Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2025 i Writing Magazine

The more you love writing, the more you invest in it – not just in learning your craft but in how much it defines you as a person. It’s how we understand the world. In a very real sense, our writing is us. It’s why sending it out to find readers is an act of bravery. And that’s why it’s so crushing when we submit it, with all our hopes and dreams pinned to it, and it gets rejected. We all know rejection is part of the writing life, that’s a shared experience, that it happens to all of us. We learn to tough it out, though it still stings. But there are strategies we can use to cope with it, and in this month’s issue we’ve got a warm,…

When the Fireflies Dance is set in Lahore, Pakistan and a significant challenge when writing it was to ensure the reader was able to place themselves in the setting. I wanted to be able to transport the reader to Lahore, just like I have been transported many a time by a book I’ve read, through the barren landscape of Mordor, or a fictional country estate in Cornwall, to the calming, wide grass and scrub bush of Botswana, or the rugged and isolated Yorkshire moors or even sixteenth century Stratford-upon-Avon. To do so, I believe it is essential to think of place not only as a mere setting where the action or the plot of the novel takes place, but rather that place has its own agency over the characters and…

My latest novel, a funny feminist thriller, is called Body Count. It’s about Saffy Huntley-Oliver – rich, charming, intelligent, beautiful – who is also a serial killer. But she’s got a heart and a mission: she only kills bad men. Paedophiles, rapists, abusers… the ones who hurt women and children. This is my second novel about Saffy and even though she is a sociopath she is the happiest character I have ever written about. She loves killing bad guys! And in Body Count, she’s also in love with Jonathan, who’s a true crime podcaster and doesn’t have the slightest idea that his new girlfriend is a murderer with a body count in the dozens. Which means that their relationship has a few problems, and Saffy’s way of solving them is…

AND OTHER STORIES The Other Boy is my first published novel and writing it has been the most wonderful rollercoaster of hard work, steep learning curves and dogged determination, writes subscriber Heidi Field. I first started writing shortly after giving birth to my first child, a baby who slept during the day and not at night. I was suffering from postnatal depression and my marriage was crumbling under the pressure. Hormone fuelled and in need of an escape, I began to write. The world was awash with Harry Potter, so my first attempt at writing was an epic YA fantasy, more Game of Thrones than Harry Potter. I then wrote a time-slip romance and a handful of children’s picture books. I had no idea if what I was producing was…

WHERE HAVE ALL THE WOMEN GONE? Acknowledgement to Pete Seeger Where have all the women gone, long time passing?Where have all the women gone, long time ago?Where have all the women gone?Gone to bombed-out graves everyone.Oh when will the world ever learn, when will it ever learn? I see your face shrouded in a purple shawlWhen I turn my TV on - Gaza, Yemen and Sudan.There you are in the crowd of wailing womenSearching for lost children - husbands unfound.I understand your terror - despair knows no bounds. I witness your fear as the bombs rain pitilessly down,Your home destroyed - a collection of rubble,possessions removed by an indiscriminate weapon.You check your limbs and find one missingLeaving it behind as the other takes over. I view your agony in a…

Megan Carroll graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2013 and joined the Watson, Little agency the following year. She’s particularly interested in romance, fantasy and romantasy, young adult and middle grade genres, and her clients include Pam Weaver, Sheila Norton, Ben Pechey, Rose Alexander, and Rosie Archer. How did you become a literary agent? What do you enjoy about the job? Working in an agency was my first publishing job, straight out of university. I didn’t know anything about the role of a literary agent (I was desperate for any way in to the industry I could find!) but once I figured out what they were all doing, I knew it was the job for me. I enjoy how each day is different – anything can come into your…

Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Gary Dalkin writes that the shortlist for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, recognising excellence in nonfiction from authors of any nationality published in English in the UK has been announced as: Jason Burke, The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s; Helen Garner, How to End a Story: Collected Diaries; Richard Holmes, The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief; Justin Marozzi, Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World; Adam Weymouth, Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe; Frances Wilson, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark. The winner, announced on 4 November, receives a prize of £50,000. Each shortlisted author will receive £5,000. Last year the Baillie Gifford Prize…

