A New Gumbo

Hello all,

Well, I know it's been a long time since we've been in touch. Things on the Gumbo Press front have been a little quiet since Word Gumbo went on hiatus. We have, of course, published two excellent flash-fiction pamphlets (Enough by Valerie O'Riordan and Threshold by David Hartley) which you should check out.

But with the start of 2014, we have decided to get back into the race, and as such we are launching a new e-magazine, Flash Gumbo, focussing entirely on flash-fiction, which like our previous e-zine will be published bi-monthly-ish. As such we are hungry for your submissions. So, send us your wonderful flash-fictions, 500 words or fewer, and let's broadcast them to the world. Full submission guidelines are up at http://gumbopress.co.uk/submissionsFG.html.

We are also, in a new venture, looking for flash-fiction collections to publish as, you know, actual books! These should be in the 20-40,000 word range and can be in any genre you wish, as long as it is a coherent collection of flash-fictions. Full submission guidelines for that are at http://gumbopress.co.uk/submissionscollections.html.

Please submit, share these links, encourage your friends to send us their work, and generally get the word out there. We want this to be a huge success!

Thanks,
Calum Kerr, Managing Editor

And, if you are wondering what kind of thing we like, and just because we love to share, here is a flash-fiction from Angi Holden which we published in the first issue of Word Gumbo, back in June 2011.

I Can Tell You How It Began

Angi Holden

I’m not sure how it all ended, but I can tell you how it began. I wish I could say it was something romantic, like we locked eyes across a crowded room, or something like that. Or even that we met through an online dating agency. At least that would have the virtue of being modern and a bit quirky. But it wasn’t. It was ordinary and practical and rather banal.

Our fingertips met around a one-litre carton of semi-skimmed. The last one-litre carton of semi-skimmed. The last any-litre carton of milk in our local Spar, skimmed or otherwise, to be precise. We were both living in Hightown at the time. I was in my final year and sharing a student house with a couple of other girls; she had a studio flat in a block for ‘young professionals’ around the corner. We agreed to go back to her place; she’d decant some of the milk into a jug, and I’d take the rest of the carton home.

Only that wasn’t what happened. She made coffee and found a packet of Bourbon between the Demerara and the Golden Granulated, and I stayed. I was easy to impress back them. An unopened packet of biscuits had enough rarity value for someone living in a student household, but showing me a cupboard containing three types of sugar, Earl Grey and Balsamic vinegar was like giving me a glimpse of the forbidden city.

It was three days before I went back to the house for a change of knickers and to collect a library book that needed renewing. The book was important; I couldn’t afford to start racking up fines. The knickers were kind of irrelevant, at least until we ran out of fresh bread and needed to go shopping.

I suppose I ought to tell you that I wasn’t in the habit of being picked up by random women in corner shops. In fact, I was a virgin. She had a go at me once about being ‘closet’, but it’s a bit of a non-event, coming-out, when you’ve never been ‘in’ in the first place. And it’s a bit sad if you’re not ‘out’ with anyone. Anyway, I’m not the confessional type. Well, I wasn’t back then.

I’m not sure how it ended. Did I say that before? Sorry. When you live with someone who doesn’t listen to what you say, you tend to repeat yourself a bit. Well, a lot really. She said I nagged, and I suppose I did. I’d graduated (not as well as I’d hoped) and we’d got this flat together. It’s a lovely place, bigger with this separate bedroom, but lonely when she didn’t come back some nights. The shagging petered out too; sometimes we didn’t have sex for weeks and to tell you the truth that suited me. Though a cuddle would have been nice.

Anyway, I can’t afford the rent on my own, so I’m moving out. So, do you think it’ll suit you?

Volume 2: New Year News

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

The Opposite of Easy

Hello all, and sorry for the silence.

We have, of course, all been busy here at Gumbo Towers with all the things we have to do, and watching your submissions roll in for Issue 2 of Word Gumbo.

As of today we have finalised our decisions and emailed everyone, so now it's just a question of putting the issue to bed. All things being equal, we hope it have it up for you by the end of the month.

If anything it's been an even harder job this time around, with the quality of the work being exceptionally high. Still, we've managed to find what we consider to be the very best pieces and we're sure you'll really enjoy the magazine when it finally hits the virtual shelf.

This morning was spent sending out the emails, and it is quite a strange experience. Because of the anonymous submissions system, when reading the work we don't know who we have accepted until it comes time to go through the emailing process. As a result we discover that we have to disappoint some friends and respected writers. Still, I think that shows that we are being as fair as possible, accepting only the very best and most fitting for the theme, ensuring the quality of the final magazine.

Anyway, that's enough waffle for now. Time to type-set and get that magazine into your eager hands!

And, don't forget, we are already looking for material for the next issue. The theme is 'Light' and the guidelines can be found at http://www.gumbopress.co.uk/submissions.html.

Our New Arrival

Well, dear readers, it has been quite a month here at Gumbo Towers.

We have read through all of the pieces you sent and been incredibly impressed with the writing. We have been slightly disappointed at the dearth of script and non-fiction, but overwhelmed with the fiction and poetry. It has been fascinating to read through all your various interpretations of 'Beginnings'.

And, from that selection, we have found the very best writing we could. Some of it is from names you may well have heard before - A.F. Harrold, Cathy Bryant,  G.B. Clarkson - and some of it from writers who we are excited to be giving their big break into publication - Fat Roland, Ian Bartlett, Casey Bourne. Whoever the work is by, however, it was all chosen anonymously so you can be sure that we only picked the very best pieces, and those which fit with our theme.

