Volume 08, Chapter 01 | November 2020

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Image by John Samuel Pughe / Library of Congress

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Dear writers, readers and friends,

Our November issue begins a whole new volume and marks our 7th birthday. Lots to celebrate!

After such a reflective year we are starting to understand just how significant this publication is. Every month for the past seven years, you have written fresh new pieces that reflect exactly what was going on in the world at that very moment. This makes Visual Verse a unique living document of our times. As a literary archive it is as diverse in its styles and themes as it is in its writers. And it is a true collaboration. We have done this together – us and you – and we are so thankful for all of your contributions and support over the years. We are also constantly in awe of the way you support and amplify each other. Our Twitter world is a happy one and that is thanks to you creating a safe and positive space for eachother’s creative output and wellbeing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Without further ado, let’s get stuck into the November birthday edition. Alongside a spectacularly hectic image by 19th century cartoonist John Samuel Pughe (courtesy of the Library of Congress) we feature three brilliant writers who have never before been published by Visual Verse.

First up is Stu Hennigan, with a poem that feels pretty darn accurate for 2020. Stu is a writer, poet and musician living and working in the north of England. His work has featured in Lune (https://lunejournal.org/) and is forthcoming in the short story anthology The Middle Of A Sentence (http://thecommonbreath.com/onlineshop.html) , published by The Common Breath (http://thecommonbreath.com/) . He’s currently working on a narrative non-fiction work about the extreme poverty he encountered whilst delivering food parcels during the pandemic.

On page 2 we present US writer Lindsay Parnell (https://twitter.com/LMParnell) , whose debut novel Dogwood is out with Linen Press (https://www.linen-press.com/shop/dogwood/) . Her short fiction has appeared in 3AM Magazine, The Honest Ulsterman, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Underground Voices and others. Currently she is working on a short story collection titled Birds with Broken Necks. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Meryl Streep is her president.

And from her home in Singapore, we welcome Damyanti Biswas, whose short fiction has been published, or is forthcoming, in Ambit, Litro, Puerto Del Sol, Griffith Review Australia and Pembroke Magazine among others. Damyanti serves as one of the editors of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her debut novel You Beneath Your Skin (http://mybook.to/YouBeneathYourSkin) was published by Simon & Schuster India in autumn 2019 and has received rave reviews. You can sign up to herwriting tips gazette (https://us12.campaign-archive.com/?u=2a3ccb7a141fae0477c5dbef4&id=d4e577d951&fbclid=IwAR3DiiAjUqyrX2ddcPo9UF0_hrNul_KLCDwvZHgpS8l2QBTRnJz428DRy5g) and follow her tweets atdamyantig (https://twitter.com/damyantig) .

So, you know the score. Submit your own piece by 15th November for a chance to be published in our birthday issue. Submissions must be original/new work between 50-500 words, written specifically in response to the image and within an hour. Please check our submission guidelines (https://visualverse.org/about-visual-verse/) for more info about the kinds of things we will not publish.

And remember, as we approach the holiday season, if you are gifting books please consider buying direct from small presses like Linen Press and The Common Breath (links above) or from Indie retailers and your local bookshops. Small businesses need our support more than ever.

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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY US!

Preti, Kristen, Lucie and Luke

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Volume 03, Chapter 11 | September 2016

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Image by Bruce Connew

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

So cries Richard III in Shakespeare’s play. This month, then, we bring you a horse, and expect a kingdom of writing in return. Our image is taken from Body of Work (http://www.bruceconnew.com/projects/body-of-work) , an incredible series (and limited edition book (http://www.bruceconnew.com/books/body-of-work) ) by New Zealand photographer Bruce Connew. The series stirs many questions and anxieties about how we humans interfere with, and manipulate, nature. This particular image is both vulnerable and defiant. We are on tenterhooks as we await your own interpretations, dear writers.

Our first piece this month comes from a writer who has known battle. Harry Parker (http://twitter.com/harrybparker) grew up in Wiltshire. He was educated at Falmouth College of Art and University College London. He joined the British Army when he was 23 and served in Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2009 as a Captain. He is now a writer and artist and lives in London. His debut novel, Anatomy of a Soldier was published by Faber and Faber in 2016 and is on the shortlist of this year’s Gordon Burn Prize (http://gordonburnprize.com/shortlist/harry-parker/) .

Next we have work by the brilliant Erik Kennedy, whose poems have appeared in (or are forthcoming in) places like 3:AM Magazine, The Literateur, and Oxford Poetry in the UK, Ladowich, Prelude, and PUBLIC POOL in the US, and Landfall and Sport in New Zealand. He is the poetry editor for Queen Mob’s Teahouse. He lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, but you can find him on twitter @thetearooms (http://www.twitter.com/thetearooms) . He’s gone one further than the usual, and incorporated our rules into his own. The poem we’re publishing is now also one of a series called Factitions. Each poem must 1) involve a statistic or figure, 2) mention a proper-noun place, and 3) reflect on mortality in some way. Meta!

On page three we bring new writing by Rachel Long (http://www.writesrachell.com) who was shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate for London in 2014. Her poems have featured in Magma, The Honest Ulsterman, and The London Magazine. She is alumni of the Jerwood/Arvon Mentorship scheme 2015-16, where she was mentored for one year by Caroline Bird. She is Assistant Tutor on the Barbican Young Poets_x005F programme, and leads Octavia, poetry collective of Women of Colour at Southbank Centre._x005F _x005F Find her on Twitter at @rachelnalong (https://twitter.com/rachelnalong) .

Last, but no means least, artist and writer Fiona Mason (http://www.twitter.com/fi_mason) . Fiona writes poetry and prose and is currently working on a memoir that explores memory and grief through an account of a last day. She divides her time between the mountains of Andalusia and the wide open spaces of North Essex.

So dear writers, as summer in the Northern Hemisphere gives way to Autumn and the reverse happens the South, we ask you to look, read, enjoy, and then submit your own writing. Don’t forget, we ask for 50-500 words – anything shorter or longer will not be considered.

Charge forth: the image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Kristen and Preti

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