by Victoria Bromley and Trina Read
Swim Press is going gothic. All the reasons we’ve chosen a darker, more ominous theme for our fifth anthology.
The flowers have wilted and our issue 05 theme is far from the budding fragrance of our fourth issue Flora & Fauna. As the nights draw in and autumn unveils its dark shadow, we wanted our fifth magazine to reflect the spooky season to inspire an eeriness which Swim Press hasn’t explored before.
What was originally proposed as our theme for our fourth issue, Haunt felt more appropriately placed as a theme for the cooler months opposed to the spring/summer timeframe of our previous issue. It was in that meeting that we decided that Haunt would be perfect for issue 05, the timeline of autumn being a natural fit for our ambition to publish biannually.
Haunt was inspired as a theme when editor Trina began thinking of ideas for her final MA songwriting project, which ended up being based on Essex ghosts and witches (more on this to come). Haunt felt like an exciting theme for Swim as it can be interpreted in many ways, which is a criteria we hold for all of our issue themes. As a team we were really excited by this theme and the new variety of submissions it could inspire. We also thought the theme would allow a new direction for our photography and artwork contributors, moving from the bright colours of Flora & Fauna to the moodier colours and vibe of Haunt.
On top of this we decided to open up our submissions for creative non fiction pieces. Perhaps you have your own real life ghost story to tell? However you choose to interpret this theme, we cannot wait to read the submissions and see the various other creative interpretations of Haunt. We are ready to be haunted…
Submissions for issue 05 Haunt open 16th September – 30th September.
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