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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