Editing in the Hills, A New Competition and Easter

Happy Easter, all.

I hope you’ve been enjoying the sun and a little extra time to your own devices. I’ve taken a few kilos of writing up into the Cumbrian hills with me, and have been alternating between editing other people’s work and trying to get my own notes and jottings and half-formed scenes into some kind of order. It’s a good weekend for resurrections.

Michelangelo's take on an age-old theme 

If you haven’t heard the news, we’ve just made a call for submissions to our latest competition – 100 Years On – whose theme is the centenary of the First World War. Francisco Vilhena, from Granta Magazine, has agreed to judge the competition and give some feedback to our winners, and there’s also a cash prize. The deadline is the first of June and entry is 5£.

Our story of the week is Blackjack Davey’s ‘The Architect's Wife.’ When he first put the piece on the site it was an incredible piece of prose, with that particular density of character and relationship he’s so good at teasing out of small spaces. But as soon as he gathered a few comments it was gone again for restructuring. This version is honed and polished, a triptych of a failed marriage, bold and surprising.

Our poem of the week is ‘A Poet Without Honour’ by No 1 – a confident, raucous passage through pub and along canal with a broken down poet, penniless and verseless, his last rhymes sunk underneath a swallow of cheap cider.

If you’ve got a moment of Easter holiday to spare, have a go at this week’s inspiration point.