On that topic, we did receive many wonderful pieces which we would have liked to accept, but with little or nothing to do with 'Beginnings', so do make sure if you're sending pieces in that they meet the theme.

Once the pieces were chosen, the enjoyable task of putting the issue together came next - designing the layout, putting the pieces in order, designing the cover - all to bring you a magazine which we hope you will find nice to look at as well as utterly enjoyable.

So, that's us for the first issue. You can read it by going to http://www.gumbopress.co.uk/wordgumbo.html and downloading the pdf file. Please let us know what you think of it on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/gumbopress).

We're going to have a rest now, but come July 1st we want to be even busier than we have been in May, so start sending your work in for the next issue, 'Opposites'.

Until the next time, dear readers. Enjoy!

May Days

April 30th has come and gone, the submission deadline for the first issue of Word Gumbo has passed, you've done your hard work and now it's our turn.

As I type, the editors of Team Gumbo are poring over your submissions - over 160 of them in all - and working out what is going to make up our first issue, 'Beginnings' which will be out at the end of May. So far we're really pleased with the standard of work we've received, so well done to you all.

But while we're slaving away bringing the issue to life, there's no need to just sit there and wait. A new theme - 'Opposites - has been posted on the website, and the deadline for issue two is June 30th. So put fresh inspiration into your brain, apply pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, and send us your work.

We're looking forward to it.

In the meantime, it's back to work for me and the rest of the team.
See you on the other side of the pile!

- Calum Kerr

The end of the first month

Hello, dear reader, welcome back to the blog. It has now been almost a month since the birth of Gumbo Press, and the first deadline is closing in.

Of course it's been a busy month, with the assemblage of the editorial team, agreement of editorial aims and guidelines, creation of the website, promotion of Word Gumbo and monitoring/gathering of submissions. It's been a wonderful month too, though, as the word has spread the enthusiasm for our new venture has become palpable.

And now, here we are, with just two days to go before the closing date for submissions for our first issue. We have received over a hundred pieces to consider, and we're still hoping for more as the deadline approaches. It has always been my practice to submit only as the deadline closes in, and I imagine I'm not alone. All of which is wonderful, because the more pieces we receive, the better our chance of achieving the high level of quality which we are seeking for.

It's very exciting to be on the cusp of reading the first batch. I can't wait. I know it might, in time, feel like work, but at this moment it is just tingling anticipation.

After that, there will be the assembling of the magazine, and then waiting for your reaction, dear reader, to our first publication. Tell me, can it get any better than this?


-Calum Kerr, Managing Editor

Gumbo Press - the story

(This blog entry was written for the Winning Words blog - and first appeared on the 15th April 2011)

On 3^rd April 2011 I set up Gumbo Press to publish a literary e-zine and chapbooks of prose and poetry. It was a spur of the moment decision which took 7 years in the making.

I used to run a small press. In 1997 I founded CK Publishing and Writer’s Muse magazine. We moved on, over time to publish chapbooks, novellas, and finally some ‘proper’ trade paperbacks. Writer’s Muse passed into other hands in 2001 when I started my PhD, and CK Publishing finally came to an end in 2004 when we had to cease trading. We had tried to grow too fast and over-reached ourselves, and the business failed.

I left CK Publishing behind with some regret, but moved on to concentrate on my studies, my own writing – mostly academic – and latterly my lecturing in Literature and Creative Writing. However, in the last two years I have been writing a lot more fiction – short stories and flash-fictions mostly – and have been sending them out with some success. As a result I have been coming into contact with, and enjoying, a huge range of small press magazines, both print and electronic. This experience reconnected me with what I had been doing before, and reignited my own desire to get back into the publishing game in some small way.

All of this would, almost certainly, have remained just one of those nebulous things you plan to do ‘one day’ if it weren’t for the recent arts funding decisions. It has seemed, from the announcements, and from the reactions of many of my writing and editing friends online, that the publishing sector has been disproportionately hit by the cuts, small presses even more so than some of the larger ones. There is a lot of anger, and not a little anxiety, in many quarters. In me it provoked the desire to get back into the game and show that, despite political decisions, good writing – and its publication – will not be halted.

So, on the 3^rd April 2011, my partner Kath Lloyd and I announced the creation of Gumbo Press. We were quickly joined by 2 other writers – poet and National Poetry Day Director, Jo Bell, and writer, film-buff and Writer’s Muse editor, Mike Somers – to help with the editing, promotion and general running of the endeavour. A week of planning, meetings and website-building later, we are up and running, ready to bring the first issue of our e-zine, Word Gumbo, to the web at the end of May 2011.

What we have now, after a frenetic week of organising, is a press dedicated to finding and publishing the very best in new writing from both emerging and established writers working in all the various forms. We want to be the place to break the new Carol Ann Duffy or Ted Hughes, the new Iris Murdoch or Raymond Carver, the new Susan Sontag or Hunter S. Thompson, and the new Caryl Churchill or Tom Stoppard. There’s no point in aiming low, we want to create something online which can rival the very best print publications in both range and quality.

It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m happy to be back in the editor’s chair and looking forward to the adventure.

 - Calum Kerr (Managing Editor, Gumbo Press)

(The theme for the first issue of Word Gumbo is ‘Beginnings’ and the deadline for submissions is 30^th April. Submission guidelines and more information can be found online at www.gumbopress.co.uk.)