Volume 08, Chapter 04 | February 2021

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Image by Tom or Judy Moore

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Dear writers, readers and friends,

We’ve had an amazing response to the feedback form (https://forms.gle/NaiKLaM37AffoxkH6) , thank you. If you haven’t filled it out, please take a moment to have your say. We will digest and report in good time but it has already been so helpful to see your ideas and understand the needs and wishes of our writing community.

And now, February! Allow us to unveil these tech-savvy little pigs courtesy of Tom or Judy Moore (https://www.instagram.com/ignatzhoch/) , a multifunctional artist and busy little bee based in Berlin. They’ve exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, ICA London, and Whose Museum. They sing and teach drawing in Berlin, co-curate the Visual Verse Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/visualverseanthology/) and create the comic Everything is Somewhat Repaired, a phenomenal body of work and continual source of inspiration, humour and humanity for us this past year. Read it on Insta (https://www.instagram.com/everythingrepaired/) or, if you subscribe to their Patreon (http://patreon.com/tomorjudy) you can get it and other exclusive content straight to your inbox and you’ll be supporting a talented trans artist.

We are thrilled to launch with a brilliant line-up of LGBTQ+ writers as LGBTQ+ history month gets underway. With these four wonderful lead pieces, and our fabulous image prompt, we honour the historical struggles of LGBTQ+ people. And we also wish to celebrate the full capacity of human love and be reminded to keep our hearts and minds open to those who are most vulnerable in contemporary society.

First up, we welcome Elizabeth Chakrabarty, an interdisciplinary writer exploring themes of race and sexuality. Her debut novel Lessons in Love and Other Crimes will be published by The Indigo Press in April 2021, and is on pre-order here (https://www.theindigopress.com/lessons-in-love) . Her poems have been published here at Visual Verse (https://visualverse.org/writers/elizabeth-chakrabarty/) , and she co-wrote ‘The Fiction of the Essay: of Abstraction, Texts, Communication and Loss’, published in Imagined Spaces (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/imagined-spaces/9780995512344) . Under her full name, Namita Elizabeth Chakrabarty, she has been published in the area of Critical Race Theory (https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Race-Theory-in-England/Chakrabarty-Roberts-Preston/p/book/9780415713078) , her story Eurovision was short-listed for the Asian Writer Short Story Prize, and published in Dividing Lines (http://dahlia-books.kong365.com/en-gb/products/dividing-lines) , and recently her poems
were chosen for the new anthology The Kali Project: Invoking the Goddess Within/Indian Women’s Voices (https://www.bookdepository.com/Kali-Project-Candice-Louisa-Daquin/9781951724061?ref=grid-view&qid=1611168944417&sr=1-1&fbclid=IwAR1EasUA6Y5UOwiZ0767VbKsTEWhHFNsAzKEQZsHRbXLpr-WXpWSyzY1_5M) .

On page 2 we feature Sy Brand, a queer non-binary poet living in Edinburgh, Scotland. They write through the haze of cat-/child-induced sleep deprivation to try and make sense of gender, relationships, and ADHD. Their work has been published in Popshot Quarterly, Capsule Stories, and ZARF Poetry, among others, and you can find some of their ekphrastic writing in the Visual Verse archives (https://visualverse.org/writers/sy-brand/) . You can find them on Twitter @TartanLlama (https://twitter.com/TartanLlama) and their publications at https://sybrand.ink (https://sybrand.ink/) .

Page 3 welcomes Siobhán Carroll to Visual Verse. Siobhán is a writer and performer based in Edinburgh. They live in Leith with 2 cats and a growing number of books. They write poetry, prose and personal essays. You can follow them on Twitter at @siobhanclaude_ (https://twitter.com/siobhanclaude_) or visit their website (https://www.siobhanclaudevandamme.co.uk) .

Eleanor Capaldi (https://emcletters.wordpress.com/) is a writer, director and researcher based in Scotland. Her work has been published by Gutter Magazine, The Interpreter’s House, Mechanics’ Institute Review, the Skinned Knee Collective, and in anthologies, The Edwin Morgan Centenary Collection (Speculative Books), Reel to Rattling Reel (Cranachan Press), and Queering the Map of Glasgow (Knight Errant Press). Short film Glue screened in competition at SQIFF, Roze FilmDagen and QueerVision Film Festival, where it was nominated in the category ‘Best of British’.

