Welcome.
Thirteen is supposed to be unlucky.
Now, we’re not a tremendously superstitious bunch. We try not to walk under ladders, but we don’t steer clear of black cats and you won’t catch us chucking salt over our shoulders.
But we feel very lucky. There’s a lot of frankly quite scary stuff happening in the world right now. Some of it far away, and some of it right on our collective doorsteps. We won’t go into the nature of such things here, suffice it to say that we feel very lucky and privileged to be in the position we are, and we’re tremendously thankful for it.
Why? Because despite the storm that’s raging, we get to be a little oasis of calm. We get to be part of the greater light that art shines in darkness, and we get to be somewhere you can turn to for a little breather.
You can rely on us for that, same way you can rely on us to bring you the best new writing from the best new writers, all with our characteristic northern flavour. We’ve got a fantastic article to kick things off courtesy of the wonderful Jo Bell, but before we turn you loose on that, we just wanted to say we feel tremendously lucky also that you’re here, with us, on this voyage. So thanks, and now here’s a few words from our editors to introduce their choices for the edition:
A word from our Poetry Editor, Ralph Dartford
The poems I have selected here are otherworldly, both connected to humanity and nature, but also detached in the cool light of the poet’s camera. Here are writers at the peak of their linguistic powers, mastering who and what they see: the consequences, the shifts in time, the drama of the senses.
A word from our Fiction Editor, Nick Jones
When I was picking the pieces for this, I couldn’t have foreseen that two of them would feature electronics malfunctioning, and that it would be right around the time of an enormous global IT outage. Still, I love that all of these pieces, not just those two, have such singular points of view and tone. There’s scary, funny, poignant, heartwarming, unsettling, and just about everything in between, all in these four pieces. I hope you love them as much as I did.
A word from our Children’s Editor, Jonny Syer
These stories have collective honesty about them. They take you in unexpected directions. I was keen to find new voices in this edition, fresh twists on old tales. Each poem and sentence has earnt its place here. I continue to be surprised by the quality and variety that reaches our inbox. Enjoy.
Guest Article
Our thirteenth article is written by much loved poet and mentor, Jo Bell.
We hope you enjoy reading this edition as much as we have enjoyed curating it. Northern Gravy continues to break down barriers by paying every writer they feature.
As ever, we would like to thank our friends and advisors: Arts Council England, Sheffield Hallam University, New Writing North, Writing on the Wall, Spread the Word, Harper North, Writing East Midlands and Bradford Literature Festival.
