Volume 09, Chapter 02 | December 2021

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Image by Monica Silva
Dear writers, readers and friends,

Welcome to our final newsletter of 2021!

December marks the festive season for many people, and a time to reflect on the year that has passed. It’s been another year of wide-spread uncertainty, anxiety and social isolation – themes that have run through many of the submissions we’ve received. And as the pandemic flexes its muscles again, the opening of Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb seems apt, ‘where can we find light in this never-ending shade?’

We hope you will find some light here, dear writers.

When we offer our prompt on the first of each month, we hope to receive exciting new pieces that grab our attention and lodge themselves in our hearts. And we hope that, by publishing those pieces, we help share your voice with the world. But what we also aim to offer is a reason for you to carve out an hour for yourself, connect with your creativity and experience flow. Because that’s where joy, healing and self-actualisation can surface.

So, here’s our December gift to you, not a flying reindeer but a floating horse’s head. This image, entitled Horse with a Name, is the creation of Italian-based Brazilian photographer Monica Silva (https://www.msilva.photography/) , whose work explores the impact that existential and cultural daily life has on our psyches.

Opening our December issue is a piece by Anna Jacobson (http://www.annajacobson.com.au) that speaks of this impact too. Anna is a writer and artist from Brisbane, Australia. Amnesia Findings (https://www.uqp.com.au/books/amnesia-findings) (UQP, 2019), her first full-length poetry collection, won the 2018 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. In 2020, Anna won the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing (Open Creative Nonfiction), was awarded a Queensland Writers Fellowship, and was shortlisted in the Spark Prize.

Page 2 offers a powerfully visceral poem by Hannah Bent (http://www.hannahbent.com) . Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hannah completed her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Film from Central Saint Martins School of Art in London. She undertook further study in both directing and screenwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. She won the 2013 Ray Koppe Young Writers Award for her debut novel as a work in progress. Her debut novel When Things Are Alive They Hum (https://www.ultimopress.com.au/hum) was published this year and has been described by Trent Dalton as a ‘gift’ that has ‘changed the way I’ve been going about my days.’ The Australian reviewed her novel as ‘a wise, wondrous celebration of life.’

Our third piece, penned by Alastair Hesp (http://www.alastairhesp.co.uk) , explores what isn’t on view. Alastair is currently completing a Poetry MA at The Manchester Writing School. His work has been featured in anthologies and journals such as The Verve Poetry Press, Acid Bath Publishing, The French Literary Review and Broken Sleep Books. As a poet with bipolar disorder, he uses poetry to go beyond the language of condition. In addition to formal publications, his work includes interdisciplinary projects in live/improvised performances. He is currently in production on a poetic art installation and a dance performance in Copenhagen around a sequence poem, in collaboration with Kant Fabrik (https://www.instagram.com/kantfabrik/) .

Before you venture off on your own creative paths, take a dawn walk with Shehnaz Suterwalla (https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/staff/dr-shehnaz-suterwalla/) on page 4. Shehnaz is a writer, critic and curator who teaches at the Royal College of Art, London. Her forthcoming book, Two Friends (And Other Stories) is a double memoir that speculates into the future, co-authored with Michelle Jana Chan (https://linktr.ee/michellejanachan) , who was a lead in our November issue.

Remember, dear writers, if you need to gift yourself with more pockets of writing-induced joy, you can submit a micro-piece in response to our daily visual prompt (https://www.instagram.com/visualverseanthology/) on Instagram. But for now, we hope this noble steed will inspire you to craft 50-500 words, written within an hour. Submissions close midnight (UK time) on December 15th.

Wishing you all a safe and happy December.

The image is the starting point, the rest is up to you.

Lucie
with the VV team: Kristen, Preti, Isabel, Tam, Nahda, Jordan, Aimee and Anna.
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Volume 08, Chapter 03 | January 2021

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Image by Michael Easterling

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Dear writers, readers and friends,

Happy New Year to you all! This past year has made online communities more important than ever and seeing the Visual Verse writing community strengthen and thrive has been an inspiration. Thank you to all of you for supporting each other by reading, sharing and tweeting. It warms our hearts to see how generous and encouraging you are. Though we can’t be sure what 2021 will hold, we’re honoured that we can provide a space where you can be creative, experiment and express yourself. We’ll be here for you in 2021, no matter what.

We’re beginning this year with a pop of colour courtesy of Michael Easterling. And, a special treat – four wonderful writers from Mirrabooka Writers (https://mirrabookawriters.com/) , a new online writing school founded by VV’s Deputy Editor, Lucie Stevens. Lucie moved back to Australia mid-2020 and she has continued to be an invaluable member of the Visual Verse team while also starting up this new venture. From mid-January, Mirrabooka Writers will offer workshops for novelists, memoirists, children’s and YA writers, poets and beginner writers across all fiction genres. It also has a special creativity workshop to help you become happier and more productive in your writing life. Lucie has kindly offered the VV community a 10% discount on all upcoming courses. Enter the discount code VV121 at the checkout when you enrol. It goes without saying that we cannot recommend this, or Lucie, enough!

Each of our lead writers will be teaching at Mirrabooka Writers in the months ahead and span different genres. On page one, we have a touching story of love and loss by Christine Piper (http://www.christinepiper.com/) . Christine is an Australian writer, editor and teacher. Her debut novel, After Darkness (Allen & Unwin, 2014) won the 2014 The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award. It is now being studied by Year 12 students in the state of Victoria. She also won the 2014 Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay and the 2014 Guy Morrison Award for literary journalism. Her short stories have been published in several anthologies and journals.

On page two, poet Toby Fitch unpicks some of the anxieties and fears our new year brings. Toby is poetry editor of Overland and a sessional academic in creative writing at the University of Sydney. His most recent book of poems is Where Only the Sky had Hung Before (https://vagabondpress.net/products/toby-fitch-where-only-the-sky-had-hung-before) while his next, Sydney Spleen, is forthcoming with Giramondo in 2021. He lives in Sydney on unceded Gadigal land.

Page three features a tale of reflection by Ashley Kalagian Blunt (http://ashleykalagianblunt.com) , author of the memoir How to Be Australian. Her first book, My Name Is Revenge, was shortlisted for the 2019 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards and the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award. Her writing appears in Griffith Review, Sydney Review of Books, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more, and she co-hosts James and Ashley Stay at Home (https://jamesandashley.libsyn.com/) , a podcast about writing, creativity and health.

On page four, Term 2 tutor Emily Paull (http://www.emilypaull.com) explores something many of us have become familiar with in 2020 – inaction. Emily is a former bookseller and a future librarian from Perth, Western Australia. Her stories have appeared in Westerly and several of the Margaret River Press anthologies, and she is the author of the short story collection Well-Behaved Women, published 2019. When she’s not writing short stories and historical fiction, she can often be found with her nose in a book.

And so, dear writers, it’s your turn now. What will you make of the first image in our new year? 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.

Wishing you all a safe and happy new year,

Kristen, Preti, Lucie and Luke.

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