for Marjorie Barnard I saw two summers in one year once and I won’t forget it. Only once. I had started to heal by then, and often thought of no …
The Hunger (Ian McBryde)
Orchid Queen of corollas, borne up on the deep green roll of foliage. Your hunger is showing. One last tremble has opened your shoulders, bold as a whore. You are …
Poems from Year of the Wasp (Joel Deane)
Paramedics arrive. Give him a shot of Stemetil as he thinks of holding a match burning down to the pinch, of a …
Schlafwagen und Wunderkammer* (Richard James Allen)
(*German for ‘sleeper’ or ‘sleeping car’ and ‘cabinet of curiosities’ or ‘wonder room’) you are on the night train to Vienna and you have already arrived in Berlin you are …
Discoursing Diaspora
It’s International Diversity Day and at Verity La we’re taking this opportunity to announce our Discoursing Diaspora writing and arts project. International Diversity Day (also known as World Day for Cultural Diversity, Dialogue …
Writing from Awe (Anne Walsh)
Ice Breaker I step onto ice I know will break but sometime it has to. …
Parts of An Enticing, Profit-less Whole: Finlay Lloyd’s Smalls
Review by Nigel Featherstone It is a widely held view that the publishing industry is currently going through a rough patch. Or, to put it more dramatically, it is in …
A Nurse’s Meditations in the Sluice Room (Louise McKenna)
Your contempt is like a needle waved in my face. Do I distress you because I don’t wear stockings or an apron pinned below my breasts? Do I bother you …
A Reluctant Sale (Hayley Scrivenor)
He mentions within the first few minutes he is a lawyer. That’s why he can be trusted, he says, because he has a reputation to protect. Personally, I always think there is …
Langkawi airport (Amy Hilhorst)
On the wall at gate 4 a Malaysian flag hangs sideways, lower rod displaced and scrunched at the bottom, where the stripes stretch furthest from the star. Couples compare passport …