Here it is, another great issue of Open Pen. The number 29 might not be a milestone, but the stories are broad in style and high in quality once again. This issue contains an eclectic mix of sci-fi, western, surrealism, and the abstract, staying true to our core sentiments as plucky literary ambassadors. It’s hard to imagine another publication that is so wide in its scope within the parameters of its word limit. Open by name. Open by nature.

The synopsis of this issue can be read below:

Issue Twenty-Nine is here. It’s been with subscribers for a while now, but finally we’re able to roll it out across our roster of independent bookshop stockists. What a lovely lot they are. Handsome homes for the last issue of our twenties.

Issue Twenty-Nine is a primary colour skinned bumper issue with a fantastic editorial from Good Choices author Bonny Brooks, which reminds us exactly why she’s a literary talent tearing us all to pieces with her wit, grit and irresistibly taut observations. Here, Brooks takes on ‘iSelf Author Culture’, and argues that “fiction without ambiguity is punditry”.

Hannah Hoare gets the cover story treatment with “The Curse”, an imaginative tale about the most inescapable fact of life and society, the totalising and conclusive death which we are all fated to. No matter what attempts are made to contain it, only the pace of its approach can be slowed, and then only sometimes too. Hoare deals with this morbid truth by spinning a sci-fi fantasy yarn with a relentless realism throughout. Perfect reading as we march towards summer with one eye over our shoulders.

We also see Jake Kendall return to the fold (joining a small company of writers to have been published in our raggy rag more than once) with “The Tailor’s Tale”, Kafka loving B. B. Fitton and “We All Have Our Uses”, and Sally O’Reilly with “The Mess”, which is also available to read over on our website now.

As always, Open Pen is FREE, and you can pick up your copy of Issue Twenty-Nine from one of our independent bookshops stockists this weekend. If you can’t get to those, you can subscribe here for the price of postage and the cheapest envelopes we could find.

What a joy to be Twenty-Nine. We remember it well/selectively.

A personal favourite of mine is B. B. Fitton’s ‘We All Have Our Uses’, a daring and surreal take on the breakdown of a relationship.