My blood appeared as a stream of thought, a light bleed; red, yellow and blue into my palm.
I put my head back letting it drop, cold keys counting on you.
Jowonder lives in London. Her first venture into poetry was ‘6 Days Goodbye Poems of Ophelia,’ a painting of Ophelia in bacteria, funded by the Wellcome Trust with poems left on a haunted answer phone as a video. Her recent illustrated poetry book ‘Surrealist Poems About Clocks’ was published by Sulfur Surrealist Jungle 2024. It invites you into a world, where clocks tick with a sinister rhythm and reality.
She received honourable mentions for her poetry in the Thirteenth International Poetry Competition 2015, and in New Writers International Poetry Competition 2024. She likes to see images as poems. Find out more about her work here.
Spices and boiled vegetables, all in one big pot— The French windows licked with a layer Of condensation. My eyes burn. I stir, And sit back on the sofa, in the softness of his arms. We talk about the story I wrote last year: The very young woman standing under The sky: a giant sheet of white hung Between the buildings outside the Royal London Hospital. Her insides feeling like an iron fist squeezing them. A giant pad between her thighs; thick With blood, and nothing to remember. I say how ironic is it or maybe I am a fortune teller? One of his tears lands on my cheek and My whole body heaves with ugly sobs; between My thighs, nothing to remember. I stand up—I still have to check on the soup.
Born and raised in France, Lou Grimberg moved to the UK three years ago and began writing in English. She teaches languages, and lives in London with her partner and cat.
We are delighted to announce our nominations for the 2024 Best of the Net anthology.
Needless to say, this is always an extremely difficult decision (we love all the pieces we publish). Best of luck to our nominees; you can (re-)read their work via the links below.
Issue 11 is coming soon. And it’s a special one for us…
Since we started Briefly Zine in June 2020, we have published 10 issues of quality brief writing and photography. We are delighted now to embark on the next chapter of our little literary zine: starting with Issue 11, we will be paying all contributors for their words and art.
Submissions will remain free. That will never change. Therefore, the payment won’t be life changing. Even so, we are immensely proud to be able to offer our contributors a small token of appreciation for their brilliance.
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our journey so far. There’s a lot more to come…
Our editors will get to the heart of your poem or story. We’ll provide incisive, insightful comments on form, structure, word choice, style and impact. We’ll also ask questions that invite you to take the poem or story further.
What you’ll get:
Personalised response to your poem or story
Tailored suggestions on style, impact and technique
Questions and prompts to stimulate further reflection
Friendly and helpful feedback from editors who care
Chance to send follow-up questions and discuss the work further
We ask for a contribution of £12 per poem (up to 24 lines) or story (up to 600 words). Every penny we receive goes directly to paying (1) website costs, (2) writers.
For longer pieces, get in touch (contact [at] brieflywrite [dot] com) for a personalised quote.
How do I get my feedback?
1. Make your donation on our Ko-Fi page. Leave a note in the comments box stating that you are paying for feedback.
2. Email your work to contact [at] brieflywrite [dot] com in a word doc or in the body of the email. Please make sure your name matches the name you used to donate (or tell us if they don’t!) so we can cross-check.
3. Sit back (and keep writing!) for up to two weeks while we read, review and write our responses to your work. We’ll return it as quickly as possible without compromising on quality. And we will, of course, keep you updated if there are any delays.
**PLEASE NOTE: Writing sent through Briefly Feedback is not eligible for publication in Briefly Zine or for entry in any Briefly competition. We can, however, recommend other journals, publishers or competitions we think might be a good fit for the piece, if desired.**
Thank you for supporting our little literary space!
Submissions on the theme of EMPTY SPACES are now CLOSED. We will re-open general submissions in January 2023.
Briefly Zine is a literary journal seeking bold, succinct writing and photography. We publish writers and photographers from the UK and around the world.
Send up to THREE…
PHOTOS
POEMS – 16 lines or less
STORIES – 6 to 600 words
Work that sits between genres (prose poems, poetic prose, etc.) is welcome. You can also mix and match (i.e. submit one photo, one poem and one story).
By submitting to Briefly Zine, you are granting us first electronic rights. Copyright reverts to the author upon publication.
EMPTY / SPACES
The theme for Issue 9 is EMPTY SPACES.
We encourage you to interpret the theme loosely. Empty spaces can (dis)appear in form or content. You could write an ode to a void in your life or a story with an unreliable narrator. Craft a poem that demands slow re-reading or a photo that is deceptively blank.
Whatever you choose, BE BRIEF. Make. Every. Word. Count. MakeEverySpaceCount.
BRIEFLY RIGHT:
Submit up to three pieces of your best brief writing or photography
Paste writing into the body of an email and send to submissions@brieflywrite.com
Attach photos as JPEG files and send to submissions@brieflywrite.com
Include a short third-person bio (under 50 words). Please don’t feel under any pressure with this – we choose our favourite work, not the writers with the most publications or qualifications
Please only submit previously unpublished work, i.e. nothing that has appeared in print or online (including on a personal website or social media)
Simultaneous submissions are okay, but do make sure to let us know IMMEDIATELY if your work is accepted elsewhere
Please wait for our reply before sending more work
BRIEFLY WRONG:
We will not publish writing or photos that are sexist, racist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or speciesist
We are unlikely to be interested in gratuitous sex or violence
Photos of people or pets are unlikely to be accepted
Our response time can be anywhere up to two months, though you will probably hear from us much sooner. If you haven’t had a reply after six weeks, feel free to send a gentle nudge to check we received your submission.
