Susie's Online Sub Club

Sub Club aims to help you find good homes for your poems , in an informal but structured session, run by practicing poet and facilitator, Susie Wilson. We read poetry magazines and journals together, with materials and methods provided by Susie. Sometimes these include tips and thoughts from Editors.

**We usually do the following: ** explore what's open now, questions attendees have about submitting, recent news and successes and then do a deep dive into at least two journals, with mention of a third, in a 2 hour session, with a break in the middle. Attendees are welcome to contribute out loud/in the chat/not a lot and to keep cameras on or off as suits them. Break out rooms are NOT used. You will have the opportunity to tell Susie if you have any access needs you would like her to be aware of. We display and read out loud any poems we explore.

Attendees get to vote in advance on which mags we read, which are guided by what's open/opening soon and usually contains a mix of big and little cheeses, print and online. We are an inclusive group, aiming grow everyone's confidence in a friendly space.

Our values are inclusive and positive, supporting:

• disability, neurodivergence, LGBTQ+
• poets at all sorts of stages
• constructive criticality and learning how to do this
• people who like reading and contributing as well as writing
• freedom to have your camera off/do what you need to be comfortable
• comfort to contribute out loud or only in the chat
• sharing feelings about writing while taming our inner mood-hoovers!

How does the pricing work?

Susie is keen that everyone who would like to have this help can have it, so there is always a sliding scale for payment, starting at 0 for the unwaged or those supported by benefits. She may in time invent a ‘pay it forward’ method. But for now otherwise please pick the option which best represents your view of what it is fair to pay for you as this provision is work, though the aim is not to make lolly.

It is possible to book a block of 3 sessions at a discount too. What dates are they on? Well…

Further dates

These are the currently proposed dates for the rest of the year:

12th Sept

10th Oct

31st Oct

28th Nov

9th Jan

13th Feb

13th March

10th April

8th May

12th June

Who is this Susie who does this?

Susie has run this session for two years for Manchester Poetry Library and in person at Sheffield Central Library. She has published two pamphlets, Nowhere Near As Safe As A Snake In Bed with Verve 2024 and Skin the Rabbit with The Braag, 2025. She was the 2024 winner of the Disabled Poets Prize and has spent the last year writing about rivers, funded by the Arts Council's Develop Your Current Practice Fund. Carol Ann Duffy has described her work as if it is a frozen green bean - ‘tough but tender’ - and Pascal Petit called her ‘one to watch’. Who knows why. See for yourself. She holds three MAs, one in English Literature and Language, one in Teaching and one in Creative Writing (Poetry) with Distinction. But most of all she knows that it is a lonely business trying to submit on your own, so started Sub Club as a space where we can work together.

Where else can I get help?

Angela T Carr, Yaffle Press and Carrie Etter all do similar things … google is your friend and I'm keen to support other providers of insights.

You can also look up Angela T Carr's list of what is open at Wordbox on the internet and subscribe to it, plus Robin Houghton's spreadsheet. Again, google will provide : )