Michael Conley is a poet and prose writer from Manchester, UK. His latest collection is a pamphlet published by Nine Pens, called “These Are Not My Dreams And Anyway Nothing Here Is Purple”. He was the recipient of the 2022 Peggy Poole Prize.
Poems by Eibhlís Carcione
Eibhlís Carcione is a bilingual poet and children’s author from Cork, Ireland. Her three poetry collections in Irish, Tonn Chlíodhna (2015), Eala Oíche (2019), and Bean Róin (2023), are published by Coiscéim. She has won numerous awards for her poetry.
Beans on Bread
We partnered with Damien John Kelly House, managed by Vitality Homes. Damian John Kelly House is an abstinence-based recovery living centre, for adult males based in Liverpool. Their aim is to provide recovery from addiction via arts, sport and culture, with the belief that they will lead to purpose, belonging and connection.
2023 Wilko Johnson Writing Award
The Louder Than Words team, in partnership with Northern Gravy, Louder Than War, Omnibus Press and the University of Huddersfield are delighted to announce details of the 2023 Wilko Johnson Writing Award.
Book Review – Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
Once in a while, you probably do something weird just for the hell of it. Maybe it’s a compulsion to see what something feels, tastes or sounds like, or perhaps you just let the intrusive thoughts get their own way for once.
Northern Gravy Live at Home: From Draft to Deal – Mastering the Submission Process
Join Jamie McGarry (Valley Press) and the Northern Gravy team as we untangle the knots of how to submit your work to publishers.
An introduction to the ninth edition
Welcome Welcome to the ninth edition! Are you ready? We can’t hear you! Are you – you know what, this is an email isn’t it, so of course we can’t hear you. Sorry about that. […]
Truth in the Impossible: On writing ‘Cautious, A Boat Adrift’ by Tommy Sissons
Tommy Sissons is a poet, writer and educator based in London. He is the literary editor of GRASS Magazine, a publication specialising in the promotion of working-class creatives.
Poems by Yanita Georgieva
Yanita Georgieva is a Bulgarian poet and journalist living in London. She is a recipient of theOut-Spoken Prize for Poetry and a member of the Southbank New Poets Collective. You can find her work in The London Magazine, Poetry Wales, bath magg, and elsewhere.
Trying, in French. by Beth Hunt
Sylvie said, if you want to make a baby, you have to break some eggs. It never became entirely apparent what she meant by that, but, in the manner of people desperate for a solution to an unsolvable problem, we returned to her time and again nonetheless.
Que Será Será by Kathy Hoyle
As I push open the high wooden gate, blue paint peels off into me palm. I let the flecks fall to the ground and go into the back yard. Mrs Walker’s old tabby prowls along the wall overlooking the alley. She flops down and gives me a filthy look before closing her yellow eyes for a nap.
Poems by Peter Pegnall
Peter has published eight collections of poetry and one book of translations. He has a new collection arriving in September. Peter has written obituaries for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, and blogged for both. He has written reviews for The Independent and The Catholic Herald and many more for literary magazines.
Into the light of the dark black night by Lizzie Eldridge
At the beginning, it was just little things, like where did he put his watch or what was the name of that guy he went to school with. Nothing out of the ordinary. Now, his father’s voice often trailed off mid-speech.
Poems by Carole Bromley
Carole Bromley lives in York. Winner of 2022 Caterpillar Prize, she also has poems in Tyger, Tyger, Paper Lanterns, The Toy, Little Thoughts Press, Paperbound, The Dirigible Balloon, in anthologies from MacMillan, Emma Press and Nosy Crow as well as in her Smith/Doorstop collection for children, Blast Off!
Poems by Susie Wilson
Susie is an autistic Scottish poet, living in Sheffield. She has been published widely in anthologies (including for Winchester, Gloucester and Shepton Mallet’s Competitions), commended by Fresher and Poets & Players, longlisted in The Rialto Nature Competition, appearing also recently in Envoi, Monofiction and Black Bough.
