Month: November 2025

Ink of Ages Fiction Prize: The Update #13 📜 Longlist for the 2026 Prize released!

*Whispering submission readers*: “I feel a bit mean,” … “Me too…” Welcome to the 13th issue of the Ink of Ages Update, a monthly newsletter by me, Joanne Taylor, with a focus on writing, reading, and well … more writing. Thanks for being here! If this email was forwarded to you, or you’re reading online in the wild, you can sign up here. Congratulations to all writers whose story made the longlist this year! If yours didn’t quite make it this time, it might help to know that we had to pass on some very good writing due to sheer number of entries and the high quality of submissions. You can see the adult and youth longlists on our new Ink of Ages website! This month, I’m joined by Joy Dillon, one of our submission readers, from Trinidad and Tobago, sharing her advice after reading a great many submissions with us! Helping your short fiction make an impact on readers To all who sent an entry to this year’s Ink of Ages contest, congratulations, and …

Teaching Memory

Content written by the Educators Council team, originally published as the November 2025 Educators Newsletter. For many, November invites reflection—not only on those who have died or survived, but on how we remember them. This month offers an opportunity to explore the emotional, cultural, and social dimensions of loss, and how individuals and communities commemorate sacrifice, survival, and personal grief. National mourning serves as a powerful, unifying ritual. But behind the ceremonies are diverse experiences of remembrance. This month’s newsletter focuses on social histories: how people mourn, how memory is shaped, and how pupils can engage with remembrance as a dynamic, human process. Through these lenses, we invite reflection on how histories of commemoration influence shared understandings of loss and resilience. For every topic, we will provide practical resources that help educators approach this topic in a clear and visual way with students, helping them bring awareness and sensitivity to different cultures. How does Veterans Day foster community spirit in the United States? Historiography since the 1960s has become more considerate of social history. As …