WELCOME

As writers, most of us dream of being

Christmas can be murder

December is the perfect time for sitting in the dark and dreaming up seasonal crime scenarios. Here are tips for writing festive mysteries from bestselling Christmas mystery author Alexandra Benedict

How to get discovered

Writing Your Experience

Your writing critiqued

Under winter’s

How can you add that extra element that makes children enchanted by your seasonal story? Amy Sparkes explores ways for you to make your winter’s tale stand out

Ne w Year, ne w wr it ing challenges

What do you hope to do with your writing in 2023? Margaret James suggests some potential plans for the year ahead

Five quick questions

1. When and where did your journey as

Can you keep a secret?

Helen M Walters explores ways of using secrets and the way things may not be as they appear on the surface in your fiction, with a short story by Claire Keegan

PUNK & disorderly

Alex Davis delves deep into the sci-fi subgenres in a writers’ guide to punking up your spec-fic

STAR LETTER

THE GENEROUS GIFT OF WORDS These autumn and

CIRCLES’ ROUNDUP

SPOTLIGHT ON..Ṭhe Very Important Writers Club

Creative convalesence

Cornerstones’ Assistant Editor Sarah Conkerton discusses returning to writing after a long break, and how to get back into that creative mindset with the same enthusiasm

Stellar eclipse

From the OTHE SIDE OF THE DESK

Buildings & architecture

Tarja Moles provides the building blocks to finding stories and information relating to the built environment

Behind the tape

LUCKY SEVEN

It’s all very well dreaming of your writing getting discovered, but what can you do to help ace it? Read on for our seven top tips for writers who believe in making their own luck happen.

TACKLING the TOUGH TIMES

Matt Hill speaks to Miki Berenyi, former singer with indie band Lush, and discovers how she drew on her second career as a sub-editor to craft a memoir that conveys the traumas in her life with eloquent emotional honesty

The twelve gifts of Christmas

Rosalind Moody reco mmends a gift for writers in each zo diac, but only if they’re on the nice list. Find the full list with links, at www.writers-online.co .uk/ how-to-write/gifts-for-writers

A date with destiny

Apply positive thinking to make 2023 a decisive year for your writing, says Adrian Magson

KISS: Keep it simple self-publishing

Self-publishing your first book in 2023? Simon Whaley suggests a ten-kiss plan to keeping it simple

Oh, the glamour

Gillian Harvey opts for launching her latest book in a low-key kinda way

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOHN

John Irving, the author of much-loved 20th-century classics including The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany, is back after a seven-year pause with the longest novel of his career. He talks to Tina Jackson about creating alternative families, being haunted by ghost stories, and the importance of taking the time a book requires to write

ANNIE KIRBY

The debut author’s breakthrough came when she understood that childlessness was the theme at the heart of her novel

SHELF LIFE

Australian author Chloe Hooper outlines the five books that helped her understand her way as she wrote Bedtime Story, a book that is part memoir and part exploration of how children’s literature can prepare its readers to come to terms with grief and loss

CHLOE HOOPER

© Monty Coles TAP HERE To read an

Northants Writers’ Ink

The philosophy of Northants Writers’ Ink, a writers’

FOLLOWING FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS

‘I am the son of a Cornish bard,’

All Betts on

‘I am a writer, and an actor, and

Fortune favours

‘I’m thrilled to announce that my second crime

Airing her words

‘A couple of years ago I read in

NEW START, NEW SERIES

‘It can be tricky to know when to

Jane Cable

The commercial fiction writer talks to Margaret James about her two separate writing identities

Football Crazy

Christine has been writing poetry and prose for

Get the write idea

Explore changing dynamics in these creative writing prompts and exercises to try right now

Dream OR SCREAM?

Bring the world of dreams into your writing group’s practice in these exercises from Julie Phillips

Snow idea

Imagine a whited-out world in these snow-related creative writing exercises from Jenny Alexander

We take plastic

WINNER Julie Bissell, Sible Hedingham, Essex FIRST PLACE

Wrong-footed

Alison Chisholm explores a poem that uses homely footwear in contrasting ways as a motif

