Gutter: A Scottish Print Platform for Underrepresented Voices

By Anna Hughes

Edited by Jon McGregor

Photo credit: Gutter mag, Issue 28 cover

‘Whoever’s at the Gutter masthead, however, the ethos remains the same: we want to show the world what Scotland has to offer, in all of its diversity and from all of its writers – those who were born and raised here, as well as those who have sought refuge and a new life here.‘

Cal Bannerman, Gutter Distribution, Subscriptions and Finance Manager 

In true The Letters Page tradition, we’ve sent Rolf Venner, the author of our upcoming letter, a gift subscription to one of our favourite literary journals as a payment-in-kind for his work. 

The subscription we’ve chosen this month is Gutter, the magazine of new Scottish and international writing.  

Cal Bannerman, a member of the team at Gutter, says they have an inkling that the magazine’s name refers to the Oscar Wilde line from Lady Windermere’s Fan: ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’ Cal tells us this quote is representative of what Gutter strives to do: ‘give hopeful, exciting, illuminating writing a gorgeous print platform from which to shine, with a particular focus on elevating voices underrepresented in Scottish literature – voices from the gutter.’

At its heart, Gutter is about challenging the status quo. They encourage submissions from writers who take stylistic and thematic risks and transcend boundaries of form and function. They want to publish everyone, from those seeing their words in print for the first time, to names like Alasdair Gray, Liz Loch and Jackie Kay.  

The journal is both Scottish and international. Their self-coined word ‘Cosmowegianism’ (from Glaswegian) emphasises their inclusive editorial stance rooted in the diverse, vibrant city of Glasgow.  

Gutter not only publishes fiction and poetry, but essays as well. Their non-fiction section, Scance, takes its name from the Scots word for all things investigative, exploratory, conversational and unbelievable. This shines through in their essays, which cover a broad range of topics in striking and thoughtful ways.  

As a print magazine, the journal hopes to record and collect the exciting work in Scotland that is often quite ephemeral. They emphasise the joy of receiving the magazine twice a year, sitting with it physically, and poring over its pages. Cal tells us: ‘With the increasing digitisation of almost every facet of our lives, including most forms of culture, the power and beauty found in the connection to the physical had, I think, been somewhat forgotten for a time. Now, though, I think we’re starting to see a backlash against digital culture.’ This joy in print and the physical is something we definitely share here at The Letters Page, as we encourage everyone to take a pause from the digital and pick up pen and paper. It is also a joy shared by this month’s writer, Rolf, whose letter to us celebrates the silence of letters in our loud world.  

Gutter is a gift we would like to share with you, and by subscribing here you can receive two issues each year of vibrant, energetic, challenging writing. Issue #28 is currently available and next year sees the publication of issues #29 and #30, a landmark issue.  

Every writer we publish gets their very own gifted subscription to one of our favourite literary journals. So send us your letters; we can’t wait to read them!  

---

The Letters Page team are back in the office, and ready to read your real letters again. We publish stories, essays, poems, memoir, reportage, criticism, recipes, travelogue, and any hybrid forms, so long as they come to us in the form of a letter. We are looking for writers of all nationalities and ages, both established and emerging.

Your letter must be sent in the post, to :

The Letters Page, School of English, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.

See our submissions page for more information.

To stay up to date on The Letters Page newsletter publication, subscribe here.