From time to time, a man would walk down O’Connell Street with a troupe of dancing bears. Now, this was not, in itself, unusual. A great deal is packed into those two opening sentences of Quigley Cryan Brockbank’s The Dancing Bears of O’Connell Street, and they do what every good short story opening should do.… Continue reading Spring 2023 – Fiction
Category: Editor’s Picks
The Editor’s Picks section will showcase and review some of the best extracts from the works published in our back issues of the magazine.
Winter 2023 – Drama
‘The set is meant to look like a PATH IN THE WOODS, very gothic and dismal.’ And with that, I was hooked. ‘Donkey Skin: A Monologue’ by Carly Chandler was a fantastical monologue from the point of view of ‘Donkey Skin’, a young woman running away from home in the dead of night. She stops… Continue reading Winter 2023 – Drama
Winter 2023 – Art
‘She’s Got Mirth but I Got Bravado’ – Alejandro Gonzalez Alejandro Gonzalez’ digital illustration ‘She’s Got Mirth but I Got Bravado‘ is a wonderful piece of artwork that I won’t easily tire of appreciating. Alejandro’s inspiration for the piece was a fusion of several feelings and ideas he experienced that translated to art whilst sitting… Continue reading Winter 2023 – Art
Winter 2023 – Non-fiction
Alone with a Book is an excellent piece of creative nonfiction which we are very proud to have published in the Winter 2023 Issue of Spellbinder. Overall, Alone with a Book is really lovely, well-written and funny, but it doesn’t stop there. In this piece, the author Stephanie Shi beautifully examined the loneliness and connection… Continue reading Winter 2023 – Non-fiction
Winter 2023 – Fiction
Like Sardines by Douglas Jern The passenger layer now reached the tops of the seat backs, and newcomers had to climb up it to get inside, and climb it they did. Nothing seemed to faze them. Before long even the luggage racks were full of people, who lay there looking bored as the train rolled… Continue reading Winter 2023 – Fiction
Winter 2023 – Poetry
‘A Dragon Curled Around My Heart’ by Quinn Murphy ‘In my chest, a dragon curls, Around my beating heart. To guard it from the many Who would see it pulled apart.’ Quinn Murphy’s poem ‘A Dragon Curled Around My Heart’ was the opening piece for Spellbinder’s Winter 2023 Issue. It employs the ballad form well… Continue reading Winter 2023 – Poetry
Autumn 2022 – Drama
French Knickers by Patricia M Osborne Patricia M Osborne’s piece featured in our latest issue, French Knickers, proves to be a wonderful and engaging character monologue. The stage description of the character’s entrance sets the entire mood: she walks in carrying a bottle and a glass of red wine. She flops into the armchair, kicks… Continue reading Autumn 2022 – Drama
Autumn 2022 – Fiction
Walking Backwards by Dino Costi In Walking Backwards, the reader is literally walked back in time by Costi. The story’s retrograde setting is one in which women are valued most as wives and child-bearers. Marriage is constantly on the minds of Sabrina, Abigail, and Caroline, not as a possibility but as a fate. But as… Continue reading Autumn 2022 – Fiction
Autumn 2022 – Poetry
IVF – Eugene O’Hare praying to the God she never thought …vicious with want. … baby.don’t float away. your word…speechless When I first read this poem, it made me slightly uncomfortable. Grading poems or deciding which one should be published is a complex process. As an editor, you have a responsibility to ensure that there… Continue reading Autumn 2022 – Poetry
Summer 2022 – Fiction
The brevity of Jocelyne Lamarche’s Ghost belies its complexity. Coming in at just 210 words, the story manages to pack in vivid imagery, establish a strong sense of character and weave its way through feelings of sadness, longing and hope. It is a story to be read again and again, one of those which yields… Continue reading Summer 2022 – Fiction