Volume 06, Chapter 09 | July 2019

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Image by Franck V.

Dear writers, readers and friends,

Our offering for the month of July is a games writing special. We were asked to participate in FXP Festival (https://fxpfestival.com/) , a coding event for young people taking place in Cambridge this month, and this got us thinking about digital narratives and the relationship between storytelling and technology. Narrative games are about the creation of an entire world, and often a non-linear one, so where does the storyteller’s job begin and end? With so much being dependent on the user and the interactions between users, can a narrative designer ever control the story they want to tell? Do they even want to tell a specific story, or are they motivated by facilitating others to create their own stories?

So as we ponder these questions, we could not resist this image. It intrigues us and creeps us out in equal measure. It comes to us from Frank V., a photographer currently living in Japan who, amazingly, uses only a smartphone to capture his images. In response, we invited a group of writers and artists who work in and around games.

Phil Harris, our lead this month, is currently working as a Narrative Designer, for Deep Silver Fishlabs in Hamburg, a games company working on numerous console titles. Previously, he’s worked on many games, and a couple of TV Projects, from different genres. As well as teaching about Narrative and Design at various locations across the UK, Phil is also one of the key members of the VR Writers Room, discussing the use of Virtual Reality across a number of different types of multi-media products. We have had the pleasure of sharing a stage with Phil and his discussion around narrative design kept us all enthralled.

Zoë Jellicoe (http://www.zoejellicoe.com/) is an editor, writer and occasional translator living between London and Berlin. She is the editor of Critical Hits, a Kickstarted (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/518947824/critical-hits-an-indie-gaming-anthology) collection of original essays from the finest independent video game journalists and developers. You can read more of her writing at zoejellicoe.com and via geneva__diva (https://twitter.com/geneva__diva?lang=en) .

Courtney Byrne (https://twitter.com/aCourtneyByrne) is a 22 year old Irish writer, currently working as a writing intern at games company Wooga (https://www.wooga.com/) , in Berlin. She is a contributor to Totally Dublin and Franc Magazine, writes short stories and poetry, and is currently editing her first novel, all while juggling her studies.

Frank Lassak lives and works in Berlin, where he runs his atelier Efacts Photography (http://www.efactsphoto.com/news.html) since 2009. His works focus on staged cinematic scenes, narrative photography and portraits of actors and actresses. Frank became internationally known with his body of works circling around the movies of David Lynch (Welcome to Twin Peaks, 2017, True Velvet, 2011), and his conceptual series Youborn (2014) and Mixotarians (2015). Frank came to our attention through his project Dream Control – Where Freedom Ends (http://www.efactsphoto.com/dreamcontrol.html#.XRpOTpMzbUI) that we recommend you check out.

Now, if that isn’t enough to keep you busy, we created a set of visual writing activities for the FXP Festival and while they are intended for students, they are also generally fun and provocative enough to bring new words out of you, too. Feel free to download from Curved House Kids (https://curvedhousekids.com/free-creative-writing-resources-for-teens/) (the education arm of our mothership).

So dear writers, get your game on. You’ve got until 15th July.

The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Kristen, Preti, Lucie and Luke

Connect:

@visual_verse (https://www.facebook.com/efactsphoto)
@ (https://twitter.com/craig_carry) geneva_diva (https://twitter.com/geneva__diva?lang=en)
@aCourtneyByrne (https://twitter.com/aCourtneyByrne)
@ (https://twitter.com/geneva__diva?lang=en) efactsphoto (https://twitter.com/geneva__diva?lang=en)
@FXPFestival (https://twitter.com/FXPfestival)

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Volume 05, Chapter 02 | December 2017

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Image by Samuel Zeller

Dear writers, readers and friends,

Welcome to our final issue for 2017. This month we are bringing it all back to where Visual Verse began: Berlin. It was here, in this magical city, where Visual Verse was born in 2013. A spark of an idea from Kristen was fuelled by a beautiful design by Pete Lewis (also a Berlin resident at the time) and is now a raging fireball of amazingness thanks to the editorial leadership of Preti Taneja, her guest editors Eley Williams and George Spender and our deputy editor Lucie Stevens.

As Visual Verse has evolved, so too has Berlin’s writing talent, and this December we bring the best of this talent to you. We showcase Berlin’s diversity: from rollerskating, hotpant-wearing, rrrriot girl art to gothic cyborg tales, imagination and worldclass talent really are in abundance here. This month’s image is a photograph taken in a Berlin shop window and comes to us from Samuel Zeller (https://www.samuelzeller.ch/) . As is customary with our images, we will not reveal further details or give any context, but one thing is for sure about this one: no one will be indifferent to it. Love it or hate it, we know this image will evoke strong reactions.

Our lead piece by Jane Flett (http://janeflett.com/) is a mighty start to our December issue. Jane is a resident of Berlin where she makes up stories, plays cello, and rollerskates down Tempelhof runway in hotpants. She’s been published in over 70 literary journals and translated into Polish, Croatian and Japanese. Jane features in the 2012 Best British Poetry anthology and was voted Berlin’s best English-language writer in 2015 by Indieberlin. Should you wish to tap Jane’s writerly wisdom she sometimes runs courses in creative writing with The Reader Berlin (http://thereaderberlin.com/) but be warned: they sell out fast.

Rollerskating writers? Well, our next piece is from Sharon Mertins (http://nomadicgraphomania.com) , who says she spends her time in Berlin floating around in her thoughts, playing with fire and linking strands of thought together to turn them into elaborate tales. Her work has been published in Leopardskin and Limes, The Wild Word, Jersey Devil Press and Café Irreal.

And on page 3 we have our very own Lucie Stevens (http://www.luciestevens.com/) who is not only deputy editor extraordinaire of Visual Verse but also a writer, editor and maker of small projects. Lucie was awarded an ASA Emerging Writer’s Mentorship and a NSW Writers’ Centre Varuna Fellowship for her first novel, and her work has been performed by the Australian National Youth Theatre Company. When she’s not writing stories about children in formidable circumstances, Lucie helps make books about space with Curved House Kids.

Up next is Dan Ayres (https://www.clippings.me/danayres) , another Berlin-based writer, this time with a penchant for writing fantasy and short stories about the freaky side of technology. He has been published in Open Pen and The Wild Word and he was longlisted for the annual competition at The Reader Berlin. When dancing, he is devoid of bones.

We are utterly delighted to bring you the work of Isha Ro on page 5, a Jamaican writer living in Berlin. Isha writes creepy stories and funny stories and both of these involve an inordinate amount of murder. You can read more of her work at The Prosateur (http://www.theprosateur.com) .

And finally we complete this issue with fresh new words by Olivia Parkes (http://www.oliviaparkes.com) , a British-American painter and writer currently based in Berlin. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Zyzzyva, The New Haven Review, Gone Lawn, Blue Five Notebook, and American Chordata, among others.

For those of you in Berlin, or looking to visit or move here, keep an eye on The Reader Berlin (http://thereaderberlin.com/) for English-language writing events and courses and also check out SAND Journal (http://sandjournal.com/) , Fiction Canteen (http://www.transfiction.eu/the-fiction-canteen/) , The Wild Word (https://thewildword.com/) and Dead Ladies Show (https://www.facebook.com/thedeadladiesshow/) . These are a few of our favourite Berlin things.

So writers, you know the score: the image is the starting point, the text is up to you. Go forth.

Kristen and Preti

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