“We’re not. I’m obviously the shape-changing Northumbrian folk spirit, the braag who sometimes appears as four blokes under a sheet, and not someone trying to steal your laundry.”
We like spirits here at The Braag. Ghosts too. We couldn’t resist naming ourselves after one of the strangest pieces of folklore the North has to offer: the shape-changing trickster spirit, the braag; who appears variously as badly-behaved horses, fashionable calves, and on one occasion four men holding a sheet.
Also, we believe in the talent, dedication and hard work of artists in the North East and beyond, and we think they’re worth bragging about.
We want to develop emerging artists and pay them fairly for their time, as well as working alongside more established writers. It’s important to us that emerging artists—whatever that means—don’t stay that way forever, and at a time where the gap between “emerging” and “established” is wider than ever, we’ve made the decision to support artists from underrepresented backgrounds to help them get where they want to be.
Who’s under the sheet?
Kym Deyn (they/she) is our founder, director and editor of The Braag and Carmen et Error. They are an award-winning writer based in Newcastle. Their pamphlets include, Dionysia from Verve Poetry press, Nine Arches’ Primers Vol. 6, Fee Fi Fo Fum published by Broken Sleep Books and Unfurl, a collaborative fiction project. They are widely published and anthologised and their speculative work is published in Strange Horizons and Hexagon SFF magazine. Originally from Teesside, they’ve been passionate about arts in the North since becoming a member of the Writing Squad’s mentorship scheme in 2016, they’re also a member of the Tees Women Poets and the co-founder of the Durham University Slam Team.
Celestine Stilwell (he/him) is a transmasculine writer currently based in Devon. His writing has been featured in publications such as ‘The North’, ‘Butcher’s Dog’ and ‘BullshitLit’ as well as being nominated for the Forward Prize 2022. As well as writing poetry, Celestine writes script, with his debut theatre production scheduled to be at Edinburgh Fringe this summer, and his poetry film being longlisted for the Outspoken awards. He is currently in the process of working on his debut screenplay and pamphlet. You can find his artwork @rattatittytat on Instagram and Etsy.
© The Braag CIC 2024