I’ve dreamt of starting my own magazine ever since primary school, and have actually done so, then and in high school. I still have copies of my school age magazines in which I wrote much of the copy myself, but also published my friends’ writing, and illustrations. Aged ten or so, I began serialising a blood-curdling murder mystery. Re-reading it now (at 70!), I am so annoyed I’ll never find out what happened.
When I became editor of The Jewish Quarterly magazine in 1994, it was almost a dream come true. A magazine I could actually edit! It was too earnest for my own taste, so from the very first issue under my editorship, I interspersed it with cartoons. Confession: my absolute favourite moment of that era was a cartoon I actually commissioned from am artist, with my caption. It was a man desperately pleading with his wife: ‘Just give me two minutes alone with your breasts.’ No one ever objected and I actually survived three turbulent years in that interesting job. The protagonist of my debut novel THE NOSE is a young editor of a Jewish magazine. And that’s only a small part of her problems.
Now, many years and other editorial and publishing jobs later, I still have the magazine bug. A few things were discussed but never financed, so I’m still dreaming.
The world definitely doesn’t need another small magazine. But Substack is a pretty happy, inventive playground, and I have now decided that a section of my Substack will be developed into a magazine (it can be done with a separate subscripion, when it’s ready). I will publish writing by other writers, I may collaborate with other editors and writers. It will be fun but also serious, because we live in times that need us to be both.
No more details for now - all to come - but I am now officially though slowly starting to consider submissions. Stories and other narratives (including non-fiction) are welcome. International writing welcome. All so-called genres. Send me something really, really good.
Please email any queries/submissions/ideas/objections to:
words.editorial@gmail.com