Volume 06, Chapter 01 | November 2018

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Image by Hannah Coulson

Today, we turn 5.

Visual Verse was launched in 2013 by Kristen Harrison, Pete Lewis and Preti Taneja – three friends with modest plans. We hoped only to provide an online space where writers and artists could collaborate freely. Thanks to the passion and enthusiasm of writers around the world, Visual Verse has far exceeded all expectations.

Over the past 5 years we have published 60 issues in 5 volumes. We have received almost 8,000 submissions and published 5,500 pieces by 1716 individual writers. And, according to Google Analytics, we have been read by people in every part of the globe except the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. What are those Norwegians doing?

None of this would have been possible without you – our writers and artists – who have made this publication the beautiful, positive, diverse, boundary-pushing celebration of creative collaboration that it is.

And none of this would be possible without the support of those working behind the scenes. Thank you to our Deputy Editor Lucie Stevens whose tireless work keeps Visual Verse running month to month; thank you to our special guest curators and co-editors Eley Williams, Richard Georges, Carmen Marcus and So Mayer who have injected fresh creativity and brought amazing new writers; and finally, a huge thank you to our patrons Bernardine Evaristo, Cathy Galvin, Mark Garry, Andrew Motion, Marc Schlossman and Ali Smith for their ongoing support.

Today we have a very special surprise for you to celebrate our 5th birthday edition. Instead of publishing a new issue with one image and a selection of lead pieces, we are instead giving you – our amazing community of talented and dedicated writers – the opportunity to be one of our three lead writers this month.

All submissions received before 12pm GMT tomorrow (2nd November) will be longlisted for one of our lead spots. A shortlist of eight pieces will be chosen and from these, our judging panel will select the top three.

The Judges

Bernardine Evaristo
Award-winning writer of novels, verse and criticism and founder of the Brunel International African Poetry Prize.

Sam Jordison and Eloise Millar
From the superlative independent publisher, Galley Beggar Press.

Andrew Motion
Poet Laureate 2000-2010, Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns’ Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.

Philippa Sitters
Literary agent at leading agency DGA.

The image is the starting point, the text is up to you. Go forth.

Your faithful founders: Kristen Harrison, Pete Lewis and Preti Taneja.

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Volume 05, Chapter 12 | October 2018

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Image by Mark Basarab

Dear writers, readers and friends,

This month we bring you the final issue in Volume 5 of Visual Verse. To celebrate, we have handed the editorial over to one of our dearest friends, So Mayer – a writer, curator and activist. Her recent books include Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema (I.B. Tauris, 2015) and (O) (Arc, 2015), and recent projects include the touring programme Revolt, She Said: Women and Film After ’68 (http://www.clubdesfemmes.com/revolt-she-said/) with queer feminist film collective Club des Femmes, and Raising our Game (https://www.raisingfilms.com/resources/raising-our-game-report/) , a report addressing exclusion in the film industry with campaigners Raising Films. Current writing projects include Disturbing Words (https://tinyletter.com/sophiemayer/) , a tinyletter about language, and a poetry chapbook , due from Litmus (https://www.litmuspublishing.co.uk) this autumn.

So’s selected writers are all radical thinkers and multi-talented artists. We are very excited to have them inspire us this October, responding to a stellar image (sorry, couldn’t resist) by Vancouver photographer Mark Basarab (http://www.markbasarab.com/) .

Warning: this work is dark and blazing – perfect for the times we live in.

Jason Barker is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, comix artist, and occasional stand-up comedian. He has been a co-producer of Transfabulous and a programmer for BFI Flare, the London LGBT Film Festival, where his first feature film A Deal With the Universe (http://adealwiththeuniverse.com/index.html) , a documentary about his pregnancy, had its world premiere. He is the Education Lead for Gendered Intelligence, and facilitator for GI West in Bristol.

Sarah Crewe is a working class feminist poet from Liverpool. Her first full poetry collection, floss, is upcoming from Aquifer Books (http://glasfrynproject.org.uk/w/category/aquifer-press/) this winter. Her work has featured in Tenebrae, Litmus, Cumulus, zarf and Datableed. Her most recent pamphlet was weimar after dark: fourteen poems on fassbinder’s berlin alexanderplatz (contact Sarah on Twitter to order).

Sachiko Murakami (Canada) is the author of three collections of poetry: The Invisibility Exhibit (Talonbooks 2008), Rebuild (Talonbooks 2011), and Get Me Out of Here (Talonbooks 2015). She has been a literary worker for numerous presses, journals, and organizations, and most recently was the 2017 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto. Her projects include Project Rebuild (http://www.projectrebuild.ca/) , HENKŌ (http://powellstreethenko.ca/) , WIHTBOAM (http://www.whenihavethebodyofaman.com/) and FIGURE (http://www.figureoracle.com/) .

Anna Coatman is a writer and editor from Leeds, now based in London. In the past she has worked at I.B. Tauris, RA Magazine and Sight & Sound, and is currently Senior Commissioning Editor for BFI, Film & Media at Bloomsbury. She was one of the founding editors of 3 of Cups Press and has contributed to publications including frieze, TLS, LRB and The White Review. She is currently working on a project concerning women and social realism, and will be chairing a panel discussion titled ‘Whose Story?: Working Class Women on Screen (https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=3C59E017-BF84-40D4-B379-AA6A43060C85&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=688F7842-DE4B-4183-9CF3-05F7778DAC4C) ’ on 9 October at BFI Southbank in London.

Jules Koostachin is a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation, Moshkekowok territory, and she currently resides in Vancouver. She is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, with a research focus on Indigenous documentary. Her television series AskiBOYZ (2016) is currently airing on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. In the fall of 2018, Jules’ latest short film OChiSkwaCho premieres at ImagineNative, and she publishes her first book of poetry Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths (Kegedonce Press, 2018). Her short films PLACEnta and NiiSoTeWak screen at the 12th Native Spirit (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/12th-native-spirit-indigenous-film-festival-2018-canadakent-placenta-niisotewak-with-jules-tickets-50317019560) Film Festival in London on 18 Oct.

And now, dear writers, October is yours. Do your best – keep reading, get inspired and send us your 50-500 words written in the space of one hour, by 15 October. We will publish up to 100 of the best of them. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

So, Preti, Kristen and Lucie