Goat Yoga, Events and Modern Gothic: Welcome to March
Dear Scribblers,
I’ve scheduled this message as I fly back to the UK from Arizona (my first time in the States!) - my first FOTW holiday in a very long time… All being well, I will have been horse-riding across the desert and experimented with goat yoga (it’s a real thing.)
So have we been up to? We’re a new member of the #NorthernFictionAlliance (which I may also be the coordinator of as of 2023!) and so we went to Leeds at the start of this month for a book fair. Always excellent to showcase our books – we feel the quality of our paper and the feel of our covers is best in person! My favourite event of the year is now coming up – Saturday 29th of April from 11.30am I’ll be running the Northern Publishers’ Fair at Manchester Central Library. It’s a free event, and with 16 publishers, across all genres, you’ll want to bring big bags! Signs up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/northern-publishers-fair-2023-tickets-519759644087
I also chatted to Arts University Bournemouth students about curating and editing a contemporary poetry anthology – it was great to chat to budding publishers and editors about topics like bias, diversity and quality.
We had an excellent launch for our February release: Imperfect Beginnings by Viv Fogel. From wartime poetry, to navigating adoption, with notes of hope and redemption, Fogel read us narrative-led poems which brought a real sense of contemplation to the writers present! Indeed we went on a blog tour for Fogel this month, and Stella Backhouse of Here Comes Everyone magazine, who also has a family history of adoption, said: "Henriette remained a refugee who despite reaching the relative safety of Britain, was tragically unable to find home, her dying body “the sweat/and bulk of her: stranded gasping her last/on bleak English shingle”? And what does it bode for Britain’s asylum-seeker policy?" Full review here: https://hcemagazine.com/review-viv-fogels-imperfect-beginnings
And buy ‘Imperfect Beginnings’ here: https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/product-page/imperfect-beginnings-by-viv-fogel
We are starting 2023 (Jan-March) with poetry goodness and then sliding into meaty short story collections and novels for the remainder of the year. Our Aryamati Prize, in its fifth year for 2023 (opening in June if you have a social change-themed pamphlet or collection! https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/the-aryamati-poetry-prize ) will launch its 2022 winner on Zoom on Tuesday 25th of April – learn the Secrets of the Dictator’s Wife with poet Katrina Dybzynska… https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/secrets-of-the-dictators-wife-launch-of-aryamati-prize-winner-kat-tickets-567213820807?aff=ebdssbdestsearch&keep_tld=1
We do have submissions opening next month, firstly for our curated anthology series. Each year we add a new element to this (in 2021, we had our shorts season of limited-edition short stories, printed individually, 2022 & 23 saw a curated joint anthology of writers on themes naturally emerging from submissions and in 2024, we will be publishing a gothic tales anthology! Working title: Modern Gothic (let us know what you think…)
You can find details of how to submit your gothic tales here: https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/manuscript-submissions
Until next month,
Isabelle @Fly on the Wall Press