Scottish Mountaineering Press Creatives is the journal of the Scottish Mountaineering Press, writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. Currently it is holding the 2025 Flash Contest series through Creatives. Contests in November and December feature categories in nonfiction, fiction and poetry. The competition is supported by Fort William Mountain Festival and the Highland Bookshop. The winner of each contest will receive a £50 cash prize and a weekend pass to Fort William Mountain Festival 2026, as well as have their work featured in Creatives and at festival events. Runners-up will be published on the website as part of a feature article. Winners will be announced in the new year. November’s call is for themed fiction and December for themed poetry. Word count is 150 words. The deadline is the last day of each month.…

Bluemoose Books Bluemoose Books won this year’s Small Press Northern Publisher of the year award at the British Book Awards, and several of the company’s titles have won or been shortlisted for major literary awards, writes Gary Dalkin. For example, Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Ronan Hession, was chosen by Dublin, UNESCO City of Literature as Book of The Year in 2021, while The Gallows Pole, by Benjamin Myers, won the world’s leading literary prize for historical fiction, the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize, and was adapted into a three-part BBC drama in 2023. A further four titles published by the company have been optioned for film or television. Read the Bluemoose Manifesto at: https://bluemoosebooks.com/about/manifesto and the ‘about’ page at https://bluemoosebooks.com/about, which also contains the submission guidelines, and explore the company’s…

Farnham Flash Fiction Competition 2026 The Farnham Flash Fiction Competition from Farnham Literary Festival is inviting entries of original, unpublished flash fiction up to 500 words. There are prizes of £100 and £25, and a special prize of £25 for the best flash fiction featuring Farnham. The entry fee is £5 per flash fiction. The closing date is 15 February 2026. Website: https://www.flashfiction500.com/ Flash 500 Short Stories Competition 2026 The annual short fiction contest has a £500 first prize. The Flash 500 Short Stories Competition invites entries of original, unpublished short fiction between 1,000 and 3,000 words. All themes and genres are welcome, including stories for children. The first prize is £500, and there are second and third prizes of £200 and £100. The entry fees are £7 for one…

HARRIET HOWE Tell us about your debut book and what inspired you to write it. My debut picture book, Tiger’s Last Roar (beautifully illustrated by Katie Cottle), is a lyrical, reassuring, story, that celebrates the unbreakable bond between a child and their pet and gently explores the topic of grief. I wrote the story after our cat died. Like many others, losing our family pet was my children’s first experience of grief. The more I thought about what a common childhood that experience is, the more I wanted to write about it. And so, Tiger and Mae were born. What’s your writing journey been so far? I loved writing as a child, but never thought it could be a real job, at least not for me. It wasn’t until I…

STAR LETTER SIGNIFICANT CHANGES I used to write a little when I was younger but never really took it seriously enough as there were always other distractions. However, just after Covid hit our shores, I was diagnosed with a very rare form of sarcoma, which resulted in life-changing surgery, meaning that a lot of the activities I previously enjoyed were no longer open to me. A short while before that, I wrote and selfpublished two books of poetry – which were quite successful and through sales raised around £1,000 for a local charity. Thinking back to those, I thought that writing could be a positive outlet for me, as well as being something I could still do. I found that I was incredibly self-critical about anything that I wrote and…

They’d have loved the drama of it – bowing out almost exactly ten years apart. Born in the same year and with the same initials, both queens of the bonkbuster. One was a Hollywood lioness, the other a Gloucestershire goddess. Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins. The blonde and the brunette who ruled the ‘80s. They could have been rivals. They should have been rivals. Instead, they were allies - in a sisterhood of sex, scandal and sales. Alongside Shirley Conran, they wrote the books that have stuffed my shelves for decades. Their worlds looked miles apart. One strutted in stilettos, the other strode in wellies. Jackie’s heroes were bad boys who burned in hell. Jilly’s got redeemed, shagged senseless, then married off to the village girl. One invited the reader…

