ESSAY | A Citizen Of The World – Isaac Aju

There was something very claustrophobic about being in Nigeria. Nigeria gagged its people. Nigeria strangled people’s voices. People were often afraid to speak out. People were always afraid for no reason, and so being in Nigeria was the last thing you wanted to do. You wanted to move out of Nigeria. If that would not be possible, then you wanted to connect with people who were not Nigerians. You wanted to know more about the world. You wanted to move into the real world. You wanted your mindset to morph from Nigeria to The World.

PHOTOGRAPHY – Keith Moul

Keith Moul is a poet of place, a photographer of the distinction of place. His digital photos strive for a colourful vision with their high contrast and saturation. Both his poems and photos are published widely and available on his website, http://poemsphotosmoul.blogspot.com. Lost Lip (2012) The Arches Provincial Park, Newfoundland Ran Out of…

ONE POEM – Ian C. Smith

Image: Willem de Kooning – Valentine (1947) Ian C Smith’s work has appeared in, Amsterdam Quarterly, Antipodes, Australian Poetry Journal, Critical Survey, Live Encounters, The Stony Thursday Book, and Two-Thirds North. His seventh book is wonder sadness madness joy, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide). He writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, and on Flinders Island, Tasmania. Ambrose in…

SHORT STORY – Christopher S. Bell

Christopher S. Bell has been writing and releasing literary and musical works through My Idea of Fun since 2008. His sound projects include Emmett and Mary, Technological Epidemic, C. Scott and the Beltones and Fine Wives. My Idea of Fun is an art and music archive focused on digital preservation with roots in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (www.myideaoffun.org). Christopher’s work…

ART REVIEW: Where Privacy Meets Paranoia – Melissa Mesku

Melissa Mesku is a writer and editor in NYC. Where Privacy Meets Paranoia Bushwick artist builds a space for viewers to contemplate privacy “There’s people in your head,” artist Thierry Laurent explains, pointing to a silkscreen collage, one in his series of five called The Unknown. The image is dominated by an Illuminati-like eye. Below it,…

TWO POEMS – Josephine Greenland

Josephine Greenland is a British-Swedish writer holding an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. A prose writer at heart, she is currently working on her first novel. When not writing, she can be seen wandering in the mountains or playing her violin. U-nomia A biological cartographer in a bracken of unclassifieds…

An interview with Wanda Deglane

Wanda Deglane is a psychology/family & human development student at Arizona State University whose poetry has been published or is forthcoming on Dodging the Rain, Rust + Moth, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. Earlier this year, Wanda self-published her first book of poetry, Rainlily. Here, we find out more about Wanda’s journey into self-publishing and dig into the…

TWO POEMS – Ricky Garni

Image: ‘St James’ (acrylic on canvas) by the artist Pigcasso, who was saved from the slaughterhouse as a piglet and has taken up painting to international acclaim. Ricky Garni grew up in Florida and Maine, was educated at Exeter and Duke, and has lived off and on in the Triangle since 1977. Over the years he…

ART – Zoe Paterson

Zoe Paterson is an artist and Political Science graduate living in Birmingham. Horror stories are a big influence in her work, which aims to be simultaneously kitsch and unsettling. Her artistic influences include Francis Bacon, Dave McKean and all of the Goosebumps book covers. When she’s not painting, you’ll find her programming, skating, or learning…

ONE POEM – Aimee S. Green

Image: Wassily Kandinsky – Cossacks (1910) Aimee S. Green is an MA student currently living in Birmingham. Aside from working on a novel for her dissertation, she adores experimenting with short story forms and playing with perspective. She shares her poetry and prose on her blog, at https://aimeegreenwriter.wordpress.com/ Bombs Run. Like the bustling of a…

What does feminist dating look like? — Jennifer Maidment

Jennifer Maidment is an intersectional feminist who’s very active within her local community and also very single, so figured she’d would write about her experience/struggles. She’s an aspiring writer and is currently on leave from studying international law as an undergraduate at University of Birmingham. What does feminist dating look like? Meet Jennifer, a Gemini,…

THREE POEMS – Shirley Jones-Luke

Image: JACK WHITTEN, “Black Monolith, II: Homage To Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man,” 1994 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas: molasses, copper, salt, coal ash, chocolate, onion, herbs, rust, eggshell, razor blade). | © Jack Whitten, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Shirley Jones-Luke is a poet and a writer from Boston, Mass. She…

The Fight for Empowerment – ART REVIEW by Lauren Holder

Featured image credit: Shepard Fairey, 2007, Power and Equality, screenprint Lauren Holder is a recent Psychology graduate from the University of Birmingham. Currently, she is training with the NHS to become a mental health social worker alongside completing a masters in Social Work through the University of York. 1963, the height of the revolutionary civil rights…

Porridge

COMFORT FOODS // Bombay Toast – Samarth Agarwal

ONE POEM – Emilie Delcourt

FICTION | Salvage – Ian C Smith