2016 - my literary stats

In 2016 I wrote more prose than ever before (27,000 words) and fewer poems (7). In my case these 2 stats are related - most of my initial ideas could go either way. In the olden days I'd have presented texts like Death and deception as poetry because of its juxtapositions, density of interconnections and lack of plot. In the current, more permissive climate I can let it be prose (though not Flash).

I'd love to say that as the quantity of my poetry goes down, the quality goes up. Alas, the opposite is true. Not for the first time, my "selected poems" file (aka the draft of my first full book) has shrunk rather than grown in the course of the year - partly because of recalibrated Quality Control, partly because of re-categorisation.

The year began with some promising acceptances of stuff I'd sent off in 2015. Then successes fizzled out. I sent off about 30 things during the year of which 4 have so far been accepted. I gave some competitions a try and got nowhere.

The year ended with a poem in Antiphon (p.46) and Flash in Toasted Cheese. Next year I can look forward to publication in Unthology and Flash (Univ of Chester).

A UK prose submission schedule for early 2017

As more magazines introduce submission windows, and competitions increase their significance, it's worth planning ahead. I shall try to submit to these (mostly UK) competitions and submission windows -

• January
  • Cease Cows opens for Flash (max 1500 words) on 15th Jan
  • Granta - for fiction, their window opens on 16th Jan and closes on 16th Feb
  • Litro - theme: Change. Deadline 19th Jan. See https://litro.submittable.com/submit/68840/change-march-2017-print-magazine
  • Severine - theme: wild, deadline 31st Jan
  • Flash Frontier - theme: Remnants. Deadline 31st Jan. Word limit 250. See http://www.flash-frontier.com/submissions/
  • Wigleaf - stories under a 1000 words. Submit during the last week in January - see http://wigleaf.com/about.htm
• February
  • into the void (max 1000 or 5000 words). Window opens on 1st Feb
  • Litro - theme: Wants and Needs. Deadline 19th Feb - see https://litro.submittable.com/submit/68843/wants-needs-april-2017-print-magazine
  • Under the Radar - Submission window opens
  • Interpreter's House - Submission window opens
  • Stinging Fly - Submission window opens
  • Ambit - Submission window opens
  • Spelk (window opens mid to late February. 500 words)
  • Exeter - Competition deadline 28th Feb. Max 3000 words. Fee £6, 1st prize £500. See http://www.exeterwriters.org.uk/p/competition.html
  • Reflex - Competition deadline 28th Feb. Free entry. 180-360 words. See http://www.reflexfiction.com/
• March
  • Thresholds short fiction feature writing - Deadline 5th Mar. Max 2000 words. Free entry. 1st prize £500. See http://thresholds.chi.ac.uk/feature-writing-competition-2017/
  • Brilliant Flash Fiction competition - Deadline 15th March. Max 300 words. Prompt: Overseas Travel. Free entry. 1st prize 50 euro. See https://brilliantflashfictionmag.wordpress.com/
  • short fiction - Deadline 31st Mar. Max 5000 words. Fee £7, 1st prize £500. See http://www.shortfictionjournal.co.uk/?page_id=33
  • National Flash-Fiction Day 100 word flash-fiction competition. Deadline 31st March
  • Banshee (Dublin). Flash (1000 max) and stories. Deadline 31st March
• April
  • National Flash-Fiction Day anthology. Max 500 words. Deadline 14th April
• May
  • Bath short story award - http://bathshortstoryaward.co.uk/. Deadline 1st May. Max 2,200 words. Fee £8, 1st prize £1000.
  • Bristol Competition- deadline 3rd May. Max 4000 words. Fee £8, 1st prize £1000. There's an anthology too. See http://www.bristolprize.co.uk/
  • Bridport - Competition deadline 31st May. Max 5000 words (Fee £9, 1st prize £5000) or 250 words (Fee £7, 1st prize £1000). See http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/
  • Yeovil - Competition deadline 31st May. Max 2000 words (Fee £6, 1st prize £500). See http://www.yeovilprize.co.uk
  • Flash Frontier deadline 31st May for max 250 words on "Journeys"
• June
  • VS Pritchett - (Fee £5, 1st prize £1000). See http://rsliterature.org/award/v-s-pritchett-memorial-prize/ Deadline 31st June.

A UK poetry submission schedule for early 2017

I shall try to submit to several of these (mostly UK) competitions and submission windows -