You know the drill now writers, it’s over to you. What will you make of our two little pigs? As always, you have until the 15th to write 50-500 words, in one hour. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Kristen, Preti, Lucie, Luke and Isabel.

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Volume 07, Chapter 08 | June 2020

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Image from Getty Open Content Program

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Dear writers, readers and friends,

For most of us, life remains under some kind of lockdown and things feel pretty overwhelming. So, this month we have decided to focus on three good news items close to home.

Firstly, earlier this year our Deputy Editor, Lucie Stevens (http://www.luciestevens.com/) , won a residency at Varuna National Writer’s House (https://www.varuna.com.au/) in Australia. She was able to participate just before the lockdown came into force and now that she is back in Europe, Lucie has co-curated this month’s issue to highlight some of the finest voices of this prestigious residency programme. We are celebrating not just three great writers, but also Lucie who is a truly stellar writer (and VV editor) in her own right.

Our June writers are responding to a collage by an unknown artist, circa 1880, courtesy of Getty’s open content programme. This image was discovered by Judy Moore (https://twitter.com/ignatzhoch) , co-curator of our Daily Visual writing challenge on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/visualverseanthology/) . So our second good news item is that Judy has been releasing a brilliant weekly web-comic, Everything is Somewhat Repaired, which is a trans non-binary memoir. This has been the best thing in our inbox during the pandemic. You can get a pre-release of the comic by subscribing to their Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tomorjudy) page.

And finally, our state-side Editorial Assistant Luke Smith has accepted a place in the University of Montana’s Fiction MFA program and has been awarded a Truman Capote Scholarship. Luke has been an incredible asset to Visual Verse, volunteering several hours each month to publish your pieces. He will no doubt be a great asset to the MFA programme too and we can’t wait to read a book with his name on the cover.

Lucie, Judy and Luke, this issue is dedicated to you.

And now to our Veruna writers. On page one we feature Audrey Molloy (http://audreymolloy.com/) , an Irish poet based in Sydney. Her debut pamphlet, Satyress, was published in 2020 by Southword Editions. Her work has appeared in international publications including The North, Magma, Mslexia, The Moth and Meanjin. In 2019 she received the Hennessy Award for Emerging Poetry, the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and the An Post Irish Book Award for Irish Poem of the Year.

Vanessa O’Neill (https://www.bundanon.com.au/residents/vanessa-oneill/) is a playwright, performer and arts educator. She received a Fellowship from the University of Melbourne to write a play based upon the Germaine Greer Archive at the University. The play, The Greer Effect, has just been completed. It was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award and received the Eric Dark Fellowship for an outstanding work of non-fiction from Varuna National Writer’s House.

Lyn Yeowart (https://twitter.com/yeowartlyn?lang=en) is a Melbourne-based freelance writer, editor, manuscript assessor and mentor. Her debut novel, The Silent Listener, will be published by Penguin Random House Australia in February 2021. Set in the gothic heart of Australia, it explores themes of family secrets, revenge and the long-term ramifications of violence.

So, as June sees the midpoint of the year, what messages do you fancy sending us? You know the rules: write 50-500 words in response to our image and in the space of an hour, and send it to us by 15th June. We publish up to 100 of the best. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you…

Lucie, Preti, Kristen and Luke

Connect with us
@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse?lang=en)
@VarunaWriters (https://twitter.com/VarunaWriters)
@Audrey_Molloy (https://twitter.com/Audrey_Molloy)
@YeowartLyn (https://twitter.com/YeowartLyn)
@ONeillVanessa (https://twitter.com/ONeillVanessa)

Start Timer (https://vclock.com/timer/#countdown=01:00:00&enabled=0&seconds=3600&title=Visual+Verse%3A+One+image.+One+Hour.+50-500+Words.+)
Submit (https://visualverse.org/submit/)

** #DailyVisual
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Don’t forget you can join us every day on Instagram for a 15-minute, 5-50 word writing challenge.
Visit Visual Verse Anthology on Instagram now… (https://www.instagram.com/visualverseanthology/)

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