Volume 10, Chapter 05 | March 2023

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Image by Adriaen van Utrecht/Rijksmuseum
Dear writers, readers and friends,

As you well know, our modus operandi at Visual Verse is to run a continual cycle of commissioning and publishing in order to reflect what’s happening in the world. Over the past decade your writing, imbued in our unique journal, has reflected many of the key moments in modern history: Trump’s rise, climate action, natural disasters, wars, global anti-racism activism, #metoo and now… the rise of AI.

So of course, we had to feature the most prolific up-and-coming writer of the moment – none other than ChatGPT (https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt) . The headlines would have us believe that this viral AI bot has writing skills so sophisticated we’ll all be obsolete tomorrow. We needed to see for ourselves.

I experimented with the bot over several days, using multiple images and dozens of commands. The results ranged from irrelevant (“Are you writing to the image I gave you? That description doesn’t sounds like it.”) to Hallmark greeting card (So let us not strive for perfection alone, But embrace the flaws that make us our own) and it seems to be very keen on rhyme (“write a poem between 50-500 words in response to X image” “Write it again but as a non-rhyming poem” “you’re still using rhyme, please rewrite again but with NO RHYMING” “why are you still rhyming, do you know what rhyming is?” and so on…). Finally, at 11pm on March 1st (Melbourne time) I got a poem that didn’t rhyme. As you can see from page 1, the final command “Please rewrite in the style of Samuel Beckett” produced a sub-par poem in the name of a legend for which I’m sure he is turning in his grave.

There are four things I’ve learned from working with ChatGPT:

There is craft in the command. For better or worse, getting a poem out of AI is a collaborative process and it forced me to think differently. It is not easy to yield a good poem, and it is clear we are still the ultimate authors of this technology, at least for poetry.

AI can write a poem but it can’t replace the poet. It can’t turn up to a meeting with a publisher and secure a book deal. It can’t sit in a low-lit pub reading poems to a captive audience. It can’t bring the humanity suffused in art. It can’t exist off-line. We can.

There is more to us than we know. We know relatively little about the human brain, so perhaps the proliferation of AI will force us creatives to go deeper into our own intelligence. Our unconscious minds are full of wonder and surprise – as our ekphrastic challenge shows each month – and I feel somewhat hopeful that writers, artists and the entrepreneurial minds will find their way to discovering more of their potential, not less.

If ever there is a time to put your work into the world it is now. AI feeds off the words, ideas and content that we – the humans – have put out there. Our talents and knowledge as artists and writers needs to be present and vocal during this transition. Our voices as a diverse and inclusive community need to be louder than ever. ChatGPT is riddled with stereotypes (as a crude example, try asking it to produce a poem that appeals to men, then a poem that appeals to women, and you’ll see what I mean) and we need to be speaking up and publishing more to ensure our DNA goes into the new life forming around AI.

As a publication, we have not yet formed an opinion about AI. We are watching, reading and talking as the topic unfolds. Personally, I am cautiously curious and this lead piece is presented not as an endorsement but as a call to action. Let’s us write more, better and louder.

It’s over to you, dear humans. We offer you a rich and wondrous still life dating back to 1631 by Adriaen van Utrecht (courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and look forward to receiving your responses. It’s OK if they rhyme, by the way, just not every line please. That’s a command.

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

Kristen
with Preti, Isabel, Lucie, Ashish, Zaynab and Wes White

Volume 10, Chapter 04 | February 2023

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Image by Olga Naida
Dear writers, readers and friends,

For us artists, the month of February is often about seeking and exploring new pathways toward creativity, so we are inviting you to push yourself beyond your comfort zone with our latest prompt. Those on Twitter will have seen our posts inviting writers to transcend the first interpretation of our images and seek out deeper connections. The late Pau Casals i Defilló (Pablo Casals), a leading cellist from the early 20th century, said “the art of interpretation is not to play what is written”. This is easily transposed to ekphrastic writing. The art of ekphrasis is not to write what can be seen.

So when you are responding to our prompt we encourage you to stick strictly to the timeframe and think laterally. Or better yet, don’t think at all! Our challenge, especially the strict time frame, is about helping you reach a state of automatism to allow unexpected ideas to emerge. Many of you will already do automatic writing or morning pages and these, too, are designed to get your mind producing thoughts without thinking. If you need inspiration, Khan Academy have a great article on automatism (https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/dada-and-surrealism/xdc974a79:surrealism/a/surrealist-techniques-automatism) and lots of companion resources on surrealism.

Our fantastic lead pieces are also a source of inspiration. Working in response to an image by Olga Naida (pure quirkiness) two talented writers have produced perfectly formed pieces that demonstrate the power in evoking an image rather than describing it.

On page one, we feature Nasia Sarwar-Skuse (https://twitter.com/NSarwarSkuse) , a Ph.D. candidate in Creative Writing at Swansea University. Nasia is co-editing Gathering (https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/404-ink-lands-collection-of-nature-writing-by-women-of-colour) , an essay anthology on nature, climate and landscape by women of colour (forthcoming 2024 with 404 Ink (https://twitter.com/404Ink) ).

And on page two we highlight the work of writer, editor and translator Marie Isabel Matthews-Schlinzig (https://twitter.com/whatisaletter) , a regular contributor to Visual Verse. Marie Isabel’s debut poetry pamphlet Kinscapes (https://hybriddreich.co.uk/kinscapes-marie-isabel-matthews-schlinzig/) is out now with Dreich. Miraculously, she wrote her lead piece for us just days before her new child came into this world (congratulations!) and somehow it feels like these deeply moving words needed to be written, as if to sweep the path for the new babe.

We are in awe of our amazing writers this month and are energised by their beautiful pieces. And now, without further ado, we pass the baton…

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

Kristen
with Preti, Isabel, Lucie, Ashish, Zaynab and Wes White

Volume 10, Chapter 03 | January 2023

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Image by an Unknown Artist, circa 1560
Dear writers, readers and friends,

Thank you for your patience while we take some time to update the website. We have started 2023 with a big spring clean, making our digital home ready for more of your wonderful words. It feels good. And it reminds me that a good clean should not be underestimated in the pursuit of creative flow. The outcome is not important (ie. a spotless house or tidy workspace); what is important is the activity itself. The repetitive, meditative action of cleaning releases the creative brain to do it’s thing, a bit like going for a long walk. And, like walking, cleaning is an act of self-care, preparing us to work with a valued mindset. I’m not making this up, people have researched it, so go and clean your bathroom while you ponder our quirky January prompt.