There is no submission fee. There will never be a submission fee. Financial barriers should not stop people sharing their work and Briefly is proud to be accessible to all.
To cover our costs (website and ads removal; we don’t pay ourselves anything), we invite small donations on our Ko-fi page. We also offer an expedited response with brief feedback for £8 (see below).
Sometimes I am fearful that I will live in that room
and there will be no windows
no gaps in the wall
nothing
a mirror
nothing.
Eamonn McKeon is a writer from Purley, South London. He graduated from the University of Warwick with an MA in Writing in 2021, and is currently a PhD candidate. He mostly writes prose fiction, but has spent a great deal of time reading and writing poetry in the past year.
All writers go through good spells and bad spells. Whether it’s an afternoon spent staring at a blank screen or months without turning on the computer, not being able to write can cause feelings of hopelessness and frustration.
It can take time to rediscover a writing routine. But just as the sun will rise and the tide will turn, the words will come flowing back. In this post, we offer five simple action plans to help set you on your way.
1. Write about not being able to write
Don’t just put the pen on paper; put the pain on paper. Words are still there for you even if you are struggling to string them together right now.
Take a feeling. Take an image. Take a single word and use it to write a rough, cathartic poem. Repeat, rhyme, rupture… you’re in charge. The result won’t be perfect, but that doesn’t matter. Keep these frustrated scribbles for future reference: one day you may turn them into something more polished, or if not they will still remind you of how far you’ve come.
sometimes the words just don’t
you strive and strain to string a chain
words smudge into desolate sheet soaked strop scour the dictionary tear the thesaurus
write scrunch write scrunch
right scrunch you’ve made can’t create coherent
stop
2. Read about not being able to write
There are countless articles online about overcoming writer’s block. It’s not a good idea to trawl through them all, but reading a couple of well-written, inspiring pieces can give you a prod in the right direction.
Knowing you are not the only writer who feels like giving up can stop you being too hard on yourself. Take a look at Twitter’s #writingcommunity for a supportive and encouraging space where writers share their insecurities.
3. Write about ANYTHING
This is the least useful advice you could ever give to someone struggling to write. Yet it can also be liberating.
If you’ve hit a brick wall with your writing, maybe what you’re trying to create just isn’t right for you. Every writer has a unique voice that can be refined through practice. When you choose to write in a certain genre, form or style you are deciding to neglect hundreds more. This is fine when the going is good. But if you’ve lost your way, it could be time to retrace your steps and choose a different path.
Going back to basics and reconsidering what you really want to say may propel your writing in a completely new direction. Or it might remind you why you chose your original style in the first place. A lot of the time you’ll end up carrying on with what you had already started, but by taking a step back you’ll have renewed and reaffirmed your passion.
4. Read about ANYTHING
Novel, poem, nature magazine or recipe, anything can be a source of inspiration. Try reading:
An opinion piece you know you’ll disagree with. Read the article and write a response from the heart. Alternatively, try to put into words the anger you felt as you were reading.
Your favourite book. As you’re reading, think about what the author does that makes you want to come back to their work time and time again.
Five poems. Then choose your favourite word/line from each. Combine these into your own poem, edit and gradually work the source material into your own piece. By the time you’re finished you may no longer have any of the original words in your poem, but starting this way saves you the pressure of seeing an empty page!
In another language. If you’re struggling to write in your mother tongue, remember there are over 7,000 languages spoken in the world! With even a limited vocabulary you can start writing short poems that might just inspire something great in this or your first language.
5. Take a break
Sometimes taking a break is the best option. Bake some brownies or watch some welly wanging. Do whatever helps you relax. Taking some time away from writing will rekindle your desire and allow you to come back stronger.
We hope some of these ideas inspire you to start or resume writing. You can follow @BrieflyWrite on Twitter for more inspiration and tips, and don’t forget to check out the Briefly Write Prompt Game too.
Life is about the journey not the destination. This may be one of the most over-used sayings in the English language. But it’s vital for a writer to keep in mind.
Writing is a Process
There doesn’t suddenly come a time when that’s it, we’ve written everything there is to write.
Long after the final ‘i’ has been dotted and the final ‘t’ crossed, the debate rages on. No full stop is ever the definitive end. Seamus Heaney wrote:
“Since when,” he asked, “Are the first line and last line of any poem Where the poem begins and ends?”
Writers can find new inspiration every day, in their surroundings and activities, as well as in their own thoughts and feelings.
Keep Moving
To use another cliché: if we stand still, we’re going backwards. In the words of Albert Einstein:
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
That’s not to say writers should keep churning out words if the time isn’t right. Harper Lee waited 56 years after To Kill a Mockingbird before she published her second novel, Go Set a Watchman.
But one thing is certain: we should never let anyone else put us off writing. Write because you love to write. And write what you love writing.
Enjoy the Journey
Having an end goal towards which we are working helps keep us motivated and focused. However, this shouldn’t be prioritised at the expense of enjoying the journey.
Make the most of the position you are in now. Find the positives in your current situation. That way, when you’ve achieved your goals and you look back on your journey, you won’t be nostalgic for what you’ve left behind.
And when you turn around, you’ll see that the next path is already calling for you!
Briefly Write 