Task 2

Take out your Writers and Artists yearbook and begin to desecrate it. I use different coloured highlighters and post its; you might have your own method. What you want to do is identify magazines/journals for the subjects on your list. Keep your journal open while you do this, and make notations about how it feels to think about submitting work to the various possibilities (i.e. the thought of emailing the Guardian makes me want to hide under the bed for a week).


A Revew of the Exercise


When I opened the Artist’s and Writer’s, and read about how many millions of Newspapers are sold each day, it sent me into a mild state of panic. These are mainstream, industry newspapers which require a journalistic identity and years of experience, therefore a year two Creative Writing student is hardly likely to register on the Richter scale. Small fish in a big pond doesn’t really do it justice; I am a tadpole in the Pacific.

Taking this into acccount, I begun to search out the lesser known newspapers; predominantly publications local to the Bath/Bristol area. Two papers that stood out were the Bristol Evening News and the Sunday Independent (not the same as the Independent on Sunday). The Bristol evening news especially “takes freelance news and articles” or so it says in the A and W Handbook. I was disappointed not to find my local paper, the Bath Chronicle in the handbook but I have bought a copy and shall pursue it as my first avenue into the world of freelance journalism.

It’s not just the Newspapers; the magazines too are a daunting prospect. Although I’ve thought of a few hatchling ideas for features, it is difficult to see how a magazine like say, Conde Nast, could possibly be interested a few random travel stories. I think it’s fair to say that any massive publication is, for the moment, a pipe dream.

Having said that, I was excited to find such a diverse list of publications; aside from your major ‘shelf’ magazines that you find in most newsagents, there’s a whole underground network of publications which focus on different aspects of writing. There are magazines for short stories, poetry, real life features, erotic fiction. The list goes on. At this early stage in the publishing process, I didn’t want to narrow my possibilities and so I found myself highlighting magazines as diverse as Dog World and Erotic Review. Why not? I’ve kept dogs my whole life and I’m sure I could write as decent piece of erotic fiction as the next man. These magazines might not be as socially acceptable as Wanderlust and Empire but I’m just not that discriminative. If writing a piece of erotic fiction is the first step on the achingly tall ladder of the publishing world, then so be it.

Although the whole ‘getting (I hate that word) published’ thing still seems very daunting, looking through the A and W Handbook is encouraging. When I first started this module I was thinking only of feature writing, but now I’m looking forward to sending off poems and short stories as well as articles.

The next step is to write down some ideas and start thinking about potential articles. I’ve already written to Lucy English to ask for guidelines on getting (I hate that word) performance poetry published and I’ve submitted an idea to the Weekly News. We wait with baited breath and crossed fingers.




List of Potential Newspapers and Magazines

General/Features Fiction/Poetry Reviews Travel
Bristol Evening Post Aesthetica Apollo Conde Nast
Bath Chronicle Agenda Empire Traveller
Sunday Independent Ambit Radio Times Wander Lust
Aesthetica Best Total Film
Acumen Library Erotic Review Venue
Ambit Granta
Antiques HQ Poetry
Apollo Literary Review
Big Issue London Magazine
Big Issue South West Men Only
Bizarre New Writer
Folio Other Poetry
Four-Four-Two Outposts Poetry
Granta Poetry London
Hot Press Poetry Review
Maxim Readers Digest
Mayfair Rialto
New Humanist A Shop - Poetry
Prospect Stand
Shoot Starburst
Weekly News Take a Break