Brand literary magazine

Brand Literary Magazine publishes high quality, original short stories, plays, poems and creative non-fiction. Each issue also features an in-depth interview with a significant writer and art by contemporary artists.^[1]

Subscriptions and stockists

Brand is published twice a year. Subscriptions are available via their website. Brand is also stocked at a number of bookshops across London and Manchester. The magazine also participates, and sometimes hosts, various events and showcases throughout the year.

Key staff

Nina Rapi is a playwright and short story writer. Her plays and monologues include: Kiss the Shadow, Soho Theatre (performed presentation), Lyric studio and Southbank Centre (extracts), 2010; Edgewise, National Theatre of Greece,2010, and Gate Theatre,2003 (performed presentations); Mrs Jones Matters, Estaca Zero Teatro, Portugal, 2010; Reasons to Hide, Tristan Bates Theatre,2009; Gentle Persuasion, Theatre503, 2006; Lovers, Gielgud Theatre, West End Shorts Season, 2001; the award-winning Angelstate; Tricky, Tart Gallery, 2001 (published by Heinemann); Josie’s Restrooms, ICA, 2000; Ithaka, Riverside studios (Best Play Award, BITS Theatre Festival, Pirani, India, 1995 & published in Seven Plays by Women, Aurora Metro, Raymond Williams Award). Her collection of stories Nine Traces in a Circle, was published in Greece, 2006. She is now writing Out Where? a new collection of stories, awarded an Arts Council Writing Grant. She is the Founding Editor of BRAND.

Cherry Smyth is a poet, short story writer and art critic. Her latest poetry collection, One Wanted Thing, was published by Lagan Press, 2006. Her poems appear in Breaking the Skin, Black Mountain Press, 2002, the Apples and Snakes Anthology, Velocity, 2003,Magnetic North, 2006, The Shop, Staple, The North, Magma, nthposition and Poetry Ireland Review. She was shortlisted for the National Poetry Competition 2010 and was a prize-winner in the Tonbridge Poetry Competition, 2006 and the London Writers’ Competition, 2007. She also writes for visual art magazines: Modern Painters, Art Monthly, Art Review and Circa. She is the Poetry Editor of Brand.

Raffaele Teo is a freelance graphic designer & artist. After attending Art School in Italy, he went on investing all his energies in Comparative Literature and Humanities studies, moving to London in the mid ‘90s where he specialized in Graphic Design. He’s been working as a designer and illustrator since then for Chroma Literary Journal, Apis Books, Birkbeck college and the United Nations, among others.

Notable events

BRAND has been involved with various creative projects, launches, discussions and showcases. BRAND recently premiered a new Howard Barker play at The Purcell Rooms as part of the London Literature festival 2010. BRAND has also presented BRAND SHORTS at the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London Literature Festival 2009; and has held events at the Rich Mix Centre, The Langly, Borders and Foyles bookstores. BRAND has participated in panel discussions and/or offered masterclasses at The Newsroom, The Guardian, Westminster reference library and Foyles.

BRAND was shortlisted for the INC WRITERS Outstanding Contribution to Literature Award 2008

Reviews

BRAND has been reviewed in several magazine and online articles. In January 2010 Mslexia said about BRAND, 'every inch of this magazine is purposeful. For readers seeking new writing with no characters, plots or melodramatic additives, this publication is a tonic.' ^[2]

In February 2009 Essential Writers reviewed BRAND saying 'it all flawlessly hangs together.'^[3]

In 2009 Staple magazine reviewed BRAND saying 'the mix is lively, the strike rate often high, and the general approach set at something of an angle to much conventional literary publishing.'

References