Splice is a venture with a lot of moving parts, but there are three main pillars that support its work, each one operating at a different pace to the others…

Splice is a small press

Every two years, we publish three collections of short stories to showcase the work of three outstanding writers. Each collection stands on its own, but we hope that their shared aesthetic will encourage you to listen out for the harmonies and discords between all three. Once the three collections have been released, the work of the three authors will be brought together in an anthology. We also publish a novel during this period.

Splice is an online review

The review is the steady pulse underlying the occasional output of the small press. New material usually goes live online every Monday and Wednesday, including at least one in-depth book review (around 2,000 words) and either another review or an interview with an author, translator, or editor. Although we’ll feature the work of guest contributors here and there, most of our reviews will come from our masthead contributors and some will come from our small press authors.

Importantly, most reviews will spotlight a recent title published by another small press. By devoting close attention and consideration to small press publications, Splice aims to shed light on the lasting value they possess beyond the minimal worth suggested by their market price. They cost very little, but often they mean a lot, and our hope is that good, insightful criticism can do justice to the qualities that can’t be accounted for in pounds and pence. Ultimately, then, Splice exists to attract adventurous readers to the innovative and unconventional works of literature that exist outside the publishing mainstream — works that usually come into being from writers and publishers involved in Britain’s community of small presses.

Splice is an anthology

At the end of each two-year period, the three authors showcased via the small press come together in anthology in which they “splice” their work with the work of another writer. Each author will contribute some previously unpublished material, and each one will select and introduce the work of another writer who they believe deserves more attention. These three new writers will contribute their own material to the anthology — some fresh, some previously published — and then they’ll be brought into the Splice stable, commissioned to publish new work in future and to nominate new and interesting writers of their own.

In essence, the anthology functions as a way of consolidating the Splice community and broadening its scope. It’s intended to capture the attention of readers we haven’t reached yet, and then to intersect with the online review by directing their attention to the valuable titles published throughout the small press community.