For No Reason I think of Manhattan by Lydia Gill
I think of Manhattan, New York, as I put my daughter to sleep. I think of ascending the face of a building, like paper caught in an exchange of air. My thoughts are blockish, grey. Patterned into the tight, potent space between buildings.
Yellow Cake and How to Stay Alive by Attie Lime
On Fridays, some of us get tiny cubes of yellow cake. A behaviour thing, a reward if you like. Today I don’t get one. Tam offers to split hers, but the scared six-year-old in me still thinks I might live to regret that sort of kindness. I eat my dry crackers in silence.
Poems by David Willis
David has many voices and personalities; all of these are influenced by his dissociative identity disorder. He can assimilate voices and accents, even languages quickly. His alterscan influence the subjects chosen by them to write about.
Bains, Mams and Nannas by Derek Jennings
The rain was still siling down as the taxi pulled up outside Rayners. Lucy guided Nanna Shaz and Nanna Pat out the car and into the pub whilst Mam paid the fare from Chants Ave. They’d been to the funeral of Lucy’s last surviving Great Nanna.
Poems by Charlie Bown
Charlie Bown is a children’s poet and author. She has two children’s anthologies published through Magic Daisy Publishing and two of her poems appear in the Chasing Clouds anthology from The Dirigible Balloon. Her debut children’s chapter book is due to be published by Ventorros Press in 2023.
Vote for us in the 2023 Saboteur Awards!
We’ve been shortlisted for “Best Magazine” and “Most Innovative Publisher” in the 2023 Saboteur Awards! Please vote for us again for the final decisions. Recognition will help us grow and provide more opportunities for all writers.
Podcast #10
On this episode, we’re going back to our recent live event with Lisette Auton, to have a go at a writing exercise she uses to break through writer’s block and supercharge her writing. Lisette is […]
Podcast #9
On this frightful episode of the Northern Gravy podcast, our fiction editor Nick chats with Lauren O’Donoghue and Rebecca Summerling about writing horror, game design, spooky book recommendations and more! You can find more of […]
Northern Gravy Live at Home Presents – Writing for Children with Lisette Auton – 1st June, 2023
Join us for an evening of writing craft and knowledge sharing. We will discover Lisette’s journey to publication, plus discuss her work as a poet and a performer on the spoken word scene.
An introduction to the eighth edition
Welcome to edition eight Can you feel it? Spring is in the air, and not a moment too chuffing soon. The weather’s changing, and soon it’ll be T-shirt tans, BBQs, and beer gardens. But one […]
Remote Viewing by Ned Beauman
Nobody else will ever be able to write a book like my new novel Venomous Lumpsucker. I mean that in the very literal sense that one of the essential tools I used to write it no longer exists.
Poems by Holly Gordon Clark
Holly Gordon Clark is a seventeen year old poet and works as a librarian and bookshop worker. Her work and writings have been published in Fireside Fiction, Cat Among the Pigeons and have been prized by St John’s Oxford.
Fie For Shame by Lauren O’Donoghue
Winter visited the parish early that year. The folk in that part of the world were poor at the best of times, and the snap of cold brought with it a slew of further hardships.
Poems by Susan Darlington
Susan Darlington’s poetry regularly explores the female experience through nature-based symbolism and stories of transformation. . It has been published in Dreich, Dream Catcher, One Hand Clapping, Hedgehog Press, and Ink Sweat & Tears.
Fantastic Mail and Where to Find It by Nemma Wollenfang
Dear Reader,
Whoever you are, congratulations! You have successfully intercepted my royal letter. And that is quite a feat.
Mollusc by Dan Draper
A priest, a rabbi and an atheist walk into a bar and not one of them is in the mood for a joke.
They had decided ahead of time to stagger their arrivals and lie about where they were going.
