Volume 09, Chapter 11 | September 2022

Posted on by

Image by Omar Musa

Dear writers, readers and friends,

Dreams do come true, people. I have wanted – for so long – to present the work of Omar Musa (http://www.omarmusa.com.au) here on Visual Verse. Omar is a Bornean-Australian author, visual artist and poet from Queanbeyan, Australia. He embodies the power of courageous art, producing hip hop, spoken word, poetry and (as you see here) magnificent woodcuts. His latest book Killernova (https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/omar-musa-killernova) , published in the UK by Broken Sleep Books (https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/) , is a masterful coupling of art and words, woven together with strands of Bornean mythology, ancestry, trade routes, history, identity, connection and so much more. ‘Tis a joy to proffer Omar’s piece “A Leopard Made of Midnight Clouds” and invite you to respond with your words. Before you pick up your pens, take a moment to read and enjoy the brilliance of our featured writers this month.

On page 1, we present Zaynab Bobi, Frontier I (https://twitter.com/ZainabBobi) , a Nigerian poet, digital artist and photographer from Bobi. Zaynab has graced us with a most beautiful diptych – don’t miss page 2. Zaynab is a member of Hilltop Creative Art Abuja, and a Medical Laboratory Science student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. Her poems are published and forthcoming in Strange Horizons, FIYAH, Asterlit (https://www.asterlit.org/summer2022/zaynab-bobi) , Anomaly, West Trade Review, Isele Magazine (https://iselemagazine.com/2022/04/30/self-portrait-of-grief-as-fire-zaynab-bobi/) , Salamander Ink (https://salamanderink.com/contour-salamander-ink-mag/poetry/) and elsewhere.

Ashish Kumar Singh (http://@Ashish_stJude) (he/him) is a queer poet from India with a Master’s degree in English Literature. Previously, his works have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Chestnut Review, 14poems, Bombay Literary Review, Mason Jar Press, Banshee, Tab Journal and elsewhere. He also serves as a poetry editor at Indigo Literary Review. Find him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Ashish_stJude) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ashish_the_reader/) .

Also writing from India is Sahana Mira Sambandam (https://twitter.com/SahanaMira) , a writer and art journal enthusiast from Chennai. Her works have been previously published at The New Indian Express, Live Wire, Remington Review and Verse of Silence. When she is not writing, she mostly spends time strolling through the bookstores, making journal spreads and obsessing over bougainvillea arches. Her Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sahanamira/?hl=en) is a thing to behold.

Courtenay Schembri Gray, a newcomer to Visual Verse, is a writer from the North of England. She takes pleasure in writing about the weird and the eerie. Find her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/courtenaywrites) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/courtenaywrites/) as @courtenaywrites and check out her blog www.courtenayscorner.com (http://www.courtenayscorner.com/) .

James Gale (https://jamesdjg.wordpress.com/) is a writer and journalist based in Glasgow, Scotland. He graduated with Distinction in (MLitt) Creative Writing from University of Glasgow, and has been published in newspapers including The Guardian & The Sunday Times, and creative titles such as Osmosis & SPAM. He is currently working on his first book and you can find him over on Twitter (https://twitter.com/jamesgale_) .

So there you have it, dear writers: a big, beautiful issue of Visual Verse to carry you through September. Let us see where the leopard takes you.

As always, for a chance to be published, you can submit 50-500 words, written in one hour, in response to the image. Submissions must be received by midnight, 15th September, UK time.

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

Kristen
with Preti, Lucie, Isabel and the VV Team

Follow us on Twitter
@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)

Volume 09, Chapter 01 | November 2021

Posted on by

Image by Frederick Cayley Robinson

Home


Dear writers, readers and friends,

November has arrived and that means something extra special to us – it’s our birthday!

Happy eighth birthday to every member of the Visual Verse community! Whether you’ve been part of our tribe for some time now, or have just recently entered the fold, we want to thank each one of you for making VV what it is: dynamic, diverse, celebratory and inspirational. Together, this is what we’ve achieved:
* We’ve published 96 issues since 2013 – this month’s issue will be our 97^th.
* Almost 9000 pieces have been published to date – that’s somewhere between 450,000 and 4,500,000 words – the equivalent of around 50 novels!
* These pieces have been written by more than 350 lead writers and 3500 contributors. We’re proud to have created a space that fosters the development of fledging writers, while promoting the work of seasoned scribes and supporting everyone in-between.