A WEEK FOR BANNING It was Banned Books Week in the USA in October, writes Gary Dalkin, and PEN America, which campaigns to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide, released its annual list of the most banned books in US schools during the previous year. The organisation recorded 6,870 instances of book bans affecting nearly 4,000 titles. For the third consecutive year, Florida was the No. 1 state for book bans, with 2,304 instances, followed by Texas with 1,781 bans and Tennessee with 1,622. Topping the list was British modern classic A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, which despite being on Time’s list of the 100 greatest English language novels since 1923, was banned 23 times. Many of the most banned books were highly acclaimed multi-award winners,…

aesterion publishes quirky, weird, experimental fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and international literature in translation, writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. For fiction submit short stories no more than 7,000 words. The team welcome all genres and experimental styles, flash fiction included and enjoy stories which play with convention and form. Nonfiction in the form of essays under 4,000 words is welcomed. Three to five poems in a single document may be submitted in any style or form. Submit work by email. Include a short bio of the 150 words, and full contact details in the body of the email, plus a brief overview of the text submitted. Website: https://www.aesterion.com…

The Fantastic Other The Fantastic Other invites fiction, flash fiction, poetry, and art written to their theme of ‘Metamorphosis’ Submit ‘all things fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, surrealist, fabulist, and magical realist. For fiction submissions, no more than 3,500 words and flash fiction under 1,000 words. Payment US$5.00. Website: https://fantasticother.com So to Speak So to Speak is a feminist journal. It publishes twice a year, a print issue in the winter, and a digital issue in the summer. Print submissions open from early September to late November; digital submissions are open from January to March. The blog publishes year-round. Submit fiction and creative non-fiction no more than 5,000 words; flash or micro fiction, under 1,000 words, poetry no more than five poems and blog submissions are under 2,000 words. Website: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org Tough…

After the End 2025 As part of a research project exploring time, temporality and the meaning of endings, poets worldwide are invited to send poems that engage with the concept ‘after the end’. The competition is being run in association with the National Poetry Centre. The winner will receive £200, and there are two runner up prizes of £100. Submissions should be original, unpublished and no longer than 40 lines. Entry is free. Each poet may enter one poem only. The closing date is 1 December. Website: https://aftertheend.squarespace.com/news/project-one-ephnc-na4se-kjslj The Moth Poetry Prize 2025 The Moth Poetry Prize is an annual competition that is one of the world’s biggest prizes for a single poem, awarding a prize of €6,000. There are three runner-up prizes of €1,000 and eight further prizes of…

The competition is for children’s writing by new writers living in Scotland. The winner will receive £500, nine months of mentoring, and consideration for a publishing contract with Floris Books. Entries may be fiction or non-fiction, and should be either a picture book aimed a readers between 3 and 6, an early-reader chapter book for 6-8 year olds, a novel for 8-11 year olds or 11/13 year olds, or a non-fiction book for any of those age groups. To submit, send either the first five chapters or the entire picture book, a one-page synopsis or summary of the book, and a short piece of writing for children between 1,000 and 3,000 words that includes one of the following phrases: And then I remembered the porridge was still on the stove;…

Flash memoir and prose poetry look the same on the page, both being short pieces arranged in one or more paragraphs without line breaks, so what’s the difference? Looking at flash memoir first, this is a short story from your own life, typically 500 words or fewer. There isn’t room for complicated plotting and exposition – all that has to be pared down – but as with longer narratives, the story must deliver a change point. The reader has a glimpse of how things have been and how they are changed because of what happens in the story. A prose poem doesn’t have to tell or suggest a story, it may simply convey an emotion, suggest a situation, examine objects that will have resonance for the reader, like any other…

When my kids went to school my daughter would always feel ill towards the end of term. I don’t think she ever managed the final day. I called it end-of-term-itis and now, decades later, a friend told me it is a real thing. I Googled it. Or researched it, as I prefer to say. And yes, it exists. The students, at whatever age, get tired and lose motivation. Teachers have been known to suffer too. I guess as they head towards the finish line they slow down. My question is, if it exists for school kids, students and some teachers, then can writers also get a form of this. We don’t have terms but do you begin to flag as the year draws to a close? Do we get end-of-year-it…