This latest image is taken from a manuscript dating back to around 1560-1570 and comes to us courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program. I am a huge fan of antiquarian book illustrations and what I love about this one is that it is not complete. Without the page before, or indeed the whole book, we cannot know the full story and that, of course, is where you come in…

To lead the way, we are excited to debut Tan Kelly on page 1, an Australian “writer-in-progress” who left the corporate sector in 2022 to focus on her own writing. Tan is currently traveling the east coast of Australia and has adopted a Luddite Club (https://dnyuz.com/2022/12/15/luddite-teens-dont-want-your-likes/) lifestyle (ie. no socials!) while she works on her first short story collection.

On page 2 we feature Irish poet, academic, and journalist, Oisín Breen (https://twitter.com/Breen) , a Best of the Net Nominee whose work has been published extensively in over 20 countries, including in About Place, Door is a Jar, Northern Gravy, North Dakota Quarterly, Books Ireland, The Tahoma Literary Review, La Piccioletta Barca, Decomp, New Critique, and Reservoir Road. Oisín’s second collection, Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín (https://beirbuapress.com/2023/01/01/lilies-on-the-deathbed-of-etain-and-other-poems-by-oisin-breen/) has just been released by Beir Bua Press (https://beirbuapress.com/) .

On page 3, we have a playful homage to Shakespeare by Visual Verse regular, Zach Urquhart (https://twitter.com/zurquhart) . Zach is a K-12 educator who recently earned his PhD from Texas Tech University. He has been writing poetry as a personal release for decades, and as of late has been using it in research efforts. After writing an arts-based dissertation full of poetic self-inquiry, he dubbed himself a “poethnographer”, coining a new term that many a VV writer can probably relate to.

And on page 4, we have Joan Leotta, a writer who plays with words on page and stage. She performs stories of food, family, and strong women. Her work is widely published and her latest poetry chapbook, Feathers on Stone, is available at Main Street Rag (https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/feathers-on-stone-joan-leotta/) in the US.

So there we have it, kicking off 2023 with an eclectic mix of words and styles. May it continue and may you find your flow throughout the year to come.

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

Kristen
with Preti, Isabel, Lucie, Ashish, Zaynab and Wes

Volume 10, Chapter 01 | November 2022

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Image by Kitty Harrison
Today we celebrate nine years of innovative, diverse, brave and wonderful writing.
Happy birthday to all writers, readers and friends of Visual Verse.
Visual Verse is nine years old today! Kristen and I, with designer Pete Lewis, launched the site on 1st November 2013 and since then (through country moves, career changes, successes, knock-backs, crises, euphoria, births, deaths, and trips to London, Newcastle, and Berlin) we have rolled with a team of guest editors and star volunteers to bring you our monthly anthology of art and words. We have not missed a single issue in nine years and have published over 10,000 pieces – an incredible achievement. Visual Verse is not for profit, run by volunteers and our contributors do it for love of the process; to inspire you, delight you and to keep the love going of wild adventures in writing. Over nine years, the worldwide Visual Verse community has grown from around 50 submissions a month to 200, with a newsletter subscription list that runs into thousands from every continent in the world.

Thank you, readers, writers, volunteers and all our supporters: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Not many of you might know this, but co-founder Kristen “Kitty” Harrison (https://twitter.com/CurvedHouse/) is herself an artist, as well as being a writer, publisher and producer at The Curved House (https://thecurvedhouse.com) , an independent publisher working at the intersection of books, art and education. I am thrilled to debut her work on Visual Verse this month, with a piece called ‘Letter Home’. Kristen recently relocated back from Berlin to be nearer to her family in Australia and that’s what has inspired this month’s birthday image. It’s the first time she’s sharing her art with us, and we love to see it.

I stepped back from regularly curating the site about a year ago, as it’s been a big year for me. Over the last two years I’ve been busy writing my second book, Aftermath and it was published in early 2022; just last month I was astonished to find it had won the UK’s Gordon Burn Prize (https://newwritingnorth.com/gordon-burn-prize/ ) . I am thrilled to return to curate our birthday issue and very proud to welcome back the profoundly important words of Sandeep Parmar (https://twitter.com/SandeepKParmar/) to lead. Sandeep first wrote for Visual Verse as lead in Vol.1 Issue 2 (December 2013): that early poem now appears in her latest collection F (https://www.shearsman.com/store/Sandeep-Parmar-Faust-p470007726) aust (https://www.shearsman.com/store/Sandeep-Parmar-Faust-p470007726) , published by Shearsman this month.

Sandeep is Professor of English Literature at Liverpool University. Her research is primarily in modernist women’s writing and contemporary poetry and race. Her groundbreaking article ‘Still Not a British Subject: Race and UK Poetry (https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/not-a-british-subject-race-and-poetry-in-the-uk/) ’ was published in The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other essays and reviews have appeared in the Guardian, The New Statesman, the Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement. In 2017, she co-founded the Ledbury Poetry Critics (https://twitter.com/LedburyCritics/) scheme for poetry reviewers of colour. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Sandeep’s books include Reading Mina Loy’s Autobiographies: Myth of the Modern Woman, scholarly editions for Carcanet Press of the Collected Poems of Hope Mirrlees and The Collected Poems of Nancy Cunard, and Threads with Bhanu Kapil and Nisha Ramayya, as well as three books
of her own poetry: The Marble Orchard, Eidolon, winner of the Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection, and Faust (Shearsman, 2022).

We are also really excited this month to collaborate with the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize (https://www.wasafiri.org/new-writing-prize/) , which I co-judged this year. The Prize, run by Wasafiri (https://www.wasafiri.org/) magazine, supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background, and rewards work in three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Life Writing. The three winners join us this month…

Hasti Crowther (https://twitter.com/youarehasti/) is a poet and writer living in South East London. A member of the Southbank New Poets Collective and the Ledbury Poetry Critics, they are the recipient of the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry, and have recently published poems in bathmagg, zindabad, and The Willowherb Review. They have also co-written short sci-fi film Digging (https://www.channel4.com/programmes/film4-foresight-shorts/on-demand/70987-001) , produced by Film4. Hasti has created shows for Montez Press Radio and also hosts monthly open mic and poetry night Fresh Lip.

