LitRefs: England focus
A collection of resources useful to writers living in England
[Magazines]
[Competitions]
[Publishers]
[Anthologies]
[Events]
[Performance]
[Organisations and Information]
[Writers]
[Writers groups]
[Audio Sites]
[Blogs]
[Courses]
The Poetry Library magazine list contains details of printed and electronic magazines. If you're by
the South Bank you can look at all the current issues.
The poetry magazines archive
contains the full text of some poetry magazines. My list of UK magazines gives addresses. Getting poetry published in the UK and The Short Story, UK, September 2005 may be
useful to newcomers. My
articles My dealings with UK literary magazines
(revised March 1998),
UK literary
magazines, 2002 and UK literary magazines, 2007 give a more personal view.
Which are most worth sending to? Here are some pointers
- Grants
- For
2000-1 the magazines most supported by the Arts Council were London Magazine (£27,500), Poetry Review (£25,000), PN Review (£17,500), Wasafari (£20,400), London Review of Books (£14,050) and Ambit (£11,200).
- In 2004-5, various presses and magazines were supported in some way by Arts Council England. Beneficiaries included Other Poetry (£6k), Acumen (£12k), Agenda (£29k), Rialto (£88k) and Smiths Knoll (£9k).
- In 2005-6, Arts Council England beneficiaries included
Bloodaxe (£3,500),
Flambard Press (£4,500),
Headland Publications (£16,350),
Magma Poetry (£14,950),
Other Poetry (£8,750),
Peterloo Poets (£165,000),
Wasafari (£4,900).
- Forward Anthology
- In 2003+2004 the following magazines had poems in the Forward
Anthologies: Acumen (1), Interpreter's House (2), The North (1), Poetry London (3), Poetry Review (1), Smiths Knoll (1), TLS (2)
- In 2009 the following magazines had poems in the Forward
Anthology: Acumen (1), Dream Catcher (1), The London
Review of Books (3), Magma
(1), Poetry Review (4), Rialto
(1), Smiths Knoll (1)
- In 2010 the following magazines (not all English) had poems in the Forward
Anthology: Brittle Star (2), Erotic Review (1), Frogmore Papers (3), Irish Pages (2), The Journal (1), The Liberal (1), The London Review of Books (3), Poetry Nation Review (1), Poetry Review (3), The Shop (1), TLS (3), Warwick Review (2), The Wolf (1)
- Articles
- In Acumen 50 (2004) Wolfgang Görtschacher's essay dealt with the UK
little magazine scene, mentioning Ambit, London Magazine, The North, PN Review,
Poetry Review, Orbis, Shearsman, Stand and Modern Poetry in Translation.
Here's a list of WWW pages of printed magazines
The main magazines about writing (some available in newsagents) are
Some of these magazines accept e-mail submissions.
Web magazines include
For completeness I should also mention London Review of Books and The TLS.
Tania Hershman maintains a
A
(Non-Complete) List of UK and Ireland Lit Mags
For lists of poetry competitions see
UK poetry competitions (from the Poetry Library), the
Poetry Kit list. I've written some UK Poetry Competition notes. A list of Short story competitions is on the short story campaign site. Christopher Fielden's list of Short Story Competitions is most detailed. Arvon,
Bridport, the National Poetry Competition, Peterloo and TLS/Blackwells are prestigious
and well-established poetry competitions. Bridport's the most well known short story competition with perhaps 11,000 entries/year.
Competitions where the prize is book/pamphlet publication include
Many of these are very small, publishing a book or 2 per year. Umbrella
organisations include
The bigger publishers have state funding. Here are some figures for
2009-10 to help you assess where to send your work:
Carcanet (£119k),
Bloodaxe (£96k),
Anvil (£92k),
Enitharmon (£48k),
Arc (£35k),
Salt (£18k).
See UK poetry
small press for more information.
The main annual publication is
- The Forward Book of Poetry - prizes for best/first collection,
best poem etc. Room for a few surprises amongst the short-listed pieces. Publishers and magazine editors submit material.
In 2011, Salt revived The Best British Short Stories series and started The Best British Poetry series
Here are a few to get you started.
Regional
Some regional information sites are appearing
Professional
Organisations
Major awards/grants
The regional Arts boards offer Bursaries. The most useful awards for
younger writers are
Arts Council England offers grants to individuals and organisations for particular projects.
Information and Opinion
You can sample UK writers at these places
Some groups and individual writers belong to The National Association of Writers' Groups. There's also
The Arvon Foundation has run
residential courses for years, and The Poetry School runs many courses. Amongst the best-known MA courses are
Updated in Aug 2014
tpl@eng.cam.ac.uk