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Tag Archives: short stories

Brittle Star Online Launch of issue 47 at Barbican Library

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We hope you’re all keeping safe and well. Everyone who has supported us by sending in work, subscribing, buying us a coffee at Kofi, being patrons through Patreon and just darn well sharing information about the magazine through your social media and over the garden wall (at 6 feet distance!) we want to give you a massive THANK YOU HUG!

2020 was a hard year, wasn’t it? A year to be coming out of the darkness and looking to the light of the new year – and never has the phrase ‘New Year’ seemed more hopeful! And, on keeping with that hopeful note, we’re delighted to be launching issue 47 of Britle Star online with the Barbican Library on 26th January.

Come celebrate with us

Our launches have always been free to attend, and this one is no different. The very lovely Barbican is hosting our event, so you will need to book through EventBrite – just click the link here: Book here

Issue 47 is packed with wonderful poetry and short fiction from all over the world and we’re delighted to have nine of the magazine’s 32 contributors read for us this evening. Help us celebrate 20 years of publishing with readings from: Peter Arscott, Jo Dixon, Lara Frankena, Louisa, Hooper, David Ball, C.P. Nield, Mohammad Razai, Kat Siddle and June Wentland.

We also have an exclusive special offer for anyone joining us on the night. There are no nibbles or wine this time (unless you bring your own), but still lots of great writing and a warm welcome!

If you’d like a copy of issue 47 in advance, you can purchase a physical one for £6.00 plus P&P here:

Buy a copy of the magazine

Or a pdf for £5 here:

Buy a PDF download of the magazine

The Brittle Star Workout

Also in January, we started our first online writing class called The Brittle Star Workout – a writing exercise class via Zoom for poets and short fiction writers. It only costs £5 and is hosted by Brittle Star editor Jacqueline Gabbitas. Classes are on Sundays and Wednesday evenings (more dates added weekly), so get those creative muscles going and join us on a workout! For more information and to book a place visit our KofiShop by clicking here.

We hope to see you soon.

Stay safe and well,

Martin & Jacqueline
Editors

Issue 47 – New Covid-safe Online Submission Window

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Hello Everyone!

Well, we’re back in lockdown in the UK – rubbish, we know but we hope you’re all staying safe, looking after yourselves and each other and writing and reading loads.

Back in May we opened up a submission window for issue 46 and we’re doing it again for issue 47! Same as before, the window is very short – only 10 days so that we can manage the submissions – but the good news is that the turn around on it is lickety-split quick – we’ll let you know of our decision within three weeks. The submission window dates are 10th – 19th November. We’re afraid if you send work outside of these dates we won’t be able to read it and your email will remain unopened. We do not charge fees for submitting online.

If you don’t want to submit online, you can still send in by post – our postal submissions are rolling.

A few things before you submit


• Please try to read a copy of the magazine before you submit. You can subscribe for print copies at www.brittlestar.org.uk/subscribe or download a digital copy of our current issue at 0s & 1s here. And if you buy us a coffee on ko-fi.com/brittlestar you’ll receive a pdf back issue as a thank you.

• We welcome submissions of unpublished, original work in the following categories:
• Poetry: 1 – 4 poems
• Literary short fiction: 1 story up to 2000 words (double-line spaced)
• To submit your work online or by post click here to visit our submissions page and read our guidelines.

 

Thank you and stay safe, Martin & Jacqueline

We really do have lift off! Stereoplate Podcast

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It’s up there!

Stereoplate is a new Stonewood Press podcast that we’ve been slaving over these last few weeks (and especially these last few days) and the first series will help us here at Brittle Star to launch Issue 46 and celebrate 20 years of publishing new writing . Yes, 20 in 2020!

As we mentioned in the last post, Brittle Star will be kicking off the podcast (which is nice because it was a catalyst for Stonewood Press beginning in the first place). It kicks off with a series called We Have Lift Off! How do you Launch a Literary Magazine in a Global Pandemic.   Each episode asks one simple question then we see where the subject takes us…

…The first episode takes us to the source of the phrase ‘men of letters’, then to the first ever literary magazine published in 1684, all the way over to Magma Poetry’s hacked Zoom launch and of course the first lot of brilliant new writing from this issue read in the writers own voices!

We asked poets and storyists to drag their computers, tablets or phones into wardrobes and under blankets to record their work and they did – they’re madder than us!  But the result is wonderful. We hope you’ll go and have a listen and then agree! As for us? We pinned up quilts and blankets in our office, blacked out the windows with cushions then read off scripts, ran off at the mouth and drank copius mugs of tea and coffee (provided by the wonderful people who bought us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/brittlestar). We’re knackered, but it was worth it (just to hear me call Martin a ‘cheeky bogs’).

The Brittle Star work featured in this episode is: ‘Natural Selection’ by Rebecca Shore, ‘How to Visit with Puffins’ by Heidi Beck, ‘Siberian Landscape’ by Louisa Hooper, ‘Crosh Cuirn’ by Simon Maddrell, ‘The Stone Kiss’ by Peter Burrows, ‘Sequoia’ by Jill Townsend and ‘Tomorrow’ by Maddison Feshler. We chose them because they all had an outward looking feel to them. See what you think.

You can download Stereoplate at Spotify, Anchor FM, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Breaker and others (and ITunes soon). Click on the players below to listen to the trailer on Anchor and Spotify.

Anchor

Spotify

If you like what we do, buy us a coffee over at https://ko-fi.com/brittlestar or click on the button at the top of the page – we’re saving up to buy a new website!

Brittle Star Issue 46 is out now!

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Normally, at this time of year we pack up the car with magazines and refreshments and wheel our way down to the lovely Barbican Music Library in London for the launch of our summer issue – good readings, Pimms and the odd strawberry or two. And this year, Brittle Star is celebrating 20 years, so there would also have been cake!

In our new normal, we’re doing things differently. This week, Issue 46 will be softly padding onto the welcome mat of our subscribers, patrons and contributors ready to have its envelope disinfected and ripped open to reveal a bit of gorgeousness filled with wonderful new writing, articles and reviews. It will be read and hopefully enjoyed, and maybe read again.

To help us celebrate the poems and stories we’ll be broadcasting a series of podcasts to showcase the work. Each episode will be a mini-launchette with writers reading their work in their own voices. The series will be part of a new podcast from Stonewood Press called Stereoplate and will be available from early July wherever you listen to your podcasts. So watch this space!

In the mean time, you can support these writers and Brittle Star by picking up a copy of the magazine – either paper or digital format. Brittle Star is run by two volunteers and is completely reader-supported – your subscriptions and purchases keep it going. To subscribe and for more information please click HERE.

Thank you for thinking of Brittle Star in these strange times.

Keep well and safe.

Martin & Jacqueline