December 2020
Dear Creators,
As the end of 2020 approaches, many of us find ourselves torn between looking forward and looking back. Ruminating on the lost potential of the last year, and the possibilities of the next. As we near the end of a difficult year, as the days get shorter, the weather colder, and we chafe at the new restrictions that continue to keep us at home, we would like to invite you to focus on the positives. Draw your awareness to all of the things you have to look forward to. Focus on the present and the potential it represents.
This month’s creative theme is hope. Hope can come in many forms. To you, maybe hope means returning home for the holidays, a long-awaited vaccine, or that Christmas gift you have been eagerly anticipating. Perhaps it means setting your New Years’ resolutions and sticking to them, finishing that big assignment and praying for a decent grade, or waiting for the first dusting of snow to settle on the rooftops. Whatever hope means to you, we want to read it.
“Hope is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words-
And never stops – at all-“.
What is it that stays with you? What keeps you going through the dark days and the cold? What drives you forward, and pushes you? What perches in your soul, and what tune does it sing? Write it. Send it in. Share your hope with others.
We are accepting works of prose, poetry, flash fiction and art on the theme of hope. All submissions should be a maximum of 1,500 words. To send us your submission, please email a word document or PDF to aAh.Editor@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Creative submission’.
The closing date for submissions is 20th December.
Keep on creating,
Ryann Overbay on behalf of
The Creative Editors, aAh! Magazine.
Check out previous creative works on the aAh! Magazine Creative Section website.
Featured image and gallery: Hoang Phan Notebooks were carried from one workshop to another. Writers from different generations sat around tables, sharing manuscripts and listening to each other. Outdoors, small groups strolled along Oxford Road, pausing before buildings steeped in literary history. This was the scene during the Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026, held…
Featured image: Katja Ogrin With many sore heads and limbs this morning after the most hardcore day of the festival taking place yesterday, many are recovering from the moshing and pit brutality of the previous day’s antics. As the tradition of a morning movie in the Serpents Lair prevails, the crowd sprawls out onto the plush,…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After an electrifying start to the weekend, with temperatures slowly climbing, many lather themselves in suncream, shed their band shirts and rise from their tents to trek towards the arena. Saturday has big things incoming for the humans of Bloodstock 2026. Some pace themselves for the day and hide from the early…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After a memorable Thursday opener, Bloodstock 2026 opens its gates once again onto the Hallowed Grounds of Catton Park, kicking off day two of its 25th-anniversary celebration of metal. As the sun rises on Catton Park, festivalgoers emerge from their tents to prepare for another day of mayhem. The morning brings…
Leave a reply