Efiko Magazine Opens Submissions for 7th Edition - Deadline November 22, 2025
brittlepaper.com – Friday October 31, 2025
Efiko Magazine is now accepting submissions! Writers are invited to submit their poems, short stories, and essays for consideration until November 22, 2025.
Efiko Magazine is an online literary magazine with a focus on Africa as both place and perspective. They are seeking work of the highest quality from writers of African origin based anywhere in the world or anyone writing about Africa.
Submission Guidelines
What They’re Looking For:
- Poetry: 2 to 5 poems totalling 10 pages
- Short stories and essays: 1,200 to 5,000 words
Finding Your Writing Flow After NaNoWriMo
sfwa.org – Thursday October 30, 2025
When November approaches, writers everywhere feel it—that itch in our fingers, the spark of imagination, the pull to tell stories. For years, we channeled that energy during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an annual challenge to draft 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. Founded in 1999 and formalized as a nonprofit in 2006, NaNoWriMo inspired millions, building a global movement around storytelling.
But by 2025, financial troubles, governance failures, and controversies—including mishandled child endangerment complaints and the decision to allow AI-generated works—eroded trust. The organization ultimately shut down, leaving behind a void in the writing community.
Like many, I missed the structure and momentum NaNoWriMo once offered. Over the summer, I found myself yearning for it to rise from the dead as I stared at a neglected draft of 10,000 words I’d written a year earlier. Without NaNoWriMo to lean on, I wondered: Was there another challenge or tool that could help me get my writing groove back?
Independent children's publisher Knights Of set to close
thebookseller.com – Thursday October 30, 2025
Award winning inclusive children’s publisher Knights Of is to close, The Bookseller understands, with accountancy firm Hart Shaw instructed to place the company in liquidation, pending a vote of the shareholders.
The company – which as of 16th October ceased trading – is expected to go into liquidation during the week of 10th November. Shareholders include co-founder and MD Aimée Felone, co-founder Dee Stevens, and authors Robin Stevens and Sophie Anderson.
No reason has been given for the collapse, though it is understood that KO had been talking to publishers about a potential sale for sometime. Knights Of would not comment when contacted by The Bookseller, except to confirm its closure.
This week its offshoot bookshop Round Table Books – which is a separately run Community Interest Company – launched a fund-raising initiative to move into bigger premises.
AI to help writers tackle writer's block, says Bloomsbury boss Nigel Newton
thebookseller.com – Wednesday October 29, 2025
AI will "help creativity" by enabling writers and creatives to get "back in the zone", according to Nigel Newton, the founder and CEO of Bloomsbury.
However, the technology will not replace writers, as readers are turning "increasingly to sources of authority for reassurance", Newton told the PA news agency.
"I think AI will probably help creativity, because it will enable the eight billion people on the planet to get started on some creative area where they might have hesitated to take the first step," Newton said.
"AI gets them going and writes the first paragraph, or first chapter, and gets them back in the zone," he added. "And it can do similar things with painting and music composition and with almost all of the creative arts."
Writing Fellowship Expands to a Full Academic Year
news.colby.edu – Wednesday October 29, 2025
During his time as the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence, Zach Peckham will help students revive a Colby literary magazine
For the first time since its inception in 2021, the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence in Creative Writing fellowship is expanding to a full academic year from a single semester.
This year’s fellow is editor and writer Zach Peckham, who will teach one course each semester. In a fall survey course, students are exploring the structures and practices of contemporary book and journal publishing. In the spring practicum, they will reimagine Colby’s longstanding literary magazine, which was established in 1968 as The Pequod and most recently published during the 2023-24 academic year. It will be renamed The Colby Review.
“I’m excited to be here and grateful for the opportunity to work with Colby students and the Waterville community,” said Peckham, managing editor of Cleveland State University Poetry Center and the editor-at-large of the Cleveland Review of Books.
Peckham, who grew up in Massachusetts, has taught creative writing, composition, and literary editing and publishing at Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Institute of Art. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in national journals, including jubilat, Annulet, Territory, Poetry Northwest, American Book Review, and many others. He is the author of the chapbook cycle hum, and Mundo Press will publish his first full-length poetry collection, As If And, in 2026. Peckham also runs a small press called Community Mausoleum and a journal called Coma.
The new $50M Literary Arts Fund will support independent publishers and nonprofits
apnews.com – Wednesday October 29, 2025
Citing a chronic shortage of financial backing for independent publishers and nonprofits dedicated to writing and reading, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has established a Literary Arts Fund that will distribute a minimum of $50 million over the next five years.