What a treat it was to see the unseen and overlooked given voice in the many responses to our submissions call on the theme of ‘Invisible’ this month. It attracted such a great and imaginative variety of writing, with the WM writers interpeting the theme in forms from poetry and prose poetry though fiction, life writing and narrative non-fiction. Evoked beautfully in the writers’ individual voices, we encountered ghosts, lost memories, forgotten and shunned individuals, people losing visibility, characters being erased from their own lives through dementia, and defiant passages of resistance to being sidelined or stereotyped. It was a deep pleasure to read such thoughtful and powerful responses to this call, and as ever a struggle to pick two for the page, but the writing by Val Ormrod and…

If you have a query for Lisa, please send it by email to lisacuttsenquiries@gmail.com Q Part my current plot involves a woman who gets the number plate of a car and wants to track down details about the owner. Would the police or DVLA disclose this information to her? I am thinking she would say she was in an accident (she wasn’t) and the driver fled the scene.? Michael Lynch via email A To keep it simple, I would have her contact DVLA for the details of the owner. For names and addresses, the request must be made in writing and there must be a ‘reasonable cause’, such as responsible for an accident, the vehicle is abandoned or parked on private land. I would avoid using an accident as it…

It’s so tempting to send a manuscript out once the initial toil is over and you’re happy – more or less – with how it’s reading. In terms of the ultimate prize of a publishing deal, the fable of the hare and the tortoise springs to mind and a measured approach usually gets there first. Although you might have a terrific submission package, the manuscript quality dictates whether the project will be green-lit or not so I’d put some checks into place before heading for this next, exciting step. At Cornerstones, we’re approached by many authors with bags of talent who still can’t get published. This is often a case of their skipping the final steps before submission, perhaps hoping that any unresolved issues will be ironed out at the…

The writer development programme from The Women’s Prize Trust is inviting entries from aspiring women novelists. 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, unagented 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. Shortlisted writers will be offered a mentoring session with a Curtis Brown agent, a free place on a six week Curtis Brown Creative online course and a…

Cynren Press is a boutique indie press with the aim of publishing ‘books that endure,’ writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. The focus is quality submissions of history, biography, memoir, women’s studies (biographical, historical, or identity focused), poetry, (biographical, historical, or identity focused) historical fiction, (broad; set in the 1970s or earlier) world fiction, (lifeways focused) and Young Adult, (ages 14+.) Unagented submissions welcomed but query first. The team prefer a completed edited manuscript. Include a brief summary of the book, a writer’s CV and word count. Website: https://www.cynren.com…

Founded in 1968, and one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations, Arvon is a leading UK creative writing charity, writes Gary Dalkin, hosting residential, online and community-based writing courses and events, tutored by some of the UK’s most respected writers. The charity has now been awarded £40,000 from Jerwood Foundation to launch the Jerwood Arvon Writer Residencies, a new self-guided talent development programme for 12 emerging writers who are unpublished or have had no more than one full length work professionally published or produced. The residencies will support writers working in fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and playwriting to bring a project to completion – whether that is a novel or non-fiction work, a stage play, a story or essay collection, or a poetry pamphlet or collection. The 18-month programme…

It is a truism to say we live in changing times, and some changes catch one unawares, are surprising and may, initially at least, seem wrong. I was brought up to have a respectful attitude to books, never to fold down corners to mark my place or write in them. Highlighting was, grudgingly, only permitted for textbooks. Now doodling, annotation and spledging (the latter describing decorating the page edges) have now evidently become ‘a thing.’ The internet is full of people extolling the virtues of doing this, Tik Tok shows you how and even the industry bible The Bookseller acknowledges it as okay, saying that it allows readers to ‘closely engage with a book they really love.’ Various suppliers sell kits to help you adopt the process. Who knew? Certainly,…