Happiness in (Literary) Magazines
22/9/2015
Last month, a Facebook friend shared an intriguing blog post from Structo, a self-funded, bi-annual literary magazine. In the post, editor Euan Monaghan explained that their next call for submissions would contain a 'fee' (of sorts), but one that they hoped everyone could get behind. Motivated by the fact that two of their favourite magazines had recently closed down, the idea was that everyone who submitted work for Structo 15 had to also show that they had bought the latest issue of a literary magazine. And that is, any literary magazine, not just Structo:
"If you send writing to literary magazines, we reckon you should support the ones you enjoy; that way they are more likely to be around the next time you want to send them work." In their submission guidelines, Structo link to an excellent article by Lynne Barrett: 'What Editors Want; A Must-Read for Writers Submitting to Literary Magazines'. It's by far the best 'How to Submit' article I've read, and I really recommend you take a look. Alongside some excellent advice for those hoping to get their work published, there's a paragraph or two on the importance of actually reading the magazines you're submitting to. It may seem like a no-brainer, but as Barrett's anecdotal evidence suggests, some literary submitters still aren't prepared to do their homework. It reminded me of a Facebook post I shared a few months ago:
I've heard/read many variations on this in the last few years. I'm almost certainly paraphrasing here, but I believe an editor of one of the 'big three' Welsh literary magazines once suggested that if the magazine had as many subscribers as it did Facebook friends, then its future wouldn't be so uncertain. A sorry state of affairs, given the consistent quality of writing on offer from that particular publication. I'm not saying that anyone should feel obliged to buy – it's our hard-earned money after all – but I will echo Structo's belief that we should support the ones we enjoy (and that's with banknotes and PayPal transactions, not just retweets and page 'likes'). So, with this in mind, I thought I'd share a list of my personal favourites. There are others worthy of honourable mentions of course (Bare Fiction, The Lampeter Review, Poetry, Poetry Wales...), but the following four magazines are the ones that have become permanent fixtures on my bedside table.
Popshot
Popshot is stunning. I've been a subscriber ever since I found their first issue in Borders' magazine section in 2009, and now I can't imagine missing an issue. Originally focused on poetry alone, it relaunched in 2012 with the strapline 'The Illustrated Magazine of New Writing' to include short stories and flash fiction. Each issue is centred on a theme, with illustrations accompanying each piece of writing. Published bi-annually (with a subscription price of just £10), Dazed & Confused called it "a who isn't yet who of contemporary literature." popshotpopshot.com
The Ghastling
Earlier this year I mentioned that The Ghastling was one of my favourite magazines, and nothing's changed. A magazine of "ghosts, the macabre and the oh-so peculiar", it definitely appeals to a niche audience, but editor Rebecca Parfitt is committed to publishing the best literary fiction that chills, shivers, surprises and horrifies – so you won’t find any undue gore or Twilight-lite amongst its pages. Like Popshot, The Ghastling is another illustrated magazine that is a sight to behold, taking its design cues from the penny dreadfuls of Victorian Britain. Issues are available to read for free online, but the print copy is a thing of absolute beauty. theghastling.com
Planet
Given the fact that it isn't exclusively dedicated to literature, there could be an argument that Planet (or to give its full title: Planet - The Welsh Internationalist) shouldn't be on this list of my favourite literary magazines. However, there was no way I was omitting it. A quarterly cultural and political magazine that looks at Wales from an international perspective, and at the world from the standpoint of Wales, Planet publishes high-quality writing, artwork and photography by established and emerging figures, with each issue featuring poetry and short fiction that connects in some way with the broad range of issues and concerns of the magazine. planetmagazine.org.uk
Lighthouse
A relatively new quarterly journal (Issue 9 was launched this summer), Lighthouse seeks to publish the best short fiction and poetry emerging from the UK writing scene, alongside feature articles from better-known writers. Part of Gatehouse Press, a publisher of new fiction and poetry, it was named 'Best Magazine' at the 2015 Saboteur Awards. I've only recently discovered Lighthouse, but two issues were all it took for me to fall in love with its mix of high-quality content and simple, pared-down design. The free supplements on their website give a good idea of what to expect for your £5. gatehousepress.com/lighthouse
Postscript: We've recently adopted two cats and, as my Instagram followers will attest, I don't need too much of an excuse to take pictures of them. So Structo's suggestion that proof of having bought the current issue of a literary magazine could be a "photo of your cat and/or other cute animal sitting on a pile of subscriptions" was all the encouragement I needed to subject one of them to another 30-minute photoshoot. I think we captured his best angle.
