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