Leeds Writers and Poets Achievements

Group Achievements

The Leeds Writers and Poets Anthology was been shortlisted for the National Association of Writers' groups Anthology prize 2017.

We were also shortlisted in 2015, the only other time we have submitted. You can buy that anthology here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/leeds-writers-and-poets/leeds-letters-2015/paperback/product-22134805.html

Member Achievements

Mark James Barrett

Mark's novel Dreams of the Black Butterfly is now available for purchase on Amazon and boasts an average review score of 4.3 out of 5 stars. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreams-Black-Butterfly-James-Barrett/dp/1785890549
Mark was shortlisted for the International Aeon Short Story Award, and placed in the top 6 shortlist of Albedo One with The Jenny Museum. Read it here: http://www.albedo1.com/albedo-2-0-fiction-showcase-8-summer-2014-the-jenny-museum-by-mark-j-barrett/

Adam Wolstenholme

Adam's novel: Talking Wounded is available via Dandylion Publishing: http://dandylionpublishing.co.uk/books/item/talking-wounded.html
His short stories have been published in the anthology Eating My Words and on the websites 1000 Words, Brilliant Flash Fiction and Flash Frontier.
You can keep up with him here: http://adamjwolstenholme.blogspot.co.uk/

Katja Kaine

Katja has been shortlisted for the HE Bates Short Story award and published in the Wyrd Stories Anthology and on the Ether Books App.

She has had work published on the following online and print publications:

http://www.dimeshowreview.com/my-first-queen-by-katja-kaine/ This story was also selected for the print anthology, which is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981594329/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1513487793&sr=8-4&keywords=dime+show+review
https://www.fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/pray-on-the-weak-by-katja-l-kaine/
You can read her short stories, ramblings and rantings on her blog: https://katjalkaine.com/

Andrey Pissantchev

Published a short story in 'May You', the anthology for the 2018 Walter Swan Prize: http://www.valleypressuk.com/book/107/may_you__the_walter_swan_prize_anthology called She Went out for Milk One Morning and Only Came back the Previous Day
Toilet-based horror short story "The Unnatural Call" is published in Grotesque Magazine's latest issue: http://www.grotesque-magazine.com/grotesque-volume-2-issue-3/. If you feel like buying a copy, here's an affiliate link: https://payhip.com/b/Qq7N/af5ba4ba5c5fc77
You can read more of his work on his blog: https://write.as/andrey-p/

Kevin Phillips

Kevin is a prolific writer with a growing reputation across a range of avenues in Yorkshire and beyond. Achievements include:

Featured on Made in Leeds TV show The Lowdown. (A reading and interview)
Shortlisted to six out of over two hundred northern writers by New Writing North for BBC radio 3 show The Verb (Verb New Voices, 2017 – 2018)
Selected for the Playwright One course at West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2017
Hand-picked for FUSE (The year long mentoring program at West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2017 – 2018)
Acted on stage performing a short story as a monologue as part of Leeds Stories at West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Several small acting roles in independent and big budget movies such as "Suicide Kelly" and "Official Secrets" (The latter starring Keira Knightly)
Nightfall published in online magazine Fictive Dream.
Read on the Podcast "The Short Story Cast"
Published in the Anthology "Mad Like Me: Tormented tales from tormented minds"
He has also run a range of workshops at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds Libraries, Roundhay Primary School and more.

Newsfeed

Mark James Barrett: Sorry everyone, won't make it tonight, been asked to work over.

Thu 14th Feb 2019 at 18:33
Adam Wolstenholme: Can someone remind me of our plans for the anthology? I have a piece ready now at 2,000 words. Do I put it into dropbox somewhere? Does it have to be anonymous?

Thu 7th Feb 2019 at 18:00
- Adam Burton: Hi Adam! Send it to me at a.david.burton@gmail.com. From Adam.
  
  Thu 7th Feb 2019 at 21:00
- Adam Burton: Hi Adam! Send it to me at a.david.burton@gmail.com. From Adam.
  
  Thu 7th Feb 2019 at 21:00
- Adam Burton: Also I’m not uber keen, the message just posted twice. From Adam.
  
  Thu 7th Feb 2019 at 21:01
Kat: I've put out the call for submissions, though the next meeting isn't actually for two weeks. I'm the only one signed up for it at the moment...

