Poet David Tait, formerly but briefly of this parish and now unaccountably domiciled in Yorkshire, has been in touch to tell us about the rather lovely Popshot magazine and its search for poems and pictures on the theme of ‘power’.

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Ulverston writer Paul Kingsnorth is back from an extended sojourn in the South American wilderness and has returned to the steep and rocky slopes of the Dark Mountain Project.

There have been two Dark Mountain books so far; now Kingsnorth and his fellow editors are working on number three, and they’re looking for submissions. Read more>>

Following their recent decision to refocus their list on ‘eco-literature’ and writing that challenges and unpicks the status quo, and the announcement of an ambitious new magazine, EarthLines, Hebridean independent publisher Two Ravens Press is looking for submissions for an anthology of new ecopoetry to be published in November 2012.

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Radical firebrand poet and polemicist Alan Morrison is letting it be known that he’s after submissions for The Robin Hood Book, the follow-up anthology to Emergency Verse, which is planned for publication in Spring 2012.

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Abridged, the Northern Irish poetry/art magazine is looking for submissions for its Desire and Dust issue. A maximum of three poems may be submitted, of any length.

Abridged is Gregory McCartney (Project Coordinator) and Maria Campbell (Editor), and it’s supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

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From next spring, the number of short stories broadcast on Radio 4 will be reduced from three to one a week. The change is part of new Controller Gwyneth Williams’ first reorganisation of the BBC Radio 4 schedule, and appears to be a knock-on effect of extending The World At One by 15 minutes, from 7 November.

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Would you like a £5,000 writing bursary and the chance of a Radio 4 drama commission? BBC Radio Drama North have just launched their 2011 Alfred Bradley Bursary Award, an open submissions process which aims to find talented writers who are based in the North of England, who are interested in writing for radio, and have compelling stories to tell. Read more …

Everyone’s talking about happiness: politicians want to measure it, and self-help books explaining how to become ever happier are two-a-penny. So why have writers apparently been reluctant to engage with this state, when many philosophers and politicians see it as a major goal of human existence?

Refusing to be discouraged or down-hearted, Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is calling for submissions of ‘uplifting’ poems and short prose (fiction or non-fiction). Read more …

Ulverston’s Word Market is managing an Arts Council-funded scheme which allows Cumbrian writers on a low income to benefit from a free, professional critique of their manuscript via The Literary Consultancy (TLC).

Normally, writers pay for TLC’s services, but Word Market are offered a limited number of free reads for writers in Cumbria. Interested? Then read on …

Lancaster Litfest’s publishing imprint, Flax, is inviting submissions from writers living in the North West. Singles (Flax 023 – 025) will be a series of online chapbooks. Flax are looking for three writers who already have a poetry pamphlet or collection, or a short story collection or a novel published, and are working on a new project.

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