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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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    • Casting by Fish Fischer

      Sunlight shone through the tree canopy, bouncing and scattering in a random pattern, casting golden and green patches of light on the river.

      February 26, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Stepping Around Uneven Ground by Karen Jane Cannon

      Knowledge is not necessarily about ‘seeing’ everything, but about knowing somewhere.

      February 19, 2024
      Essay
    • Commute of the Cormorants by Angela Evans

      Notwithstanding the Dysynni valley’s scenic beauty, it is as much the result of human intervention as it is natural forces.

      February 5, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Sailing By (One) by Jeremy Boyce

      When it’s lively like that you need the vision of Nostradamus just to steer through the Hokusais.

      January 18, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • A Manifesto for Chesil by Sarah Acton

      I acknowledge memory in multiple dimensions, where the collective power to make change lies. I will gather, collect, create, unafraid of storms that will pass through.

      January 15, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • The Unfinished Estate by Tim Edensor

      With her dogs, and it was rumoured, a particularly vicious goose, she patrolled the estate in an archaic automobile.

      January 4, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Earth Tongue by Sammy Weaver

      I notice a cluster of russett brown, muscular tongues poking just above the grass, then more and more.

      December 4, 2023
      Essay, The Clearing
    • The Seven Mile Straight by Carrie Rhys-Davies

      I am forty two years old and it’s a vividly hot afternoon early in September 2021.

      November 27, 2023
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Seasonal Rituals by Philip Strange

      These late autumn starling displays have also become, for me, part of the seasonal rituals of Cogden Beach

      November 20, 2023
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Losing Your Place by Sue Clifford and Angela King

      Questing for local distinctiveness must err towards the inclusive and welcoming, it is not about designating areas more beautiful or more derelict or worthy of grants.

      November 13, 2023
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Knife by Sarah-Jane Dobner

      Bend down and pinch a ripple of skin. It’s warm and springy, taut to the body.

      October 30, 2023
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Orchards and places by Common Ground

      In fact, many of the well known varieties have grown-up purely by chance, from discarded pips or stones.

      October 23, 2023
      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

    • One Place — Poetry by Jane Routh
      'When you know a place lifelong, you’ve no need of …
    • Entanglement by Christopher Nicholson
      There came the point when the secateur blades were within …
    • Ends the Land Suddenly by Paul Gamble
      This was our unfenced existence, among crumbling towers and tunnels; …
    . . .

    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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