Pushing out the Boat - New Writing from the North East of Scotland

Replacing its forerunner The Broken Fiddle, which ran for a few years in the 1990s, the present more apt title was conceived by my predecessors and our team would not dream of changing it. As well as reminding us of the area’s deep and timeless connection with the sea, it encapsulates our aspiration to push the limits ever further. We hope to remain the foremost outlet for local writers and artists, with our roots firmly embedded in north-east Scotland, but we continue to reach outwards with a determination to resist the parochial. Thus, works in the local Scots sit proudly beside short stories, poems and visual arts that look to the wider world, drawing contributions from both within and beyond our Scottish borders.

Pushing Out the Boat was the brainchild of a series of writers-in-residence sponsored by Aberdeenshire Council at the turn of the millennium. The first four issues were edited by Magi Gibson and managed by Mindy Grewar, then Arts Development Officer for Aberdeenshire South. When Magi left, Mindy continued to administer the magazine, recruiting a group of volunteers to help with Issue 5. The magazine might have folded when Mindy moved abroad the following year but she left behind a dedicated team who weren’t prepared to let it die. A constitution was rapidly put in place and this year’s issue will be the second volume produced entirely by volunteers.

The magazine is still too young to boast a string of famous names to its credit, but there are some, like Siân Preece, who have already broken into the big league and who knows what other great talents lie concealed in our first seven issues. Our standards are high and it’s no mean feat to be accepted for Pushing Out the Boat - nowadays only about one in six makes the grade and we make no apology for that.

Publication is still made possible by the financial support of Aberdeenshire Council whose funding is now matched by the City of Aberdeen . The magazine consists of over one hundred pages of poems, stories and art work on high quality A4 paper, with stunning full colour covers. We continually debate the pros and cons of A4 against a smaller format (eg like paperback Granta) but the larger layout does offer a better display of the artwork. Each year, as we become better known, we increase our print run - and our sales, with the price of this year’s volume kept at £4.50. Although we cannot afford to pay either the contributors or our production team, we feel this gives us a certain purity: the writer/artist offers something from the heart, not having to follow any formula, worry about what might sell, or think about how to classify the work for a retailer. We leave it to our readers to judge the result.

Although we are delighted to receive an increasing number of website hits (including one from Azerbajan!), Pushing Out the Boat is still relatively unknown, even in the North East of Scotland. One of the team’s main objectives this year is to raise our profile, which is helped by the magazine’s comprehensive website at http://www.pushingouttheboat.co.uk/ . It now shows the beautiful front covers and other details of all seven issues as well as listing retailers of the magazine, which can also be purchased via the website. By mid-summer the call for submissions to next year’s issue will also appear, so whether you are an aspiring contributor or just an avid reader – WATCH THIS SITE.

Martin Walsh
Managing Editor, Pushing Out the Boat

¹ Isobel Murray is Honorary Professor in Modern Scottish Literature at the University of Aberdeen and editor of the highly popular Scottish Writers Talking series.