About
Read This: WHAT WE DO
- accept all kinds of writing -- poetry, short fiction, articles, rants, essays and songs -- as well as artwork to make our covers beautiful -- what are you waiting for? Submit!
- accept submissions from everyone -- no matter what your age, nationality or ability.
- read every single submission we get, and respond individually to everyone.
- provide detailed feedback on the pieces we turn down, if requested.
- provide two free copies of the magazine to anyone printed in it.
- judge the submissions we receive solely on merit.
- credit everyone whose work we publish.
Read This: WHAT WE DON'T DO
- just publish our friends or people we know.
- court famous writers to raise our profile, schmooze on literary forums, or engage in any of the other snobbery so sadly prevalent in the literary world.
- alienate, insult or upset anyone who contacts us (if we do -- we didn't mean to! Tell us about it, quick!).
- insist on a zillion submission rules... just send your stuff!
Read This is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run publication based in the heart of beautiful, literary Edinburgh, Scotland. The RT eds are a quintet of young poets, and we love to see fresh, original writing from unknown and emerging writers!
Read This is a monthly print magazine, printed by the Edinburgh University's English Literature department and the Forest Free Press. Some of our submissions are also published here on the website. We don't receive any independent funding, and usually run at a loss... but you can make us happy by making a small donation! Even better, you can put pen to paper, and submit your work!
Please note...! For reasons of space, very long pieces will usually be reserved for the website, to allow us to get as much good stuff packed into each issue of the printed Read This as possible. However, we do read and consider absolutely everything we receive, and accept submissions from writers of all ages from across the world!
The Read This Team:
Nomadic by nature, Claire Askew reads all kinds of poetry and is a fangirl of Allen Ginsberg. She is passionate about providing help and encouragement to emerging writers. Her own work has featured in Snakeskin, Textualities, The Herald and the Edinburgh Review, and she was Poet in Residence at the 2008 London Poetry Festival. In early 2008, Claire won the Sloane Prize for Short Fiction in Lowland Scots Vernacular, The Grierson Verse Prize and the Lewis Edwards Award for Poetry, and she was recently awarded the William Sharpe Hunter Memorial Scholarship.
Hailing from California, USA, Lucy Baker is a follower of the Beat Generation and a fan of counter-culture literature. Favourite writers include Diane Di Prima and Jack Kerouac. Lucy's own work has been featured several times by Litkicks, and she was Featured Poet for two consecutive months at Poet's Letter. Lucy also read to a sell-out crowd at Read This is 6. Some of her work can be found here.
Dan Graham, is originally from Annan, Scotland, and enjoys reading anything from prose to literary criticism. Alisdair Gray's epic Scottish novel 'Lanark' is possibly his favourite book ever, and he recently completed a dissertation on the literary criticism of Michel Foucault. Writing short fiction as well as poetry, Dan is interested in unique, experimental and unusual work in either genre. Dan is Read This' resident prose editor.
An advocate of the short poem, and a self-confessed meta-poet, Struan Robertson enjoys the poetry of Billy Collins and the sonnets of William Shakespeare. He is also a strong believer in freedom of expression within writing. Other members of the Read This team nag Struan to submit his work for publication, and one day he might get round to it. Struan is from Aberdeen, Scotland, and due to start a Creative Writing MSc in September 2008.
Hayley Shields is from Newcastle, England. She reads both prose and poetry, and is also keen to read unique and experimental writing. She was recently selected to read at Blackwells' 'Best of Scottish Writing' event, and she hosted the sell-out Read This is 6 event. Hayley loves the Brontes and Lord of the Rings, but insists she is not a geek. She works as a ghost-tour guide in the haunted catacombs beneath Edinburgh, which has inspired some of her own writing... examples can be found here.
Webmaster Leon Crosby is from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and has been fiddling with computers for almost as long as he can remember. He is currently looking for a new "real" job and spends most days watching Dr Who in his pyjamas and eating fried egg sandwiches. Very occasionally, he is a closet artist.