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Little Toller Books
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    • Our story
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    • THE CLEARING
        • the clearing

          An online journal published by Little Toller Books that offers writers and artists a dedicated space in which to explore and celebrate the landscapes we live in. Our contributors are encouraged to go forth and find distinctive visions that startle us, rural or urban, modern or prehistoric, industrial, post-industrial, fantastical, natural, political, however they come. But each must be meaningful, surprising, felt.
        • READ THE CLEARING
        • Submissions & Mentoring

        • Harry and Pierse by Hana LoftusWhat drew Becker to crouch in the fields day after day, obsessively documenting his neighbours as they worked?
        • Montol and Midwinter Light by Ysella SimsWe wind through the streets, the rain giving way to the winds of the next winter storm.
        • The Lost Dens of Leicester by Sharon TyersSixty years later, I often find myself deep within our den in my dreams.
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    • Daily Photo by Bob Gibbons

      I think these are amongst the most gorgeously elegant birds that I know. This is a black-necked Stilt* feeding along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in winter.

      June 29, 2020
      Diary, Photography, The Clearing
    • The Corvid’s Shadow by Rose Fulton

      “We were on a walk in the forest above our house when a crow flew over. We watched as its shadow went passed us on the ground.”

      June 25, 2020
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Jeff Young reading from Ghost Town

      This is where nana, Queen of Red Rock Street, sat at the kitchen table, spooning sugar into glasses of lemonade to take away the fizz.

      June 23, 2020
      Reading, The Clearing
    • This Wall by Sarah Hymas

      Unlike a footprint on the moon, deep as the day it was made, the tracks made during the lighthouse repair are sluiced slowly by tides.

      June 15, 2020
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Red kite – back from the brink by Jodie Bond

      She boasts a shimmer of feathers, tobacco and rust, a phoenix echo as they catch the fire of sunset.

      June 5, 2020
      Essay, The Clearing
    • The Ground is All Memoranda by Gill Horitz

      The other night I woke to the sound of a car drawing up to the house, then another and another…

      May 18, 2020
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Corvid Tales on Covid Days by Suzanne Joinson

      Even now, if you listen carefully you can hear the ghost of Boney in the trees.

      May 12, 2020
      Diary, The Clearing
    • Spring and its discontents by Robin Walter

      I am beginning to feel the strings tug and draw me up again, restoring my shape.

      May 12, 2020
      Essay, The Clearing
    • I’m a bat, I’m totally a bat

      A father and son go for a spring bat walk at twilight.

      May 8, 2020
      Podcast, The Clearing
    • Magic Places by Sara Hudston

      I look up from my desk now and see a male bullfinch nipping blackthorn buds, his smart coral and charcoal plumage vivid against white blossom.

      April 20, 2020
      Diary, The Clearing
    • Hortus Conclusus during a Pandemic by Suzanne Joinson

      Now the lockdown is in full force I read Hortus in bed every night.

      April 8, 2020
      Diary, The Clearing
    • Earrach Geamraidh: The Winter Spring by Kerri ní Dochartaigh

      What we give in these days will be the things that we have been gathering up for many years.

      April 7, 2020
      Essay, The Clearing
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    About

    THE CLEARING is an online journal published by Little Toller Books that offers writers and artists a dedicated space in which to explore and celebrate the landscapes we live in. Our contributors are encouraged to go forth and find distinctive visions that startle us, rural or urban, modern or prehistoric, industrial, post-industrial, fantastical, natural, political, however they come. But each must be meaningful, surprising, felt.



    Submissions

    The editors welcome original submissions in written, audio and visual genres. Submission should reflect The Clearing/Little Toller’s concern with the natural environment, but within this broad subject-matter we encourage a diversity of interpretation and approach.

    If you’d like to submit work to The Clearing, please email theclearing@littletoller.co.uk. Please refer to the submission guidelines. While we receive many submissions we will get back to you as soon as we are able.

    Categories

    • Diary (33)
    • Essay (243)
    • Film (16)
    • illustration (11)
    • Interview (14)
    • Photography (4)
    • Podcast (6)
    • Poetry (124)
    • Reading (2)
    • Short Story (1)

    You May Also Like

    • Harry and Pierse by Hana Loftus
      What drew Becker to crouch in the fields day after day, obsessively documenting his neighbours as they worked? […]
    • Montol and Midwinter Light by Ysella Sims
      We wind through the streets, the rain giving way to the winds of the next winter storm. […]
    • The Lost Dens of Leicester by Sharon Tyers
      Sixty years later, I often find myself deep within our den in my dreams. […]

    Podcast

    • A walk along Chesil by Sarah Acton
    • I’m a bat, I’m totally a bat
    • Paul Kingsnorth in conversation with Charles Foster: a podcast

    From the Archive

    • A Welcome from the White Cottage by Liz Williams
      'Wales was an old crush I couldn’t shake. The solitude …
    • James Roberts – Three New Poems
      James Roberts lives in the Black Mountains. He co-edits Zoomorphic …
    • New Poems by Eleanor Rees, Tim Cresswell & Ralph Pite
      The stone is not inert / but processing the darkness, …
    . . .

    Whats in the name

    Tollern river valley in West Dorset. Recorded in the Domesday survey as Tolre, derived from a Celtic word for stream in a hollow valley.

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