Sylee Gore (https://twitter.com/BerlinReified) is an Indian American writer based between Berlin and Oxford. She received the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in Fiction (UK), the 2022 Bird in Your Hands Prize (US), and a 2021 VG Wort Neustart Kultur fellowship (DE). In 2022/23, she co-heads a literary partnership between Kelly Writers House, Philadelphia, and Rothermere American Institute, Oxford.

Nadine Monem (she/her) works in hybrid forms of non-fiction, memoir and theory. Her work has been supported by the Tin House Summer Workshop and the Catapult Books memoir workshop for writers of colour. She is the winner of the 2022 Wasafiri New Writing Prize for life writing, and runner-up for the 2022 Sewanee Review (https://thesewaneereview.com/) Nonfiction Contest. Nadine teaches writing and critical theory at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.

Hasti, Sylee and Nadine’s prize-winning pieces will be published in Wasafiri 113, published Spring 2023, and accompanied by an illustration by Aude Nasr (https://cargocollective.com/audenasr) .

As we head into our 10th year of publishing we hope you enjoy this month, and look back over our archive (https://visualverse.org/images/) to read the work of the last decade’s most exciting new and established voices practicing across continents and themes.

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

Preti Taneja
with Kristen, Lucie and Isabel

Special thanks and welcome to Zaynab Bobi (Nigeria), Ashish Kumar Singh (India) and Wes White (UK) who join the Visual Verse team this month as volunteer editorial assistants.

Follow us on Twitter
Visual Verse Preti Taneja Kristen Harri (https://twitter.com/pretitaneja/) son/The Curved House (https://twitter.com/curvedhouse/)
Sandeep Parmar (https://twitter.com/SandeepKParmar/)
Hasti Crowther (https://twitter.com/youarehasti/)
Sylee Gore (https://twitter.com/BerlinReified)
Nadine Monem (https://twitter.com/nadinemonem/)

Volume 09, Chapter 07 | May 2022

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Image by Miikka Luotio

Dear writers, readers and friends,

Today we take flight with a new issue of Visual Verse and we take flight to a new home for Visual Verse. After almost a decade in Berlin, The Curved House is moving to Melbourne, Australia. We will continue to run Visual Verse as a global publication, with half the editorial team in Australia and half in Europe, and we will continue to publish diverse and innovative writers from all around the world.

As a farewell to Berlin, I wanted to find a way to honour the city that gave our unique publication life. In 2013, a chance introduction to Berlin-based designer Pete Lewis (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mr-pete-lewis-51468049) led to the first designs for the Visual Verse website. Shortly after, Preti Taneja (https://www.preti-taneja.co.uk/) visited Berlin and manifested a whole editorial vision for the publication. She became the founding Commissioning Editor and we launched on 1st November, 2013. A few years in, Berlin gave us another gift in the form of Lucie Stevens. Lucie is now back in Sydney but continues as co-editor. Visual Verse is the kind of dream project that Berlin is renowned for and the city has continued to nurture it, and us, for almost 9 years.

In the spirit of seed-sowing and collaboration, I have chosen an image depicting a special little Berlin scene, by Miikka Luotio. Alongside the image are three writers whose work has had an impact on me, or Visual Verse, helping to shape and evolve us.

We open with Paul Scraton (https://twitter.com/underagreysky) , a writer and editor based in Berlin. Shortly after moving to Friedrichshain, a district in the east of Berlin, I picked up a copy of Paul’s book The Idea of a River, published by Readux. This unassuming little gem is a lesson in linking ourselves and our environment. After reading it I set out to walk the river Spree, through Treptower park, with a consciousness I hadn’t tapped into for a long time. I saw Berlin differently and I’m very grateful to this little book for opening my eyes wider. Paul is the author of a number of other books including the novel Built on Sand (Influx Press, 2019) and the recent novella of the forest, In the Pines (Influx Press, 2021). You can find him atwww.underagreysky.com (http://www.underagreysky.com/) .

Divya Ghelani (https://twitter.com/DivyaGhelani) came my way via Visual Verse patron Cathy Galvin who runs the UK’s leading literary salon, the Word Factory (https://thewordfactory.tv/) . Last year she co-curated the August issue (https://visualverse.org/images/veronica-lissandrini/) of Visual Verse, bringing fresh new voices to the fold, some of whom are Berlin-based. This was a moment when I was personally struggling to keep things moving amid the pressures of the pandemic and other commitments, and Divya came forth with her characteristic ease and grace to re-ignite things. Divya is a writer herself and holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and an MPhil in Literary Studies from the University of Hong Kong. She has published widely, and is now working on a novel. Divya hosts a yearly New Fiction By Women & Non-Binary BIPOC Author Reading Series for The Reader Berlin and co-hosts a short story club for the Word Factory.

It is unusual that we would commission a lead writer twice, but I could not do a Berlin issue without the inimitable Victoria Gosling (https://www.instagram.com/victoriagosling) . Victoria is the founder of The Reader Berlin (https://www.thereaderberlin.com/) and The Berlin Writing Prize (https://www.thereaderberlin.com/2022-berlin-writing-prize/) . She has been the backbone of our Berlin literary life and a great champion of writers, readers and book businesses in Berlin. Some of my favourite memories of Berlin have been facilitated by Victoria – one year she took over an entire old Fort and hosted a magical weekend literary festival. Beyond this generosity, she is a hugely talented writer. Her brilliant debut novel Before the Ruins was published in 2021 by Serpent’s Tail (UK) and Henry Holt (US) revealing a gift for storytelling and masterful character development. I’m indebted to Victoria for her friendship, gentle influence and unending support.

What these three writers have in common is a willingness to create opportunities for others while also remaining dedicated to their own craft. That’s a lot of work, and perhaps what’s most beautiful about Berlin is that it gives people the time and space to give and grow.

The Berlin magic is forever in our DNA.

So now it’s over to you, dear writers, to see where this image leads. Of course, there is no need for you to write about Berlin. The image is simply the starting point, the rest is up to you.

Enjoy and thank you for all of your support and continued participation in this magnificent project.

Kristen
and the VV team

Follow us on Twitter

@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)
@underagreysky (https://twitter.com/underagreysky)
@d (https://twitter.com/kenkeyandfish) ivyaghelani (https://twitter.com/DivyaGhelani)
@VictoriaGosling (https://twitter.com/VictoriaGosling)

Volume 09, Chapter 05 | March 2022

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Image by Susan Fenimore Cooper
Dear writers, readers and friends,

I had planned a special issue for March to celebrate International Women’s Day (8th March). Then, Russia invaded Ukraine*. All plans went out the window but, guess what?! The women rose up. Four brilliant women came to my rescue and helped me to assemble a glorious, unique issue featuring our very first musical response to a Visual Verse prompt. I am so proud and grateful to our talented quartet of leads this month.

