FROM THE EDITOR

WINDS OF CHANGE

Please join us in welcoming two new columnists for the newly-renamed Inspirations section: Bernardine Evaristo will be combining her experiences as an author and teacher to bring us a series of articles with her unique take on writing; and poet, journalist and creative writing teacher Roselle Angwin is taking over the Writing Your Self slot. As you can see from their inaugural efforts, we can look forward to exciting and wise words from them both.

Our Agenda takes a peek behind the writing scenes in Iran where a period of flowering has been rapidly followed by a government crackdown. Heather Falconer describes the circumstances – and introduces us to Iranian women writers we should know about.

Closer to home, Young Adult novels are all the rage: Keris Stainton examines the shifting market, speaking with authors, agents and publishers to get a sense of the thinking behind the change. Elsewhere, novelist Charlotte Mendelson describes the writing choices she made with When We Were Bad – one of interviewee and short story writer Helen Simpson’s current favourite reads – and Forward-shortlisted poet Jean Sprackland dissects her nominated poem. For a lingering taste of Summer ’07, musical It Girl of the Moment Kate Nash discusses her reading habits.

Finally, we are proud to be a media partner of New Writing North, collaborating with them on their mentoring campaign. Jill Dawson’s feature on writing mentorships is both passionate and practical – and we have several copies of The Write Guide: Mentoring to give away! Turn to our News pages for more information.

Keep writing, submitting your work and looking forward: our Mslexia Writer’s Diary 2008 is available now!

Daneet Steffens
Editor