Writing Magazine

We often talk, in Writing Magazine, about the value of creating a newsletter and having readers sign up to get all your latest news, so it would be lax of me not to at least occasionally mention our own! If you haven’t signed up, join us at www.write

Discover the background for these beloved SF subgenres – now distinct cultural movements in their own rights – with advice and exercises to give you fresh ideas and stories to work on. Learn how to write great ghost stories with all the tools to leav

Published by Warners Group Publications plc West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH Main office: 0113 200 2929 Subscriptions: 01778 392 482 Advertising: 0113 200 2925 Publisher: Collette Lloyd, email: collette.lloyd@warnersgroup.co.uk Editor: Jonathan Te

Q I have a book that I published via a small press, wanting to get it into the hands of my friends and family quicker. There hasn’t been any publicity and sales are low. Can a book published this way still be submitted to agents and/or publishers? If

‘If I’m honest, it was the prospect of turning forty that really kicked me into following my dream of becoming a published author. ‘Like many writers I was a bookish child, always reading, with a deep love for Anne of Green Gables and Little House on

• The Swallow Sidecar Company, which later grew into Jaguar Cars, was founded by Walmsley & Lyons in Blackpool. • Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, known as ‘the Flying Finn’, broke the world-record for 5,000m. • People in New York protested about the unwr

‘My second book, 100neHundred – a collection of 100 x 100-word stories, took several years to write,’ writes subscriber Laura Besley. ‘From 2015 to the end of 2021, Morgen Bailey ran a free-to-enter themed 100-word story competition for up to three e

‘I have subscribed to Writing Magazine for many years, and each month I look forward to receiving my copy and reading it from cover to cover, and learning something new,’ writes Sylvia Broady. ‘So I thought it was about time I introduced myself. I am

‘When I decided to take writing seriously, I subscribed to Writing Magazine,’ writes Steven Mitchell. ‘I’ve learnt a lot from its pages over the years, and I’ve been shortlisted in some of its competitions, but I’m most thankful for it introducing me

‘Last August I self-published my book Goodbye Mother Bear and although this was my sixth book, this one was different by miles,’ writes subscriber Adam Searle. ‘Apart from getting a professional illustrator and a designer on board to help guide throu

‘The Sampford Slaying is my second novel, but my first historical murder-mystery,’ writes subscriber Andrew McAuley. ‘I’ve always been interested in history, particularly medieval history, but only in recent years have I delved much into the local hi

‘Last year saw the release of my feel-good romance, A Secret Scottish Escape, with the amazing HarperCollins imprint One More Chapter.’ writes subscriber Julie Shackman. ‘I was delighted to learn that it became a bestseller, but it never stops being

‘My latest book idea came from a dream that I had,’ writes subscriber Linda Sawley. ‘In the dream I was at a writer’s workshop and the allocated task was to write a piece about someone from the past, someone from the present and someone from the futu

‘When my wonderful husband died suddenly in April 2018, my job was my lifeline,’ writes subscriber Marilyn Drawwater. ‘The contract came to an end two years later and I was left wondering what to do with the rest of my life. I had always wanted to wr

The American novelist Roger Stelljes is a practising lawyer and devoted family man who also finds time to write bestselling crime fiction set in Minnesota, the US state where he was born and still lives. ‘I write about what I know,’ he says. ‘Minneso

• When and where did your journey as an author begin? It’s been a dream of mine from a young age, but my journey started officially in 2020. I’d been writing a book on and off for years, and lockdown gave me the push to sit down and finally finish my

• Actually start writing, because just thinking about writing will never make it happen. • At first, writing can seem daunting. But, if you pick away at it a little each day, you’ll be amazed where you’re at after thirty, sixty, ninety days. • Someti

If you have a query for Lisa, please send it by email to lisacuttsenquiries@gmail.com Q A woman who has frequently complained to police about a stalker makes a 999 call. A PC is despatched to her home. When he arrives at the scene, a neighbour is in

