Radio Music Magic – Paul Sasges

Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio Turn it up, that’s enough, so you know it’s got soul. ‘Caravan’, Van Morrison, 1970 The transistor radio came out between the vacuum tube in the fifties and the Walkman in the seventies. I spent many hours on our braided area rug prone upon my…

My Mother’s Quilt – Clare Reddaway

This is my mother’s quilt, but many other women have had a hand in it. It was started by my mother in the 1950s, and she made it for most of my life, in admittedly rather a desultory fashion. I remember her sitting on a freezing, pebbly beach in Suffolk, with the grey North Sea…

Mick Jagger Used to Call Me Mum – Jacqueline Ellis

When I was little, the dark staircase between the front and back rooms of my grandparents’ two-up, two-down terrace house had been a mountain. Each step a jagged, granite foothold; the shadowed landing a dark cloud hiding a kingdom of giants, or a castle encased in twisted branches. Their bedroom glowed yellow; the edges of…

ART: Natalie Bradford

Through countless retrievals, our memories of precious moments lose their ‘truth.’

ONE POEM – Elizabeth Wilson Davies

The unconsidered diaries of family life fall open at once favourite recipes,
bittersweet imprints on the page of stained, smeared, sticky memories.

Where I Lived – Robert Boucheron

Robert Boucheron grew up in Syracuse and Schenectady, NY. He has worked as an architect in New York City and Charlottesville, VA. His short stories and essays appear in Bangalore Review, Fiction International, The Fiction Pool, Litro, London Journal of Fiction, New Haven Review, Short Fiction. Where I Lived As the Great Recession brought construction to a standstill…

ART – Gavin Shepherdson

This artwork by Gavin is also featured in Issue Two of Porridge, available for purchase here. Gavin Shepherdson is a designer and artist from Lanchester, Durham. He studied Animation at Northumbria University and has exhibited short films at Ani’mest and Vilnius Festival among others. This will be his first publication for his artwork. His interests include…

The Haunted Present: Using the Past as an Emotional Context – Kat Hausler

Photo by Daniel Wander on Pexels Kat Hausler is a graduate of New York University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was the recipient of a Baumeister Fellowship. Her debut novel Retrograde was recently published by Meerkat Press. She writes and translates in Berlin. The Haunted Present: Using the Past as an Emotional Context In James…

ONE POEM – Katie Paterson

  Image: Gustav Klimt, Bauernhaus mit Birken, 1900 Katie is an actor and writer currently training on the MA Acting course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. She has performed her poetry at Redgates Theatre, Arcola, and once memorably at Metropolis Strip Club. She is currently developing her solo show ‘Minor Disruptions’.  Last Words ‘The birch leaves,…

PHOTOGRAPHY: MEMORY – Lucy Jane Purrington

Lucy Jane Purrington graduated with a first honours degree in Photographic Arts from the University of South Wales and is known for her video, performative and photographic work. These photographs by Lucy also appear in the inaugural print issue of Porridge which is available for purchase here. Memory is fluid. Influenced by time, perspective and place. We are made of…

Interdisciplinarity: A Brief Introduction – Dr Matt Hayler

Dr Matt Hayler is a lecturer in post-1945 Literature in the Department of English Literature at the University of Birmingham. His research interests focus on e-reading, materially experimental writing, digital humanities, critical theory, technology, and embodiment. He can be found on twitter @cryurchin. Interdisciplinarity: A Brief Introduction Interdisciplinarity is a long word for a good thing….

Does Tarantino’s use of Django, a lone, vengeful hero, offer a productive discourse in thinking about slavery in the contemporary moment? – Caitlin Stanway-Williams

Caitlin Stanway-Williams has an undergraduate degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham and is about to begin her MA in Creative Writing. So far she has specialised in surreal poetry, focusing on reworking Greek mythology in her dissertation, but is planning on developing into novel writing during her masters year.  Image credit:…