Image by Monica Silva
Dear writers, readers and friends,
Welcome to our final newsletter of 2021!
December marks the festive season for many people, and a time to reflect on the year that has passed. It’s been another year of wide-spread uncertainty, anxiety and social isolation – themes that have run through many of the submissions we’ve received. And as the pandemic flexes its muscles again, the opening of Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb seems apt, ‘where can we find light in this never-ending shade?’
We hope you will find some light here, dear writers.
When we offer our prompt on the first of each month, we hope to receive exciting new pieces that grab our attention and lodge themselves in our hearts. And we hope that, by publishing those pieces, we help share your voice with the world. But what we also aim to offer is a reason for you to carve out an hour for yourself, connect with your creativity and experience flow. Because that’s where joy, healing and self-actualisation can surface.
So, here’s our December gift to you, not a flying reindeer but a floating horse’s head. This image, entitled Horse with a Name, is the creation of Italian-based Brazilian photographer Monica Silva (https://www.msilva.photography/) , whose work explores the impact that existential and cultural daily life has on our psyches.
Opening our December issue is a piece by Anna Jacobson (http://www.annajacobson.com.au) that speaks of this impact too. Anna is a writer and artist from Brisbane, Australia. Amnesia Findings (https://www.uqp.com.au/books/amnesia-findings) (UQP, 2019), her first full-length poetry collection, won the 2018 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. In 2020, Anna won the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing (Open Creative Nonfiction), was awarded a Queensland Writers Fellowship, and was shortlisted in the Spark Prize.
Page 2 offers a powerfully visceral poem by Hannah Bent (http://www.hannahbent.com) . Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hannah completed her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Film from Central Saint Martins School of Art in London. She undertook further study in both directing and screenwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. She won the 2013 Ray Koppe Young Writers Award for her debut novel as a work in progress. Her debut novel When Things Are Alive They Hum (https://www.ultimopress.com.au/hum) was published this year and has been described by Trent Dalton as a ‘gift’ that has ‘changed the way I’ve been going about my days.’ The Australian reviewed her novel as ‘a wise, wondrous celebration of life.’
Our third piece, penned by Alastair Hesp (http://www.alastairhesp.co.uk) , explores what isn’t on view. Alastair is currently completing a Poetry MA at The Manchester Writing School. His work has been featured in anthologies and journals such as The Verve Poetry Press, Acid Bath Publishing, The French Literary Review and Broken Sleep Books. As a poet with bipolar disorder, he uses poetry to go beyond the language of condition. In addition to formal publications, his work includes interdisciplinary projects in live/improvised performances. He is currently in production on a poetic art installation and a dance performance in Copenhagen around a sequence poem, in collaboration with Kant Fabrik (https://www.instagram.com/kantfabrik/) .
Before you venture off on your own creative paths, take a dawn walk with Shehnaz Suterwalla (https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/staff/dr-shehnaz-suterwalla/) on page 4. Shehnaz is a writer, critic and curator who teaches at the Royal College of Art, London. Her forthcoming book, Two Friends (And Other Stories) is a double memoir that speculates into the future, co-authored with Michelle Jana Chan (https://linktr.ee/michellejanachan) , who was a lead in our November issue.
Remember, dear writers, if you need to gift yourself with more pockets of writing-induced joy, you can submit a micro-piece in response to our daily visual prompt (https://www.instagram.com/visualverseanthology/) on Instagram. But for now, we hope this noble steed will inspire you to craft 50-500 words, written within an hour. Submissions close midnight (UK time) on December 15th.
Wishing you all a safe and happy December.
The image is the starting point, the rest is up to you.
Lucie
with the VV team: Kristen, Preti, Isabel, Tam, Nahda, Jordan, Aimee and Anna.
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