Submissions

Welcome to Friction Magazine and Journal, the new online space for creative writing and non-fiction published by the Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts and edited by the students on the MA and PhD programmes in creative writing at Newcastle University.

Call for contributions

Friction Magazine and Journal will publish work from leading writers, nationally and internationally, both established authors and first time writers. Please submit your work via editor@frictionmagazine.co.uk for our second  issue. Please read our call for contributions below to see where your work might fit.

There are no themes or competition entry costs–just submit within one of these two categories:

Creative Frictions

We’ll publish a selection of stories, poetry, flash fiction and other creative work that won’t easily fit into categories. We’ll then promote your contributions to generate maximum exposure for your writing on Friction. We will be publishing every quarter:

  • Deadline for Issue #5: May 13th (theme: Belonging)

We hope this provides opportunity for the best work to be published on Friction, and we hope it means people will keep coming back regularly for new writing.

For creative submissions, we’re looking for:

  • Up to six pieces of poetry, or a maximum count of 100 lines
  • One piece of of fiction, with a maximum word count of 3,000
  • Three pieces of flash-fiction, with a maximum word count of 1,000
  • One piece of memoir, essay, life-writing with a maximum word count of 2,000

The Magazine

We hope Friction will be a lively and provocative magazine for readers and contributors to enjoy the latest opinion and debate around creative writing practice, from regular blogs on digital literature, young adult and children’s fiction, text and public art, and translation, through to personal narratives of studying and writing creatively. If you want to contribute either a one-off piece on any subject to do with creative writing, or if you’d like to contribute on a more regular basis, please get in touch at editor@frictionmagazine.co.uk and we’ll get back to you.

For the magazine we’re looking for engaging and original non-fiction opinion, essay or ideas that are 400-800 words in length and on any subject to do with creative writing practice, the processes of writing, theories and philosophies, or the experiences of studying writing, or the writing and publishing industry.

Further Guidelines

  1. Your submitted work should not have been previously published in a magazine or online.
  2. Your work must be entirely yours, and you must own the full rights of the story.
  3. Submissions must be accompanied by a bio including details of previous publication history and any university affiliations (although writers not on courses or who are not affiliated with a university are also, of course, welcome). Around 100 words please. Please also send an author image
  4. Submissions should also be accompanied by a profile picture to which you own the rights.
  5. Submissions can be accepted via email or online.
  6. Submissions should be sent as .doc files
  7. If you are sending multiple submissions (e.g. five poems) please send as separate Word docs
  8. Please remove your name from the Word document – we’re trying as much as possible to do blind reviewing
  9. Multiple submissions are permitted (see above) so you can submit in more than one category, e.g. poetry and non-fiction, or an opinion piece.
  10. There is no geographical restriction; submitting to Friction is open to all including non-UK based writers.
  11. You must be a minimum of 18 years old.
  12. You agree to have your work published by Friction in electronic and paper format and at our discretion published at our parent site NCLA and linked to via social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
  13. As the author you will retain worldwide copyright on your work with Friction having first publication rights.
  14. Submission of your work is confirmation of your acceptance of all above conditions.
  15. And thank you!