Welcome to Issue #5 of Friction Magazine. We have 18 writers for you, whittled down from our largest submission since we began publishing two years ago, and perhaps the toughest task yet of saying no to so many great, publishable stories and poems. For Issue #5 we wanted as much as possible to a) shape the issue around the theme of Belonging, which followed on from the successful NCLA Festival of Belonging Apr 30 – May 6; and b) to continue to publish local writers, especially those with a link to Newcastle University, to maintain our purpose of showcasing the writing happening in both this university and city. We hope that Friction Magazine has provided a home, somewhere to belong, for writers in the North East of England, at the same time as connecting those writers in intriguing, creative and thoughtful ways with other writers around the world. So let…
