Welcome to our second newsletter of the year. We have submission stuffs, new things, Trash Family happenings, Quick Reads and a visual writing prompt.
Submission Stuffs
Our Spring General REPRINTS sub window closed on 15th February. The quality of submissions was amazing and we had a tough job choosing the final pieces.
We ended up selecting FIFTEEN reprints to publish in the issue – four short stories and eleven flash fictions, including a stunner from Guest Reader Sarah Royston.
We are launching the Spring Issue at the end of this month and will reveal the contributor list on social media on the 21st.
A reminder that the three-month sub window for our first print anthology – a collection of stories up to 2500 words to raise money for The Wildlife Trusts – opens on 1st March. You’ll find all the details and lots of prompts HERE.
As always subs are free and there are no genre limits.
You’ll need to show us why the place is unexpected and why the treasure is, well treasure. It might be nothing of monetary value, something small and seemingly insignificant, but if your character sells it as treasure – we’ll believe it.
If you’re looking for a shorter submission window, a nice quick turnaround, we got you. Our Spring Pop-Up is open 1st-14th April with the issue publishing on 1st June.
The call is for flash fictions up to 1000 words on the theme of Collectors and Collections to celebrate trash cats’ habit of hoarding ‘preciouses’.
You’ll find several picture and written prompts HERE.
We want a whole plethora of collections – weird, sad, sprawling, beautiful, vintage, evocative of childhood, deadly.
As well as prepping for a Trash Cat Lit sub, you might look at these other submission opportunities:
- Our pals at Neither Fish nor Foul are open for submissions. They like “the odd, the not quite, the nearly and the almost because we believe in writing for sheer joy” Check them out HERE
- The rather lovely Broken Antler Magazine is open for submissions of flash and short fiction. You can send up to 3 pieces at a time. Find out more HERE
- If your thing is dark and weird and folklorey, Crow and Cross Keys are a stunning mag “Seeking the wonderful and the bizarre, the beautiful and the dark. Home to all things dark and lovely”. Read all about them HERE
New to Trash Cat Lit
Listen in the Bin
We are currently working to add audio versions of all our fantastic stories to the website. This will make TCL more accessible and offer a new way to enjoy the treasured words of our contributors. We expect to have a mix of contributor voices and those of a few trashy pals we strongarmed to the task. Keep checking the website as more and more audio versions appear and give Listen in the Bin a try on your commute.
Write Along With Trash Cat
In March we start hosting online writealongs using the Prompt Generator from our August 2024 Pop-Up. We have three dates across the month where writers can hang out with Trash Cat and generate a draft or two from blind-chosen prompts. All the details and how to sign up are HERE
Trash Family
We love to celebrate our contributors beyond Trash Cat Lit, herre are some cool stuffs our Trash Family members have going on:
Tracie Adams (READ Excerpts from My Zombie Diary)
Tracie has published a beautiful, powerful piece of autofiction with new mag Waffle Fried. It’s a striking blend of fantastical imagery and her own personal experience. Click the red bird to read it.
“Before I knew about the rose world, I believed in things right in front of me, things I could touch and hold to my chest, manipulate with my hands and mind, and certainly not fairytales or fantasy worlds like the ones in childhood stories”
Laura Cooney (READ Some Poisons)
As well as being a fabulous writer of grown-up fiction, Laura also tackles the scariest of readers – smol people!
Her poem published by Dirigible Balloon and featured in this illustrated anthology can be read HERE
“My big loves really are my children and I’m ever so proud of this poem “How To Bake A Mummy,” which is now in the Sky Surfing Anthology and illustrated by Joanne Byatt”
Laura Cooney
Leigh Loveday (READ The Unknown Life of Luiza)
One of our Best Small Fictions nominated contributors, Leigh has only gone and won the Cinematic Short Story Contest from Uncharted magazine. Keep an eye out for publication of Train Through the Actinic Mountains by Uncharted. It sounds terrific.
The judge said of Leigh’s story “I loved the image-driven worldbuilding in this speculative story, which started off reminding me of Snowpiercer and then went somewhere maybe even stranger. (Also, what is more cinematic than a train?)”
A Trash Trio of Quick Reads
Whether you’re on your lunch break, the train, the couch while the kids are out, or in bed with that sublime hour to devote to reading – here are three stories from the Trash Cat bin archive for you to savour.
Click on the images to read Charlie Kondek and Catherine O’Brien (from our Winter general issue with the theme of Monstrous) and Pushcart nominated Mairead Robinson (from our inaugural issue).
Every Dog
Teddy Bear
Cockling
Writing Prompt
We’ll end this newsletter with a prompt to help you get writing.
Our April Pop-Up is themed around collectors and the things they collect, so we have a related image prompt for you.
Challenge yourself to write something about one or more of the curiosities in this eclectic cabinet.
Maybe write about the person who would gather such a collection. Where are they displayed? Are any of the items valuable? Haunted? Stolen?
This collection could even prompt a story for the Pop-Up!
Thank you for reading our newsletter.
We hope we have inspired you with the amazing writing.
We’ll see you next month.
Happy writing and reading, and above all…
TRASH CAT LIT 