Issue 4 of Friction, Newcastle University’s online journal for creative writing, theory and practice, is now available online. This latest edition includes my short story Soiled.
From the introduction for Friction Issue 4:
As writers, and readers. We have been changed this month by some wonderful words. We’ve been chased down in the outback by Nikesh Murali; alongside David Houston, tracked an Arctic Fox in Crystal Palace; we’ve felt Soiled with Dan Powell; gone home with Elaine Ewart; faced up to space with Eleanor Stewart; and got closer to Junior with Dolan Morgan.
Soiled is a story that I wrote during my OU diploma in Creative Writing and continued to redraft over the time between then and my subbing it to Friction. It is a story I am particularly fond of as, I feel, it presents a positive view of men and male relationships. A word of warning though, there is a fair amount of bad language contained within, though I would add it is all there to serve the story. Just a warning for those viewing at work or with the prying eyes of little ones round about.
Please do pop over there and have a read. There is a comment form for each story so any thoughts would be welcome, good or bad, there or, if you prefer, here. If you do pop over there I would recommend taking the time to read some of the other writing on offer. There’s a whole host of interesting writing by an exciting body of authors and poets in the issue, as well as news about the theme for issue 5:
We will be publishing Issue #5 of Friction in May 2012. It will be a themed issue—we are working in collaboration with the NCLA Festival of Belonging, so we look forward to all of your work, poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction, creative work of all shapes and sizes, on the theme of ‘belonging’.
The festival runs from Monday April 30th to Monday May 7th. The deadline for work is Sunday May 13th. You can see Friction’s submission guidelines here.
Have a read then get writing and submitting.
Born in the Midlands in the early Seventies, Dan Powell worked as a Secondary School English Teacher for nearly ten years. He holds a BA in Literary and Historical Studies completed a diploma in Creative Writing in 2009 and will begin an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University in Sept 2011. His work has most recently appeared in the pages of Spilling Ink Review, Staccato, Litsnack, Neon, Metazen, The View From Here, and Dirty Bristow. His short story ‘Half-mown Lawn’ won the 2010 Yeovil Literary Prize for short fiction and is currently published by Ether Books on their iPod/iPhone application. When not writing, Dan takes care of his young family as a homedad.