The idea for the fund was initiated by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the country’s largest philanthropic supporter of the arts. Mellon President Elizabeth Alexander cited literature as a vital source of expression.
“Novelists, poets, and all manner of creative writers have shaped and driven our collective discourse and capacity for invention since the nation’s founding,” Alexander, an acclaimed poet who joined Mellon in 2018, said in a statement. “American philanthropy can and must play a bigger role in strengthening the financial infrastructure of the literary organizations and nonprofits that serve these literary artists.”
Lucy Irvine joins Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency after eight years at PFD
thebookseller.com – Tuesday October 28, 2025
Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency has recruited Lucy Irvine as an agent, moving from PFD and bringing with her an award-winning list of authors including bestsellers Bill Wood and Judith Eagle.
Irvine will focus on growing the fiction list, middle-grade through to New Adult and Crossover, working closely with North American rights agent Becca Langton and head of international rights Kristina Egan on the agency’s global rights strategy.
Alongside Lorna Hemingway’s recent move to join the team as an agent, Darley Anderson has also announced that Langton has been promoted to a senior literary agent, while agency assistant Kat Lenahan will be building a list as junior agent alongside continuing to assist managing director Clare Wallace.
Every Story Matters: Stony Brook’s MFA in Creative Writing Program
news.stonybrook.edu – Tuesday October 28, 2025
In a recent interview on WLIW-FM’s Heart of the East End with host Gianna Volpe, Robert Reeves, associate professor of creative writing and founder of Stony Brook University’s Lichtenstein Center, and Christian McLean, lecturer and MFA associate director of creative writing, sat down to discuss the unique strengths of the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literature.
At the heart of their conversation was a simple but powerful idea: everyone has a story to tell.
Reeves and McLean emphasized that the program is designed to attract adults from a wide range of professional backgrounds who are ready to transform lived experience into art. “One [of our students] is a doctor who’s mid-career… and she has so many stories she wants to tell. We have someone who’s a senior real estate agent… [who] wants to write other things, personal essays, fiction, creative nonfiction,” Reeves said. “They want to come to a community that will give them the best opportunity to accomplish what they want to.”
Affordability and flexibility are the key to that mission. As a state university, Stony Brook offers competitive tuition rates and the option for part-time or non-matriculated study, making the MFA accessible to working professionals and life-long learners alike. “We are many, many, many thousand [dollars] less than equivalent MFA programs of the same quality,” Reeves noted. “They can take one class and see if it makes sense for them and go from there,” McLean added.
Record number of applications for 2025 round of Screen Ireland’s new writing scheme, Spotlight
screenireland.ie – Tuesday October 28, 2025
Screen Ireland is pleased to announce that its flagship new writing development scheme Spotlight, has received a record-breaking number of applications. This year’s initiative is themed around Irish Myths & Legends, and the 2025 round invited screenwriters to submit TV series concepts inspired by Ireland’s rich mythology and cultural heritage. With over 350 submissions, this marks the highest number of applications ever received for a single round of Spotlight.
Up to ten projects will be selected for the scheme – with writers receiving further development for their project and skills development support in the form of workshops, masterclasses, and industry networking opportunities. As a result, the scheme continues to be highly competitive, and Screen Ireland would like to confirm that the assessment process is currently underway. Results will be announced within the next 12 weeks.
Any further updates on Spotlight will be published on the Screen Ireland website.
New Literary Agent Listing: Daisy Chandley
firstwriter.com – Tuesday October 28, 2025
Actively building a list across both fiction and non-fiction, with a particular interest in bold insights and underrepresented voices in science, nature, art, culture, politics, and relationships. She welcomes narrative non-fiction that blends memoir with literary or scientific depth and is open to illustrated non-fiction ranging from stylish gift books to fresh takes on food and drink. On the fiction side, she seeks sharp, original novels from literary to upmarket, including dark, boundary-pushing narratives and works that balance wit, heart, and edge. Romance with humour, genre-bending romcoms, and decadent romantasy are all of interest, especially those with snarky dialogue or dark academia energy. She is also keen on mysteries featuring classic detectives or amateur sleuths, and is open to literary speculative fiction, though not hard SFF or children’s books. Across all genres, she prioritises stylish, smart, and boundary-blurring work, and is especially eager to hear from writers exploring sexuality, race, gender, and disability.
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