Links

I recommend visiting MothersMilkBooks.com. Their anthology 'Musings on Mothering' is one of the best anthologies I've been in - it's worth it for the art alone, never mind all the fantastic writing! You can see more about it on my publications page. But the site isn't just about the book - it's trying to support and celebrate breastfeeding, which is a fine cause.

Writers

Calum Kerr is one of the best flash-fiction writers around, and an all-round good guy, and he runs a lively small press at gumbopress.co.uk. He also runs online courses in various aspects of writing, provides reading, editing and typesetting services, will act as a mentor for your writing, and will produce bespoke short story pamphlets to order.

Penelope Turnbull, a superb poet from Australia, has had the brilliant idea of publishing rejected poems with their rejection letters! Rejection is an inevitable part of the published poet's process, so it's great to see it handled with such grace and humour. Read Pen's own work or submit your own at: http://www.exposure.net.au/.

Dominic Berry, Manchester's premier queer vegan poet, is one of the hardest working poets on the circuit and one of the nicest blokes you could possibly hope to meet, which stops it being too sickening that he's so talented. Dom has to take a lot of the credit for the atmosphere of the Manchester poetry scene, where poets help each other and bounce ideas off each other in a very dynamic and exciting way - if you come to any event or workshop organised by Dominic then you'll always get more than you expected! Anyway, see more at: http://www.dominicberry.net/dominicberry.net/.

Ann Wilson is the person who suggested a website to me, so I'm very grateful to her. She's also a poet without compare; funny, clever, quirky and unique. Her website is at http://www.annthepoet.com/.

Andy N is a poet and musician, running the 'Poets and...' night in Bolton. A prolific writer, he has shoals of poems that swim all over the place, but often have a darkly comic sting in the tail. Er, do fish have stings in the tails? Um...anyway, he's very good. Find out more at http://www.andyn.org.uk/.

Mad Aunt Bernard's Tortoise Poetry is a wonderful place to spend some time, reading agreeably strange poems and hearing about the activities of Aunt Bench and Aunt Vom. I'm very fond of Lazy Witches. http://madauntbernard.blogspot.com/.

There are so many talented poets in Manchester - but even so, Charlotte Henson stands out from the crowd. Witty, talented, uncompromising and original, she's one to watch.

For poets and potential poets and other writers

Duotrope's Digest is the best database of publications anywhere on the web. You can specify whether you're interested in paying markets or those that accept short stories or poems of a particular length, or whatever your criteria are, and it'll come back with a mass of hits. It also seems to be frequently updated, which puts it a cut above most websites of its kind.

A fun and informative article on how to write a cover letter.

NewPages.com is a great place to find projects that are currently calling for submissions.

As is The Poetry Kit

Writers' Notes has a variety of useful information for writers.

Create 'word clouds' from your text at Wordle Pretty, fun and literary.