Issue 68 (Dec/Jan/Feb 2015/16)

Special

Agenda
Is the ‘room of one’s own’ too small? Cathy Galvin asks whether women writers are still afraid of stepping into the spotlight

Survey
Big question: What would your perfect magazine look like? Your ideas, and what we’re planning to do about them

Interview
Lionel Shriver talks to Rebecca Swirsky

Features
Women behaving badly: Michèle Roberts on how writing about sex can liberate your creative process
Crossing the divide: Vanessa Gebbie discovers the joy of branching out into different genres
Trick or retreat: Gemma Seltzer guidesyou to the best writing getaways

Directory
12 pages of competitions, calls for submissions, grants, courses, events, contacts, venues

Regulars

New writing
Winner of our 2015 Poetry Pamphlet Competition
Gillian Allnutt introduces poetry and prose on the theme of ‘birds’

Publishing trends
Books to look out for: Danuta Kean on self-help books
Don’t miss nonfiction: selected by Caroline Sanderson
How to write a bestseller: A Spool of Blue Thread
Literary agent interview, Andrew Lownie

Author insights
Poems up close: Carolyn Jess-Cooke appreciates a poem by Jane Hirshfield
It works for me: advice from poet Selina Nwulu

Guides and masterclasses
Scriptory: Lucy Scher’s screenwriting series looks at using scene breakdowns
Short story heroes: Linda Anderson analyses the work of Edna O’Brien
Hacking it: Chloe Corkhill on writing features
Synopsis boot camp: marketing potential

Plus…

What went horribly wrong
for Carys Davies

Bedside table
The table, the costume, the method, the books of Caroline Lucas

Book reviews
Poetry, short story, nonfiction, independent press

And to keep you going between issues…
little ms, our FREE email supplement, for subscribers only, full of creativity prompts, writing jobs, competition, submission slots, offers and fun stuff