Volume 10, Chapter 09 | July 2023

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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 06, Chapter 07 | May 2019

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Image by R. Coad/New Zealand Archive

Dear writers, readers and friends,

May Day, Labour Day, Workers’ Day: in many countries around the world today is a public holiday. It is also a day of both rest and unrest. Here in Berlin, where Visual Verse was born, protesters are marching the streets for fairness. Their voices rally against a fast-moving gentrification that Berlin has long resisted and while the chants are for a better future, there is also something nostalgic about it. It feels as though a memory, longing for home and ‘a more simple time’ never seem to leave us no matter who or where we are. The future speaks with the voices of the past.

For this new issue it therefore felt right to bring you a prompt from the past. Our image is curated by The Curved House’s very own Alice Connew, also a photographer (https://www.aliceconnew.com/) , who unearthed this vignette by R. Coad from the New Zealand Archives. The image is accompanied by three magnificent pieces of writing – some of the best we have featured. Read these, and then read everything they have written.

Our first lead is by Rebecca Tamás, a poet currently based in York, where she works as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John University. Rebecca is the winner of the 2016 Manchester Poetry Prize, and is a Fenton Arts Trust Emerging Writer awardee. She is the editor, with Sarah Shin, of Spells: Occult Poetry for the 21st Century, published by Ignota Books. Her first collection of poetry, ‘WITCH’ (http://www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk/index.php/2019/01/witch/) , a Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation and a Paris Review Staff Pick, came out from Penned in the Margins this year.

On page 2, we present Christodoulos Makris. He has published several books, pamphlets, artists’ books and other poetry objects. His 2015 book The Architecture of Chance (Wurm Press) was a poetry book of the year at RTÉ Arena and 3:AM Magazine. One of Poetry Ireland’s ‘Rising Generation’ poets, he has presented his work widely across media and borders, and is currently Writer-in-Residence at National University of Ireland Maynooth, with other recent residencies and commissions including StAnza Festival (Scotland), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and European Capital of Culture. He is the poetry editor at gorse journal and associated imprint gorse editions, and co-director of Dublin’s multidisciplinary performance series Phonica. His most recent book is this is no longer entertainment (https://www.dostoyevskywannabe.com/this_is_no_longer_entertainment_/Original) , a book-length documentary poem just out from Manchester’s Dostoyevsky Wannabe press April 2019.

And on page 3, one of the most brilliant short story writers working today: David Hayden. He was born in Ireland and lives in England. His writing has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Granta online, Zoetrope All-Story, The Dublin Review and PN Review, and in the Faber New Irish Writing Anthology, Being Various, edited by Lucy Caldwell. His first book was Darker with the Lights On. And here’s Egress (http://magazine.nytyrant.com/egress-david-hayden/) , an extra short story up for your delectation on NY Tyrant.

So, you know the drill. Send us your 50-500 words, written in response to our image and in the space of one hour, by the 15th of May. We will publish the 100 pieces we love the most. And tweet when we can. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you…

Kristen, Lucie, Preti, Rithika and Luke

Connect:
@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)
@RebTamas (https://twitter.com/@RebTamas)
@seventydys (https://twitter.com/@seventydys)
@c_makris (https://twitter.com/@c_makris)

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