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Lighthouse #9
8/9/2015
Usually, if I'm writing a blog post about having something published in a magazine, I would open with a sentence along the lines of "a poem of mine was recently featured in...". But, even though my name appears above it on the back cover of the latest issue of Lighthouse, 'Magnetic' isn't my poem – at least not in the traditional sense.
Found poetry is a form where poets take existing text and repurpose or reframe it as a new piece of writing. The existing text might come from a newspaper article, a political speech, a piece of graffiti or even another poem, with the resulting found poem being defined as either 'treated' or 'untreated'. As an art form, there are obvious comparisons with the controversial objets trouvés of the visual arts – and, as you might expect, found poets are sometimes also accused of hiding behind the ready-made. Though I disagree that found poetry is intellectual theft on the same level as the recent Laventille fiasco, it is hard to argue against the fact that it occasionally enters the grey area that exists between appropriation and plagiarism. When I first submitted this poem to Lighthouse for their 'writing with constraints' issue, it came with a disclaimer: Five poems found on my fridge, created by friends and friends of friends using magnetic words. Written in size 10 font just below the title, this was my attempt to give a source (and, I suppose, to distance myself from accusations of stealing), but it was sliced away – along with a small number of other flabby words and phrases – following some welcome suggestions from Lighthouse editors Julia Webb and Anna de Vaul. For me, the joy of this particular form is finding poetry in unlikely places. Elsewhere in this issue of Lighthouse, for example, is a found poem formed from a medieval act of parliament. Like 'Magnetic', this poem – 'An Acte for the Preservation of Grayne, 1566' by Matt Howard – is untreated (as far as I can tell), but it’s also taken from an existing text that was never intended to be a poem. This is where the two poems differ, and where mine enters that aforementioned grey area. Currently Reading: Louis Jenkins
13/5/2015
From North of the Cities by Louis Jenkins (Will o’ the Wisp Books, 2007)
Nostalgia plays a big part in the life of a football fan, consistently finding its way into the narratives we create to feed our love for the game. But sentimentality for the past isn't limited to fans of clubs who have fallen on hard times – periods of failure (or even lethargic inactivity) are often celebrated as much as periods of glory, a way for fans who lived through those dog days to say: "I'm not just here for the good times...I was here when we were shit, and I'll still be here when that normal service is resumed."
In case you didn't know (and I'm not sure how you wouldn't, because I go on about it a lot) – I'm a supporter of Swansea City FC. My stepdad took me to my first game when I was 11 years old and, apart from a brief period when I thought that music might be more important than football, I've been a devoted member of the Jack Army ever since. The story of Swansea's recent rise through the divisions of the English league has been well-documented (it even made it to the big screen last year). Like many supporters, I've grown to accept that the shiny, new Liberty Stadium – which the Swans moved into in time for the 2005/06 season – has been a crucial factor in the club's success, but I still crave the days when my mates and I would pile into a bus at Morriston Cross and head down to the seafront for a visit to the Swans' former home: the cobbled-together collection of crumbling brick, rotting wood and tin cow-shed sheets known as the Vetch Field.
Searching your own name on the internet is a risky move – you never know what might turn up. Maybe you'll unearth that MySpace blog you lovingly curated as an angst-ridden 15-year-old, or discover that the video of you singing karaoke at last year's office Christmas party made its way onto YouTube after all (despite the promises of your co-workers).
