Frazzled Lit—a new online literary magazine launched its first issue in October
Frazzled Lit launched in October with a first issue featuring the work of a staggering 96 writers, including Nuala O’Connor, David Butler, Tommy Dean and Matt Kendrick.
Frazzled Lit is co-edited by Jennifer McMahon and Laura Cooney. Jennifer McMahon was one of twelve winners in the Irish Writers Novel Fair in 2023, an annual competition for aspiring novelists. Laura Cooney published her debut poetry collection Motherbunnet (Blackroom Poetry) in 2023, with her next, No Trauma/No Drama due in 2025.
‘We’re very much an international affair, and our contributors come from all over the world,’ explains Jennifer. ‘In terms of material, we want pieces that leap off the page and make us wish we’d written it ourselves. Many of the works we’ve chosen are edgy, David Butler’s superb story Between Silences, Mark Burrow’s No Thief, and Barbara Byar’s Rubble, all being fine examples.
‘We love precise, considered prose and meaty stories, and poetry that makes us look at ourselves and the world in a different way. We are equally pleased when we encounter a piece that has a softer tone, and speaks to our hearts. Everything is blind read, so we were particularly pleased to discover Nuala O’Connor’s thoughtful and honest creative non-fiction piece, Life As Mask, Mask As Life, among our submissions, and most grateful when she agreed to an interview. Equally, we are honoured to have contributors for whom Frazzled Lit is their very first outing.’
Jennifer said that writers are not offered a fee for their work at the moment, but that they hope to be able to do so in the future, if they secure funding.
Read ‘Between Silences’, by David Butler
Laura says that the response to the first issue was incredible. ‘We had close to one thousand submissions for our first issue, far more than we’d anticipated, so of course we had our work cut out to whittle it all down to a longlist and then a shortlist. We’ll be using a submissions management system for our next issue, and hope to reopen for submissions in May 2025, with a small special edition in between, planned for early January, so keep your eyes peeled.
‘We’ll also be adding some peer readers to the team to help us in the decision-making process. Ultimately, this won’t change the way we operate as editors, though. We want our writers to embrace our collaborative editing approach and feel connected to the process of working with us. Once you join Frazzled Lit, you are family.’
Jennifer and Laura had the same vision and ethos from the start: to build a welcoming, collegiate and professional magazine where all voices are showcased and all talent invited.
