Image by National Museum of Denmark
Dear writers, readers and friends,
With the world in a state of protest and flux, turning upside down and inside out, endurance and tenacity are needed. This month we have unearthed a remarkable image from the National Museum of Denmark (http://en.natmus.dk/) that reminds us that we can always surprise ourselves, if we try hard enough. We might feel we are being twisted into impossible positions, we might need to escape, but we can always achieve more than we think. Whatever your response to the current climate you can rely on us to give you an image and words that will inspire and challenge you. Look at this image, look again, then write.
Our lead piece this month comes from the extraordinary writer and activist Hannah Silva (http://hannahsilva.co.uk/) , a poet, playwright and performer known for her innovative explorations of form, language and voice. Her debut poetry collection Forms of Protest (Penned in the Margins) was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. She won the Tinniswood Award for Best Radio Drama Script with her verse play ‘Marathon Tales’ (BBC Radio 3) and has been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.
We always love celebrating our regular contributors’ successes and our second lead this month comes from Sohini Basak. She has poems and short stories in journals including Visual Verse, 3:AM Magazine, Out of Print, Missing Slate, Ambit, Helter Skelter, Ofi Press, Paris Lit Up, as well as in print anthologies of Emma Press and Poetrywala. The big news is that her debut poetry collection We Live in the Newness of Small Differences has won the inaugural Beverly Series manuscript prize and will be out from Eyewear Publishing in early 2018. She has also recently received a Toto Funds the Arts award for her poetry. She currently lives and works in Delhi.
And for balance we are pleased to bring you the words of Haider Shahbaz, a Pakistani writer and translator. His work has appeared in Brooklyn Rail, Los Angeles Review of Books, Jadaliyya, and elsewhere. He is currently the Charles Pick Fellow in Writing at University of East Anglia.
So there you have it – a fine selection to start this short month, and now you know the drill. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.
Let us shout loudly with our words, and turn this world the right way around.
Preti and Kristen
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