In her latest work of creative non-fiction, award-winning author Irenosen Okojie explores the rich legacy of hope and life handed down through her mother and grandmother. In hauntingly beautiful prose, Okojie reflects on how past events can offer light and healing in present times of difficulty.
Toni Roberts discusses how Mona Hatoum’s radiant red sculpture, Hot Spot III, 2009, has become a relevant work of art during her time in lockdown and a metaphor for our cage-like existence.
In her two poems, ‘Three Notes to Blue Jays’ and ‘So Much’, Zilka Joseph’s words take flight when describing the dazzling brilliance of a Blue Jay and Hummingbird in the open spaces of Michigan.
Emma West discovered Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture, Spring, 1965, at the beginning of what would become a pilgrimage of the sculptor’s work around the UK. Here, she reflects on Hepworth’s sculptures in situ, the importance of touch and having hope for life after lockdown.
When nineteenth-century scientist, philosopher and poet, Constance Naden, contemplated the night sky, she saw a universe full of vitality. Here, Clare Stainthorp, reflects on Naden’s sonnets and the starry cosmos that inspired them.
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg’s poems offer a solitary space for readers to meditate on nature’s quiet truths, a locus in which to reorientate the self and speak in a new language of trees, birds, waterfalls and winding valleys.
Pauline Delabroy-Allard’s debut novel, All About Sarah, is a brilliantly haunting story about an intense and passionate love affair between two women, writes Elodie Rose Barnes.
On removing a postcard of Frida Kahlo from her wall, Rachel Ashenden began to reflect on past loves, the feelings postcards evoke and the liberation one can feel, even in lockdown, towards old relationships.
Our Poetry editor, Usha Akella, recalls her time studying for an MSt. in Creative Writing at Cambridge and considers how the flora and fauna of the city inspired her writing and helped her navigate and connect with a new place.
For the fourth piece in her continued series, Rochelle Roberts reflects on Dorothea Tanning’s monumental and transformative self-portrait, Birthday, 1942, and considers the prospect of the end to coronavirus.
Amanda is out for the night with her new school mate, Lea. But when her so-called friends – an assortment of symptoms from her Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) – turn up, she finds it hard to determine who and what is real.
As the internet will have no doubt reminded you, staying at home and catching up on some Netflix is now officially *heroic*. Here’s an eclectic mix of streaming recommendations from our contributors.
