Autumn 2024

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Editors

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Fiction Contributors

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Visual Art Contributors

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Nonfiction Contributors

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Drama Contributors

This issue is published in conjunction with Spellbinder’s fourth birthday. As usual, we will be hosting our annual anniversary party, which will give us an opportunity to celebrate with all our loyal followers, talented creatives, and dedicated volunteers. When Linda and I established this publication four years ago, we didn’t even dream of being able to reach our first anniversary, but now that we have witnessed how committed people all around the world can be to the literary and artistic worlds, we are confident that Spellbinder will prosper for many, many years to come. 

October always sees us reflect on our achievements thus far and make goals for the year ahead; find annual statistics and facts on the Reflections tab of our website. We are proud to announce that our contributors have identified with eighteen different national identities over the last year, which is an increase from the previous year. Moreover, we are especially pleased to have doubled our website traffic this year; more of you are engaging with our content and thereby becoming part of our very special community of creatives. 

As planned in 2023, we now require artists to submit work adhering to a particular theme for the visual art section of our publication. We have been honoured to publish a range of photographs and paintings from artists exploring the themes of people; past, present, future; movement; and other worlds over the last year. Due to the looseness of our themes, there have been very diverse interpretations of them, which we hope have made the publication even more engaging. Another one of our initiatives for our fourth year was to create a news platform with reviews of literary and art prize winners, as well as book and art fair recommendations. We have succeeded in achieving this goal and have two dedicated members of the team working on generating the all-important content. This now comes in the form of an email newsletter, complete with links to sign-up forms for our events, websites for festivals, and episodes from our podcast on Spotify. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has attended one of our events, purchased one of our books, or followed us on social media. As a nonprofit organisation, we are indebted to our readers and creatives to make our work possible. If you wish to offer further support, there is a donate page on our website under the home page dropdown. 

Moreover, I would also like to thank the team. We are now a group of twelve each managing multiple responsibilities for the publication alongside our own personal commitments, jobs and studies. If you are a writer or artist submitting to Spellbinder, you can be assured that our team considers all submissions carefully; we have lengthy discussions about which works to select for the publication, because, as I’m sure you can imagine, we are only able to select a very small range from the large quantity submitted each season. As the Editor-in-Chief, I am really proud that we have a team of individuals who treat each submission with the care and attention it deserves, and remain humbled by the talent on display in our inboxes. 

So, we’ve talked about achievements and new initiatives, but what about our goals for the upcoming year? Well, we aim to have 10,000 followers on X and 5,000 on Instagram. Before the end of the calendar year, we are also hoping to host a writing competition. Moreover, we are eager to discover how we can use our newsletter to provide engaging content for everyone who follows the magazine; we are dreaming of a large increase in signups to our mailing list over the next few months. Lastly, on a more personal note for our team, as the Editor-in-Chief, I want to continue giving everybody who volunteers their time to keep the magazine running opportunities to develop their skills, contribute their ideas and manage their own projects in relation to the publication. I will be putting a particular emphasis on this initiative this year so that everyone can thrive in our wonderful community.

By now, I’m sure you’re already very excited to read the works themselves, so here’s a little bit of information about what you can expect from Spellbinder Autumn 2024. From warped fairy tales in our poetry section to fiction inspired by classical mythology to nonfiction unpacking the complexities of love and relationships, we have a truly amazing collection waiting for you. Discover the power of the monologue in our drama section and be enchanted by visual other worlds, from space to deep sea in our art collection. 

Wishing you all the very best for the season ahead as we approach 2025, and bring on the fifth of Spellbinder!

Amber Kennedy, Editor in Chief

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We have created a playlist inspired by the Autumn 2024 Issue. Feel free to play it while reading:

Poetry shortlist – Autumn 2024

Joel Bush	Memorial Theatre
Christian Ward	Pendant
Valerie Hunter	Miracles

Fiction shortlist – Autumn 2024

Rodrigo Schönardie	Colourful Politics
Darcy Duncan	Pancakes To Die For
Shayla Frandsen	The Difference Between “Unbearable” and “Unbeatable” is One Letter
Sam W. Pisciotta	A Decade of Honey and Sorrow

Drama shortlist – Autumn 2024

Mary Donnet Johnson

Jennifer’s Monologue

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