News - May and June 2018

 Hello!

 Well, to say the last couple of months have been hectic is an understatement. However, I succeeded in submitting all of my essays and translations, got my degree (an Integrated Professional Masters in Languages, in French and Spanish) and will be graduating this month!

 I have also been working on my writing and other creative projects, and some exciting things have happened, with more on the horizon. 

 I was shortlisted for The Poetry Business's 2017/18 New Poets Prize, and shortlisted in two categories for the 2018 Students' Union Awards: Best Article (for the piece I wrote for The Mancunion about how I founded Foxglove Journal), and Best Placard.

 I have had poetry published in The Open Mouse ("Urania"), The Cardiff Review ("Before breakfast"), Now Then ("Oranges" and "Sara") and Irisi ("How you arrived", "Scattered", "Portrait" and "Lucy"). 

 I was part of Open Mind Manchester's Mind Full of Art project to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing; my poem "Soap" appeared in the exhibition and the anthology.

 I have continued to edit the Word Life section of Now Then Manchester; May's issue had the theme of "Friendship" and June's the theme of "Nature".

 I have added some posts to my travel blog, Neither Here Nor There, so feel free to have a read and share my adventures in Galicia. Foxglove Journal is also going strong; have a look if you fancy some poetry and prose.

 I am now looking forward to a summer of creativity - I have work coming up in Strix, The Lampeter Review, Coast to Coast to Coast, Novelty, Marble Poetry, Confingo, Far Off Places, the Young Identity Anthology and the New North Poets Anthology. I hope to do some poetry readings, too.

 Thanks for reading, and following my writing journey.

 Liz x

News - March and April 2018

 Hello!

 March and April were slightly surreal months this year, starting very cold and ending very warm. In Manchester we seemed to switch overnight from snow and ice to sun and blossoms.

 I worked hard towards my degree and celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday and Earth Day. I tried new baking and film clubs, enjoyed the LGBT Foundation's Sugar and Spice Festival, and I feel I grew a lot. I also saw some writing milestones and achievements.

 I performed at Verbose, a monthly spoken word night in Manchester, and read some of my poems at the Women on Top event at the LGBT Foundation. My poem "Soap" was featured in Open Mind Manchester's Mind Full of Art exhibition and anthology.

 I won Second Prize in Manchester Global Health Society's 2018 Global Health Poetry Competition, and read my poem, "Perpignan sestina", at the awards ceremony. My article "What I learnt from starting a literary journal" was nominated for the Mancunion's Article of the Year.

 I took part in my second residential at Highgreen Arts in Northumberland, part of my prize for being chosen as a New North Poet at the 2017 Northern Writers' Awards. I was mentored by Clare Pollard and did a workshop with Antony Dunn, and overall, it was a lovely weekend.

 I reviewed Niall Horan at the 02 Apollo for The Mancunion and Peter Bognanni's novel Things I'm Seeing Without You for Cuckoo Review. I continue to curate Word Life: March's issue had the theme of "Hope" and April's the theme of "Travel", with the latter featuring my poem "In Cambridge".

 My flash piece "Maybe/Things to work on" was published in Visual Verse, and I had a poem accepted by the beautiful hand-stitched journal Coast to Coast to Coast. I reached 100,000 page views on my travel blog, Neither here nor there.

 With summer on its way, hopefully there are even more exciting times to come.

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

How to get published in literary journals

 Hello!

Severine, where my poem "Trailing Jasmine" was published. And a cat

 Just letting you know that for The Mancunion Books Section, I have written a guide to getting your creative writing published!

 It outlines the different stages of the literary submission process - choosing your work, formatting it and sending it out - as well as some tips and tricks that might give you the edge over the competition.

 I hope you find my advice useful. Please consider sending some poetry or fiction to my own new magazine, Foxglove Journal!

 Liz x