This week has been one of exciting change at The Broken Spine. We have several announcements to make, and more details will be released in the fullness of time.
The headline is that our co-founding editor, Paul Robert Mullen has elected, after much consideration, to step away from decision making duties with The Broken Spine with immediate effect. Paul was, and will always be remembered as one of, the original two founding editors of our press. However, owing to increasing levels of commitments away from the writing community, he is unable to continue to contribute the time and energy he would like to in order to help our press continue to grow as it has since its inception three years ago. We are delighted that Paul has agreed to stay on as a contributor, and he will continue to pen live music reviews and thought pieces which have been a large part of our expansion over the summer of 2022 and much more besides.
This means that all decision-making falls on the shoulders of the second founding editor, Alan Parry. As a consequence, there will be some changes in how we operate as we work toward a soft reboot in 2023. At this stage Alan’s primary concern is to reaffirm our standing commitments to publication. All authors and artists who are expecting work to be published, can expect that to go ahead with confidence, and without disruption. However, this news will mean, that after we publish The Broken Spine Artist Collective: Fifth Edition later this summer, we will be closing our doors to submissions for future print collectives for the foreseeable future. That is not to say we will not return to this, but we are in the process of assessing how we move forward, and it would not be right to accept further Artist Collective submissions at this point.
Please be aware, this is certainly not the end for us; rather, it is an exciting new beginning. Our publishing calendar for the next two years is filling up and we continue to be in discussions with a host of extremely talented individuals and alliances. Moreover, our chapbook competition remains open to submissions.
There will be some changes made to our website in the coming weeks and months and you may notice that some access is closed as a result. If you have any specific questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
Lastly, there will be announcements about staffing made in due course as some of our existing team, and potentially new members, will be given clear and defined roles to take us forward into what we believe is a very exciting next chapter for The Broken Spine.
As always, readers, contributors, volunteers – thank you for everything.
We are nothing without you.
Best.
The performance space at The Kings Arms is a relatively modest venue, essentially a large-ish room above a pub that’s well worth
Tulsa is a city that feeds the soul as much as the stomach, and Irish poet Jay Rafferty has captured its essence
Let’s drop the Hallmark card fantasies. Nature isn’t serene. It’s not here to cradle you while you write love letters to daffodils.
The Broken Spine is a poetry and arts collective proudly published on the coastal edge of North-West England. Founded in 2019 by Alan Parry and Paul Robert Mullen – two school friends reunited after twenty years through a mutual love of poetry.
