Well, this Forest-themed anthology has turned into quite the long-haul mission. One which has taken us to wild and wooded places, both terrestrial and off-world. We’ve been plugging away at maximum warp speed since our Into the Forest submission window closed on June 2nd.

Shortlisted Poetry (1/2)

Background image by Geran de Klerk

A recent newsletter explored the intensity of our longlisting process with a record number of submissions posted from around the world. Big congratulations to all the authors and poets longlisted out of nearly 600 submissions. These 105 pieces stood out from a crowded list of strong writing. It would have been lovely to press PAUSE there and just savour that delicious hoard of stories and poems. But we still had to find 30 pieces out of this 100 for our shortlist. Cue the howling of wolves.

Shortlisted Poetry (2/2)

Background image by Geran de Klerk

Despite some gnashing of teeth, in the end, no blood was spilt. Each editor re-read the longlist and compiled their own list of hard favourites. There was a surprising degree of convergence in those lists which gave us hope. Then we had a big pile of disputed pieces to sift through. And here we had to weigh up how the pieces spoke to each other across the anthology. While a rejection will always feel disappointing to a writer, it may not be any reflection on the quality of your piece at all.

Shortlisted Prose (1/3)

Background image by Geran de Klerk

At this stage, there were other factors holding sway.

(1) The thematic conversation around writing Into the Forest is key in shortlisting. We had to ask whether each piece was saying something distinctive within that aggregated conversation.

(2) Some pieces by different writers were too similar. We had to let the wolves and witches fight it out. In the end, only the most original and distinct pieces made it through.

(3) On the other hand, we were swayed because we could see how one piece would spark off another piece in unexpected ways. That helps give our disparate collection some much-needed cohesion.

(4) We also wanted a balance of genres. In our final cut, we have a good mix of fairy tales, science fiction, mild horror, weird fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, memoirs and creative non-fiction.

(5) And just as importantly, the tone keeps moving from dark to whimsical, wry to chilling, dystopian to charming.

Shortlisted Prose (2/3)

Background image by Geran de Klerk

All that said, there were many pieces, ultimately discarded, that will really stay with one or both of us. We could easily have filled three anthologies with exciting, varied material. And it was painful to cull pieces we truly admired. We wish you luck in re-submitting anything we haven’t picked up for this anthology. All of our longlist deserves a good home. And we thank you sincerely for your patience in waiting for us to read your wonderful writing several times over.

Shortlisted Prose (3/3)

Background image by Geran de Klerk

Eventually, the blood moon waned and our two editors emerged from the bunker, somewhat tattered, clutching the shortlist. It’s a list that gives us goosebumps in all the good ways. We have alien trees, poisonous trees, synthetic trees; there are bears, wolves and one mutant squirrel; there are hunters, eco-activists and a red princess; druids, AI and fae, broken people looking for somewhere to hide. There are trees that speak, trees that watch, trees that bide their time. The shortlist is all that we had hoped for and so much more. In sharing it with you, we hope you experience the same shiver of anticipation.

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Into the Forest Shortlist

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Ideally, ALL the shortlisted pieces will make it into our Forest publication. From here on, we will move through several rounds of editing, both structural and copyediting. Once all parties are happy with the completed edits, we will crack on with typesetting and design. In our experience, the shortlist is very close, if not identical, to our final collection.