Volume 10, Chapter 09 | July 2023

Posted on by
A woman in a pink coat holds a red umbrella while she bends down to talk to someone through a car window. The image is from the 70s and looks like a older archival photograph.

Image by Jim Pickerell / Documerica
Dear writers, readers and friends,

Welcome to the July issue of Visual Verse in which we celebrate the art of conversing with strangers. I have returned from a visit to Ireland where – despite the ever-invasive presence of technology in our lives – a vibrant culture of simple human interactions remains intact. I couldn’t walk two steps without a stranger making chit-chat. One woman was so keen to engage that, after eavesdropping on a conversation between my son and I as we stood at traffic lights, she insisted on walking us to “the best museum”. Only, she didn’t know where it was. We spent twenty minutes marching in the wrong direction while receiving an unsolicited historical walking tour of Dublin. The things you get for free, eh? Who needs Google maps when you’ve got the kindness of strangers. I’ve left Ireland with a resolve to engage more with random people to see what ideas and inspirations it might bring. Will you join me?

It’s not hard to see where the impetus for this month’s image selection came from. Hidden in this street scene from the archives of Documerica (https://www.documerica.org/) is a conversation. What do you hear? An interaction between strangers? A chance meeting of old friends? Something sweet or something more sinister? The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

We are hugely grateful to our four talented leads this month for their unique ekphrastic interpretations. First up we present Lynn White (https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com/) , writing from her home in north Wales. Lynn’s poetry is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Find her at lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/) .

On page 2 we present Tamanna Abdul-karim (https://twitter.com/TamKarim) . Born in Bangladesh and raised in the UK, Tamanna is a woman after my own heart: she always dreamed of empowering young people to achieve their fullest potential. She is a passionate English teacher who has been in service within Birmingham for sixteen years. She enjoys the raw and authentic experience of writing and sharing poetry. You can follow her work on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TamKarim) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/versesbyTam/) .

Róisín Leggett Bohan (https://twitter.com/LeggettBohan) joins us on page 3. Róisín was chosen for Poetry Ireland’s Introduction Series 2022. Her work can be found in Magma Poetry, New Irish Writing, Southword, Poetry Ireland’s ePub, Amsterdam Quarterly and elsewhere. Her poems have been commended/shortlisted for awards including the Allingham, Cúirt and MLC Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition. In 2022 she was the winner of Flash Fiction with Southword and the winner of CNF with Atlantic Currents II. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from UCC and is co-editor of HOWL New Irish Writing. You can find her at inkstainedwings.com (https://www.inkstainedwings.com) .

And on page 4, we welcome Sam Buchan-Watts (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/people/profile/sambuchan-watts.html) , author of the pamphlet Faber New Poets 15 and collection Path Through Wood (Prototype, 2021). Sam is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Newcastle University and he is currently working on a book about skateboarding, masculinity and queer culture.

Now, over to you, dear writers. You know what to do. Submissions close 15th July, midnight UK time.

Kristen
with Preti, Isabel, Lucie, Ashish, Zaynab and Wes

Find the VV crew on socials:
Visual Verse (https://twitter.com/pretitaneja/)
Kristen Harrison (https://www.instagram.com/kittyharrison/)
Preti Taneja (https://twitter.com/PretiTaneja)
Lucie Stevens (https://twitter.com/LucieStevens_)
Ashish Kumar (https://twitter.com/Ashish_stJude) Singh (https://twitter.com/Ashish_stJude)
Zaynab Bobi (https://twitter.com/ZainabBobi)
Wes White (https://twitter.com/archaeologyBoy)

Volume 09, Chapter 01 | November 2021

Posted on by

Image by Frederick Cayley Robinson

Home


Dear writers, readers and friends,

November has arrived and that means something extra special to us – it’s our birthday!

Happy eighth birthday to every member of the Visual Verse community! Whether you’ve been part of our tribe for some time now, or have just recently entered the fold, we want to thank each one of you for making VV what it is: dynamic, diverse, celebratory and inspirational. Together, this is what we’ve achieved:
* We’ve published 96 issues since 2013 – this month’s issue will be our 97^th.
* Almost 9000 pieces have been published to date – that’s somewhere between 450,000 and 4,500,000 words – the equivalent of around 50 novels!
* These pieces have been written by more than 350 lead writers and 3500 contributors. We’re proud to have created a space that fosters the development of fledging writers, while promoting the work of seasoned scribes and supporting everyone in-between.