All these figures bring one word to mind – collaboration. VV wouldn’t be possible without the artists whose work sparks our imaginations each month; the leads whose pieces open the channels of inspiration; the team of publishers, editors and curators working behind the scenes; and you, our beloved writing community. Even after all these years, your work still excites us, makes us reflect, shares with us a new point of view. We’re grateful for every piece of work we receive and the window it offers us into your hearts and minds. In return, we hope that each month, we foster your creativity and provide you with connection and community.

In the spirit of collaboration, all our November leads work closely with a creative partner, to develop innovative new work and support craft development in others. Our fabulous quintet of leads was inspired by an autumnally hued image by English painter, illustrator and decorator Frederick Cayley Robinson (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frederick-cayley-robinson-1857) . We love the sense of narrative it evokes, as though it’s a still-shot from an unfolding moment.

Opening this issue is a piece exploring what we choose to hear – and ignore – by Emily Cataneo (http://www.emilycataneo.com/) . Emily is a writer and journalist from New England. Her fiction has appeared in publications such as Indiana Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Lightspeed, and her nonfiction in venues The Guardian, the Boston Globe, Slate, NPR, Atlas Obscura, and more. She is co-founder of the Redbud Writing Project (https://www.redbudwriting.org/) with fellow North Carolina State University MFA graduate, Arshia Simkin. Redbud is a creative writing organisation that teaches workshops across many genres, both online and in community spaces in North Carolina’s Triangle.

Our second and third pieces contrast with each other beautifully, in style and tone. These pieces have been penned by Onjuli Datta and Mikaella Clements – co-authors of The View Was Exhausting (https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/mikaella-clements/the-view-was-exhausting/9781472271730/) , a modern love story about power, fame and privilege. This creative duo is married and live together in Berlin. You can find them both on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mikandonj/) , or Mikaella on Twitter (https://twitter.com/mikclements) .

Page 4’s piece is the perfect accompaniment to your bucketful of Halloween sweets. Its author is Redbud Writing Project (https://www.redbudwriting.org/) co-founder, Arshia Simkin (https://www.arshiasimkin.com/) . Arshia was born in Pakistan and spent the first six years of her life there. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia and currently lives in Raleigh with her husband. A former lawyer, Arshia’s writing has appeared in Crazyhorse. She was one of three winners of the 2020 CRAFT Flash Fiction contest, and received honourable mention in NC State’s James Hurt Prize for fiction.

Our final lead piece for November is a beautiful reflection on shifting relationships with shadow, written by Michelle Jana Chan (http://www.michellejanachan.com/) . Michelle is travel editor of Vanity Fair; her TEDx (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2ZnosgO8XA) is “Hitchhiking, galaxies, and why travel is not bad for the planet”. Her debut novel Song (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Michelle-Jana-Chan/dp/1783525479/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=) (Unbound) was described by Bernardine Evaristo as ‘a wonderfully lush and atmospheric odyssey of survival against all odds’; Elif Shafak called it: ‘Precise, heartfelt, breathtaking’. Her upcoming book, Two Friends (And Other Stories) is a double memoir which speculates into the future, co-authored with Shehnaz Suterwalla. She is launching a literary/travel podcast The Wandering Book Collector in December.

And so, dear writers, now it’s over to you. We can’t wait to receive your electronic birthday parcels, filled with fresh, innovative, experimental writing between 50-500 words, in response to this image and written within an hour. Challenge yourself. Push your boundaries. Go beyond the literal. Surprise us and, most of all, surprise yourself. Submissions close midnight (UK time) on November 15th.

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.
Follow us

@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)
@EmilyCataneo (https://twitter.com/EmilyCataneo)
@mikclements (https://twitter.com/mikclements)
@ferranteshatpin (https://www.instagram.com/ferranteshatpin/)
@michellejchan (https://twitter.com/michellejchan)
@redbudwriting (https://twitter.com/redbudwriting)

Volume 07, Chapter 03 | January 2020

Posted on by

Image by Charles Dana Gibson / British Library

Home

Dear writers, readers and friends,

Welcome to 2020. We made it! Today is simultaneously the end of an era and a new beginning and it feels like the perfect time to reflect on some of the amazing achievements of Visual Verse and of our writer community.

