Karen's blog: Butcher's Dog newsletter

Here is the latest Butcher's Dog newsletter:

We hope you're enjoying the summer thunderstorms as much as we are. In this newsletter you'll find news about lots of lovely dogs, editors and poets. We have submission opportunities for you too, and an exercise to get you writing, like, immediately.

Stay classy,

Amy and the rest of the dogs x

Butcher’s Dog is open for submissions!

We welcome submissions from writers living in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, particularly those with a connection to Northern England. There is no set theme, we just want you to send us your best work.

 Issue 6 will be co-edited by Luke Allan, Degna Stone and guest editor Wendy Heath.

Submission Guidelines:

• Submit no more than 3 unpublished poems in a single Word

document via Submittable (we do not accept postal or email submissions)
• Poems must be the original work of the submitter
• Your name should not appear on the poems
• No simultaneous submissions
• Submission deadline: 31 July 2015

Published contributors will receive a copy of Butcher's Dog and will be invited to read at the launch event.

Support Us!

If you’re thinking of submitting poems to us buying a copy of the magazine is a great way of seeing if we’re right for your work. Each beautiful copy is a limited numbered edition. You won't be disappointed. Click here to buy.

(MINI) WORKSHOP

Certain things are inevitable, so says this quote from Dexter. But what are these things, and why are they inevitable? List ten things you think are inevitable, however mundane or massive they may be. Next to each write the reason you think it's inevitable. These should be the bones of a new poem, which you can present as a list, or develop into something else using your line-breaking magic. Good luck!

Submissions and Competitions! <3

National Poetry Competition
Open for entries! Judged by Sarah Howe, Esther Morgan and David Wheatley. First prize is a smashing £5,000. Past winners have had their poems made in to filmpoems which you can watch online. And keep out for The Poetry Society's free writing prompts, created in partnership with our friends The Poetry School. Www.poetrysociety.org.uk/npc

Also, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award closes 31 July. For writers aged 11-17 it's a fantastic free opportunity, and judged by Liz Berry and Michael Symmons Roberts this year. Spread the word! www.foyleyoungpoets.org

If you're 25 or younger you might also want to take a look at the current Young Poets Network translation challenge. There are some great prizes up for grabs, and you don't actually need to speak a second language. Deadline 12 July, so still some time! http://www.youngpoetsnetwork.org.uk/2015/05/22/become-a-literary-translator-new-competition/

Check out the new #WriteScience competition, judged by our own Degna!
http://funpalaces.co.uk/writescience-poetry-competition/

Paper Swan Press are accepting submissions for their latest anthology, 'The Chronicles of Eve.' Details here: http://paperswans.co.uk/submissions/

In the Doghouse (our editors answer a bunch of questions...)

Our very own Dog Boss Degna Stone went and won a Northern Writers' Award! Huge congratulations Degna, we couldn't be more proud! Here she answers my five questions for our In the Doghouse segment.

1. What are you hoping to find in the submissions pile for issue 6?

In fear of sounding wanky I’m just going to answer as honestly as I can. I’m a person of simple means; I just want something that’s going to have a visceral, physical effect on me when I read it. I want a poem that feels alive. I want to find poets who can take a view of a sometimes brutal world and show it without brutalising the reader in the process. I want there to be hope. I want to find a poem that makes me want to learn it by heart or keep it in my pocket, a poem to shore me up against the world – a poem that I can rely on; something like Invictus by William Ernest Henley or Epilogue by Grace Nichols, something like Indelible, Miraculous by Julia Darling. I want to find poets who can write about politics without standing on a soapbox. I would love to find poets from every part of British society, bold as you like demanding to be read. I want the submissions pile to fizz with the energy of hundreds of different voices. What I don’t want to find… I’m not at all partial to rhyme for rhyme’s sake, just so you know.

2. What, if anything, has changed about BD since we started?

Well for a start, only three of us are still based in the north of England and even then we’re all in different cities! I guess the main difference is the sheer volume and quality of work submitted – we can only publish about two dozen poems out of the 800 or so that we receive so people are getting the idea that they really need to send us their mintest work.

Each issue of the dog has always been co-edited by a different team but in order to keep the editing fresh we began working with guest editors from issue 4. First up was Will Barrett and the wonderful folk at The Poetry School, then for issue 5 we teamed up with the phenomenally talented and bloody lovely Carolyn Jess-Cooke. It’s a model we’re going to continue with and we’re delighted to welcome back BD co-founder Wendy Heath as guest editor of issue 6.

There may be more changes ahead though. We were really lucky to receive support from Arts Council England to set up the magazine but as that funding comes to a close we’re having to think about sustainability (so for those of you who haven’t already subscribed, now would definitely be a good time!).

3. What have you been reading recently which for you is an example of exciting current work?

It’s not exactly current but I’ve just finished reading Bluets by Maggie Nelson, it was recommended to me because I’m working on a sequence of prose poems. I’m not quite sure what I made of it (probably because I’m trying to figure it out in relation to my own work) but I raced through the whole thing (over 200 ‘propositions’) in a couple of hours. It’s still playing on my mind, the layering of subject and theme, the exploration of love and loss through the act of falling in love with a colour. It’s worth a read.

4. Tell me about a movie or TV show that's left a lasting impression on you in 2015 so far?

I’m not big into TV, which is not to say the TV is never on in our house. It’s always on but it’s pretty much like white noise. There are exceptions to the rule but I often can’t tolerate graphic violence and gratuitous sex scenes so there’s loads that I just won’t watch (obviously Game of Thrones is out but surprisingly Breaking Bad snuck in under the radar last year). My daughter is mad into Minecraft at the moment and has developed an addiction to Stampy Cat’s YouTube channel so that’s probably it. Stampy Cat has left a lasting impression.

5. If you could sum BD up in 10 words, what would those words be?

It’ll have to be nine but if you want to you can add BOOM! or some other one-word exclamation on the end if you’re going to insist on the full ten: Mint poetry, canny mag. Northern (but not exclusively so).