Reminiscing

When was the last time you organised your music? Or films? Or bookshelf?
   There are a lot of choices involved in how to arrange a collection. Should it be done by colour? By genre?
   And then there's alphabetically of course.  
   But how about autobiographically? I've been reflecting on the last few years of my writing, from studying the MLitt in Creative Writing at Stirling Uni, through to now. It's fascinating to think about how the writing I've published (or had published) reflects that journey. I started out an aspiring novellist. I'm still an aspiring novellist. But I've found many other literary paths to daunder down and have learned a great deal from each. Short stories, first. And I still write the occasional short story or piece of flash. Memoir. Again, I still do the occasional memoir when it won't work as a short story.
   But more and more at the moment, in between drafting prose, I'm drawn to poetry. I love the immediacy of it, the simplicity. A single idea, moment, or person, explored as purely as possible, without distraction. I love sinking into the contained reality of a poem. I love editing my own poetry too, honing each down, pruning until the true shape emerges.
   This website is principally a collated collection of pieces that magazines, anthologies and competitions have been generous enough to accept. Organised roughly by the time each was written, rather than date of publication. I hope you enjoy them.
  It's so incredibly important, especially now, to support our cultural institutions, including literary magazines. So, out of respect, and thanks, to those who charge for their publications,  I've given an excerpt of the work they published with a link to where you can order your copy (any mistakes or omission, please let me know and I'll fix immediately). These publishers only ask for a small contribution in order to fund the incredibly valuable work they do to encourage writers around the world. Thank you for the opportunities you give writers to express our voices to a wider audience.
   Laura