Our March visual prompt is from Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894) who was a writer, artist, naturalist and humanitarian. Cooper was the first woman to be recognised for nature writing. I love this image as it is clearly the work of an expert while being labelled with the declaration “By a Lady”. I like to think this was a small act of feminism on Cooper’s part – ensuring no man took credit for her work – but that may be an optimistic reading of herstory.

Back in the present day, I’m overjoyed to debut a brand new song penned by acclaimed Irish musician Nina Hynes (https://www.ninahynesmusic.com/) especially for this issue. Nina Hynes is an artist down to her bones and her creative output is mindblowing (follow her on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/6K6HRAFT5XBbrfATR1vnQh?si=91VPDLe3RtixRiWCTcWOkQ) and Bandcamp (https://ninahynes.bandcamp.com/) ). I gave Nina the challenge of writing a song within the usual constraints (50-500 words within one hour) and she returned the lyrics to me within four minutes of receiving the prompt. The next day a fully formed tune arrived in my inbox:
https://ninahynes.bandcamp.com/track/hummingbird

This is our very first musical response to a VV prompt – pure magic. You can listen and download the track from Nina’s Bandcamp. She is donating 100% of proceeds to the campaign to support African and Caribbean students leaving Ukraine, who have been facing discrimination and racism as they try to cross to safety.

Next up we feature Ioanna Mavrou (https://www.ioannamavrou.com/) , a writer from Nicosia, Cyprus. Her short stories have appeared in Electric Literature, The Rumpus, HAD, Wasafiri, The Letters Page, and elsewhere. She runs a tiny publishing house called Book Ex Machina and is the editor of Matchbook Stories: a literary magazine in matchbook form. You can read her previous Visual Verse pieces here (https://visualverse.org/writers/ioanna-mavrou/) and follow her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/@ioannaonline) .

In what seems like a bitter UK winter, Lizzie Ballagher has certainly longed for spring and perhaps that is reflected in her piece on page 3. The final stanza lifts us up like the first spring buds. Having lived in W New York for a decade, Lizzie unashamedly plundered old memories for images of those much harsher winters near the Genesee River. You can follow her work over on her blog (https://lizzieballagherpoetry.wordpress.com/) .

And on page 4 we are long overdue in featuring the work of Ceinwen Haydon (https://twitter.com/CeinwenHaydon) . Ceinwen holds an MA in Creative Writing from Newcastle University. She lives near Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (also home to our co-founder Preti Taneja) and writes short stories and poetry. She is widely published in online magazines and in print anthologies and has written many brilliant pieces for Visual Verse (https://visualverse.org/writers/ceinwen-e-c-haydon/) too. She is developing her practice as a participatory arts facilitator and believes everyone’s voice counts.

We at Visual Verse would like to wish all the women of the world a Happy International Women’s day. On March 8th we will raise a toast to the creativity and inner power of all women, including and especially women of colour, non-binary and trans women. Thank you all for your contributions to Visual Verse over the years.

*The situation in Ukraine remains volatile and we will continue tracking ways to support those most affected – especially minority groups and marginalised communities who face many extra challenges. You can support by signing up for Stuart McPherson’s online Poetry for Ukraine fundraiser (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetry-for-ukraine-an-international-poetry-reading-fundraiser-tickets-279387795417) which is raising funds for the Red Cross Ukraine and the UN refugee council. There is also the GoFundMe that Nina is supporting, to help African and Caribbean students in Ukraine (https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-afrocaribbean-students-leaving-ukraine?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet) (20% of Ukraine’s international students are from African countries) and OutRight Action International (https://outrightinternational.org/ukraine?form=Ukraine&fbclid=IwAR151D6CdyNweItycZ7QHGj2ix62VLo8K0liysu5fYtQ1z3M2u6Spm65cN0) is raising funds to support Ukraine’s
LGBTQ+ community.

So, my friends, as always I hope you enjoy these offerings and feel inspired to write your own. Things are heavy but creativity brings the light.

The image is the starting point, the text us up to you.
Kristen (She/Her)
and the VV Team

Follow us on Twitter

@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)
@NinaHynes (https://twitter.com/ninahynes?lang=en)
@ioannaonline (https://twitter.com/ioannaonline)
@CeinwenHaydon (https://twitter.com/CeinwenHaydon)

Volume 08, Chapter 10 | August 2021

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Image by Veronica Lissandrini

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Dear writers, readers and friends,

Rise, write and shine. Your August issue is here and isn’t it a beautiful one? With the help of my co-curator this month, Divya Ghelani, we showcase four women to watch: one artist and three writers, all with abundant talent. I was deeply moved by this month’s writing – actual tears in some cases – and I felt a kind of tectonic shift as I read them. I felt the impact of both excellent writing and work that speaks to the moment we are in. That combination is the dragon we chase at Visual Verse. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Our writing prompt comes from Italian artist Veronica Lissandrini (https://veronicalissandrin.wixsite.com/portfolio) , whose work spans visual art and writing. She has a fierce manifesto on her website that centres many of the values we share: freedom, creativity, disruption, truth, community, joy and dream. Follow Veronica on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/iamverolix/) to see more of her fabulous work.

And now, our magnificent lead writers: On page 1, we welcome Amy Stewart who makes her Visual Verse debut with a brilliant piece, Luna. Amy is a writer living in York and she recently won the Word Factory Northern Apprentice Award (https://thewordfactory.tv/word-factory-apprentice-award-announcement-2021-22/) . She is currently researching a PhD at the University of Sheffield about female circus artists and the carnivalesque. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the 2021 Mairtin Crawford Award and the 2019 Bridport Prize. Amy’s work can be found in Test Signal (DeadInk Books/Bloomsbury, 2021), Ellipsis Zine, Bandit Fiction and the York Journal.

On page 2, we are thrilled to feature Avrina Prabala-Joslin (http://www.avrinajos.net) , one of our regular contributors whose talent shines brighter with every submission. Avrina is a South-Indian writer living in Berlin. Her short story She’s a Tank, a Battalion, a Banyan won the Short Fiction/University of Exeter International Short Story Prize 2021. Her works have been shortlisted for the Indiana Review Fiction Prize 2021, Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize 2021 and the Berlin Writing Prize 2019. She’s currently finishing a novel that follows a few nomads and we are very excited to read it.

