REVIEW: JO BRATTEN’S ‘CLIMACTERIC’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | ‘Climacteric’ contains numerous warnings: about the female body, about the planet, about the loss of loved ones that is the inevitable accompaniment of middle age, about a concurrent blurring of the self and its boundaries, presaged in the first poem and continued later in lines like […]
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS EMMA KEMP
Emma Kemp is a Coventry-based poet with work published in various magazines and journals, and is also the rep of the ‘Cov Stanza’ group. On 11th August, Emma headlined at our virtual Fire&Dust event. HCE caught up with her after the gig, to ask a few questions…
ART EXPOSURE INTERVIEW: COVENTRY GROTESQUES
Gargoyles and grotesques can be found in countries across Europe, such as France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK. Together, historical researcher Danny Reed and Coventry artist Mary Courtney are curating local grotesques on Instagram and have created an interactive ‘grotesque guide’ to Coventry (and beyond)…
September 2022 Round-up: Virtual Literary Events
September arrives, and summer begins to melt away into memories. Hopefully, one day, the Covid-19 pandemic will do the same. The HCE magazine team have created another list of online literary open mics, events and workshops, to help you plan for the weeks ahead. Don’t miss out!
Formatting: Theatre Script vs TV/Film Screenplay
By Emma Evans | Planning to write a script, but not sure yet whether you’ll want your masterpiece to be on primetime television or touring theatres? Confused over what these two script formats look like and how they differ? You’re in the right place!
Press Release: ‘Black Snowflakes Smothering a Torch’
At its foundation, ‘Black Snowflakes’ presupposes that many issues veterans face when reintegrating come not from the veteran’s traumas but from the hypocrisies inherent to American civilian culture itself. The book will be published in November 2022 with Woodhall Press […]
Emma and Eve Talk About Books…
By Emma Evans and Eve Volungeviciute | A discussion about thriller and crime novels between two HCE sub-editors. Emma and Eve compare and contrast a selection of books they’ve both read, and offer each other recommendations for new reading experiences…
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS TOM SASTRY
Bristol-based poet Tom Sastry was chosen by Carol Ann Duffy as one of the 2016 Laureate’s Choice poets. His 2022 collection, published with Nine Arches Press, is ‘You have no normal country to return to’. Tom was our August headliner for Fire & Dust at Cafe Morso and we caught up with him after the gig, to ask a few questions…
REVIEW: VRON MCINTYRE’S ‘RANDOM TRAIL’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | Vron McIntyre’s 2021 collection Random Trail is a tale of shifting perspectives. In ‘Patterns’, the opening poem, McIntyre wonderingly describes their childhood self, obsessed with how things work, as being “so sure it was patterns,/patterns through and through”. But despite their declaration that […]
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS SPOZ
Spoz (AKA Giovanni Esposito) is an award-winning performance poet, singer/songwriter, film-maker and playwright. Spoz also was the headliner at our Fire & Dust poetry event on 7th July 2022, and HCE caught up with him after the gig, to ask a few questions…