• January
  • Rattle chapbook competition (deadline 15th Jan)
  • The Fenland Reed - theme: borders and bridges. Deadline 31st Jan.
  • Envoi - Submission window opens
  • Kent and Sussex poetry competition - 1st Prize £1000, entry fee £5, deadline 31st Jan.
  • The Interpreter's House Poetry Competition - 1st Prize £500, entry fee £4, closing date 31st Jan.
  • The Plough Prize - 1st Prize £1000 , entry fee £5, closing date 31st Jan.
  • Severine - theme: wild, deadline 31st Jan
• February
  • Under the Radar - Submission window opens
  • Interpreter's House - Submission window opens
  • Stinging Fly - Submission window opens
  • Ambit - Submission window opens
• March
  • Poetry Business pamphlet/book competition (deadline 1st March)
  • Straid collection award (deadline 21st March)
  • Cinnamon pamphlet competition (deadline 31st March)
  • Flarestack book submissions (deadline 31st March)
• April
  • The North - Submission window opens 1st April
  • Ware Poets Competition - Fee £4. 1st prize £600. Deadline 30th April
  • Ver Poets Competition - Fee £4. 1st prize £600. Deadline 30th April
• May
  • Bridport - Competition deadline 31st May. See http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/
  • Envoi - Submission window opens
• June
  • Prole pamphlet competition

workshop on dialogue

Updated notes about the workshop on dialogue that I did yesterday are online.

The summary and suggestions are

• Go back to basics. Think about what dialogue reveals about people - not just in the words they say, but the pauses, hesitations and interruptions.
• Read about the recent developments in discourse/conversation analysis. They help make explicit the mechanisms of dialogue we all use.
• Mainstream literary dialogue has become rather formulaic and artificial. The standard notation hinders the rendering of some revealing aspects of dialogue.
• Non-standard notations are increasingly common in novels. You might for example consider using screenplay notation.

The professionalisation of poetry

Reading the 46 bios in the most recent "Rialto" you'll find about 6 people admitting to non-creative-writing professions - there's a nurse, an editor/translator, a journalist, a dog-whisperer, a Jungian analyst and an RSPB worker. Maybe several others have non-creative-writing professions, but are too shy to admit to them. Some who don't mention their profession (Carrie Etter for example) are creative writing academics. Academics or not, many aren't shy of mentioning their creative writing degrees.

The 57 bios in the latest "Interpreters House" have more variety, the non-creative-writing professions mentioned being artist, acupuncturist, funeral director, librarian, museum advisor, EFL teacher, psychology prof, graphics/web designer - though there are many creative writing qualifications listed as well.

Where are the doctors and lawyers? Where are the bishops, butchers and bakers?

In The Professionalization of Poetry, David Alpaugh wrote "today practically every highly acclaimed poet in America is teaching in a college or university writing program". That was in 2003. He continued "We nonprofessionals need to speak up and make our presence known". My standard bio for UK mags currently reads

Tim Love lives in Cambridge. He's had prose and poetry published in "Stand", "Rialto", "Oxford Poetry", "short Fiction", etc. His publications are "Moving Parts" (HappenStance, 2010) and "By All Means" (Nine Arches Press, 2012). He blogs at http://litrefs.blogspot.com

which doesn't help. So I think in future I'll mention that I teach programming at Cambridge University. I could mention that I've taught an astronaut, gold medalists (rowing) and even a "Great British Bake Off" runner-up, but that would be showing off.

David Alpaugh went on to write "We need to remind professionals that the ad-hoc, personalized, dare I say amateur writing process they are striving to replace has produced practically all of the great poetry in the world for over 2500 years! We need to let them know that we expect poetry to continue to be published and honored on the basis of its quality rather than on the professional status or nonstatus of the poet. When you open a literary journal and see what you think is downright prose parading as poetry, write a letter to the editor and ask what it is doing there. When you see poems full of shoptalk, insider references, poetic name-dropping and credential-showing, complain - or, better yet, cancel your subscription.". Well maybe, but one thing at a time. For now, I'll just fix my bio.

Literary web-stats

I started my litrefsarticles site in 2010. It's just reached 250,000 hits. I think much of the recent increase in hits is due to bot-traffic, though particular items suddenly become popular (perhaps when essays are due). The most popular page there is Child narrators in adult fiction.

It's not easy to compare web-stats. On Top 24 Magazines for Flash Fiction - Bookfox there's an attempt to determine how much some Flash sites are read, and which are worth submitting to. The numbers can be low - e.g. the page says that the venerable "Vestal Review" has 2,000 visitors monthly. Perhaps literary web mags aren't read much more than the paper ones are, nor so thoroughly.

I'm more successful with my work stuff -

Search string	Number of results	My page's Google ranking
C++	130,000,000	19th
Latex	265,000,000	4th

I think that's more to do with the age of the pages and where they are than what they contain. My old Literary Quotes page (on a university server) regularly attracts 7k hits/month whereas http://litrefsquotes.blogspot.co.uk/, which has the same material, gets more like 500 hits/month, many of them from Russia.

The Longer Write-ups (2010-12)

I don't try hard to make my write-ups entertaining, but here are some that are longer - they're almost reviews.

Books read 2010-12

• "Adventures in Form" by Tom Chivers (ed) (Penned in the Margins, 2012)
• "Egg Printing Explained" by Katy Evans-Bush (Salt, 2011)
• "The Best British Poetry 2011" by Roddy Lumsden (ed) (Salt, 2011)
• "Perfect Blue" by Kona MacPhee (Bloodaxe, 2010)
• "The Method" by Tom Vowler (Salt, 2010)
• "Landing Light" by Don Paterson (Faber, 2003)