Monday Nugget: Your Local Newspaper

Your local newspaper is a great publishing outlet for your poetry and stories.

Rumours that the local newspaper is dying have been greatly exaggerated. They’re certainly still an important force in the community – and an important resource for writers. Some local newspapers publish poetry and stories, particularly at Christmas.

Photo Description: This is the cover the Festive Star, the Christmas Magazine for the Waterford News and Star. Congrats to those newsletter subscribers who made the cut for the Creative Writing pages. The magazine is available to buy in Waterford – just saying!

The time after Christmas can be very quiet for newspapers, so that’s a good time to pitch an editor with a poem or a local history story. And while you may be too late for this year’s supplement, you could give yourself a deadline of having something ready for next year’s supplement.

If you want to find the right person to contact, simply call up your local newspaper office and they’ll give you the name and email of the editor or the person who organises the poetry/local history pages.

If you want more advice on how to approach newspapers, drop me a line on derbhile@writewords.ie. I used to be a journalist, so I flatter myself I’ve an idea of what newspapers are looking for.