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Cake: Lancaster's New Literary Magazine

The new website for Cake Magazine is up and running now, along with an online shop allowing people to get hold of copies.

Cake publishes poetry, flash fiction and reviews in a high-quality, print-based format, with work from established poets and newcomers alike (visit our site for a list of contributors). We've published work by many students at Lancaster, as well as submissions from UK poets and those as far afield as Poland, Australia, Italy, Kerala and Singapore, and have been proud to print the work of many well-respected names in poetry. We accept submissions year-round, and publish on a bi-annual basis. More information can be found at www.cake-poetry.co.uk or by finding us on Facebook.

Cake Issue #1

Cake's inaugural issue, with a guest editorial from George Szirtes on 'The Slice of It'. Featuring new work from Cliff Yates, Roddy Lumsden, David Morley and Adham Smart, amongst many others.

Cake Issue #2

A bumper 88-page treat of a magazine, bursting with
poetry, flash fiction, reviews and illustrations. With contributions from Peter Sansom, Helen Farish, Geoff Hattersley and many more. Our Guest Editor for this issue was the wonderful Luke Kennard, with his great piece on 'Things Out of Place'.

Cake Issue #3

With a guest editorial from Mandy Coe, contributions to our regular features from Helen Mort and Helen Ivory, and a mighty fine crop of reviews, Cake 3 emerges after much hard work. We're very proud of it, do take a look and see what you think...

Submissions

We are eager to read submissions of poetry and flash fiction, as well as ideas for reviews and articles. All submissions will be read by the Features Editor, Andrew McMillan, or the Poetry Editor, Martha Sprackland. Simply send up to 6 poems or 500 words of flash fiction, in the body of an email, to: themixingbowl@hotmail.co.uk. Alternatively, snail mail your submissions, with a stamped addressed envelope or email address for reply, to:

Cake Magazine
Department of English and Creative Writing
Lancaster University
Lancaster, LA1 4YD

We look forward to reading your submissions!

From Issue 1

The debut issue of Cake contains new work from writers just embarking upon their careers as well as major prize winners. Below are two poems that can be found in our first issue: one by a Lancaster University student in their third year, and one by a revered and admired prize-winning poet. This is just a free sample of what you can find in the magazine! 

George Szirtes

It was dark, a Wednesday morning, and the store
was half sealed-off in the infinite melancholy
of small pickings. Wrapping paper, a score
of remnant CDs, barely enough to load a trolley.
Garden fitments, stationery… all the grand spaces
of the humble, vacated. There stood the childhoods:
the sweet counter, the scribbling pad, the lost faces
of the faintly bored dispensing their gentle goods.

Worlds swell, explode, shed light, draw darkness in.
A match blows out in the draught. Nothing will keep.
A plastic pencil case abandoned in the bin
lifts a helpless lid but makes no unnecessary fuss.
Fire, firelighters, matchboxes, ashtrays... Cheap
vanishings. Vultures. We’ll be the death of us.

James Trevelyan

Mirror Image

I caught a brief glimpse of my dad
in the mirror leaning on my desk

as I levered it to its new position.
Before it fell, I saw in its grotesque

magnified side not his lines
of working logic, not less grace

but the exact same heavy lifting face.