Mslexia Magazine - Issue 81

Agenda: Adding a new word to the language: on the twentieth anniversary of Mslexia’s launch, Debbie Taylor takes a walk down memory lane.

PLUS: Historical crime • Winning short stories • Why women lack confidence • Making time to write.

Featuring
V E Schwab • Fiona Mozley • Annie Georgie • K J Orr • Susan Calman • Susie Orbach

Agenda

• Adding a new word to the language: Debbie Taylor takes a walk down memory lane
• How dare you? Susie Orbach explains
• 2018 Poetry Pamphlet Competition winner

FORUM

• What you’re saying about… writing goals, attitudes to indies, and grammar gripes
• Humblebrags
• Your life sentences
• For the love of it: fan site blogging with Glenda Young
• Sarah Gonnet’s view of reviewing
• Noticeboard

SHOWCASE

• Our judging panel debates the winners of our Short Story Competition
• Meg Pokrass on the winners of our Flash Fiction Competition

CRAFT

• Creativity news
• Writing exercises
• What works for Lisa Appignanesi
• Poetry challenge: elegy, selected by Linda France
• Confidence trick: Angela Readman on doubting her success as a writer
• Fiona Mozley’s Achilles’ heel
• Flash challenge: Sarah Nash
• First page surgery with Angela Clarke

INTERVIEW

• V E Schwab talks to Laura Steven

OFF THE PAGE

• Script news
• Play list with Annie George
• Podding along: narrative non-fiction podcasts with Alice Slater
• Songbirds: pitch with Susie McComb
• Monologue: ‘Backbone’ by K J Orr

CAREER

• Publishing news
• Crystal ball
• The steeper climb: Kerry Hudson on being given a fair reading
• Pitch surgery with Charlotte Robertson
• Pitch calendar
• Self-help book test drive with Meg Clothier
• The tests of time: Aki Schilz asks how women fit writing into their busy lives

DOORS OPEN

• Open for submissions
• Insight: pitch prospects
• Three of a kind: landscapes
• Insight: script submissions to the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
• Open for entries: competitions and awards
• Insight: agent Jo Unwin’s manuscript wishlist
• Insight: That’s What She Said
• Insight: Bristol Short Story Prize
• Time away: writing holidays

OUT NOW

• Début author interview: Nicole Flattery
• Poet laureate by Miranda Day
• Six best novels by South Asian writers
• Poetry news
• Poetry review by Sandeep Parmar
• Non-fiction: essay anthologies with Caroline Sanderson
• M is for…
• Fiction issues: historical thrillers by Anna Mazzola
• Short story news
• Short story review by Alice Slater
• Short story heroes: Daisy Johnson
• Books about writing
• I confess

DON’T MISS

• Events and courses

AND FINALLY

• Susan Calman’s bedtime reading
• What we’re up to
• Submitting and subscribing to Mslexia

Editor
Debbie Taylor