Good news! My short story My Best Friend Chloe has been published in issue 28 of the wonderful Gutter magazine. Gutter is an award-winning, high quality, printed journal for fiction and poetry from writers living in Scotland and around the world. I was over the moon to be selected for publication, and even more excited […]
As readers of this blog might know, I fell in love with the short story form during my Creative Writing Master’s and since then have regularly written new stories across all sorts of genres and themes, and been diligently submitting them out for competitions and publications. When I first saw women’s writing magazine Mslexia put […]
As we near the end of the fifth month of 2023, I’m somewhat ashamed that this is my first blog post of the year. While I might have been AWOL on my blog, I have been quite busy in life – and in life, reading some pretty good books. I therefore thought it’d be nice […]
Picture this: I’m lounging by a hotel pool under blue skies in Corfu, enjoying my holiday in the sun. And I’m crying. I’m crying because I’m finishing up the final pages of Senka Marić’s transformative Body Kintsugi and I myself feel a little broken and put back together again. Perhaps not the most auspicious choice […]
In a recent blog post I shared the exciting news that my short story, Shriek Song, has been published in the recent edition of New Writing Scotland. Shriek Song follows the encounter between a girl and a banshee during a wild storm in the Irish countryside. In writing my short story collection about women and […]
Just a short update to share some good news: I’ve been published in New Writing Scotland 40: nobody remembers the birdman by the Association for Scottish Literature! I’m thrilled that my short story, Shriek Song, found a home in the collection and that it can be enjoyed by readers in Scotland and beyond. Shriek Song […]
Trying to build a career as a writer when you have a life, other commitments and a whole other job can seem a daunting task and there’s no doubt that it takes hard work, discipline and patience. I wanted to jot down some thoughts I’ve had recently about why it’s so important to also be […]
Hello! After a VERY LONG TIME, I’m back! While I’ve been away from my blog for the past year and a bit, a lot has happened. I’ve moved from London to Edinburgh, got engaged (!) and finally finished my novel. (The one mentioned here in a previous post for reference.) While it’s been a really […]
It has been a while since I’ve devoured a book so quickly, racing through the pages and scheduling time into my day to sit down and get lost in the 90s romcom literary escapade that is Lily King’s marvellous Writers & Lovers. There is so much that I loved about Writers & Lovers. The long […]
I haven’t reviewed a book for my blog in a while, so I was delighted when Pereine Press offered to send me a copy of Andrea Lundgren’s Nordic Fauna, translated from the Swedish by John Litell. And it has been something of a challenge to digest and describe the brilliant Nordic Fauna in any kind […]
Bethany Wren 