games. For more details and to book visit https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/rnaconference-2023/ GD…

Paige Cowan-Hall has won the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Discoveries Prize with her historical novel work-inprogress Marooned. The story was chosen from almost 3,000 entries and is described as a ‘vividly imagined historical fantasy set in Jamaica, based on the real-world stories of the Maroons, runaway slaves who fought the British and founded the Maroon settlements.’ The author receives an offer of representation by Curtis Brown, a cash prize of £5,000 and a place on a Curtis Brown Creative six-week online course as well as joining Curtis Brown Creative’s two-week Discoveries Writing Development course alongside 15 of the Discoveries longlisted authors. Paige Cowan-Hall said: ‘For me, winning is proof that whatever doubts you have, whatever voice in your head tells you, “you aren’t good enough”, go for it anyway.…

It’s almost seven hundred years since Marco Polo died at the age of 69, having opened up the world of central Asia and China to the West. Although he was not the first Westerner to visit those regions, his explorations were recorded in books, the most famous generally known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo. A Venetian born into a trading family, he began his journeys as a teenager, notably travelled the Silk Road, and spent seventeen years in China. He returned to Venice in 1295. It is thought that he continued to run the family business after that time, and he married and had three daughters. In his honour the next Writing Magazine poetry competition will have a theme of exploration. Poets are welcome to interpret this…

Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? By Jennifer Moore No seat at a raven to pen my debut, I’ve been here at my desk since 2002, a battered old thing where I sit and I write - my novel goes nowhere while ravens take flight. No beating of wings and no gliding on air, a desk is a far more immobile affair, no gleaming dark feathers for puffing and preening but scuffed wood in need of a good Mr Sheen-ing. No sharp, tearing claws and no black tufted beak, only pale coffee rings on the faded old teak, no ominous croaking or Poe’s ‘Nevermore’, just occasional squeaks from an unoiled drawer. It seems then there’s nothing to link such a bird with my dull writer’s desk – why,…