
(Bluesky/Instagram: @madeleinefwhite)
April is National Poetry Month and also sees the launch of our new theme: Borrowed.
We do it all the time, don’t we? Borrowing from stories, ideas and each other to shape what becomes our own. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about two recent events – the launch of The Art Of The Matter, Claire Steele’s memoir, and a panel on Storytelling at Queen Mary University of London – and the ideas I’ve taken from there.
Both were filled with people: publishers, agents, editors, publicists, writers and students; all invested in the work and in each other. It’s easy to say the industry is closed. Rejection feeds that. But that’s not the whole truth.

What I saw was something more nuanced: a system under pressure, yes, but still shaped by care, judgement and belief. But it’s also true that the different players aren’t always aligned. Don’t you find, for example, we writers we sometimes hear exactly what we want to hear, rather than what’s actually being said?
At the heart though is this: everyone wants the same thing. To make stories, to follow them and to see where they lead. With that in mind and in the spirit of Borrowed, a line from Claire’s launch: “My parents brought me up to believe that to be creative was the highest calling in life: there could be no finer maxim to live by.”
The other exciting piece of news is the launch of the Spring edition of Write On! – Issue 28, sponsored by Hay Festival and featuring multi-million bestseller, Alison Weir, is out on 16 April. I hope you like our cover! Alison’s also featured on our podcast this month.
In the meantime, do take a moment to explore all our previous issues here.
As ever, it’s your work and ideas being featured: co-creation in action. So please do see our submissions guidelines here. and submit around our new theme.

Write On! Audio, the podcast ‘For Writers Everywhere’ connects emerging and established writers to each other, the publishing industry and a wider audience in an audio celebration of diversity, originality and excellence. 