Image by Veronica Lissandrini
Dear writers, readers and friends,
Rise, write and shine. Your August issue is here and isn’t it a beautiful one? With the help of my co-curator this month, Divya Ghelani, we showcase four women to watch: one artist and three writers, all with abundant talent. I was deeply moved by this month’s writing – actual tears in some cases – and I felt a kind of tectonic shift as I read them. I felt the impact of both excellent writing and work that speaks to the moment we are in. That combination is the dragon we chase at Visual Verse. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
Our writing prompt comes from Italian artist Veronica Lissandrini (https://veronicalissandrin.wixsite.com/portfolio) , whose work spans visual art and writing. She has a fierce manifesto on her website that centres many of the values we share: freedom, creativity, disruption, truth, community, joy and dream. Follow Veronica on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/iamverolix/) to see more of her fabulous work.
And now, our magnificent lead writers: On page 1, we welcome Amy Stewart who makes her Visual Verse debut with a brilliant piece, Luna. Amy is a writer living in York and she recently won the Word Factory Northern Apprentice Award (https://thewordfactory.tv/word-factory-apprentice-award-announcement-2021-22/) . She is currently researching a PhD at the University of Sheffield about female circus artists and the carnivalesque. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the 2021 Mairtin Crawford Award and the 2019 Bridport Prize. Amy’s work can be found in Test Signal (DeadInk Books/Bloomsbury, 2021), Ellipsis Zine, Bandit Fiction and the York Journal.
On page 2, we are thrilled to feature Avrina Prabala-Joslin (http://www.avrinajos.net) , one of our regular contributors whose talent shines brighter with every submission. Avrina is a South-Indian writer living in Berlin. Her short story She’s a Tank, a Battalion, a Banyan won the Short Fiction/University of Exeter International Short Story Prize 2021. Her works have been shortlisted for the Indiana Review Fiction Prize 2021, Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize 2021 and the Berlin Writing Prize 2019. She’s currently finishing a novel that follows a few nomads and we are very excited to read it.
Alaya Mays, on page 3, is a student at Western Washington University studying German and Creative Writing. She has been writing and performing her own spoken word poetry since she was 16. Alaya tells us she has a special love for calculus, sushi, and playing cards at brunch. Her first piece on Visual Verse was published when she was still in school and we are enamoured by her work: the style and maturity she already displays is something special. Watch this space.
My deepest gratitude to Divya Ghelani (https://www.divyaghelani.com/) who co-curated this month’s writers. Divya is a British-Indian writer living in Berlin. She holds and MA in Creative Writing from UAE and in 2016 she won an Apprenticeship at The Word Factory (http://www.thewordfactory.tv/site/divya-ghelani/) . (http://www.thewordfactory.tv/site/apprentice-scheme/the-workers/) That’s where we were introduced to Divya’s work and she was later featured in Volume 5, Chapter 3 (https://visualverse.org/submissions/the-peacock/) . Divya has also been published in the BareLit Anthology, Litro: India, Too Asian, Not Asian Enough, Radio 4 and many more. As it turns out, she can not only write herself, but also spot exciting talent in others. Thank you, Divya.
So, know what to do. Deliver us your dragons. We are looking for fresh, innovative, experimental writing between 50-500 words, in response to this image. Challenge yourself. Push your boundaries. Go beyond the literal. Write within an hour to conjure thoughts and ideas you didn’t know were in you.
The image is the starting point, the rest is up to you.
Kristen,
with Divya Ghelani and Team VV
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