Alaya Mays, on page 3, is a student at Western Washington University studying German and Creative Writing. She has been writing and performing her own spoken word poetry since she was 16. Alaya tells us she has a special love for calculus, sushi, and playing cards at brunch. Her first piece on Visual Verse was published when she was still in school and we are enamoured by her work: the style and maturity she already displays is something special. Watch this space.

My deepest gratitude to Divya Ghelani (https://www.divyaghelani.com/) who co-curated this month’s writers. Divya is a British-Indian writer living in Berlin. She holds and MA in Creative Writing from UAE and in 2016 she won an Apprenticeship at The Word Factory (http://www.thewordfactory.tv/site/divya-ghelani/) . (http://www.thewordfactory.tv/site/apprentice-scheme/the-workers/) That’s where we were introduced to Divya’s work and she was later featured in Volume 5, Chapter 3 (https://visualverse.org/submissions/the-peacock/) . Divya has also been published in the BareLit Anthology, Litro: India, Too Asian, Not Asian Enough, Radio 4 and many more. As it turns out, she can not only write herself, but also spot exciting talent in others. Thank you, Divya.

So, know what to do. Deliver us your dragons. We are looking for fresh, innovative, experimental writing between 50-500 words, in response to this image. Challenge yourself. Push your boundaries. Go beyond the literal. Write within an hour to conjure thoughts and ideas you didn’t know were in you.

The image is the starting point, the rest is up to you.
Kristen,
with Divya Ghelani and Team VV

Follow us

@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)
@DivyaGhelani (https://twitter.com/DivyaGhelani)
@AStewartWriter (https://twitter.com/astewartwriter)
@AvrinaJoslin (https://twitter.com/AvrinaJoslin)
@iamverolix (https://www.instagram.com/iamverolix) (Insta)

Volume 08, Chapter 08 | June 2021

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Image by Tanya Layko

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Dear writers, readers and friends,

Last month was one of the best issues of Visual Verse. The writing you submitted throughout May was brave, innovative and unpredictable. It was a pleasure to watch the issue grow and we especially loved seeing more experimentation. Keep it up! We look forward to seeing what comes from this new prompt, a magnificent image I was drawn to for it’s collage-like quality. It’s by Tanya Layko (Таня Лайко) – check our her Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tanyalayko/) for more technicolor beauty and kooky portraiture.

For the month of June we are thrilled to introduce you to a new indie publisher based in Greater Manchester, UK, with whom we have created this issue. Master House Publishing (https://masterhousepublishing.com/) is founded by author and spoken word artist, Fehmida Master (https://twitter.com/fehmida_master) , and its mission and vision is to empower, strengthen and amplify as many voices of women, and voices of colour, as possible – voices that are so often under-represented in mainstream publishing. Master House Publishing launched with an online journal which quickly developed into a wonderful community. Following the launch of their debut collection, by our June lead Lisa O’Hare, Master House will be reviewing the submissions that have been received by them over the past few months, with a plan to publish more diverse poetry in the coming months. For now, you can enjoy the words of four writers from the Master House Publishing community, with thanks to Fehmida Master for co-curating this
selection.

First up we feature new writing by Lisa O’Hare (https://www.lisaoharewriter.com) , a regular contributor to Visual Verse and the author of the debut poetry collection, Lockdown Life: A Rollercoaster of Emotions (https://masterhousepublishing.com/shop/ols/products/lockdown-life-a-rollercoaster-of-emotions-paperback-lisa-ohare) , just published by Master House Publishing. Lisa’s poetry has been featured in several anthologies, zines, podcasts and on BBC Radio Manchester. Connect with Lisa on social media @thelisaohare or visit her website (https://lisaoharewriter.com/about-me) .

On page 2 we present the mighty talent of Jay Délise (https://www.jaydelise.com/bio) . Jay is a NYC/UK based writer, storyteller, and performer. Her 2019 solo spoken word show Black, And… premiered at the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival in July of 2019 and was nominated for both “Best Newcomer” and “Best Spoken Word” at the Manchester Fringe Awards. Her self-published audiobook tenderhead. (https://www.jaydelise.com/tenderhead) debuted at #1 in bestselling poetry audiobooks.

On page 3, enjoy the words of Linda Done, a writer who is also from Manchester, UK. Linda is a teacher, wife, mother, sister and friend with one book published: Everything Changes in Your 50s. More of Linda’s writing (https://masterhousepublishing.com/online-journal/f/linda-done) can be found on the Master House Publishing website.

And finally we welcome Zahra Pourmohseni (https://www.instagram.com/zahra.zpm/) , a 22-year-old English teacher from Iran who says she is “in love with literature”. Zahra is keen to let the social changes in Iran, that she hopes will happen, to influence her writing. She has recently started to write poetry in English and she has dedicated her piece to the people who never got a voice.

And so, here we are with your June visual prompt and a whole lot of gratitude to you all for keeping this publication fresh and inventive.

As always, the image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Kristen
with the VV team, Preti, Lucie, Isabel and Luke.

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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 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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Volume 07, Chapter 1 | November 2019

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Image by RUDE London.

Dear writers, readers and friends,

VISUAL VERSE IS SIX!

Yes we have made it through our teething and toddler years and now we are in big school. Our labour of love project has reached the grand old age of SIX and we are proud, humble, grateful and downright amazed. We couldn’t have made it without all our readers, writers, leads, supporters and some very special guest curators who took over and brought new voices to us.

THANK YOU!

And we must also thank our amazing team, based in the UK, Germany, USA, and sometimes Australia, who work around babies, books, dogs, higher education courses, day jobs and night jobs to bring the site to you each month and publish and tweet your work. We are proud to be a free resource for writers and readers all over the world.

For our sixth birthday edition, we’re bringing you a piece of graphic art by the tenacious, insanely talented duo that is RUDE London (https://www.thisisrude.com/) . Their work is big and loud and bold, setting the tone for this auspicious birthday issue. In response, we open with a line-up of some of the most exciting, avant-garde writers working today – all equally brilliant, equally unique.

Our page one piece comes from Chika Unigwe (https://twitter.com/chikaunigwe) , a Nigerian writer whose work is trend breaking. Her novels include Night Dancer and On Black Sisters Streets. She has written about climate change for the Guardian, feminism for the White Review and was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in African writing. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, Better Never Than Late (https://cassavarepublic.biz/product/cassava-shorts/?v=3a52f3c22ed6) , out now from Cassava Republic.