• Eric’s top tips:• Figure out your goal in using A+.• Keep it simple. A few images, a few lines of text. Things that’ll catch the eye and inform at a glance. Too crowded, too much info, too many images, and the eye turns away.• If you write a series

The international The Bedford Competition 2022 has £1,000 first prizes for short stories and poetry. The story category is for original, unpublished short fiction up to 3,000 words. The winner will receive £1,000, and there are second and third prize

The Séan O’Faoláin International Short Story Competition from Munster Literature Centre is inviting entries. The annual international competition is for original, unpublished and unbroadcast short stories up to 3,000 words. Stories may be on any subj

This year’s Hammond House 2022 Literary Prize is on the theme of ‘Changes’. The annual international prize is sponsored by University Centre Grimsby, and this year has five categories: • Poetry: Up to 40 lines. The prizes are £500, £50 and £20. • Sho

The McLellan Poetry Prize 2022 is inviting entries. The prize is run by the Arran Theatre and Arts Trust as part of the annual McLellan Arts Festival. Entries are invited of original, unpublished poems up to forty lines, in English or Gaelic (with an

One of the Scottish Arts Trust Story Awards, the Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction is an international contest for fiction on any subject, no longer than 250 words. Any writer may enter, whether published or unpublished. The winner will receive £1,00

Infinite Worlds is, so the editorial team claim, ‘everything you’ve always wanted in a science fiction magazine’, with ‘page after page of sensational art, incredible comics, and mind-bending stories from talents the world over, as well as fascinatin

The Vincent Brothers Review (TVBR for short) is a well-respected, long-established American magazine which recreated itself during the digital revolution but still produces two print copies a year as well as the four digital issues. TVBR’s editorial

The first memorial for Hamnet and Judith, the twin children of William Shakespeare, was unveiled on 7 May in Trinity Church, Stratford upon-Avon, home of the Bard. The memorial consists of two rowan trees planted in the churchyard. Trinity is famed a

The winners of the 2022 Edgar Allen Poe Awards are: Best Novel, Five Decembers, James Kestrel; Best First Novel by an American Author, Deer Season, Erin Flanagan; Best Paperback Original, Bobby March Will Live Forever, Alan Parks; Best Fact Crime, La

Founded in 1946 and relaunched in 2018, Jewish Currents is a New York-based award-winning magazine of politics, culture, and ideas, published quarterly in print and daily online. The title features in-depth reporting, analysis, and cultural criticism

With over thirty years of bringing entertaining and humorous content to the newsagents’ shelves The Oldie is now in digital format too. Editor Harry Mount sees the magazine as ‘ageless and timeless, free of retirement advice, crammed with rejuvenatin

The Leicester Writes Short Story Prize 2022, from independent publisher Dahlia Books is for fiction up to 3,500 words. Set up in 2017, the prize is for original, unpublished short fiction on any theme or subject. Prizes are £175, £75 and £50, and a l

The Literary Taxidermy Writing Competition 2022 is inviting entries. The annual international competition is run by Regulus Press, who provide opening and closing lines for participants, who are then invited to create a piece of writing (story or poe

Leamington Books is an Edinburgh-based publisher of fiction and non-fiction that fits its ethos of ‘transformative publishing’. ‘In our first two years we tested ourselves and the market with a bit of everything, including new fiction, Scots fiction,

The latest quarterly prompt contest from Cranked Anvil is for stories that must contain all three of the following elements: • The story must take place within a 24-hour timeframe • Weather should play a role in the story • The story must contain the

The Young Walter Scott Prize is inviting entries of short historical fiction between 800 and 2,000 words from writers from 11 to 19. Entries may be in any fictional form, ie prose, poetry, drama, fictional diaries, letters or reportage – and must be

