The Cambium: 1st Layer
The name of the newsletter, and what else has been germinating beneath the forest floor
Thank you to everyone who has joined Wild Writers! Welcome, it’s great to meet you. I’m Anna, a writer currently based in New Zealand. I have my own Substack over at The Restless Naturalist if you want to know more about me. This, on the other hand, this is your Substack too.
That’s right, Wild Writers is a collective and you can all be part of leading this space with me. I welcome your involvement in the running of this group, its content and direction. Would you like to write posts that feature on the site, share book reviews or interviews, chair meetups, start a podcast, run a workshop? What do you need to do to grow as a writer? You tell me. We can make these things happen.
The Name of the Newsletter
In response to the feedback I received in the chat, the Wild Writers’ newsletter now has a name: The Cambium. And this is its first layer.
Cambium: a layer of growing tissue between the wood and the bark of a tree.
The Cambium will be growing its way towards you once a month, carrying nutrients to encourage you in your work, in whatever form that is currently taking, and hopefully helping you to make the most of the creative sunlight.
Monthly Meetup
Thanks to those who filled out the survey form indicating preferred days and times for a potential online meetup. I’m hoping to have something in place in the next month or so. This will be a chance to meet “in person” to read out work in progress and receive feedback from fellow writers. If anyone else is interested in participating in something like this, please take a minute to let me know (really a minute, it’s a very short survey).
Wild Writers’ Chat
The chat is open to all subscribers. You can add your own new threads if you have questions or need specific advice from the community. You can also upload media if you want to share work in progress and ask for feedback.
Reading List
Wild Writers now has a reading list of suggested books on writing craft. If you have a recommendation you’d like to add to this list, send through the following:
Book details (title, author, ISBN)
A short description of what the book is about and/or why you recommend it
Affiliate link* if you have one (if not, I’ll link to Worldcat)
Link to your Substack if you’d like that included
*I recently signed up as an affiliate on Bookshop.org. It was very easy, and I can so far recommend the process if anybody is looking for a potential extra income stream. There’s an interesting post here about how their business model actually works.
Upcoming Events, Competitions, Submission Windows etc
Feral Angels’ Poetry Café. Run by English poet Tom Hirons (you can also find him on Substack) every two weeks on Zoom. “In each session, there will be some exercises, some poetry, some conversation, some silence and some workshopping of pieces.” I attended a different online workshop that he ran a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Price is pay-what-you-can. June 14, 7.30pm BST and June 24, 10am BST.
Panaorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature is accepting submissions on the theme of “belonging,” They accept nonfiction, fiction, poetry, as well as various visual art forms. Does not pay. Entries close June 14.
Granta is open for nonfiction and fiction submissions. GBP3.50 per submission, or they offer a limited number of fee-waivers for writers on low-income. June 1-30.
USA-based writers only. Trio House Press also has their open reading period this month. Reviewing creative nonfiction and poetry book manuscripts. The USD25 reading fee is waived if you earn <50k. June 1-30.
Queen Mary Wasafiri Prize for New Writing. Open to writers of fiction, life writing, or poetry who have not yet published a book-length work. Prize is GBP1,000 and publication in Wasafiri. Submit one piece of prose or up to three poems. Max 3,000 words. Entry fee GBP12 (subsidies available). Entries close June 30.
Unless otherwise stated, all publications listed pay contributing writers at least an honorarium.
Community Announcements
Do you know of an upcoming event that might interest other members? Did you recently attend a writing workshop? Have you just had a piece of writing published, or won a competition and would (quite rightly) like to shout joyously about it? Now’s your chance. Whatever it is, send me the details and I will include it in the next mailout.
From wherever you’re standing, imagine digging down under your feet. What do you find? Keep going till you reach the molten core.
That’s all for now, and I wish you a month of wild writing.
Anna.
Anna, I admire what you are doing. However, your definition of cambium is not correct. The statement that “it is the central venal system of the tree, transporting water and nutrients between the roots and the leaves” is not consistent with the known role of the vascular cambium.