Our second page is live from Linda Mannheim (https://www.lindamannheim.com/) , the author of three books of fiction: Risk, Above Sugar Hill and This Way to Departures, just out from Influx Press. Her work has appeared in magazines in the US, UK, South Africa, and Canada including Granta, 3:AM Magazine and Catapult Story. Eimear McBride said that Linda’s stories ‘provoke and abide like a slap’. Originally from New York, Linda divides her time between London and Berlin and is working on Barbed Wire Fever, a literary project that explores what it means to seek and provide refuge.

On page three, we bring you work from Glen James Brown (https://twitter.com/glen_j_brown?lang=en) , whose debut novel Ironopolis (https://www.parthianbooks.com/products/ironopolis) – about the collapse of industry and social housing in Teesside, and its impact on community, culture and folklore – was called ‘nothing short of a triumph’ by the Guardian. It was also shortlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for political fiction, as well as longlisted for the Portico Prize. He comes from County Durham, but lives and writes in sunny Manchester.

And to really jump off the deep end, we complete our launch with a piece by Yara Rodrigues Fowler (https://yararodriguesfowler.com/) , a British Brazilian novelist from South London. Her first novel, Stubborn Archivist, was published in 2019 in the UK and USA. Yara was named one of The Observer’s nine hottest-tipped debut novelists of 2019 and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. She is also a trustee of Latin American Women’s Aid, an organisation that runs the only two refuges in Europe, for and by Latin American women. She’s writing her second novel now, for which she received the John C Lawrence Award from the Society of Authors towards research in Brazil.

So, dear writers and readers, it’s time for some birthday indulgence – treat yourself with some high-quality reading and then sharpen your pencils… the image is the starting point, the rest is up to you,

Love,
Preti, Kristen, Lucie and Luke

Connect with us
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@chikaunigwe (https://twitter.com/chikaunigwe?lang=en)
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Volume 05, Chapter 12 | October 2018

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Image by Mark Basarab

Dear writers, readers and friends,

This month we bring you the final issue in Volume 5 of Visual Verse. To celebrate, we have handed the editorial over to one of our dearest friends, So Mayer – a writer, curator and activist. Her recent books include Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema (I.B. Tauris, 2015) and (O) (Arc, 2015), and recent projects include the touring programme Revolt, She Said: Women and Film After ’68 (http://www.clubdesfemmes.com/revolt-she-said/) with queer feminist film collective Club des Femmes, and Raising our Game (https://www.raisingfilms.com/resources/raising-our-game-report/) , a report addressing exclusion in the film industry with campaigners Raising Films. Current writing projects include Disturbing Words (https://tinyletter.com/sophiemayer/) , a tinyletter about language, and a poetry chapbook , due from Litmus (https://www.litmuspublishing.co.uk) this autumn.

So’s selected writers are all radical thinkers and multi-talented artists. We are very excited to have them inspire us this October, responding to a stellar image (sorry, couldn’t resist) by Vancouver photographer Mark Basarab (http://www.markbasarab.com/) .

Warning: this work is dark and blazing – perfect for the times we live in.

Jason Barker is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, comix artist, and occasional stand-up comedian. He has been a co-producer of Transfabulous and a programmer for BFI Flare, the London LGBT Film Festival, where his first feature film A Deal With the Universe (http://adealwiththeuniverse.com/index.html) , a documentary about his pregnancy, had its world premiere. He is the Education Lead for Gendered Intelligence, and facilitator for GI West in Bristol.

Sarah Crewe is a working class feminist poet from Liverpool. Her first full poetry collection, floss, is upcoming from Aquifer Books (http://glasfrynproject.org.uk/w/category/aquifer-press/) this winter. Her work has featured in Tenebrae, Litmus, Cumulus, zarf and Datableed. Her most recent pamphlet was weimar after dark: fourteen poems on fassbinder’s berlin alexanderplatz (contact Sarah on Twitter to order).

Sachiko Murakami (Canada) is the author of three collections of poetry: The Invisibility Exhibit (Talonbooks 2008), Rebuild (Talonbooks 2011), and Get Me Out of Here (Talonbooks 2015). She has been a literary worker for numerous presses, journals, and organizations, and most recently was the 2017 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto. Her projects include Project Rebuild (http://www.projectrebuild.ca/) , HENKŌ (http://powellstreethenko.ca/) , WIHTBOAM (http://www.whenihavethebodyofaman.com/) and FIGURE (http://www.figureoracle.com/) .

Anna Coatman is a writer and editor from Leeds, now based in London. In the past she has worked at I.B. Tauris, RA Magazine and Sight & Sound, and is currently Senior Commissioning Editor for BFI, Film & Media at Bloomsbury. She was one of the founding editors of 3 of Cups Press and has contributed to publications including frieze, TLS, LRB and The White Review. She is currently working on a project concerning women and social realism, and will be chairing a panel discussion titled ‘Whose Story?: Working Class Women on Screen (https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=3C59E017-BF84-40D4-B379-AA6A43060C85&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=688F7842-DE4B-4183-9CF3-05F7778DAC4C) ’ on 9 October at BFI Southbank in London.

Jules Koostachin is a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation, Moshkekowok territory, and she currently resides in Vancouver. She is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, with a research focus on Indigenous documentary. Her television series AskiBOYZ (2016) is currently airing on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. In the fall of 2018, Jules’ latest short film OChiSkwaCho premieres at ImagineNative, and she publishes her first book of poetry Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths (Kegedonce Press, 2018). Her short films PLACEnta and NiiSoTeWak screen at the 12th Native Spirit (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/12th-native-spirit-indigenous-film-festival-2018-canadakent-placenta-niisotewak-with-jules-tickets-50317019560) Film Festival in London on 18 Oct.

And now, dear writers, October is yours. Do your best – keep reading, get inspired and send us your 50-500 words written in the space of one hour, by 15 October. We will publish up to 100 of the best of them. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

So, Preti, Kristen and Lucie

Volume 05, Chapter 07 | May 2018

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Image by Mary Cassatt

Welcome dear writers to the 1st of May,

Our image this month might be classic, but our writers are raw brilliance. That’s how we like it here at VV.

Painted by American artist Mary Cassatt in 1893, The Child’s Bath depicts an ordinary moment in domestic life. But its quietness is misleading. Through her work, Cassatt gave voice and presence to women, offering a female perspective that had long been dismissed as inferior. Described as the embodiment of the ‘New Woman’, Cassatt played a crucial role in advocating for equality, particularly in relation to education.

