Image by Jean Cooke
Dear Writers,
As you know we love a collaboration at Visual Verse and this month, via our brilliant designer Mr Pete Lewis (http://www.mrpetelewis.com/) and Back to Front studio (http://backtofront.london/) , we are connecting with Camden Art Collection in London to bring you your new writing prompt. In June, Camden Council will launch a new portal bringing their phenomenal collection to a public audience. We are thrilled to be able to share an image from this collection exclusively with you.
This painting is by Jean Cooke, an artist we love, who once said: “Everything that happens when I open my eyes [each morning] is a surprise. It’s like dying and coming alive again every day.” You’ll be able to view this image, along with other works from Camden’s extensive collection, at Swiss Cottage Library over the coming month. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed for info about the exhibition.
Giving voice to this beautiful piece is Mike McCormack (http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/solar-bones-by-mike-mccormack-review-portrait-of-a-universe-in-dereliction-1.2637871) , an award-winning novelist and short story writer from Mayo. His new novel, Solar Bones (his first for a decade) was published last month by Tramp Press (http://www.tramppress.com/) and has already garnered exceptional reviews. The Literary Review called it “hauntingly sad, but also frequently very funny – Proust reconfigured by Flann O’Brien”. His previous work includes Notes from a Coma (2005), which was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award, and Forensic Songs (2012). In 1996, he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and in 2007 he was awarded a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. He’s been called “the Iain Banks of Ireland” but we think he’s unique in himself!
Our page 2 spot is for Caleb Parkin (https://couldbethemoon.co.uk/where/) , a poet, performer, facilitator and educator, based in Bristol and working with organisations across broad sectors. Having worked for some time in media production, science publishing and education, he now holds a Post-Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes and is Membership Secretary of Lapidus: The Writing for Wellbeing Organisation. He often writes about animals, machines and technology (among many other things) – and has been published online and in print.
And on page 3, we are absolutely thrilled to publish M. NourbeSe Philip (http://www.nourbese.com/) , an unembedded poet, essayist, novelist, playwright and former lawyer who lives in the space-time of the City of Toronto. Her lyrical, politically charged writing (and tweets!) are a revelation in what language can do. Philip is a Guggenheim Fellow (USA) and the recipient of many awards including the Casa de las Americas prize (Cuba). Among her best known published works are: She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks, Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence, and Harriet’s Daughter, a young adult novel. Philip’s most recent work is Zong!, a genre-breaking poem, which engages with ideas of the law, history and memory as they relate to the transatlantic slave trade.
So dear writers, what will you make of the June image and the intensity of this particular female gaze? The image is the starting point, the rest is up to you.
Enjoy!
Preti and Kristen
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