Image by Werner Stürenburg
Dear Writers,
Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about personas and the power they have to liberate. Sometimes personas mask a terrifying reality (Donald Trump, Jimmy Saville etc) but sometimes they unmask amazing talent. For artists and writers an alter-ego, or a nom d’plume, can be the single most effective way to draw out new ideas, new thinking and new potential. This month’s image prompt is by the German painter, Werner Stürenburg, who signed his paintings with “Joe”, his nickname. Stürenburg trained as a mathematician and says he never intended to be an artist, but he couldn’t help it: “I didn’t like that. But I had to realize that there is no escape from myself.” We can’t help but wonder how many talented Joes are hiding away inside ordinary people. If you know someone who’s hiding a Joe, ask them to try their hand at writing for us this month – pen names welcome.
Speaking of talented Joes: we are beyond thrilled to lead with a piece from Wyl Menmuir (https://twitter.com/wylmenmuir) , whose bestselling debut novel, The Many (Salt Publishing) was long-listed for this year’s Man Booker Prize. We had our money on him! Wyl has also been published in A Space to Write, a book exploring authors’ creative writing practices, in nature and academic journals, and he writes regularly for a range of national magazines and blogs. He lives in Cornwall, lectures in creative writing and is also currently writer in residence at Richard Lander School in Truro.
Phoebe Tsang (http://www.TarotbyPhoebe.com) is a British-Canadian poet, librettist, short story writer and violinist. The author of Contents of a Mermaid’s Purse (Tightrope Books), Phoebe’s poetry and fiction has been published internationally in numerous journals and anthologies such as the Literary Review of Canada, Asia Literary Review and Room Magazine, and anthologies including Desde Hong Kong (Chameleon Press, Hong Kong), I Found It At The Movies (Guernica Editions), MESS: The Hospital Anthology (Tightrope Books). Her multidisciplinary performance practice integrates composed and improvised music with original poetry. A professional Tarot Consultant, Tsang employs the ancient, divinatory system of the Marseille Tarot to structure her performances, much as John Cage employed the I Ching. The resulting work is a product of chance – each performance differs in form and content, depending on the cards drawn. A former member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, she lives in
Toronto, Canada.
Another writer we are delighted to bring you is Cat Woodward (https://twitter.com/CatherineWoodw2) , a feminist lyric poet studying for a PhD at UEA. Her poetry has been published in Lighthouse, Brittle Star, The Interpreter’s House and Ink, Sweat & Tears, and her PhD thesis explores robot voices and the robot as lyric poetics. We think her work is out of this world.
Finally, check out this wonderful piece from R.A Villaneuva (https://twitter.com/caesura) whose debut collection, Reliquaria (U. Nebraska Press, 2014), won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize. New writing appears in Poetry, Guernica, Prac Crit and The Forward Book of Poetry 2017, The American Poetry Review, and widely elsewhere. A founding editor of Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art (http://tonguejournal.org) , he lives in Brooklyn and London.
So writers, it’s over to you and/or your alter-egos. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.
Enjoy!
Preti and Kristen
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