All these figures bring one word to mind – collaboration. VV wouldn’t be possible without the artists whose work sparks our imaginations each month; the leads whose pieces open the channels of inspiration; the team of publishers, editors and curators working behind the scenes; and you, our beloved writing community. Even after all these years, your work still excites us, makes us reflect, shares with us a new point of view. We’re grateful for every piece of work we receive and the window it offers us into your hearts and minds. In return, we hope that each month, we foster your creativity and provide you with connection and community.

In the spirit of collaboration, all our November leads work closely with a creative partner, to develop innovative new work and support craft development in others. Our fabulous quintet of leads was inspired by an autumnally hued image by English painter, illustrator and decorator Frederick Cayley Robinson (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frederick-cayley-robinson-1857) . We love the sense of narrative it evokes, as though it’s a still-shot from an unfolding moment.

Opening this issue is a piece exploring what we choose to hear – and ignore – by Emily Cataneo (http://www.emilycataneo.com/) . Emily is a writer and journalist from New England. Her fiction has appeared in publications such as Indiana Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Lightspeed, and her nonfiction in venues The Guardian, the Boston Globe, Slate, NPR, Atlas Obscura, and more. She is co-founder of the Redbud Writing Project (https://www.redbudwriting.org/) with fellow North Carolina State University MFA graduate, Arshia Simkin. Redbud is a creative writing organisation that teaches workshops across many genres, both online and in community spaces in North Carolina’s Triangle.

Our second and third pieces contrast with each other beautifully, in style and tone. These pieces have been penned by Onjuli Datta and Mikaella Clements – co-authors of The View Was Exhausting (https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/mikaella-clements/the-view-was-exhausting/9781472271730/) , a modern love story about power, fame and privilege. This creative duo is married and live together in Berlin. You can find them both on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mikandonj/) , or Mikaella on Twitter (https://twitter.com/mikclements) .

Page 4’s piece is the perfect accompaniment to your bucketful of Halloween sweets. Its author is Redbud Writing Project (https://www.redbudwriting.org/) co-founder, Arshia Simkin (https://www.arshiasimkin.com/) . Arshia was born in Pakistan and spent the first six years of her life there. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia and currently lives in Raleigh with her husband. A former lawyer, Arshia’s writing has appeared in Crazyhorse. She was one of three winners of the 2020 CRAFT Flash Fiction contest, and received honourable mention in NC State’s James Hurt Prize for fiction.

Our final lead piece for November is a beautiful reflection on shifting relationships with shadow, written by Michelle Jana Chan (http://www.michellejanachan.com/) . Michelle is travel editor of Vanity Fair; her TEDx (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2ZnosgO8XA) is “Hitchhiking, galaxies, and why travel is not bad for the planet”. Her debut novel Song (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Michelle-Jana-Chan/dp/1783525479/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=) (Unbound) was described by Bernardine Evaristo as ‘a wonderfully lush and atmospheric odyssey of survival against all odds’; Elif Shafak called it: ‘Precise, heartfelt, breathtaking’. Her upcoming book, Two Friends (And Other Stories) is a double memoir which speculates into the future, co-authored with Shehnaz Suterwalla. She is launching a literary/travel podcast The Wandering Book Collector in December.

And so, dear writers, now it’s over to you. We can’t wait to receive your electronic birthday parcels, filled with fresh, innovative, experimental writing between 50-500 words, in response to this image and written within an hour. Challenge yourself. Push your boundaries. Go beyond the literal. Surprise us and, most of all, surprise yourself. Submissions close midnight (UK time) on November 15th.

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

Lucie
with the VV team: Kristen, Preti, Isabel, Tam, Nahda, Jordan, Aimee and Anna.
Follow us

@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)
@EmilyCataneo (https://twitter.com/EmilyCataneo)
@mikclements (https://twitter.com/mikclements)
@ferranteshatpin (https://www.instagram.com/ferranteshatpin/)
@michellejchan (https://twitter.com/michellejchan)
@redbudwriting (https://twitter.com/redbudwriting)