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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• We welcome submissions of unpublished, original work in the following categories: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

Issue 45 Magazine Launch 20 Nov

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Please join us on Wednesday 20th November for the launch of Brittle Star Issue 45

 “Great location, exciting readings!”

 

Our Readers are: Diana Cant · S.P. Hannaway · Katherine Gallagher · Kenneth Durham Smith · Eva Hibbs · Marcus Smith · Bianca Jaros · Yuko Minamikawa Adams · Tina Preston · Di Slaney

With the nights drawing in, this issue shimmers in the darkness like a spirit, like hope. And in her editorial, Jacqueline thinks about hope in dark times and how poetry and fiction rises to meet the times we live in (and almost gets stung in the process).

“A variety of voices, lovely warm setting and chance to meet writers in the break”

In Issue 45, we have wonderful new work from 26 poets including Anna Robinson, Anne Ryland, Kitty Coles, Katherine Gallagher, Paul Blake, Brian Docherty, Robert Etty and Di Slaney, and 6 short fiction writers including Daniel Bennett, SP Hannaway and Michael Loveday.

Sarah Passingham’s fiction column explores what constitutes a short story when she discusses composite forms, Gavin Jones presents a composite article looking at the literary ghost story and hauntings through the works of MR James, Vernon Lee and Boccaccio, and Fawzia Muradali Kane reviews collections by Alex Barr and Jeremy Page.

Entry is free to the launch but you will need to book directly through the Barbican Library on 020 7638 0569.

Barbican Library, Barbican Centre, Silk St, London.
Doors open at 6.30. (Reading starts at 7pm and the Library closes at 9pm).