Before we continue, I must stress that neither of these things can be found by searching my name. The top results when you search 'Rhys Owain Williams' are pretty much all linked to either this website or to my various social media profiles (hopefully that video of me singing Breakfast at Tiffany's will never see the light of day). So it was a nice surprise when, out of vain curiosity, I put my name into the Twitter search engine and saw this tweet from 4 days ago:
Had some pretty great news late last night – an email came through just as I was going to bed to say that one of my haiku will be included in The Haiku Calendar 2016, published by Snapshot Press. Since 1999, Snapshot – an independent publisher specialising in English-language haiku, tanka and other short poetry – have run an annual competition to find 52 haiku to publish in their Haiku Calendar. Edited by John Barlow, each calender features haiku poets from around the world, and intends to explore and celebrate the relevance of kigo (a word or phrase associated with a particular season) in English-language haiku. My haiku, inspired by the abandoned churchyard at Llandeilo Tal Y Bont (pictured), will appear in the month of September, which by a pleasing coincidence is the month of my birthday. Although there's still 8 months of 2015 to get through, you can pre-order your copy of the 2016 calendar now (with free delivery) for just £7.99 (UK), €14.00 (Europe) or £12.00/US$20 (Rest of the World). Read the full competition results and adjudicator's report here: http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/thcc/results/thcc2015results.pdf The Lampeter Review #11
10/3/2015
A poem of mine – 'Ghazal' – has been published in Issue 11 of The Lampeter Review, the online journal of the Lampeter Creative Writing Centre (part of the University of Wales, Trinity St David). You can read the entire issue for free by going here: lampeter-review.com/issue-11 A 'ghazal' (roughly pronounced like the English word 'guzzle') is an ancient poetic form with origins in 6th century Arabic verse. It made its way to South Asia by the 12th century, and is now most commonly found in the poetry of the Indian sub-continent. Ghazals are composed of (at least) five thematically and emotionally autonomous couplets, with the link between couplets derived from a strict rhyme and rhythm pattern, rather than a development of subject. However, my poem is a loose, Westernised (or, bastardised) version, and does not follow the strict pattern of the traditional form. Instead, I have focused solely on the poetic style of a traditional ghazal where, as the American poet Len Anderson states, "each couplet should be a poem in itself, like a pearl in a necklace." Elesewhere in this issue of The Lampeter Review, there is a thematic focus on magic realism and the writers of Latin America, which has made for very interesting reading so far. All 10 back issues of the journal, which "promotes the best in new writing from published and unpublished authors", can also be read on The Lampeter Review's website: lampeter-review.com Wales Book of the Month
10/2/2015
Towards the end of last year, one of my short stories was included in A Flock of Shadows, a contemporary gothic fiction anthology from Parthian Books. The anthology was well-received at a special Halloween preview event back in October and has now, following its official release, been named as the English-language Wales Book of the Month for February 2015. Each month, the Welsh Books Council chooses two books (English-language and Welsh-language) to be promoted in independent bookshops and Waterstones stores across Wales. The books are also available to buy directly from the Council's online bookshop (alongside many other great titles from Welsh publishers) at gwales.com There will be a selection of readings from A Flock of Shadows at Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre this Friday as part of a gothic variety evening ('The Wyrd Wonder Presents...an Evening of Ghastly Delight'). Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, but I definitely recommend going along if you're spending the evening in the capital, as there's also readings from the new issue of The Ghastling, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite magazines. You can find out more at the Facebook event page. Edit: I have since found out that 'The Wyrd Wonder Presents...an Evening of Ghastly Delight' is due to take place at Chapter Arts Centre on Friday 13th March, NOT Friday 13th February as stated in the post above. Sorry for any confusion caused. The upside of this on a personal level is that I am now more likely to be able to attend. Today's charity shop find: Swansea City AFC's Official Annual 1980, complete with a seemingly genuine article on how to marry a Swans player.
Morriston Hospital Poetry Benches
15/12/2014
Although I've been including a short line about my involvement in a public art project at Morriston Hospital in my bio notes for the last year or so, I've been reluctant to disclose anything further for fear that the project might not actually happen. Not because our facilitators, Artinsite, have given any indication that the project has ever been in doubt, but just because it's a pretty big deal to see your words committed to anything other than paper, and I didn't want to jinx it.
However, over the weekend, Artinsite forwarded some images of our poetry benches being installed the atrium of one of Morriston Hospital's new buildings. They exist. Unfortunately, the building has suffered an unrelated setback and now won't open until next spring – but our benches now sit awaiting cheeks, having navigated their way through the all the potential hiccups of the pre-production and production stages. |
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