Welcome to our latest newsletter. We have submission stuffs, semi-public appearances, Trash Family happenings, Quick Reads and a challenging animal writing prompt.
Submission Stuffs
We are bringing together our Spring Pop-Up following the April submission window. It’s fascinating to see how different writers have interpreted the theme of Collectors and Collections.
The Spring Pop-Up will be launching on 1st May.
We hope to reveal our contributor list on social media sometime later this month.
Submissions for our first print anthology – a collection of themed stories to raise funds for UK Wildlife Trusts – remain open until 30th June. All the details are here: https://trashcatlit.com/the-bin-collection/
If you’re looking for un-themed submission opportunities, we got you too. Our Summer General Issue subs open on 1st June.
We want flash fictions up to 750 words and short stories up to 2000. Any genre.
Click the image on the right for all our sub guidelines.
Deadline will be 14th June.
Here are some other submission opportunities in fellow lit mags if you want to send your treasures out into the world.
- The National Flash Fiction Day FLASH FLOOD subs open on 20th April for just six days. Get your micros in (up to 300 words) for the online deluge of flash on 14th June. Details HERE
- If you like to write about villains, you still have time to submit to The Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Villain contest. They have a sweet spot of 750 words (but will take up to 1000) and publish the top ten online. Details HERE
- Bag of Bones Press are looking for dark stories, 2-4K words to the theme of PATTERNS and are open until 31st May.
Check out all the possible genres they’re looking for and various ideas on the theme HERE
As with all literary publications, including Trash Cat Lit, you should always read a number of the published works before submitting yourself. Get to know what they like and decide if it’s the right home for your treasured words.
Trash Cat Lit on the Zoom
Lit Mag Panel
If you’ve never heard of the phenomenal Writers HQ, you should go and check them out. It is where I, JP Relph was birthed into a flash fiction writer back in 2021. It’s a fantastic platform for learning and developing writing craft, supportive and encouraging and with a superb flash fiction community in Flash Face Off.
As part of their yearlong Submit Series, Writers HQ are hosting a panel of literary magazine editors and subjecting them to The Big Questions about submitting work. I’ll be there as Trash Cat alongside the Eds of Frazzled Lit, Neither Fish Nor Foul and Urban Pigs Press to discuss things such as what we look for in subs, how to shine in the slush and themed sub calls.
You do need to be a paid member of WHQ to attend this event, but signing up will give you access to many other events and writing workshops, online retreats and courses. However, if you are strapped for monies as so many of us are, the Flash Face Off is accessible via FREE membership. It got me here so…
Write Along With Trash Cat
After the success of the three March dates – we had some amazing drafts started – we plan to add in some dates for May. Keep checking social media and the Write in the Bin page HERE
Trash Family
We love to celebrate our contributors beyond Trash Cat Lit, here are some cool stuffs our Trash Family members have going on:
Tracie Adams (READ Excerpts From my Zombie Diary)
Tracie has published a collection of flash memoir essays, including the fantastic story we have in our Monstrous issue, Winter 2024. We recommend reading Tracie’s work wherever you can and this collection is available on Ingram Sparks (click book image to link) and Amazon in both paperback and EBook formats.
“a collection of essays, tiny microcosms of insight into the author’s experiences with traumatic life events and loss. With raw honesty, she writes about losing loved ones to suicide and cancer.”
“In these pages, life is framed as shattered moments of deep despair, tattered along the rough edges of grieving and healing, calling us to see what truly matters.”
Anthony Neil Smith (READ Cubby)
Another Trash Family member has recently published a new book with Urban Pigs Press. We love Anthony’s writing – which is gritty noir at its finest – and recommend you check him out. The story we published in our inaugural issue, Cubby is part of a collection Alien Buddha Press published in December (Skull Full on Amazon)
“Drug dealer Morris and his gangbangers terrorize the halls of the drug-scarred Northside High School. That is until Roble Engstrom, a struggling Somali-American teacher and family man, joins forces with an old-school coach, dubbed as “Captain Karate”. The pair embark on a relentless mission to rid the school and students of the increasing drug problem.”
Scott MacLeod (READ Oh Give Me a Home)
Scott has written a humorous, relatable post on the Lit Mag News Substack. This stack, created by Becky Tuch is one you should definitely subscribe to as it’s packed with lit mag content.
Scott plays with lit maglanguage in his cracking post – Literary Magazine Submission Guidelines Written on Truth Serum.
It’s one that will have you nodding and laughing.
“We allow simultaneous submissions. They must be demonstrably simultaneous in the precise dictionary sense of the word. Words matter.”
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 three stories featuring animals, but where they are used in fantastically imaginative ways.
Nicole Brogdon (Preloved Stories, Spring 2025), Martha Lane (Inaugural Summer 2024 issue) and Rebecca Field (Out of Place Animals Pop-Up, Winter 2024).
Tiger Sleeps Over
The Scavenger
Atypical Mole
Writing Prompt
We’ll end this newsletter with a prompt to help you get writing.
To carry on from those marvellous stories about animals (and there are more to enjoy HERE) we challenge you to write from the POV of an animal, bird, reptile, insect etc.
We encourage anthropomorphism – use human emotions and feelings but in the context of the animal’s life/ habitat. Here are some ideas to get you started…
- A cat that hates being photographed.
- A dog that is sick of walking.
- A hamster that wants to stay up all night and party.
- A murder of crows mocking people in a neighbourhood.
- Rats that just want to be seen and understood.
- A spider looking for love.
- A family of raccoons that need to upgrade their trashcan in light of an unexpected pregnancy.
Have fun with it – such a POV lends itself to humour – or make it deeply emotional, dark and creepy, or surreal. Become that creature for those 500 or so words…
Thank you for reading our newsletter.
We hope we have inspired you with the amazing writing and readings.
We’ll see you next month.
Happy writing and reading, and above all…
TRASH CAT LIT 