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MSLEXIA ISSUE 60 contents / 1 2 3 R F T U G OLU KO V A L E K S E Y Iloved the idea of She-Wolves, Helen Castor’s history of England’s early Queens. And I loved the title. Strong, nurturing, ferocious, that’s what ‘she-wolf ’ means to me; and I wanted to inspire Mslexia readers to bare their fangs and go hunting. I’m always aware of the fragility of feminism’s gains. This summer two inspirational women publishers, Gail Rebuck at Random House and Victoria Barnsley at Harper Collins, decided to step down; so I was delighted when Danuta Kean pitched a feature on new female publishing entrepreneurs. Sally O’Reilly’s novel about the first woman poet to be published in England, makes me wonder how many others have been quietly painted out of history. Political theatre bounded back on to London stages this autumn, inspired by Lucy Prebble’s extraordinary musical Enron. Women playwrights have a new role model – and history won’t be able to ignore them this time. Uniformly pleasant and socially acceptable protagonists simply don’t function. In fiction, the nice always finish last Celia Brayfield, p 8 features I have doubt written through me like a stick of rock. In the end it’s best to stop fretting and just get on with it LUCY PREBBLE, p 51 This poem emerged from looking at the harvest moon and feeling the goose bumps on the back of my neck SHARON MORRIS, p 49 Talking to women entrepreneurs, it became clear that they have a sense that they are making a difference – to authors and to the book market DANUTA KEAN, p 13 CELIA BRAYFIELD is the author of nine novels and five nonfiction books, the latest being Writing Historical Fiction (Bloomsbury). Her next novel is about the love affair between a French man and an English woman that brought Mary Queen of Scots to justice. Celia also tutors on two of Britain’s leading creative writing programmes, at Bath Spa University and Brunel University in London. Narrative voice is all about confidence. If you don’t have it, then fake it till you do LIZ JENSEN, p 43 Yes, you will be looked at. Yes, your audience may comment on how thin/fat, badly-dressed/ overdressed you are LUCY ENGLISH, p 16 Your Mslexia 4 Letters, emails, posts, tweets, blogs What’s new 6 …in the writing world, on the market, in our lives Agenda 8 Dark matter: Celia Brayfield urges us to plumb our darker depths Features 13 Coming up trumps: Danuta Kean on the new wave of women publishers 16 Brave new words: Lucy English invites you to sample the world of open mic, YouTube and street rapping 18 Faking history: What England’s first woman poet taught Sally O’Reilly about historical fiction Writing life 21 Big question: To tweet or not to tweet? Results of our survey into the impact of social media on women writers 22 Make a difference: Rosa, channeling funding to women’s campaigns 23 Synopsis surgery: Genre and tone 24 Scamwatch: Editing services How I keep going: Tracey Upchurch 25 Make a splash: Join forces What went horribly wrong for Deborah Moggach New writing 26 Winner of our 2013 Poetry Pamphlet Competition 27 Pascale Petit introduces poetry and prose on the theme of ‘foreign parts’ Inspiration 43 Fiction masterclass: Liz Jensen on authorial voice 44 Pen portrait by Helen Larder 45 E-booking: Katy Evans-Bush on formatting your manuscript 46 The creative mix: writing exercises, monologue, 4 lines that rhyme, plus advice from novelist Jill Dawson 47 Nonfiction: Nature writing, with Caroline Sanderson 49 Making a poem the Sharon Morris way, interviewed by Fiona Sampson Interview 51 Lucy Prebble talks to Rin Hamburgh Books 55 Books to look out for: Danuta Kean on trends in poetry publishing 56 Book group: TheCasualVacancy What’s hot: Madeleine Milburn 57 Nonfiction choice, selected by Sarah Salway; Indie Press: Ink Monkey Books; How I did it: Paulie’sWeb 58 Poetry and short story reviews 59 What’s new in historical crime, by Stephanie Merritt 60 How to write a bestseller: WillYouLove Me? 61 Submitting and subscribing to Mslexia Directory 62 Opportunities: competitions, calls for submissions, grants, courses 67 Out and About: events and workshops in your area 73 Noticeboard: what you’re up to And finally 74 Allegra McEvedy’s bedtime reading Mslexiapublication details Dec/Jan/Feb 2013/14 3

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