Thu 31th Jan 2019 at 18:52
Adam Wolstenholme: That's good news, Ian. Thanks Andrey for the tips about submissions. I've sent a shortened version of my spooky Affliction story to the Leeds mag.

Tue 29th Jan 2019 at 12:05
Ian Sietniekas: After last week's session being so cold, I had a chat about getting some heaters in our meeting room.

Instead, they've decided to move us to one of the other rooms that is more reliably heated. It should be the little one just next to the bar, with loads of mirrors in it.

Beats having another discussion in our coats

Mon 28th Jan 2019 at 20:53
Adam Wolstenholme: Can anyone help? I want to submit a 2,000 word short story. I know someone - might have been Katja - recently posted a website for finding the suitable places to submit one's stuff to. I got Andrey's link to the Fiction Desk. Any other ideas?

Sun 27th Jan 2019 at 19:22
- Andrey Pissantchev: You probably want to look at Duotrope (https://duotrope.com/) or the Submission Grinder (https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/). Duotrope is paid and I think Kat uses it, whereas I've only used the Grinder, which is free.
  
  I'd definitely recommend trying the Grinder. It's a bit rough around the edges, but I got a lot of use out of it. I also have a sneaking suspicion it's a bit biased towards sci-fi/fantasy/horror, but that might be because those are the magazines I spend most of my time looking for.
  
  Sun 27th Jan 2019 at 21:01
- Richard: This Leeds magazine pops up in my twitter quite a lot, although looking at the guidelines you'd have to cut 500 words.
  https://www.strixleeds.com/submit/
  
  Tue 29th Jan 2019 at 11:18
- Andrey Pissantchev: I really like your Twitter feed, Richard.
  
  Tue 29th Jan 2019 at 13:22
- Kat: Yes, it was Duotrope, but I've actually stopped using it now. It wasn't that amazing, and I did';t know there were free options. I'm also planning to check out Submittable, which I also think does the same thing, though don't hold me to it.
  
  Thu 31th Jan 2019 at 18:50
- Andrey Pissantchev: I'd expect Submittable to only have markets that use Submittable for their submission management? Which, granted, is probably quite a few of them. Give the Grinder a shot!
  
  Fri 1st Feb 2019 at 08:41
Richard: Hey all, a reminder about this, which closes on 7th Feb.

http://northernwritersawards.com/faqs/

Tue 22th Jan 2019 at 14:05
Richard: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/78601-bartering-with-the-facts-how-a-novelist-solves-a-historical-problem.html

I just finished reading a really good book, and whilst finding out more about it came across this article by the author, about research and the importance of accuracy. I thought it was interesting.

Sun 13th Jan 2019 at 16:26
Andrey Pissantchev: Also! I appear to have volunteered myself to organize the inaugural LWAP writing retreat for this year.

I'd like to get a rough number of people thinking of attending and a general idea of what people are interested in, so please fill out this survey for me: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/B9W923L

(I'll be checking the results around the next session on January 24th, make sure to get your answer in before that.)

Sat 12th Jan 2019 at 19:07
- Mark James Barrett:
  
  Mon 14th Jan 2019 at 08:46
- Kat: Okay, I did it, but typically for me I wanted an 'other' option on almost all of them because none of the answers fitted me perfectly. I prefer August because Freyja will be older so more of a chance both Timi and I will be able to get away for the weekend if we can bribe / blackmail / surprise baby one of the nanas into it. But I can do both, technically. I put a 'maximim' budget but it's not a hard number, just a preferred. Bet you're all glad I shared this with all of you - I'm sure you have nothing better to be doing than reading this inane waffling. It's like the antithesis of Mark's comment.
  
  Wed 16th Jan 2019 at 21:21
- Andrey Pissantchev: I mean, at least you submitted - Mark didn't even answer the survey!
  
  Yeah, no problem about rough answers. This is all to get a rough idea of stuff in the first instance.
  
  Sat 19th Jan 2019 at 12:06
Andrey Pissantchev: Next session is officially down as a workshop. I've not heard anything about it so I assume it's a normal critique session?

Sat 12th Jan 2019 at 14:08
- Richard: Are we still doing the anthology? Maybe worth doing something around that?
  
  Sat 12th Jan 2019 at 16:06
- Kat: I'm happy to facilitate some writing exercises based around the anthology topic if there isn't too much dissent...
  
  Wed 16th Jan 2019 at 21:10