Updates

So the submission deadline is done, and the typesetting is mostly over. Very soon we will be sending the manuscript to the printers in preparation for the London and Manchester launches. It’s all very exciting.

However, we also bear some other news. After the deadline, and after typesetting had finished, we checked our spam box to find it full of submissions from before the 15th. But we had no room! We understand it isn’t fair for these submissions to lose out so the best will be printed on this site as what is essentially an online publication. We hope you’ll accept this by way of an apology, and that you aren’t too put out by the mess we’ve made of things. It won’t happen again.

Perhaps we could cheer you up with gingerbread men and cute things?

An Interview with an Astronaut

Earth-dweller Tim Wells asked a lonely Astronaut about a brand new zine for young writers. 

Are you sitting in a tin can?

Oh yes. Far above the world. Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do (P.S. please don’t sue me, Bowie). 

It’s a new ‘zine, is it print or on the interweb?

Print! I think there’s something a bit special about seeing your name on a page, and I just don’t get the same rush on screen. I mean, others might, I dunno. But I prefer print. 

Who’s in it?

That depends on submissions, but featured poets so far include Ash Sarkar, Jack Underwood, Max Wallis and Helen Mort. There should be some more exciting names coming up, but I can’t say anything on that just now. 

Is it another mag’ putting the po-faced into poetry?

God no! Po-faced poets are everything that’s wrong with the poetry scene right now. No one wants to read something by a fella who thinks he’s superior to you in every way waffle on in unintelligible code and call it metaphor. What we need is something fresh, young, dynamic and exciting; something totally new that engages and starts its own trends. I hope Astronaut can be that. 

What does it taste like?

Cucumbers. Cucumbers are good. 

Where can I get mine?

In January! Drop us an email at astronautzine@gmail.com(incidentally, this is the email you can send your submissions to as well) and we’ll post you one off. Alternatively, ‘like’ the Facebook page and we’ll post details of the numerous launch dates. A bit more exciting.

Here’s a few hints and tips…

So we’ve already had a few emails from people ignoring submission guidelines. Thing is, all that stuff, you’ve gotta pay attention to it, and we won’t be impressed if you don’t, so make sure you do. The other thing is, we actually want you to get into the zine (believe it or not) so we’re going to give a few hints at what we like.

 

ASTRONAUT’S FAVOURITE…

 

Astronaut’s favourite article writers are often bloggers who can make us laugh. They write about things we can relate to, things that annoy us, things that stir up emotions, and they will always write informally. They don’t often write about food or travel, but if they’re good enough they might. They’re usually a bit weird.

 

Astronaut’s favourite poets change everything. They present us with ideas we’d never even considered before and they make us want to snap our fingers or nod approvingly. We do love poets. We don’t tend to like very abstract angsty poetry though.

 

Astronaut’s favourite short story writers are clever ones. Their plot or their characters will stand out in a huge way. Perhaps they’re writing about something mundane, or perhaps they’re writing about murder (maybe that is mundane to you? We don’t know, do we?) but there will always be that believable spark about it, however outlandish it might be.

 

Astronaut’s favourite comic artists will often be serious rather than humorous, and they mostly love superheroes. Doesn’t mean the protagonist has to be a superhero though, just that the art style is much closer to that than Garfield. They don’t neglect story.

 

Astronaut’s favourite non fiction writers are politically aware and oriented. They write about stuff that matters, and don’t always believe the media. They are well read, and might prefer to talk about writing than politics, and we’re just as happy about that. They do not bore us.

 

Astronaut’s favourite submissions to receive are from people who’ve obviously read the guidelines, and if they know what number issue we’re up to, they’ll score brownie points with us. Just shows you’re actually taking an interest and not spamming your submissions to every other magazine. They will have gone out of the way to found out my name (which isn’t too difficult – hint: check the ‘About’ page), just like they would applying for anything else. Finally, don’t send more than 3 items. 

 

Now I’ve given away all my secrets, here’s a picture of an unusual animal. We’re not quite sure what it is.

DAY #19479273 IN SPACE

Today I told my friends on Earth about my plans to start a magazine. 

They all seemed very happy about it. I started a Facebook page so they could tell me how much they loved the idea and within a few hours (which feels like nothing in space really) the idea had over a hundred likes! This makes a lonely astronaut feel especially fuzzy inside, and I tried to have a celebratory hot chocolate, but as you probably know, temperatures and liquids don’t work too well in outer space, so this made me sad again. 

To cheer myself up, I made a Twitter page so other people would know about my idea. I thought this would make me feel more loved, but I was wrong because very few people wanted to follow me and then Twitter reminded me of space because there was nothing going on. It made me shed a tear or two beneath my helmet. Would you follow me? I hope you will. 

All my love, 

Astronaut x

—–

We love our Astronaut here, and hope you do too. She’s feeling a little lonely today, so you can keep her company on Facebook and/ or Twitter. 

If you’re on Facebook… you can like the page

And if you’re on Twitter… you can follow us 

Astronaut

So.

Chances are, if you found your way here, you know that Astronaut is a brand new zine which wants to publish young writers. If you didn’t, you do now. But maybe that doesn’t interest you, so I’ll titillate you a bit by telling you all about the funny articles, excellent poetry, brilliant short stories, original comics and sequential art, and slightly wacky design. There’s even a non-conformist crossword involved. See, now you’re interested.

The best bit is, if you’re a young writer in education, we might want to publish you. Even if we don’t, we’ll still love you. Best to just submit. At least you’ll get some Astronaut love if all else fails. We’re interested in your:

Art
Poems
Short stories
Blog posts or articles
Comics
Non fiction
In fact, we’re interested in just about anything you can put on a page.

To submit, all you need to do is email astronautzine@gmail.com with the subject ‘Submission’. The deadline is 15th December. We do have a few other fussy bits you should read first:

Submissions should NOT be attachments. They should be copied and pasted into the body of the email. The body of the email should also contain a cover letter, including your name, date of birth and a brief bio.

All submitted material should NOT have been previously published. In rare cases, we may accept second rights, but this is only in very exceptional circumstances.

We will only accept submissions from writers within the UK.

Poetry should be no longer than 40 lines.

Short stories, articles and non fiction should not be more than 1000 words.

Artists should be aware that we print in black and white and artworks heavily reliant on colour may not print well on the page.

We very much look forward to reading/ viewing/ feeling/ eating your submissions and hope to see you soon.

Oh, and here’s a photo of a dog in a dog space pod.