Hello, Gumbo-fans, and welcome to our very intermittent blog.
Submissions closed last night for our latest issue - due out at the end of the month, and I want to say thank you to you all, we have had a bumper crop of 'Endings' submissions to bring our first volume to a close.
'But what of your next volume?' I almost hear you ask.
Well, we have had a think and we are going to be changing things as we move into our second year. Gone are the themes and gone are the deadlines. Instead, from now on we will be working with an open theme so you can send us your very best work on whatever subject takes your fancy. If a theme emerges from a batch of submissions, we may assemble a special issue tied to that, otherwise it will just be a more free-range version of the 'Word Gumbo' you have come to love.
And, of course, with the removal of themes , we no longer have a need for set deadlines, so that last minute panic will hopefully recede.
How it will work in future is that, on the last day of every other month (much as at the moment) we will gather up whatever has been submitted and assess that batch for the following issue. Anything that comes in after that time will simply be part of the issue after. So now there will be no need to panic if you miss the deadline.
Don't let this stop you from writing and submitting your work, but hopefully some of the pressure is off and you can concentrate on sending us your very finest poems, stories, flash-fictions, scripts and non-fiction pieces.
Now go and start writing, we're already looking forward to whatever you send us!
Full submission guidelines can be found at http://gumbopress.co.uk/submissions.html