Visual Verse, first published in November 2013, is now in its seventh volume. We have published over 6700 pieces of original writing in 75 monthly issues. We have featured established writers like Ali Smith, Niven Govinden and Chika Unigwe; exciting contemporary voices including Amrou Al-Khadi, Irenosen Okojie, Paul Ewen, Eley Williams, Carmen Marcus and Enda Walsh and up-and-coming writers like Nisha Ramayya, Elieen McNulty Holmes, Ashley Hickson-Lovence and Sarvat Hasin whose work deserves to be read. We have also featured writers like Rishi Dastidar, Susanna Crossman and Angela Young, who are among a stable of Visual Verse contributors consistently producing work we hugely admire. Alongside our leads we have published you: more than 2500 individual writers from every corner of the globe. Thanks to you, Visual Verse is truly a living, breathing literary organism.

We are equally proud of our curatorial record, with 75 carefully selected image prompts from individual artists like Daniel Frost, Penny Byrne, Marc Schlossman, Hernan Bas and Hannah Coulson; world-class galleries and organisations like NASA, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Bodleian Libraries and M Leuven and partners like Creative Review who published a selection of Visual Verse writers in print. Visual Verse continues to thrive thanks to the energy, creativity and generosity of our writers, readers, artists and partners. Thank you all for an incredible few years.

So let’s begin the year with a visual prompt so bold that it sets the tone for owning 2020. The image is by Charles Dana Gibson courtesy of the British Library archive.

To inspire you even more, we have three powerful lead writers all breaking new ground with their cross-genre work. We are inordinately proud and excited to start the year with a piece by Mary Jean Chan (http://www.maryjeanchan.com/) , a London-based poet, editor and critic from Hong Kong. She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Oxford Brookes University and current guest co-editor of The Poetry Review for Spring 2020. In 2019, Mary Jean was named as one of Jackie Kay’s 10 Best BAME writers in the UK as a part of the British Council’s and the National Centre for Writing’s International Literature Showcase. She came Second in the 2017 National Poetry Competition and has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem twice. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 2019 and won the Poetry Society’s Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2018. Her debut collection, Flèche, is published by Faber & Faber and is currently shortlisted for the 2019 Costa Poetry Award. Fingers crossed she wins!

On page two, it’s an honour to publish Noo Saro-Wiwa (https://www.noosarowiwa.com) who was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England. Her first book, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria was named The Sunday Times Travel Book of the Year, 2012, and selected as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. It has been translated into French and Italian, and in 2016 it won the Albatros Literature Prize in Italy. Noo has also written book reviews, travel, opinion and analysis articles for The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Prospect magazine, New York Times and City AM, among others.

And, we gave our final page to a writer we have published regularly over our 6 years and three months in the game! With only 48 hours notice, our page 3 lead is by Anglo-French fiction writer and essayist, Susanna Crossman (https://susanna-crossman.squarespace.com/) . She is the winner of the 2019 LoveReading Very Short Story Award and has recent/upcoming work in Neue Rundschau, (2019) S. Fischer (translated into German) alongside John Berger and Anne Carson, We’ll Never Have Paris, Repeater Books (2019), Trauma, Dodo Ink (2020), Berfrois, The Creative Review, 3:AM Journal, The Lonely Crowd, Litro and more… She was nominated for Best of The Net (2018) for her non-fiction essays, her fiction has been short-listed for awards such as the Bristol Prize and Glimmertrain. Susanna just completed her debut novel, Dark Island and is represented by Craig Literary, NY. When she’s not writing, she works internationally as a clinical arts-therapist and lecturer.

What more could you ask for? Now that the holiday season is coming to an end, it’s time to sharpen your pencils, dear writers… The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Happy New Year!

Preti, Kristen, Lucie and Luke

Connect with us
@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse?lang=en)
@maryjean_chan (https://twitter.com/maryjean_chan)
@noosarowiwa (https://twitter.com/noosarowiwa)
@crossmansusanna (https://twitter.com/crossmansusanna)

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/)

Home


mailto:visualverse@thecurvedhouse.com
https://www.facebook.com/visualverseanthology