We’re always on the look out for the best, most radical and boundary breaking work. So we’re very proud to publish work by Inara Verzemnieks, the author of the astonishing and moving Among the Living and the Dead, published this month by Pushkin Press (https://www.pushkinpress.com/discover-the-breathtaking-among-the-living-and-the-dead) . Inara teaches creative non-fiction at the University of Iowa, and writes regularly for the New York Times and the Atlantic, among other publications. She has won a Pushcart Prize and a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. She lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Her piece got us in the guts, then twisted them.

Next we bring you essayist and poet Will Harris (https://willjharris.com/) . He is the author of a chapbook, All this is implied, and a groundbreaking essay, Mixed-Race Superman which will be published this month by the very new and exciting Peninsula Press.

Following this, we have a piece by Scherezade Siobhan. An award-winning writer and psychologist, she’s a community catalyst who founded and runs The Talking Compass (http://www.thetalkingcompass.com) —  a therapeutic space dedicated to providing counseling services and decolonizing mental health care. She is the author of Bone Tongue (Thought Catalog Books, 2015), Father, Husband (Salopress, 2016) and The Bluest Kali (Lithic Press, 2018). She says she can be found squeeing about militant bunnies @zaharaesque on twitter/FB/IG as well as www.zaharaesque.com (http://www.zaharaesque.com/) . She invites you to send her chocolate and puppies  via  nihilistwaffles@gmail.com (mailto:nihilistwaffles@gmail.com) .

To crown it all, a new piece by Rakhshan Rizwan. Rakhshan was born in Lahore, Pakistan and moved to Germany where she studied Literature and New Media. She is currently a PhD candidate at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Her poems have appeared in Blue Lyra Review, The Missing Slate, Postcolonial Text and elsewhere. She is the winner of the Judith Khan Memorial Poetry Prize (2015). Her debut poetry collection, Paisley, has been shortlisted in the “Best Poetry Pamphlet” category at the 2018 Sabateur Awards.

So – happy reading, writing and submitting. May is the month to settle in to the new season and we can’t wait to read your words. The image is the starting point, the rest is up to you!

Love,
Kristen, Preti, Lucie and Rose

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Volume 05, Chapter 04 | February 2018

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Image by Daniel Frost

Dear writers, readers and friends,

Here ye: we are shakin’ things up and making some changes to how we accept and publish submissions. These changes are intended to improve the process for you, our beloved writers, and help us to manage the growth of Visual Verse (something that continues to amaze us).
————————————————————

New Submission Guidelines:

Henceforth we will release a new image on the 1st of each calendar month (as we do now) and accept submissions up until the 15th of the month. We will publish up to 100 submissions over the course of the month, no more. The other rules remain the same: 50-500 words, written within an hour, in response to the image. The writing must be new and original. Read more about our publishing policy (https://visualverse.org/about-visual-verse/) on the website.

We are excited to see how these changes pan out over the coming months. Both the deadline and the cap on submissions mean that we can focus on publishing the best of what comes in and ensure that these pieces are showcased on the site while the issue is still live. Please let us know if you have any feedback, either now or in the future when the new rules are underway. Email us at visualverse@thecurvedhouse.com (mailto:mailto: visualverse@thecurvedhouse.com) anytime.
————————————————————

And now, without further ado, we present this wonderful, whimsical painting by Daniel Frost, an artist and illustrator whose work we have admired for so many years. Do your eyes a favour and follow his Instagram: @danielfrostillustration (https://www.instagram.com/danielfrostillustration) .

Our lead response comes from Megan Hunter, a hugely talented writer who is fast building an impressive body of work. Megan was born in Manchester in 1984, and studied English Literature at Sussex and Cambridge. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and she was a finalist for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. Her first book, The End We Start From, was published in 2017 in the UK, US, and Canada, and has been translated into seven languages. It was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the 2017 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards and is longlisted for the Aspen Words Prize.

Megan has a long-standing relationship with Visual Verse. She says:

I started writing pieces for Visual Verse a few years ago, before I’d had anything published. I was working in an office and the visual prompts were an ideal creative stimulus during my lunch hour! I found the process of responding to an image, particularly within a one hour time frame, gave a freedom to my work that was so important when figuring out what I wanted to write, and is still so useful now. I think Visual Verse was probably the first time I’d ever seen my name ‘in print’ online, and it’s a real honour to now be writing the lead piece.

We’re pretty chuffed about that.

On page 2 we feature Maisie Chan, a published writer from Birmingham who now lives in Glasgow. She was recently commissioned to write stories for the Human Values Foundation and has also been published in the Penguin decibel Anthology The Map of Me. Maisie won the BBC Writersroom Competition BBC Bites and was a finalist in the 2015 Creative Futures Literary Awards. During 2016-2017, she was chosen for the Megaphone – an Arts Council/Publisher’s Association project to mentor and develop BAME writers writing their first novel for children or teens. Maisie has taught creative writing to children and adults and was an Arvon tutor in 2009. She is working on her first novel for teens about a fifteen-year-old British Chinese girl whose grandfather has early-onset Alzheimers.

Our next writer, Melissa Fu, grew up in Northern New Mexico and currently lives in Cambridgeshire, UK. Her work appears in many journals including The Lonely Crowd, International Literature Showcase, Skin Deep, and The Nottingham Review. In 2017, she was the regional winner of Words and Women’s Prose Competition and one of four Apprentices with the London-based Word Factory.

And on page 4 we have Yen Ooi, one of our favourite publishing people and a regular Visual Verse contributor. Dirty diapers, science fiction, and CreateThinkDo (http://createthinkdo.com/) is about all Yen has time for nowadays, but she did manage to pen this little piece and connect our February issue to another dimension…
There it is, writers. Submit before 15th February and as always, enjoy the challenge. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Kristen, Preti and Lucie

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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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Volume 03, Chapter 10 | August 2016

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Image by Megan Archer

Dear writers, readers and friends,

This month we present a glorious, bright, pop-tastic collage by Berlin-based New Zealand artist Megan Archer (http://www.meganjarcher.com/) . This is a very special image because we have no idea how you will all respond. With most Visual Verse images we can roughly predict the kinds of themes that might emerge, and the mood the issue may take, but in this case we just don’t know where your writing will lead us. For that reason we are particularly excited to see the August issue take shape as you submit your writing.

