Image by Ville Miettinen
Dear writers, readers and friends,
Welcome to 2016 and to a fresh new edition of Visual Verse to kick off your writing. As you all know, we are a truly global journal with contributors from many countries; nevertheless all of us dream of some kind of escape. Maybe that’s what has inspired our new image from Finnish entrepreneur and photographer Ville Miettinen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/wili/373624474/in/photolist-z1Vxh-xStbd-cQyKH-qCeGpJ-98THYY-8PPonW-7xQJ78-5Ty6yf-5PDhAg-4pzojK-4mYNSS-4jVftj-z6rF1-7AfMeH-yrbAC-xvKf6-54vHaN-qUQdwL-kG2A7h-jMgRZF-e3jN2n-e2zuWE-dWcJzU-dQEGDE-bQZXgz-biHjhK-bgt2rt-bePKQp-babBbr-aLEEMn-9d4xA3-7smgQo-7rTMEX-6WrTrV-qtuh6M-qxSGhL-brb22f-bhzxC6-anh3kj-7vMzpm-5TRBSR-5S57XJ-5S2V8C-5REaP9-5QHQzX-5QfGpm-5Qb2e9-4Hc5Yr-4CYmRb-4ozC7J) , with its evocations of strange guardians, golden sunsets and the ebullience of youth. This image is all about witnessing a moment of change.
Our lead writer Alex Pheby captures this perfectly. Alex’s most recent novel, Playthings, is available now from the legendary independent publisher Galley Beggar Press (http://galleybeggar.co.uk/store/books/playthings) . We’ve read it, we love it, and we are thrilled to have him on the site. He lives with his family in London, where he lectures (http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/ug/eng/w801) and runs the wonderful annual Greenwich Book Festival (http://greenwichbookfest.com/) .
We are also excited to bring you the work of British-American poet Robert Peake, who lives near London. He created the Transatlantic Poetry (http://www.transatlanticpoetry.com/) reading series, bringing poets together from around the world for live online readings and conversations. He also collaborates with other artists on film-poems, and his work has been widely screened in the US, UK, and Europe. His latest collection The Knowledge is now available from Nine Arches Press.
Last but not least, is Patience Kyenge, a young spoken word poet from Democratic Republic of Congo. Now living in Belgium, Patience performs at club nights and writes and sings Congolese blues with her troupe of musicians – she’s electric to watch and we are proud to say this is her first published piece.
New year’s resolutions? Who needs them. Let this one be an evolution, not a revolution. The image is the starting point: the rest is up to you.
Happy New Year!
Kristen and Preti
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