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thebraag.bsky.social
The Braag | Press & Journal
@thebraag.bsky.social
1.7K followers 140 following 61 posts
thebraag.co | carmenerror.com | trickster figure | poetry & spec fic press and journal | selling you books in the end times | NE England
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thebraag.bsky.social
A braag, brag, or bragg, is a shapeshifting trickster spirit that appears in County Durham folklore, where it appears variously as: a wild horse that will run you amok, cow in a white scarf, a naked headless man, or in one case, four men stood under a sheet.
etching-style drawing of four men hiding under a sheet. tis a braag.
November 12, 2025 at 4:46 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Delighted that the work we've been publishing in our micro-journal, Carmen et Error, is getting the recognition it deserves! @corinnaboard.bsky.social's brilliant poem 'A dunnock's prayer' was highly commended in this year's Forward Prizes!
Forward Prize 2026 Highly Commended Congratulations to Corinna Board! For ‘A dunnock’s prayer’, published in Issue 9.0 Carmen et Error A dunnock’s prayer by Corinna Board O wingless wun, god o’ smæl bridds, spære my nest, my fīf blue eggs. Bright sky-keeper, bringer o’ frost, maker o’ hip an haw, can ye hear my tseep tseep tseep in the hecg? I sing for ye in the blackthorn an the dogrose, in the hazel an the rowan. I, this tyne spearwa so smæl in yur hand.
October 2, 2025 at 9:02 AM
thebraag.bsky.social
With micros by @corinnaboard.bsky.social, Jessica Boatright, Heather Chapman, Stevie Ronnie and Lauren Thomas!
Little Book O’Moss by Corinna Board Toucan by Jessica Boatright The Annual Convention of Most Gentle and Virtuous Saints by Heather Chapman Possession by Stevie Ronnie Lavender Hill by Lauren Thomas
September 30, 2025 at 2:35 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Publishing Autumn 2026! by @carmenmarcus.bsky.social 🌊🪡🧵👗🐻‍❄️🌊
Only Fragments Survive by Carmen Marcus is a collection of speculative hybrid fiction and poetry that imagines the life of paranormal historian, Graine O’Malley. Graine is a researcher who divines the history of objects. Her catalogue contains a splinter of driftwood from Captain James Cook’s Endeavour; a hair from a polar bear that washed up in Orkney; a tale of witches from a dressmaker’s bent pin, an Indie mixtape from 1998 and other tales, taken from the history of broken things.
September 30, 2025 at 2:31 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Publishing February 2026! by @gitaralleigh.bsky.social ❤️💫✈️⛴️🥭❤️
Empirical by Gita Ralleigh explores immigrant life, domesticity and motherhood through a series of lyric poems and narrative fragments, including several ghazals. From Black Star, a voicing of the earliest South Asians in Britain, to abecedarian for maternity ward, postcolonial estrangement, immigrant contingency and tentative instances of love, joy and belonging are illuminated. These poems trace how inherited myths, contested histories and political tides pattern our lives, leaving indelible marks which corral the course of future imaginaries for ourselves and our descendents.
September 30, 2025 at 2:29 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Coming February 2026! by @andrewblair.co.uk ⭐👽👮🛍️🌎⭐
Let’s make one thing clear: polblar tmolkop by Andrew Blair is not an endorsement of the 2009 film Paul Blart: Mall Cop. If anything, it is an explanation. One that defies explanation itself. In a series of experimental, ludic poems Blair takes us through a series of conversations between the actor and writer Kevin James, and an ambiguous disembodied entity called Polblar.
September 30, 2025 at 2:24 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Announcing the braag 2025-6 line up in our most recent newsletter! .... app.beehiiv.com/posts/46fac6...
braag 25-6 line up Poetry polblar tmolkop - Andrew Blair Empirical - Gita Ralleigh Micros by Corinna Board Jessica Boatright Heather Chapman Stevie Ronnie Lauren Thomas Hybrid Only Fragments Survive - Carmen Marcus
September 30, 2025 at 2:12 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
A sample piece from Necrosmologies, available here: thebraag.co/product/necr...
Illustration of the bones of a vast beast. Bone Fishing The way the ocean turned to dust was good for business for a while. The water receded to a mercury line on the horizon and we fished for bones in the rubble. I trawled for vertebrae and then caulked up my father’s boat each evening. . There had always been a glue factory in our town, down past the piers, which melted bones in great vats out by the foreshore. For a while, at least, the money came in like the tide we’d lost. There’d be a bone auction in the yard most days and every afternoon the lorries would rumble off to the city loaded with glue barrels. . My son would buy bags of glue at the factory’s back gate, sell them to his friends, so they could push their faces into them, breathe deep and disappear. . Soon all the bones were fished out and the factory was shuttered and all our children, well, they had already gone, one way or another, of course.
September 18, 2025 at 9:32 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Necrosmologies is also available to pre-order here! thebraag.co/product/necr...
This is a gorgeous 64 page novella-in-flash, with matt cover, printed marble endpapers and illustrations ✨
September 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Necrosmologies by Braag author, Anthony Cartwright is launching at Voce Books, Birmingham on the 25th of Semtember! This is a wild & working class alternate history and is not to be missed. ⚡
September 18, 2025 at 3:47 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Quick head's up: submissions are VERY BUSY this month and we'll be closing EARLY on AUGUST 15th!
Further to this, we’re open for submissions to our Micro-Journal (this one!) Carmen et Error, however, due to the volume of submissions we’ve received since offering a small honorarium, we’re having to close early to make it feasible for us to read everything that comes in. We’re now closing August 15th, 00:00BST. I also want to remind you that we don’t make any money through Carmen et Error (only through booksales via The Braag) and if you want to support the magazine and directly help pay writers for their work you can make a donation via our Ko-Fi. Thanks so much for subscribing, reading and submitting! Kym The Braag CIC Carmen et Error
August 8, 2025 at 7:08 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
💫 Manuscript submissions for The Braag close July 31st

💫 Carmen et Error journal subs open August 1st

💫 Guest editor @eleanorball.bsky.social

💫 We're now able to pay a small honorarium!

