Well hello there!
Yes, the giant has awoken. Thanks for all your well-wishings. We’re happy to report that the houses have been moved, the exams have been written, the marriage has been made, and the baby has been born – so we’d better get on with things really, hadn’t we?
WAIT!
There are three important things you should know first. We’ve been having a bit of a think about the heart of this magazine, what it does best and why it’s here, and have made the following decisions:
ONE: We have closed the poetry section. Sorry. Big thanks to the great poets who have sent things in over the years. You can still re-read the past poetry here, and we wish you a hearty God Speed in placing your poems in other magazines. This means that TPG is now wide open for flash fiction and non-fiction.
TWO: Your stories, real or imagined, must now be set in the UK. You don’t have to explicitly state this, obviously (please don’t laboriously insert place names), but we would like to see stories from the UK, for the UK, about the UK.
THREE: We’ll be aiming to post a new piece of work each Monday and Thursday.
We do hope that is satisfactory. Have a look at the updated submission guidelines for more info. Now, we have an entirely empty inbox, so, writers of Britain, if you’d like to tell us a story, please,
PROCEED.
The Pygmy Giant 
#1 by Alice Salmon on September 15, 2013 - 3:12 pm
How good to have you back! Welcome from Alice Wooledge Salmon
From: The Pygmy Giant Reply-To: The Pygmy Giant Date: Sunday, 15 September 2013 16:02 To: Hugish Subject: [New post] The Pygmy Giant awakes from its slumber. Hungry for literature.
WordPress.com thepygmygiant posted: “Well hello there! Yes, the giant has awoken. Thanks for all your well-wishings. We’re happy to report that the houses have been moved, the exams have been written, the marriage has been made, and the baby has been born – so we’d better get on with thin”
#2 by Oonah Joslin on September 15, 2013 - 3:48 pm
It’s great that you’re back — though as primarily a poet, I am a bit sad about the poetry but onwards and upwards. I shall spread the word.
Oonah
#3 by thepygmygiant on September 16, 2013 - 1:25 pm
Ah, I know Oonah, but I hope that this will send more poets your way – to everydaypoets.com
It was a hard decision, but we needed to be a little more focussed, both for TPG’s future as a magazine, and also due to a need to narrow the field a little. There’s a limit to the sheer volume of submissions that a doctor, a teacher and a marketer can read in their spare time and we don’t want to fall months behind again!
#4 by JJ Toner on September 16, 2013 - 8:44 am
Welcome back, but I am seriously disappointed by the first of your submission guidelines which includes Northern Ireland and then talks about “these islands”. Oh well! JJ Toner (in Ireland)
#5 by thepygmygiant on September 16, 2013 - 1:22 pm
Oops, apologies to Northern Ireland which is, indeed, not an island. Sorry for the clumsy turn of phrase. We’ll edit the offending sentence. We do mean UK rather than British Isles, alas.
#6 by John Ritchie on September 16, 2013 - 12:39 pm
It is great news that you are back. It is however a tad worrying that you say you are looking for literary input and not genre contributions. I fear this may disenfranchise humble scribblers like myself. I would be grateful if you could be more specific about what you will and will not accept in the future so that I will know if I should continue offering my work to you.
Best
John Ritchie
Past contributor
#7 by thepygmygiant on September 16, 2013 - 1:20 pm
John! That sentence has always been in the submission guidelines, so you’ll realise that it’s just a tendency, a preference, a general trend rather than a rule. The guidelines are pretty flexible if what you send is awesome :)
#8 by John Ritchie on September 16, 2013 - 2:32 pm
Rats! You’ve caught me out! A writer who does not read the submission guidelines.
String him up and don’t give any supper either.
#9 by Oonah Joslin on September 18, 2013 - 11:06 am
Oh dear — you really mean UK not British Isles? I think that is a shame. I am from N. Ireland but I think a lot of N. Irish people will be ‘miffed’ to say the least that Eire is excluded. I have lots of writerly friends there. I am with John too. I didn’t ever pick up on that sentence. No supper for either of us but still — now that I have seen that :(
#10 by thepygmygiant on September 18, 2013 - 3:37 pm
Nothing personal! TPG has always been a site for UK writers; that’s the whole point. No complaints for six years, so Eire must have some excellent lit mags of its own.
#11 by colettecoen on September 20, 2013 - 8:11 am
Great to see you back supporting the beauty that is flash fiction. Very impressed at the short hibernation – you must have a very good baby.