Poems by Reshma Ruia
Reshma Ruia is the author of two novels, Something Black in the Lentil Soup and Still Lives as well as a short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness. Her poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, was awarded the 2019 Word Masala Award.
Poems by Eleanor Brown
Eleanor loved writing poetry as a child and now enjoys writing poems for others to enjoy. She is a doctor by day, working to help children with developmental difficulties. Eleanor has had poems published by The Dirigible Balloon and Tyger Tyger Magazine.
Oh God, How They Hurt Me by R.L. Summerling
I need to piss but I can’t take the stairs by the microfiche room or else I’ll see Kinchin again. Oh, he’ll be there, skulking in the stairwell, waiting to follow me up two flights of stairs, down a drab corridor and into the bathroom.
Poems by Gayathiri Kamalakanthan
Gayathiri is a Tamil poet and Sex Education facilitator. They are interested in how language shapes childhood and how we use it to queer the future. Gayathiri won the Faber & Andlyn Publisher’s Prize 2022, the Primadonna Fiction Prize 2021 and they were shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize 2022.
The Death Strike by Arden Jones
A feast of a breakfast lay before my eyes. Scrambled eggs; not too rubbery but not too wet, streaky bacon, pancakes covered in sticky maple syrup, warm croissants, cereal, fruit, yoghurt. You name it; it’s there.
Walkabout by Fiona Vigo Marshall
Ghost hunt No: 22. Saturday 28th January
Written by Bob
Organisation: Saltings-on-Sea Ghostbusters
Poems by Sarah Wimbush
Sarah Wimbush’s first collection, Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands (Bloodaxe, 2022) is rooted in Yorkshire with tales of childhood, colliery villages and Gypsies and Travellers. She is the recipient of a Northern Writers’ Award and author of prize-winning pamphlets.
Podcast #8
This week, Ralph Dartford is in conversation with the wonderful Amanda Huggins. Join them for a lively discussion on everything from the poems they love to what their Bruce Springsteen songs are! You can find […]
Podcast #7
Welcome to a special episode of the Northern Gravy Podcast, where Nick the fiction editor shares a couple of highlights from the recent live event, Northern Gravy Live at Home. This episode features the incredible […]
Northern Gravy Live at Home – Toria Garbutt and Roy – 16th March, 2023
For the second in our ‘Live at Home’ series we proudly present 2 of the finest and electric spoken word artists working in in the UK.
An introduction to the seventh edition
Welcome While New Years is just around the corner (as if the lurking spectre of All I Want For Christmas Is You wasn’t enough to contend with), for us here at NG, New Year is […]
Another Time in Space by Toria Garbutt
Toria was born in Knottingley in 1982. Her first book, ‘The Universe and Me’ was published in 2018 by Wrecking Ball press, and her upcoming collection ‘Another Time in Space’ is due to be released in December 2022.
The Summer Renter by Lizzy O’Riordan
Here the juniper trees slope sideways from the strong sea air, reaching out toward the water. And at certain times in the summer, you can walk along the beach path to see hundreds of cocooned caterpillars, awaiting their turn as butterflies.
Poems by Carmina Masoliver
Carmina Masoliver is a poet from south London, and founder of She Grrrowls feminist arts nights. She has been sharing her poetry on both the page and the stage for over a decade.
Caredig by Katie Bennett-Davies
It’s Samhain. An important time of celebrations for the village, marking the harvest’s end and arrival of darker months. The village buzzed with bonfire and feast preparations. Everyone was excited. Everyone except Gwenni.
Conversation Starter by Susan Elsley
People can be so unexpected. One minute they’re all over you asking questions. Then, puff, they’re gone and there’s no-one to listen to the trickle of words that you count as conversation.
Poems by Steve Denehan
Steve Denehan lives in Kildare, Ireland with his wife Eimear and daughter Robin. He is the author of two chapbooks and four poetry collections. Winner of the Anthony Cronin Poetry Award and twice winner of Irish Times’ New Irish Writing.