You can play with genre, you can play with concepts and be a lot less rigid in how you construct a piece of fiction in a shorter piece, than you might in a novel for example. In contrast, longer fiction and short stories have the ability to play with you as a reader, teach you things and take you on a bit more of a journey. It’s the same with flash fiction – it’s more immediate and gives you a kind of instant hit.
POPSHOT THE ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE OF NEW WRITING SERIES
It’s a series of images: a stance or an emotion and it chucks you in straightaway. I love that we have these different disciplines and the way that they complement each other as I see them as having quite different functions. Tell me how the different forms work together in Popshot (flash fiction, poetry and short stories). Waiting to see what comes back as the finished product is so exciting because you’ve got a kind of creative mind reading taking place: a transfusion of creativity. We go through the portfolios of the illustrators who want to work with us and match them based on their styles to try and ensure that they complement one another. We choose the written work before we commission the illustrations so, again, you never have any idea what approach the illustrators will take or in which direction they will go. It’s really a testament to both Lauren Debono-Elliot, who is our art director, and all of the wonderful work we get in from our illustrators. People generally comment on how beautiful Popshot is as an object because of how colourful it is and because of all of our illustrations.
I find it really fascinating that I have an expectation of what’s going to appear, and then what actually comes in is so much darker, deeper and more exciting than I could have anticipated. All of that did come into the inbox but we also received a huge volume of content about death, about humanity and about our codependence with the Earth. So, for example, the next issue is themed around ‘Earth’, and I was expecting huge amounts of content to come in about environmentalism, sustainability and green lifestyle. Whenever I make a call for submissions, I generally have a checklist in my mind. The surprises that appear when I dip into the inbox. Tell me your favourite things about editing Popshot It’s part-time but I am always checking in with our social media and our subscribers and we call for submissions four times a year, so it can get very busy. I work as a freelance journalist and editor, so I’m not based in the Chelsea Magazines office and am only there for production four times a year – although with lockdown, of course, we are all now working from home. I’m also a writer myself, currently writing a novel, so it seemed like a good fit. I was Digital Arts Editor at the Independent, commissioning features about books and writing, as well as other aspects of the arts. As a long-term fan-girl of Popshot myself, I was delighted to have the opportunity to pick Matilda’s brain about the highs and lows of being Popshot editor, what really grinds her gears in submissions, and which books are best for soothing ourselves in order to survive this small matter of self-isolation.Ĭhelsea Magazine hired me a year and a half ago and I’m currently editing issue 28 of Popshot. These have solicited work on themes from the profound to the intriguing, including ‘Chance’, ‘Escape’, ‘Fantasy’, ‘Mystery’, and the upcoming issue takes ‘Earth’ as its theme. Thanks to the publication’s success, Matilda’s main charge takes the form of sifting through the hundreds of submissions for each of the magazine’s quarterly issues. With its humble origins something we can identify with at Porridge ( Popshot was essentially started by “a guy in his bedroom” ), ‘the illustrated magazine of new writing’ was bought by the Chelsea Magazine Company a couple of years ago and is now in the capable editorial hands of Matilda Battersby. One publication which has had its place firmly on the Porridge -radar for quite some time is Popshot, a well-respected literary magazine established in 2008 which publishes short stories, flash fiction and poetry alongside gorgeous and often provocative illustrations by (what will soon be) the up-and-coming generation of writers and illustrators. Whether it’s something as simple as an encouraging retweet of someone’s call for submissions, teaming up on a competition or offer, or putting the world to rights together during one of our biannual print launch events, there is certainly plenty of truth to be found in the old adage about being stronger together. Speaking personally, one of the best aspects of being involved with Porridge as an editor comes in the form of the connections we make with other publications from all around the world.
Image credit: Glynn Perkins Interview with Matilda Battersby, Editor of Popshot
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