💫 Full info and guidelines at carmenerror.com
Carmen et Error. Carmenerror.com Submissions open. Poetry 40 lines. Flash fiction up to 400 words. August 1st - 31st. Carmenetsubmissions@gmail.com Carmen et Error. Guest editor: Eleanor Ball NEW: Honorarium £5 per published piece
July 29, 2025 at 5:45 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
UK writers can submit
⭐ Poetry Pamphlets
🌟 Novellas/fiction experiments/flash or short story collections up to around 30,000 words

Writers worldwide can submit
💫 9 a5 pages of work for limited run micro-chapbooks

We pay our authors! We never use AI! Could you please share this? We want your work!
The Braag is a Poetry and speculative fiction publisher looking for manuscripts June 15th - July 31st thebraag.co
July 12, 2025 at 9:31 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
New micros by Molly Knox and V N Garmon are available at thebraag.co/shop 💚💀
July 7, 2025 at 1:26 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Our 2024-5 book bundle is available now, if you're looking to catch up on our latest releases! thebraag.co/shop/
July 3, 2025 at 8:39 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
We can reveal the cover for Anthony Cartwright's book, Necrosmologies, launching on September 25 2025! Necrosmologies is Invisible Cities for late stage capitalism, a deeply weird and lyric novella-in-flash-fic.
A book cover for "Necrosmologies by Anthony Cartwright". an ominous blue and black sky, marred by clouds, hovers over a set of buildings painted in grey.
June 29, 2025 at 6:55 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
We're open for submissions again! Let's goooo 💀🍀
thebraag.co/the-press/
the braag opens for poetry and prose subs june 15th to july 31st Why should I trust you with my manuscript? I have a deep understanding of the indie press poetry landscape, both from having three pamphlets published and from working with the Poetry Book Society for two years, and now working as a freelancer and poetry reviewer. I keep up with over eighty publishers of poetry. I have been guiding writers towards publication since 2018, with an excellent track record of guiding writers towards their first pamphlet. Your pamphlet will receive extensive editorial feedback, a launch, and be submitted to all the relevant awards. Our books are in bookshops across England and Scotland. I’m a canny-as-fuck Northern dyke who will fight tooth and nail for you and your book.
June 15, 2025 at 10:22 AM
thebraag.bsky.social
It's that time of year again, folks! Submissions open in under two weeks. For full info, get yourself over to thebraag.co 💀💚
a graphic that says "the braag will be open for submissions of poetry, prose and micro-chapbooks June 15th - July 31st"
June 4, 2025 at 9:07 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Chloe Elliot ('Encylopedia', 'Dream Silmulation') is our guest editor for the spring issue of Carmen et Error! We're back after our break and ready for your fictions and poems. 💙💚
Carmen et Error Carmenerror.com Submissions open. Guest editor: Chloe Elliott. Poetry, up to 40 lines. Flash fiction up to 400 words. Open February 1st to 28th. carmenetsubmissions@gmail.com
February 1, 2025 at 4:34 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1210024930... BOOK LAUNCH. BOOK LAUNCH. BOOK LAUNCH. Put it in your diary or write it on your dad. I'm not the boss of you. Just don't miss out on these two authors reading from their Brand New Braag pamphlets!
book launch poster for The Braag's 'every house needs a ghost' by timothy fox and 'Offworld' by Kirsten Luckins. With readings by the authors. Loftus Room, Lit & Phil, Newcastle NE11SE, Thurs 20th February, 6-8PM Poster with the same info but with a greyscale background instead of a blue one.
January 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Our newest set of microchapbooks are for sale via our website! Gorgeously mythic, steeped in history and falling into it's gaps are Joe Pickard's Pilgrimer, and Bruce Rimell's Deo Mithrae, each in a limited run of 35 copies, handmade and designed by the Braag. thebraag.co
A fake human skull sits amid handmade books, one of the books is open on the cover page and reads 'Deo Mithrae by Bruce Rimell. Published, printed and designed by The Braag. the braag.co' The braag's logo is an image of an upturned skull from which several plants are beginning to sprout. A fake human skull sits amid handmade books, one of the books is open on the cover page and reads 'Pilgrimer by Joe Pickard. Published, printed and designed by The Braag. the braag.co' The braag's logo is an image of an upturned skull from which several plants are beginning to sprout.
January 19, 2025 at 5:04 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Hi folks! We have just 7 copies of Unfurl left and 10 copies of @sarahbwestcottpoet.bsky.social 's Pond left! I won't be doing a reprint this side of Christmas, so if you'd like one now's the time.

thebraag.co?page_id=533
December 3, 2024 at 11:51 AM
thebraag.bsky.social
Delighted to be publishing Sarah Royston's prose pamphlet in September 2024! 💕 Her work is incredible, lush, strange and queer!
February 9, 2024 at 11:14 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
BOOK LAUNCH !!! If you're in the North East, swing by the Lit & Phil on Monday 26th February for readings by the authors, nibbles and drinks 💕
February 6, 2024 at 5:12 PM
thebraag.bsky.social
Pond by Sarah Westcott is 'a delightful, curious universe', 'full of music, beauty and metaphysical wonder' and 'includes water's own borrowed inklings'. 🐸💚🪷🍂 Available to pre-order via thebraag.co !
February 6, 2024 at 5:10 PM