The new edition of Mslexia has just been published, and it has Part One of what they're calling their MA in Creative Writing - a two year (i.e., 8 part) series. I thought it was succinct, practical and inspiring advice, which is typical of the whole magazine. They've re-designed and re-arranged the mag too, which makes it much easier to read.

I think anyone (male or female: you can always skip the occasional attack of simple-minded female separatism) who writes could do a lot worse than subscribe. It has great listings too.

Emma

Thanks Emma. I'm getting very impatient waiting for my issue of Mslexia to arrive in the post, but you've given me hope that it may appear tomorrow. This happens every three months - I always think it'll arrive on the 1st of the month, or at least within 10 days, and it never does, but I carry on being optimistic. Meanwhile other so-called literary mags arrive and I carelessly fling them aside.

Frances

I think this issue was late getting to the printers - early July, so I guess we should all have ours any day now.

WELL! that must be the first time in years that our rapidly disentegrating London postal service has worked better than elsewhere in the country. Mine arrived yesterday (Sat 16th) so Monday, maybe?
Emma

No not the first time Emma - because a friend in London regularly gets her copy before mine arrives - and I live not far from Newcastle, Mslexia's home city!

Frances

Thanks for this post, Emma. I've heard the mag mentioned so many times on this site and this is the final push I needed. I've emailed them about their 'try before you buy' option.

Myrtle

Can I just add that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Mslexia. It gives me such a lift when it arrives and I just wish it was published more frequently. Mine arrived yesterday (I'm in London) and I thought that feature was really useful too, EmmaD.
It's such a great magazine. (further gushing as I sign off!)

My copy arrived this morning! Hurray!

Frances

Hmm, I haven't got mine yet. But I love my Mslexia too. In fact, I love it so uch that I get it for my mother, also - and she's inthe US (i.e., £30 a year for her subscription!) And she never seems to have anything to say about it, but then again that's just her way. Hope my copy's waiting for me when I get home tonight (at about midnight - grrr!)

I was just about to subscribe. Then I saw the strapline - "The magazine for women who write"

What's that all about? Is there nothing in it for us bloke writers?

Colin M (confused)

Sadly I don't think there is anything for blokes, except in that there's everything... but let's not go there, there's enough rant going on elsewhere on WW at the moment. I feel the same when, as a born-and-bred Londoner, I come across all the publishing initiatives and grants and competitions for other parts of Britain, not to mention the assumed street cred...

But Colin, there's nothing to stop you subscribing, and it crops up in libraries too. It's a very good mag, and only about 10% I would say was specifically about the male-female divide, as opposed to simply providing a space for writers who happen to be women, and an acceptance of their subjects and styles which still isn't always to be found elsewhere.

But as I say, let's not go there!

Emma

Well I'm not exactly Jeremy Clarkson.

I've got a pink t-shirt. Should I mention that when I subscribe?

colin

I think a pink t-shirt would go down very well, Colin.

I've just been reading Amanda Craig's article on corruption in the reviewing world and I'm puzzled by one paragraph -

The attentive reader might also notice that a book by a Guardian journalist is always greeted with glowing notices in their home paper, just as a book by a Sunday Times journalist is usually panned in the ST's books section

Can this be true? Are they so morally rigorous on the Sunday Times that they actually go out of the way to pick holes in each other's books? I must start reading this paper.

Frances

<Added>

their way, not the way

Yes, I saw that too, Frances, and thought it was odd.
Emma

I received my first copy today after subscribing following the recommendations here. I'm very happy I did so. But I'd like to say how disappointed I was with the article on support for female writers from their partners. The article began well, with real examples, but then seemed to get into 'silly' territory, with charts and scores that seemed to undermine the whole, very important, point. Did anyone else get this feeling?

Myrtle