after Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lesbos’ Friction In that block Of flats. From six A.M. you’d modernise. I’d hammer, call you Sookie, sook. So scared to relish bareback. Designer duds rook …
The Coast Road (Nicholas Brooks)
I started doing it, I guess, because Dad was always working over the school holidays, and because it seemed harmless enough to me. Of course I’d heard the stories about …
Evoking Former Selves: Ali Cobby Eckermann’s Too Afraid to Cry (Sarah St Vincent Welch)
Review by Sarah St Vincent Welch If a title is the doorway to a book, Too Afraid to Cry, seems to open with a warning, but the reader soon realises …
Former Child Star (Stuart Barnes)
after Sylvia Plath’s ‘Child’ Your half-moons are the ten absolutely fabulous things. I want to streak them with Covergirl, Puck, Museums of dew Whose waves you intonate – …
MEMORY, MARRIAGE, AND MUSIC – an interview with Andrea Goldsmith
The first Verity La interview with Andrea Goldsmith was in December 2010. Back then we focused on her novel Reunion (4th Estate, 2009), and Goldsmith spoke eloquently about the magic …
Back to the (post-apocalyptic) Future 3: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam
Reviewed by Robert Goodman Margaret Atwood sits comfortably on the literature shelf. Winner of the Booker Prize and numerous other awards particularly in her native Canada, Atwood has been challenging …
Andres and the Jinns (Jillian Schedneck)
‘Miss, WALLAH, it’s true. They are everywhere. Every time you hear a noise in your house, or your TV stops working, or your computer beeps…’ Hana paused dramatically. ‘It’s a …
Cultural Submissions (Caroline Reid)
I’m calling in to see someone in a world grownups know nothing about sitting snug on their living-room couches. The thing about that is this: I think it doesn’t matter, …
Theory of a Shadow (Todd Turner)
Think of a bird now think of its shadow. Imagine a field now picture a lake. Had the shadow not drifted across the field you might have missed a fire-bird …
CHANGING THE GROUND OF EXISTENCE: an interview with Paul Hetherington
If there’s ever a part of human endeavour where people work extremely hard, achieve an extraordinary amount, but, in the main, unless there’s a miracle (and we all know they’re …