Five writers – Nasim Marie Jafry, Laura Elliott, Henry Anderson, JP Seabright and Louise Kenward – discuss what it’s like to write with M.E. and how chronic illness has forced them to discover new modes of understanding, new forms of expression, new realms of imagination (as edited by author Katy Wimhurst).
Chance encounters, random moments, fateful figures spinning a celestial web. These are the images and occurrences that form the life and work of Surrealist artist Remedios Varo and inspire author Rym Kechacha’s own writing, especially her latest novel, To Catch a Moon.
The joy of love is often coupled with the fear of loss. Here, novelist Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood recalls how anxiety before her wedding returned her to the impermanence of life, to its multiple pathways and infinite realities, as explored in her new book, The Constellations of Eve.
In this poetic prose piece, Jane Hartshorn’s experience of Compulsive Skin Picking Disorder leads her to explore – through physical encounters, popular culture, and past relationships – the connections that we try to see between the disparate elements of our lives, in twists and turns that often have no neat resolution.
Skiing down the snowy mountains of Virginia, Clare Moore learned to explore, to venture, to extend the limits of the possible and confront what Simone de Beauvoir once termed as the ‘timidity’ inhibiting women physically to be in the world.
In this moving and powerful piece, Author Ayo Deforge discusses bodily agency, freedom of choice and consent, and the French state’s unrelenting control over citizens’ bodies during the pandemic.
In her essay, author Katy Wimhurst explores how the experience of chronic illness challenges established (and often ableist) conventions of storytelling, opening up fiction – and indeed language itself – to new, imaginative possibilities.
Naima Rashid reflects on the pleasure and importance of the café space to her writing practise – a room of one’s own away from the demands of home and hearth.
Tara Fatehi Irani’s outdoor performance, Mishandled Archive, dismantles and remantles the archive, embodies and rebodies memories, and, in its fragmentary state, gives us something to hold whilst holding us, writes So Mayer, in their stunning reflection on the artist’s work. With contributions from Elhum Shakerifar and Sam Fisher.
In this courageous and powerful piece, Irenosen Okojie discusses the emotional abuse and exploitation Black women creatives have experienced in various arts industries and calls for greater accountability amongst white male perpetrators.
Unable to speak the same language, Leila Gamaz and her Algerian grandmother communicated through food. Here, Gamaz remembers their time cooking together and the meals savoured by all the family.
