The Broken Spine formed in the summer of 2019, following a conversation in a pub in Southport between two old school pals, Paul Robert Mullen and myself, Alan Parry. Last year Paul had to step away from his co-editing role and I set about making some changes to ensure I could keep moving the press forward. Therefore 2023 promised to be a year of further change for us.
With all this in mind, I’d like to take this opportunity to formally announce my entire editorial team and the vision going forward.
I will remain in position as Editor-in-Chief, but I will be supported by:
Katie Jenkins – Co-Poetry Editor
Katie Jenkins lives in Gloucestershire. Her poetry is in print with Black Bough, The Broken Spine, Everyman’s Library, Lucent Dreaming and Acid Bath and online with Twist in Time, Sonic Boom, They Call Us, Minison and 8 Poems. She has a creative writing diploma from Oxford University.
David Hanlon – Co-Poetry Editor
David Hanlon is a Björk-loving, confessional poet based in Cardiff, Wales. His work explores themes of queerness, toxic masculinity, mental health, change & loss. He is a qualified counsellor & has a BA in Film Studies. He is inspired by art cinema, alternative music, existentialism & nature. He is a Best of the Net nominee. You can find his work online in over 50 magazines, including Rust & Moth, Homology Lit & Barren Magazine, among others. His first chapbook Spectrum of Flight is available for purchase now at Animal Heart Press. His next collection Dawn’s Incision is forthcoming with Icefloe Press in 2023.
Lucy Aur – Co-Flash Fiction Editor
Lucy Aur is a writer and mental health campaign founder from Llanelli, South Wales. She writes poetry, historical fiction and is a regular public speaker. Her writing engages with Welsh events and experiences, as well as the trials and tribulations of young adult life – particularly grief.
Her poetry has featured in Re-Side and Lucent Dreaming, and her prose in Germ Magazine.
Outside of writing, Lucy can be found up mountains or taking on running challenges.
She is a PhD student, founder of Renegades Foundation and Co-Fiction Editor for The Broken Spine.
Elizabeth Kemball – Co-Flash Fiction Editor
Elizabeth Kemball is a writer and illustrator from Stoke-on-Trent now living in Cardiff. She is a lover of all things folklore, fairytale, and mythology. Her writing often explores themes of bodies, magic, and unreliable narrators. Her work has been featured in journals such as: Black Bough, Ink Sweat & Tears, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Variant Literature. Her micro-chapbook ‘A letter from your sheets // if your sheets could speak.’ was published by Nightingale & Sparrow Press in March 2020. She is an Editor & Designer for Re-Side and Co-Fiction Editor for The Broken Spine.
Matthew M. C. Smith – Sub-Editor
Matthew M. C. Smith is a writer from Swansea, Wales. He completed a PhD on Robert Graves and Welsh Celticism at the University of Wales, Swansea in 2006. He has academic essays on Robert Graves published in The International Journal for Welsh writing in English.
Matthew is widely published with poetry and prose in Poetry Wales, The Lonely Crowd, Finished Creatures, Anti-Heroin Chic, Arachne Press, Atrium Poetry, Barren Magazine, Bold Magazine, Broken Spine Arts, Icefloe Press, Seventh Quarry, The Storms Journal, Fevers of the Mind, Bangor Literary Journal, Wales Haiku Journal, Green Ink, Twist in Time and Acropolis Journal.
Matthew won the R.S. Thomas award for poetry at the Gwyl Cybi festival in 2018 and has been nominated for ‘Best of the Net’ three times by Icefloe Press, Acropolis Journal and The Broken Spine. He is the editor of Black Bough Poetry, the Silver Branch project and weekly online poetry platform TopTweetTuesday on Twitter.
He published Origin: 21 Poems in 2018. The Keeper of Aeons (2022) is his second collection.
In addition to these formal roles, we now have a team that is twenty strong and I encourage constant collaboration. Updates to our staff page are imminent.
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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.
