Image by John Everett Millais/Birmingham Museums Trust
Dear writers, readers and friends,
In case you missed it, we dropped some pretty big news on Twitter (https://twitter.com/visual_verse/status/1650411123706068998?s=20) this week. In October 2023 we will publish our final issue of Visual Verse. This will conclude a full decade of publishing your glorious and eclectic words. We will grieve the beautiful space we have created with you, and the thrill of receiving your responses each month, but the time is right for us to move on to other things.
So, dear writers, there are six issues to go (including this one) and still plenty of time to challenge yourselves with our prompts. This month’s image – an oil painting by John Everett Millais, 1856, courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust (https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/) – has strong fairytale vibes and I love it for all the tiny details. I challenge you to use all your senses to experience this image. Go beyond that immaculate double rainbow and seek out the subtler clues. What stories do they hold?
We are excited to present four fabulous leads this month to inspire you. On page 1, we feature Rani Selvarajah (https://twitter.com/Rani_writes) , a Berlin-based author from north-west London. Her debut novel, Savage Beasts (https://mybook.to/SavageBeasts) (HarperCollins) is out on 25 May 2023 and was longlisted for the Mo Siewcharran Prize. It is a reimagining of the Greek myth Medea, set during the rise of the East India Company in the 18th century. Pre-order (https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/savage-beasts-rani-selvarajah/7139588?ean=9780008556280) available from Bookshop.org.
Ekaterina Crawford (https://www.ekaterinacrawford.co.uk/) is a regular contributor to Visual Verse. She was born and grew up in Russia but relocated to the UK with her husband in 2006. She always loved writing but it’s only in the past few years that she’s pursued her passion and we are delighted to be home to some of her work. In recent years, Ekaterina has won poetry and short story competitions in Writers’ Forum Magazine, placed first in a Romance Category in Farnham Literary Festival Short Story Competition and had two poems and a short published by the Bournemouth Writing Prize Anthologies. Her war poem “Bucha” has reached the top 12% of Bridport Poetry Prize entries.
Sahana Ahmed (https://twitter.com/schahm) is a poet and novelist based in Gurugram, India. She is the author of Combat Skirts (Juggernaut, 2018) and the editor of Amity: peace poems (Hawakal, 2022). Her work has appeared, most recently, in The Hooghly Review, SheThePeople, and The Times of India, along with anthologies by Authorspress, Hybriddreich, and The Chakkar. You can find her online at sahanaahmed.com (https://www.sahanaahmed.com) .
And on page 4 we feature another Visual Verse regular, Jacinta Barton (https://twitter.com/jacbar_j) . Jacinta writes poetry, prose and short stories. She has been published online and in print, and she has an impressive archive of pieces with us here (https://visualverse.org/writers/jacinta-barton/) . She lives with her two sons in Co.Wexford, Ireland.
There you have it, dear writers. Show us your words.
The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.
Kristen
with Preti, Isabel, Lucie, Ashish, Zaynab and Wes
PS: We live for originality so please avoid the word “Rainbow” in your title.
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)