The Farnham Flash Fiction Competition from Farnham Fringe Festival is open for original, unpublished flash fiction up to 500 words. Prizes are £75 and £25, with £25 for the best entry featuring Farnham. All longlisted entries will be offered publicat

An award winning website giving insider guides on everything from what to see and do, food and drink and ‘every tip, trick and hack’ on destinations worldwide, fodors.com invites pitches for stories which go beyond the more traditional travel feature

Evolved Publishing works as a cooperative small press. Their ‘authors, editors, and artists are all team members because we function in an enthusiastic, cooperative, information-sharing, team environment… to encourage writing and selling quality book

Mangoprism is a US journalistic site where the editorial team are seeking high-level, entertaining, provocative and original work from emerging and veteran writers. They would like to see pitches for personal essays, cultural criticism, long-form int

Seaside Gothic is a British magazine published ‘from the edge of the sea where the frontier of civilisation meets the wild of the water.’ They ‘look for writing that expresses the sense of border living that is shared between the coast and the ocean,

The danger of getting too close to your writing is well known. It is this that dictates that, having read something you regard as finished – well written and well checked – you find a typo (or two?). How can that be? It’s then so obvious, yet we do m

Lea Ypi has won the 2022 RSL Ondaatje Prize for the novel Free (Allen Lane). The annual Prize of £10,000 is awarded for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place. Ypi said, ‘This started as a book about con

The Soldiers Arts Academy International Poetry Competition 2022, an international contest for poems from the military community, is running for a second year. The SAA International Poetry Competition has an open theme, and is open to all members of t

The Hysteria 22 writing competition from Linda Parkinson-Hardman invites entries of short stories up to 1,000 words, flash fiction up to 250 words and poems up to twelve lines, all on the theme of ‘peace’. All genres are accepted except for erotica a

Clash Books is an independent press that publishes literary fiction, non-fiction, horror, poetry, and gift/art books. ‘We have an eclectic reading taste and that comes out in our catalogue,’ said managing editor Christoph Paul. Clash Books originally

The ever-flowing Chicken Soup for the Soul series needs non-fiction stories and poems for the ‘Advice that changed my life’ anthology. The deadline is 31 July and stories or poems should contain a great piece of advice that you were given, or advice

ARTnews was founded in 1902 and is now a leading US online source for all that’s happening in the international art world. Recent stories have included ‘Danish Artist Allegedly Vandalizes Iconic Asger Jorn Painting in Act Some See as Right-Wing Prote

Win a first prize of £600 for poems up to seventy lines in the Buzzwords Poetry Competition 2022. The contest from Buzzwords poetry organisation in Cheltenham is inviting entries of original, unpublished poems up to seventy lines, on any subject. The

Quarter Press is a tiny press. The editorial team ‘love the blending of real life and the fantastic, the absurd, the magical, the heart breaking, and the things that scare the s—out of us.’ They welcome ‘book-length novels and collections targeted at

Win a £2,000 first prize in the Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2022 from Coffee House Poetry, for unpublished poems up to 45 lines. The winner will receive £2,000. The second prize is £1,000 and the third prize, £500. Twenty further poets will

San Francisco-based The Information describes itself as the ‘leading publication high-powered tech executives and founders read daily’, and editor Jon Steinberg is looking for pitches for the Weekend section of the site for ‘great yarns about our tec

Dancing Star Press is a small independent US publisher. The editorial team aim ‘to publish speculative fiction that shows that not only can dragons be beaten, but so can oppressive governments and other forms of social control.’ They want ‘hope in th

The Quiet Man Dave Prize 2022 is inviting entries of flash fiction and flash non-fiction. The international Quiet Man Dave Prize is run by Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University to celebrate the life of writer and theatre cri

Driftwood Press started life as a quarterly literary magazine with an editorial team ‘actively searching for artists who care about doing it right, or better’. They publish fiction, poetry, photography, graphic narrative, craft essays, and interviews

