Welcome to Issue 17 of Spark Young Writers Magazine
Click here to read this issue. Published in print and online in June 2019.
One of the things I like most about reading Spark Young Writers’ magazine, let alone editing it, is that there is always a world of stories in it. You see such a range of pieces and they’re all looking outwards, all exploring, and yet every single one is also telling you a giant amount about the writer.
I think that’s even more apparent, even more striking this time as issue 17 literally contains a world of writing. Alongside young writers from the UK and West Midlands, we have stories and poems by writers in Ireland, Portugal and Norway.
They are exceptional. There are pieces here that have made me laugh aloud and there are others that are going to stick with me. As you read these, you’ll see the writers: you’ll see them reaching for something within themselves.
This issue is also the work of more people than usual. Alongside Writing West Midlands’ Emma Boniwell, this time we also have editors across the READ ON project plus designer Keith Dodds and Norwegian to English translator Nancy Langfeldt.
There is just one thing. We’ve never done this before but I would like to dedicate this issue to Lindsey Bailey. I don’t believe she worked with any of the writers who are in this edition but she did work extensively with Spark Young Writers across the region. She died suddenly in January and even as I type those words, I’m thinking no, that can’t be true, she must still be doing all she did, I can’t be right.
We’ll all miss her. And I think it’s just right to dedicate this particular issue to Lindsey when it is full of exactly the kinds of writing that she brought out of the young writers she knew.
William Gallagher – Spark Young Writers Magazine Editor
You can download and keep a PDF edition of the magazine too. Click here to open the full-size PDF and then use your browser’s download button to save it to your computer.
To read Issue 17 of Spark Young Writers Magazine online, please click here. You can see a full list of contributors to the Magazine by heading to the Contributors page.