We are thrilled to kick off with a lead piece by Sampurna Chattarji (http://sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com/) a poet, novelist, translator and children’s author. Her fourteen books include the novels Rupture and Land of the Well (both from HarperCollins); the poetry collection Absent Muses (Poetrywala, 2010); and a book of short stories about Bombay/Mumbai, Dirty Love (Penguin 2013). Sampurna also edited Sweeping the Front Yard, an anthology of poetry and prose by women writing in English, Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu and she has read at festivals all over India and the UK, including Hay-on-Wye and Ledbury Poetry Festival.

Next up, new writing from Laila Sumpton, a London-based poet who regularly performs her work at arts venues across the country and facilitates poetry workshops at museums, galleries, hospitals, schools and charities. She is a member of the Keats House Poets and co-directs refugee and migrant poetry collective Bards Without Borders. Laila is working on her first collection and her poetry often explores human rights issues and family memories.

And our third lead piece is from Colin Herd (http://www.colinherd.com) , a poet and Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Books include too ok (BlazeVOX, 2011), Glovebox (Knives, Forks and Spoons, 2013) and Oberwilding with SJ Fowler (Austrian Cultural Forum, 2015). He is part of the team that runs Outside-in / Inside-out (http://outsidepoetryfestival.wordpress.com) , a new poetry festival launching in Glasgow in October 2016.

So writers, what will you make of Megan’s brilliant image? What will you find ebbing above and below that bluest ocean?

Away you go…

Preti and Kristen

PS. For those in Berlin, you can see more of Megan’s work at Fellini Gallery (Mittenwalder Str. 6
10961 Berlin, Germany) until 28th September, 2016.

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Volume 03, Chapter 07 | May 2016

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Image by Alain Manesson Malett

This month we present an image will surely prompt some challenging responses. Taken from a 17th Century text, it is an illustration by French artist Alain Manesson Malett of two women in Syria. The image invites questions about identity, perception and the assumptions we make about those who are different from ourselves. And being over 400 years old, this image also reminds us that our quest to understand eachother, to accept and to be accepted is nothing new.

For our lead writers we have a truly itinerant and international line up for you this month, celebrating the fluidity of borders and the dissolving of identity. We begin with a virtuoso piece by Commonwealth Short Story Prize nominated author, Mahesh Rao (http://www.maheshrao.info/) . Mahesh will be in London for the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival, talking about lost lives in short fiction with Preti on May 17th, and closing the festival on May 18th with a discussion of his two recent, critically-acclaimed books in conversation with Sameer Rahim, Literary Editor of Prospect magazine. As if that weren’t enough, his debut novel, ‘The Smoke Is Rising’, won the Tata First Book Award for fiction and was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and the Crossword Prize – and you read him here first.

Then, heading to the north of England, Jag brings us a debut piece about forbidden love. Jag is self-described as queer, genderqueer, northern, disabled and neurodiverse. Despite very little formal education, Jag is emerging as a promising young British writer. Now with an agent and with the editing of a first novel underway, we look forward to reading more.

Finally, from the UK to Australia via India and back – our third offering this month is by Ryn Cowcroft. Ryn won the John Kinsella Poetry Prize and her poems have appeared in The Best Australian Poems anthology, The Australian Review, and other publications. She is currently working on a collection and we are delighted to publish her before she gets even busier.

We invite you to look carefully at this image, inside and outside the frame, and study the detail. This is a complex visual that we hope inspires a kind of writing that you may not have thought was in you.

Over to you, dear writers – enjoy.

Kristen and Preti

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Volume 03, Chapter 02 | December 2015

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Published in collaboration with Limehouse Books
Image by Philipp Keller

Dear writers, readers and friends,

Prepare for lift-off as we launch into December – a month when the days are darker but the lights are brighter. We have gone a little space-crazy this month as British Astronaut Tim Peake (http://principia.org.uk/) prepares to embark on a historic mission to the International Space Station. What better way to celebrate than with this incredible image of a Medaka fish on the ISS by Philipp Keller, featured by NASA in their Flickr Gallery (https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/) . What will you make of this luminous creature, dear writers?

Our lead pieces this month are in collaboration with London publisher, Limehouse Books (http://limehousebooks.co.uk/) , bringing you a selection of work from some radical voices. First up is Sophia Blackwell (https://twitter.com/@SophiaBlackwell) , performance poet and novelist. After My Own Heart is her first novel with Limehouse and her new collection The Fire Eater’s Lover will be published by Burning Eye Books next year. ‘Sophistication Incarnate’ as her website (http://www.sophiablackwell.com/) describes her – we couldn’t agree more.

On page 2 we have Sophie McCook (http://twitter.com/scriptreader) , a reformed TV and film scriptwriter, now author of Thinkless, a novel equivalent to Peep Show for women. Just what we need to brighten up the month!

Next is North Morgan (https://twitter.com/northmorgan) , who has been described by the Independent as ‘a bitterly funny satirist’ and is author of Exit Through The Wound and Highlights of My Last Regret. If you haven’t come across this writer yet start with his Tweets (https://twitter.com/northmorgan) .

Finally, huge thanks to Bobby Nayyar, writer and publisher at Limehouse Books itself. Bobby will be launching his debut poetry collection Glass Scissors in January, he says, (probably). Follow Bobby (http://www.twitter.com/bobbynayyar) on Twitter too, and enjoy the excellent Limehouse (http://limehousebooks.co.uk/) list.

So, we are feeling the love for all of you this month having just celebrated our second birthday. Thank you to those of you who could make it to Waterstone’s Piccadilly on Saturday. We celebrated with our dear friends at WordFactory (http://www.thewordfactory.tv/) , enjoying readings from John Boyne, Cathy Galvin, SJ Naudé and Kirsty Logan. For those who missed it, Preti read poems by David Rain and Andrew Motion from chapters of Visual Verse, and we toasted all of you writers, readers and followers who have made the last two years such a wild ride. One of our best birthday presents? Coralie Bickford-Smith, whose image from her new book The Fox and the Star featured in our November edition (https://visualverse.org/images/coralie-bickford-smith/) , has just been announced winner of the Waterstone’s Books of The Year 2015 (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/01/waterstones-book-of-year-coralie-bickford-smith-the-fox-and-the-star) . Impeccable taste, Waterstones, and so
well-deserved.

Wishing you a happy December, dear writers, with all that it might bring. For us, we simply wish for more great writing, more submissions and a very creative countdown to 2016.

The picture is the starting point, the text is up to you (https://visualverse.org/submit/) .

Kristen and Preti

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