[acornlive] UK Litmags

Alex Keegan (acornlive@dublinwriters.org)
Thu, 23 Mar 2000 10:37:15 -0000 

I was asked privately some stuff, but I think this is worth posting to the
group.


  1    Granta
  2    London Magazine
  3    Stand
  3    New Welsh Review
  3    Chapman (Scotland)
  3    Planet

  5    The New Writer
  5    World Wide Writers
  6    QWF (Quality Women's Fiction
  7    Buzzwords
  8    Peninsular
  9    Cadenza
10    BAD (Breakfast All Day)
11    Upstart
12    Cambrensis

Granta is slick but it feels like a closed shop. Last I heard London
Magazine had stories two years ahead. Both are considered big hits. I got
fed up of being told, "This is good but we're booked up forever..." One of
my Boot Campers has been pubbed a few times by them and an LM story was
anthologised with all the top Brit Names.

Stand (+44 (0) 191 273 3280 has a long-term heavy rep but it's a bit
stodgy/academic for me

Chapman is reasonably nice-looking, but a wee bit heavy/academic/Scots for
me.

New Welsh Review (01222-665529) Editor Robin Reeves. NWR is very smart, pubs
poetry and shorts. Not an easy market. Issue 48 runs my second story but it
took two DOZEN before I broke in. Welsh bias in editorial stuff but open on
shorts and poetry (it seems). Usually 2-6 pages of poetry and usually 4
short-stories. Pay 50-100 UKP for stories. Worth subscribing (and if you do
tell them I said so).... I ploughed half of my last £75 back into a two year
sub and copies.

PLANET (The Welsh Internationalist) (Tel: 01970-611255) is not-too-Welsh but
only takes one story per quarter and is booked up forever... Editor is Jon
Barnie who likes stuff from small isolated communities. Quality look and
feel, subscription base academic. I've failed to get in 20+ times but I
think it's partly because JB knows I started out as a crime writer and can't
believe I could possibly write serious lit.

The New Writer (01580-212626) used to publish the Ian St James Awards
near-misses and tho' OK, the near-miss is crucial, few of the stories,
though competent, ever BIT. I write a monthly column of how-tos and there's
plenty going on. Well worth subscribing. Editorial changes at the mo' and
I'm not sure what the score is on short-story submissions.


WWW (I was editor and left) charges a £5 read-fee and publishes SOME good
fiction but some very iffy stuff also including genre and sometimes (why I
left) the owner puts out stuff which in my EDUCATED and experienced opinion
is shite.

I have a scoring system where 110 is bottom end of publishable. One story in
WWW sent to me for final OK was so awful it was parody (I scored it 19) it
went in so I said I couldn't give my name to "Editor" any more... But has
published Alice Munro, Julian Rathbone, Thomas e Kennedy, Ale Keegan, John
Biguenet, John Mortimer, Barnaby Conrad, Gordon Weaver, Greg Herriges, Peter
James, Reginald Hill, Lois Petersen (who's won at least four first to my
knowledge), Helen Dunmore, William Trevor, Peter Benson, and Alice Munro.

£5 read fee but £125 to all stories, £625 to top storn, 300-odd to second
and winners re-judged for annual award of 3,000 UKP

QWF is what it says. I find the stories bland, very, competent but so what.
Not bad looking though. They run two comps per year, Focus on Fiction and
The Philip Good Memorial Prize. (I'm judge this year for the PGMP)...
winners of FoF go in Cadenza, new magazine, so far unrated, going to mostly
commission etc (plus prize stories)... should out-rank QWF, same quality but
broader remit.

Buzzwords next issue is its fourth. Some good writers and a nice happy feel
to the magazine, worth supporting, takes poetry and prose. Also running a
comp about now... Doesn't pay, but comp prizes not too bad at all...

Peninsular run by Shelagh Nugent (0151-353-0967) inside UK. A little
magazine but about to go more upmarket. Has published some decent "top of
the second division" names, always active, has good letters pages. Pays I
think £10 per thousand. Some editions have been a bit weak, but then they've
published some good stuff too. Has recently absorbed Writers Express which
may mean better looking mag, more subs and increase in quality.

BREAKFAST ALL DAY is A4 format (Letter to Heathens) and is OK in quality of
stories without threatening to rattle any cages. Has pubbed Lois Petersen.

Upstart (Milton Keynes) don't know much about but should be round about #5
above on presentation...

Cambrensis, officially the short-story magazine of Wales. Writer should have
Welsh connection (LIE)... a real curate's egg. Has published top writers and
some AWFUL stuff. Editor Arthur Smith is keen to help beginning writers so
too much weak stuff breaks in. IMO he should be a LOT tougher. Also
presentation is VERY messy. Arhtur doesn't want to know about computing... A
mixed reputation but often supported by better Welsh writers out of
affection

Alex


Alex Keegan, Bath, England
http://www.btinternet.com/~alex.keegan1
Boot Camp http://www.onelist.com/community/Gridders


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