Publication update

2022 so far:

On Thursday 24 February 2022, my poem 'The Artist' was published on New Verse News, a mag which publishes poems responding to current or recent news stories. The link is:

https://newversenews.blogspot.com/search?q=Louise+Wilford+The+Artist

Prior to that, on 2 February, my short story 'Shadows' (a Halloween tale about shadow witches) was shortlisted in the Secret Attic monthly short story competition but didn't win.

My short story 'Basil', about a basilisk about to be born from an egg which is found in a forest by a dog walker, was originally submitted to Honeyguide Magazine under the theme 'Cryptids in their own words'. However, the editor decided it would be better suited to their newly-launched children's magazine, Parakeet, and it appeared in the first edition in January 2022:

https://parakeetmagazine.wordpress.com/

2021:

In 2021, I had several pieces accepted by Makarelle, a new magazine launched by three talented women who studied with me on the MA in Creative Writing course in 2020 (Dini Armstrong, Jane Langan and Ruth Loten).  My poems 'Spill', 'Sheffield May 2020' and 'Watching from my bedroom window' all appeared in the spring edition (theme: Coming unravelled). My short story ‘Tattoo’, about a mysterious tattoo that seems to predict the future, appeared in the Summer 2021 edition (theme: tattoo), and my story ‘Pumpkin’, former winner of the Write Club annual Halloween Competition, and poem ‘Banshee’ were in the autumn edition (theme: Twisted Tales).  The team at the magazine produced an anthology of work from the first year of the magazine, called Makarelle One Anthology, and this included ‘Sheffield May 2020’, ‘Tattoo’, ‘Pumpkin’.

The link to Makarelle is:

https://makarelle.com/

In September, my poem 'Clover' was accepted by The Fieldstone Review for their 2021 edition: 

http://www.thefieldstonereview.ca/issues/issue13-2/clover.html

In August, my story 'The Tall Man', about a man who is chased through a seaside town by a mysterious stranger, appeared in Goats Milk magazine Issue 10:

https://goatsmilkmagazine.ca/?s=Louise+Wilford+The+Tall+Man

My short story 'Seahouses', a tale of a retired art forger, was published in Bandit magazine in July:

https://banditfiction.com/2021/07/01/seahouses-by-louise-wilford/

My poem 'You died in the night' (inspired by the death of a friend) was accepted by Jaden Magazine in May 2021.

In May, my poem 'Flood', written a while back in response to the Sheffield floods of 2007, was accepted by Failbetter magazine:

https://www.failbetter.com/content/flood

Lydia Popowich, who had come across my work during the initial editorial work on Makarelle, invited me to contribute a poem to her own literary blog, ‘The Haar' on The Purple Hermit Blog  (theme: ‘under the mask’). I sent her a poem called 'The picture above your name', about an online friendship, which appeared March/April: 

https://purplehermit.com/2021/04/07/behind-the-mask/

Two of my children's poems, 'Dolphins' and 'Envy' were shortlisted and commended in the YorkMix poetry competition in February 2021.

My story 'Hello, Earthlings' was shortlisted but ultimately rejected by the magazine Diabolical Plots in  January 2021.

I continue to submit work to magazines and competitions. I'll keep you posted about any successes or near-misses I get. 

I am finding that I have had fewer pieces accepted in recent years but I have had far more encouraging emails urging me to resubmit and even offering free feedback, so I see this as a step forward. It might indicate that the quality of editors is improving or at least that the culture is changing. It also suggests that writers generally are upping their game - I have read some exceptional work in mags in recent years and I suspect the plethora of Masters degrees in creative writing, which in many ways I hate, is probably having the effect of improving the quality of literary writing.

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