NEW Quarterly Literary and Art Magazine: Spellbinder

Spellbinder is a quarterly literary and art magazine based in Durham which celebrates emerging poets, fiction and nonfiction writers and visual artists from all backgrounds around the world. Spellbinder was founded in 2020 by students who met at the Durham University Creative Writing Society. They promote the works of those who are at the beginning of their literary careers, especially those who test the boundaries of media, form and convention. The magazine was established with the intention of capturing experimentalism, originality and innovation as it arises in the artistic and literary worlds.

The pandemic led us to consider the value of magazines in helping people to reconnect with literature and art. The act of reading provides us with the opportunity to engage and feel emotionally connected with other people; we believe that this is especially important in the wake of the pandemic. As Zadie Smith has observed, in her essay ‘Suffering like Mel Gibson’, our ‘misery is very precisely designed, and different for each person’; whilst one living alone might ‘have never known such loneliness’, an individual living with company might have ‘dreams of isolation within isolation’. The potential for writing to explore and communicate across these differences, to transcend the physical restraints of spatial distancing is something that is more powerful than ever now.

We accept submissions under the following categories:

Poetry:

• Formal verse
• Free verse

Fiction:

• Short Stories
• Flash Fiction

Non Fiction:

• Essays
• Creative Nonfiction

Artworks:

• Photography
• Art

We are excited to read the submissions!

Best wishes,

The Spellbinder team