Be bold and enter the Bridport

The Bridport Prize 2023 is inviting entries in

Lucy love for undiscovered novelists

The Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, now in its

POETIC FORCES OF NATURE

The Rialto Nature and Place Poetry Competition 2023

The long and the short of it

Entries are invited in two separate categories for

UK MAGAZINE MARKET

Emphasise the positive

Brought to Booker

The 54th year of the Booker Prize saw

Swimming in poetry

The Fish Poetry Prize is inviting entries of

This is the world calling

The BBC World Service – The International Radio

FLASHES

The 2022 Kindle Storyteller Award, a £20,000 literary

Monsters calling

The editorial team at the new Grendel Press

HERE AND RIGHT OUT THERE

Dead Fish Books aspires to be a multigenerational

SUSTAINABLE ENTRIES

The Cheshire Prize 2022 is for writing on

Cross reference

McFarland Books is a leading independent publisher of

STANDING UP FOR WHAT’S WRITE

The culture wars continue apace in the US,

TAKEOVER TAKEDOWN

In what will generally be welcomed as good

WRITE TIME TO ENTER

2022’s last quarterly WriteTime contest for writers over

FLASHES

Khadija Abdalla Bajaber has won the inaugural Ursula

Be in the know

Culture, current affairs and travel are the content

DARK (WINNING) ENTRIES

The Shirley Jackson Awards, given for outstanding achievement

HOWL FOR POETRY

Now in its sixth year, the WoLF Poetry

POETRY SOUNDS GOOD

The Soundwork Poetry Competition 2022 is inviting entries.

Top tech writers wanted

Despite having an expert in-house team the TechRadar

Open the door to a poetry win

The StoryTown 2022 Poetry Competition from StoryTown Corsham

Artistic A1

Any writers working in comics or graphic novels

Clear covers

Inaccurate book covers annoy readers, says Patrick Forsyth

FLASHES

Neil Gaiman, riding high off the success of

An Odyssey for authors

The Australia-based Odyssey Books bills itself as a

Take a poetic breath

The Kingston Quakers Poetry Competition 2022 is in

Within Wigan

The Past Forward Essay Competition 2023 is for

Outstanding in Orcadian

Harry Josephine Giles has won the 2022 Arthur

Storytelling is the thing

With an emphasis on storytelling, Writing Class Radio

Encouraging entries

The Bournemouth Writing Prize 2023 is inviting entries.

GET YOUR DAILY ORWELL

Literary blogging platform Substack has become increasingly popular

Try your hand for Teignmouth

The Teignmouth Poetry Festival Competition 2023 is inviting

FLASHES

Irish literary heavyweight Colm Tóibín has stepped down

Music matters

Bandcamp is a US-based website which allows musicians

It’s all about reading

Describing itself as ‘a magazine about reading, for

Musk read?

Writers use Twitter all the time. It seems

INTRODUCTIONS

Writing Magazine presents a selection of current international small press submission calls. We strongly recommend that you read backlist titles, familiarise yourself with their guidelines before submitting, and check websites for submission details.

Feminist fantasy

Microcosm Publishing & Distribution’s editorial team call themselves

Open all entries

The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society Open Poetry

FLASHES

The winners of the Books Are My Bag

To proudly go

Launched early in 2022, PRIDE Quarterly is a

Celestial powers

The Of Gods and Globes anthology started by

CREATIVE CONNECTIONS

Pangyrus is a literary magazine ‘dedicated to art,

Words for talking heads

London-based The Actors Cove is looking for short

Library accolades

CILIP (The Chartered Institute of Library and Information

Drinking, thinking and inkling

A historic Oxford pub, The Lamb and Flag,

Novel Ideas

Writer’s playtime

FLASHES

America’s 50 biggest-selling magazine titles have collectively seen

Pushing up prices

Increases in the costs of energy, paper and

Writers at risk in cost-of-living crisis

More than half of the writers surveyed recently

Caring and creativity

The Curae Prize, for writers who are also

INTERNATIONAL ZINE SCENE

God’s Cruel Joke is a new zine started

Crime pays

Win a £1,500 first prize for the opening

FLASHES

The surviving manuscript of George Orwell’s classic dystopian

INTERNATIONAL NON-FICTION MARKET

Submit to the oracle

CATCH UP WITH THE KELPIES

The Kelpies Prize for Writing 2023 is open

MANGO-TASTIC

The Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition 2023

Don’t miss a beat

The editorial team at US film quarterly print

FACEBOOK THE FUN THIEF

There’s a Facebook group about writing, books and

Seeing afresh

Look through someone else’s eyes for a fresh perspective, says Patrick Forsyth

UK NON-FICTION

Countryside matters

Is that a Debut Dagger I see before me?

The CWA’s prestigious annual CWA Debut Dagger prize

J M Miro

Lynne Hackles talks to the Canadian poet and author about fitting in writing round family time