The next edition of the quarterly Henshaw Press Short Story Competition closes on 30 June. Stories may be up to 2,000 words, on any theme. The prizes are £200, £100 and £50, and the entry fee is £6. Website: www.henshawpress.co.uk/ The longlist for t

Stalking Horse Press is a independent US publishing house with a team committed ‘to radical voices in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction’. In the beginning the team sought ‘marginalised voices and neglected work, but the definitions of marginal are too

An arts and culture magazine, Huck seeks to ‘celebrate and explore independent culture, people and movements that paddle against the flow’ and publishes features, profiles, interviews, reportage, opinion pieces and photo essays in print and digitally

Soul & Spirit, edited by WM’s own regular writing lifestyle columnist Rosalind Moody, is a hugely popular monthly lifestyle magazine that enables readers to explore their spirituality and develop their psychic gifts. Covering the entire mind-body-spi

Volteface is a London-based independent research and advocacy organisation that seeks to reduce the harm drugs pose to individuals and society through evidence-based policy reform. They aim to cultivate fresh thinking in part through their online mag

Wet Cement Press is a micropress started by a group of writers who wanted to give ‘the unusual novel’ a life in book form. The current editorial team still have tastes which ‘run toward the lyrical and spontaneous, the raw and unsmooth.’ The team are

When I started writing I knew nothing. Joining a creative writing class seemed like a good idea and everything that was said there got soaked up by me. It was because of that class that I sent out my first article into the world, and it was accepted.

Secret Attic’s monthly free-entry short story contest closes on the 30th of each month and has a prize of a £25 Amazon voucher for the best entry. enter short fiction up to 1,500 words. The judge is Emily Dixon. Website: www.secret-attic.co.uk Author

Unsolicited original and engaging articles based on specialist knowledge and also short stories may be submitted to Aquila, a monthly magazine of science and general knowledge. The magazine has a readership of 40,000 boys and girls aged 8-13 years wi

The winner of the Joffe Books Prize 2022 for new BAME crime writers will get £1,000 and a publishing deal. Now in its second year, the Joffe Books Prize is inviting entries of crime fiction by unagented writers from Black, Asian, indigenous and minor

If you like experimental horror ergot. calls itself ‘a literary website interested in furthering the innovative and experimental tradition in horror. Submitters are advised to read the back issue at the website to make sure they know what ‘experiment

If you consider yourself to be a writer from a working-class background you will be eligible for the Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers’ Prize which has a cash prize of £200 for the winner in addition to a wealth of career development opportunit

The quarterly Bath Flash Fiction Award offers a £1,000 first prize for 300-word fiction, and second and third prizes of £300 and £100, plus two £30 commendations. The entry fee is £9 per flash. The next round closes on 30 September. Website: www.bath

Rivanna Review is a new print journal published four times a year in Charlottesville, Virginia, on the Rivanna River. The editorial team publish work of general interest, particularly stories, essays, poems, and book reviews, for general reading plea

The Covid pandemic has certainly made an impact around the world and you are invited to write about how it impacted on your personal and professional life through speculative fiction, which must have a fantastical element, for the Corporate Catharsis

Imaginative genre/speculative stories that have a ‘healthy dose of the odd’ whether that be an odd character, experience or reality are invited by Bourbon Penn magazine. Editors are quite partial to slipstream, cross genre, magic realism and surreal

Speculative flash fiction, ‘specifically science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, super hero’ and combinations of these are invited for Factor Four, a monthly magazine which is available worldwide in print, eReader and can be read online. Stories shou

Patrick Forsyth finds new idea inspiration on his first holiday in two years In February/March, as more of us are beginning to do, I went on holiday. Time spent in Thailand, despite the horrendous necessary documentation (the online process of gettin

Three Ravens is a US publisher of SF, horror and fantasy, keen to welcome new authors. They publish anthologies and what they look for are fun stories. They don’t have to ‘be thought-provoking or profound, but they do have to pull us in and take us o