Welcome to Issue 18 of Spark Young Writers Magazine
Click here to read this issue. Published in online in November 2019.
One of the reasons Writing West Midlands produces this Spark Young Writers’ magazine – and the sole reason I ever edit it – is that it’s meant to be real. With the exception that whoever is editing it will take longer and will go into more detail when rejecting pieces, the whole process is intentionally the same as these young writers will get used to throughout the rest of their writing careers.
That always means several important things. Most importantly, it means that despite our aims of supporting young writers, the magazine cannot actually be for them. It has to be for the readers instead.
This means that despite whole magazine existing to bring young writing from the West Midlands, I barely think about the young writers. It’s always about the writing, the pieces, what works, what doesn’t and, crucially, what works as part of the whole magazine.
Except this time.
Nothing’s changed about editing this issue, yet it feels as if this time the pieces have stuck with me more than usual. I took longer editing it because I’d be thinking about certain poems or stories more, I’d be on completely unrelated jobs and this issue would be on my mind.
Then thinking about it away from my desk, sometimes far away from the production of the magazine, I did think about the writers.
I thought about how the writers in this issue wrote in such different ways and, doubtlessly, they wrote all across the region, probably at all times of day and night if they’re anything like me.
They all worked on their own. They were definitely separated from other writers and they may even have been isolated. Yet their solitary writing across the West Midlands comes together to create this magazine as a single, whole, vibrant read.
For you.
I’m proud of the writing in this issue, and so grateful that Writing West Midlands has be be part of this process. I hope you relish it as much as I do.
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 18 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.