A LITERARY magazine hoping to become a Scottish version of Granta has just celebrated the publication of its first issue, with contributions now being sought for issue two.
Comprising work by writers and poets born or living in Scotland, Gutter Magazine has been set up by Glasgow University graduates, Colin Begg and Adrian Searle.
Says Searle: “While Scotland has a few magazines which provide criticism, with the demise of a couple of well-known titles, and the infrequency of others, there are fewer and fewer places for writers to publish poetry, short stories and novel extracts.
“The irony is that, arguably, new writing in Scotland is healthier than ever. While there are still many ambitious writers scribbling away in their bedrooms, the popularity of university post-graduate courses, residential writing holidays and community writing groups means there’s a great deal of good work out there waiting to be found.”
Begg and Searle are both graduates of the University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing Masters programme.
Continued Searle: “We thought it was a disgrace that Scotland had no flagship periodical regularly publishing new writing so we decided to do something about it.”
Added Begg: “We worked hard at both the quality of submissions and the overall presentation. The publisher, Freight, is also an award-winning design company and it was always our intention that Gutter would be a thing of beauty.
“We’ve received many compliments over how the magazine is presented. Granta is the UK benchmark for new writing and we hope that, over time, Gutter will become as iconic and influential north of the border.”
The magazine retails at £5.99 and will be published at least twice a year, rising to, perhaps quarterly.
Gutter’s editorial board includes novelists Kirsty Gunn and Alan Warner, poet and travel writer, Kathleen Jamie, and agent, Maggie McKernan.
The closing date for submissions to Issue Two of Gutter is October 30.
Visit www.guttermag.co.uk
