Yes, it’s been a while, but we’re still here and The Grapple Annual No. 1 is indeed a-comin’. Though we haven’t been very visually present online, we’ve not at all been shirking.  Behind the scenes, we’ve read through all the submissions, we’ve made our selection and we’ve emailed out the verdicts. Commiserations, exhortations and celebrations a-plenty! Most recently though, we’ve been grappling away with a variety of edits: agonising over poem commas, sharing the heavy-shifting of paragraphs within longform behemoths, and everything in between. On that note, an assurance to those last few contributors who haven’t heard from us in a while: we’re getting to you super soon. You’re definitely not forgotten. Thank you for being wonderful and patient. We really do have the best contributors an inaugural Annual could hope for.

So yes, our initial endeavour has taken longer than anticipated (by us at least), but now’s the time, speaking of contributors, to get down to the buzz and the business. Specifics! Allow us to reverse striptease, if you will, by putting things on. On this page. Yes, over the coming days, we’ll gradually update the list below (along with our Twitter and Facebook pages) with our impressive roster of contributors to The Grapple Annual No. 1.

Flabbergastingly exciting? Correctamundo.

We’ll also gradually start sharing things like excerpts, interviews, an entire piece or two, and a surprise or three, all in advance of (and beyond) the launch of the Annual in both bound and ebook form. Pretty much every work in the Annual relates to a date, so each contributor gets their very own featured online anniversary shindig, and you’re invited.

But first, here’s that growing list of contributors. Watch this space over the coming days and by the time the list is fully announced, we’ll have launch details, release details and details on how you can get all of this into your mitts, eyes and minds. Yes!

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The Grapple Annual No. 1 (2014)

FEATURING:

– Mount Olympos, a short story by Jane Downing (January 1)

–Notes from Shanghai, a short story by Ella Jeffery (January 17)

– Event, Tour, Shutter, a short story triptych by Kate Hall (February 1)

– The First of April, memoir by Alexandra Neill (April 1)

– Red Eyes, a short story by Raphael Kabo (April 8)

– The Emergent Story of the Australian Frontier, an essay by Paul W Newbury (April 25)

– Travelling left, a short story by Irma Gold (May 4)

–Petrel Migration, art by Paul Heppell (May 10)

– We Are All Flesh, a poem by Andy Jackson (June 2)

– Four Days, poetry by Yolande Norris (June 7)

– The Day She Wed, a short story by Tadhg Muller (June 24)

– individual tax return instructions, a poem by Monica Carroll (June 30)

– THE LAST NIGHT OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S LIFE, a poem by Ben Adams (July 2)

– The Penultimate Report of Sergeant Burns, a short story by David Stevens (July 16)

– The Sun Eater, Catalonia, 17 July 1936 to 17 July 2013, Miró and Picasso, a poem by Andrew Galan (July 17)

– Moonlanding, a short story by David Spitzkowsky (July 20)

– Strange Creatures, two short fictions by Alyson Miller (July 26)

– Unconditional, a poem by Charlotte Clutterbuck (August 9)

– Paper Sky, memoir by Annette Ong (August 23)

– Hunting Season, 4350, a poem by Vanessa Page (September 21)

– The Death of Narcissus, a short story by Georgia Kartas (October 18)

– Glut, a comic by Ben Rosenthal and Mike Perry (October 21)

– Sequence #1, Sequence #3 and Sequence #8, poetry by Greg Gould (October 27)

– October 31, a short story by Nick Marland (October 31)

– He was close, a short story by D A Shorr (November 1)

– Grim X-pectations, non-fiction by Sonya Deanna Terry (November 20)

– Ants, a comic by Finbah Neill (November 21)

– Reef Knot, a poem by Les Wicks (November 30)

– The Misunderstood Prophet, non-fiction by Steven Gepp (Dec 14)

– We Three, a short story by Sian Campbell (December 24)

– This one is true., a poem by Eleanor Malbon (December 25)

with additional artworks throughout by Issi Bailetti, Grace Blake, Sarah McCauley, Kayla Piris and Shu Shu Zheng.

…and more a-comin’!