Conversations with Writers

CivicLeicester is inviting and accepting poems and short fiction on the theme, Welcome to Britain . We welcome submissions exploring but not limited to: images, issues, histories, lives, and demands that are currently in play in Britain today daily life in Britain reparations for slave trading, the use of slave labour and for benefiting from the slavery system (the extended global system involving plantation labour and slave-produced commodities etc) issues that made the Black Lives Matter movement relevant to Britain, the current state of the movement and its possible futures responses that engage with, contest and subvert the myths Britain tells about itself responses to British politicians' attitudes towards the use of nuclear weapons and their fixation with the idea of pushing 'the button' responses to Britain’s role in the current Ukraine-Russian War that go beyond, engage with or challenge the propaganda coming from both sides of the conflict responses to how Britain ...

Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New Word (CivicLeicester, 2020) is now available * CivicLeicester is inviting and accepting poems and short fiction on the theme, Black Lives Matter . We welcome submissions exploring any of the images, issues, triggers, histories, lives, demands and outcomes that are being highlighted by Black Lives Matter and current and past protests. We welcome submissions from writers of all ages, based anywhere in the world. The video of George Floyd dying as a white policeman pressed his knee against Floyd's neck and kept it there even after Floyd had stopped speaking or moving has triggered weeks of mass protests around the world. The protests are taking place in the midst of a global pandemic that is also disproportionately killing people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. Around the world people are demanding justice. "Black Lives Matter", "Hands up, don't shoot", "Am I a threat?", "I ...

Deborah Tyler-Bennett is a poet and fiction writer with eight volumes of poems and three volumes of short linked stories to her credit. She is currently working on her first novel, Livin' in a Great Big Way . Her new volume, Ken Dodd Takes a Holiday , will be out from King's England in 2019. Her poems have also been featured in anthologies that include Bollocks to Brexit: an Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2019), Leicester 2084 AD: New Poems about The City (CivicLeicester, 2018) and Welcome to Leicester (Dahlia Publishing, 2016). In an earlier interview , Deborah talked about her concerns as a writer, and some of the influences she draws on. In this new interview, Deborah talks about her latest book, Mr Bowlly Regrets , and about poetry and politics: Do you write every day? I do write everyday: on trains; in cafés; in bars; at home; in other settings. I try and give myself a timetable between teaching Adult Ed creative writing, workshops, ...

Bollocks to Brexit: an Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2019) is now available .* We are inviting, and are accepting, poems and short fiction on the theme, Bollocks to Brexit . Brexit has polarised the country and led to the normalisation of xenophobia, Islamophobia and hate crimes. Can the harm it is causing be stopped? Can it be reversed? Who should clean up the mess which the politicians have made and are making? What will the future be like for Britain? Who will be the winners and who the losers? Should it be like this? Should the country be divided in two? Please send the poems and short fiction to civicleicester@gmail.com by 11pm on Friday, 29 March 2019 . Submission Guidelines ● Poems should be 40 lines or less, and short fiction, 100 words or less. ● The poems and short fiction should be on the theme, Bollocks to Brexit . ● Submissions must be in English. In the case of translated work, it is the translator’s responsibility to obtain permis...

Leicester 2084 AD: New Poems about The City is now available .  An introduction to the anthology can be read on the Creative Writing at Leicester blog.  Could you write a poem or short fiction that shares an experience or aspect on or of future Leicester? Your poem or short fiction could be about life, personalities or relationships with, within or around the city, its people, features, landmarks, peculiarities, history, or future. What will Leicester be like in the year 2084? How will it get there? Where will it go or where did it go along the way? There is a legend, at most points into the city, that says, Welcome to Leicester Historic City . Will this legend still be there in the year 2084 or will it have been replaced by another one? What greeting will people get when they come to future Leicester? What will they be coming to? What or where will they be coming from? What meaning will Leicester have in the year 2084? What will Leicester mean to its ...

Baeg Tobar is an epic fantasy world that is brought to life through comics, short fiction, novels and other forms of illustrated media. Scott Colby is one of the project's editor-contributors. In this interview, Colby talks about his writing: When did you start writing? I started writing way back in elementary school. I was very good at finishing my work long before everybody else, which meant I needed something to keep myself entertained. I couldn't draw worth a lick, but luckily I was alright with the English. It wasn't long before I was cranking out ten page novellas and reading them in front of the entire class. Since then, I've just kept plugging along, trying to incorporate things I've liked to read into my work. When I saw an open call for writers at Baeg Tobar , I sent in a few samples. Luckily they liked me! How would you describe your writing? Fantasy with my own little twist. I've always felt like the genre can handle a lot more than just the typica...