REVIEW: ROZ GODDARD’S ‘LOST CITY’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | “Two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, I was researching Roz Goddard’s chapbook Lost City in preparation for writing this review. As part of that, I came across a YouTube video of the collection’s online launch in November” […]
March 2022 Round-up: Virtual Literary Events
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 on taking part – seize this opportunity to “travel” far and wide, and even participate in events overseas…
REVIEW: ‘THE DERELICTION’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | Liz Berry and Tom Hicks’ alchemical Black Country poetry/photography collaboration ‘The Dereliction’ is fuelled by the same juxtaposition of intense feeling with overlooked and decaying landscapes as ‘Live Forever’ by Oasis. The project, which saw Berry respond with poetry to pictures taken by Hicks on an ordinary phone as he cycled around his local area […]
African Mythology: Gods and Monsters
By Eve Volungeviciute | Time for another virtual trip around the world! This time, we are heading to a warmer climate to take a look at African mythology, their folklore, creation myths and deities, as well as monsters…
REVIEW: RAYMOND ANTROBUS’S ‘THE PERSEVERANCE’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | The Perseverance is not only about D/deafness. It’s also about Antrobus’s experience as mixed race – another liminal space, another space of uncertain identity with full acceptance forthcoming from neither side. The missing piece that links D/deafness and race together, he suggests, is […]
FEBRUARY 2022 ROUND-UP: VIRTUAL LITERARY EVENTS
Here comes February! The HCE 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 on taking part…
REVIEW: JULIA WEBB’S ‘THREAT’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | ‘Threat’ is a lesson in how concentric rings of claustrophobic landscape – the body, the family, the town and community encircled by the dark and forbidding Thetford Forest – shape a parallel landscape of the mind. […]
REVIEW: JOHN MCCULLOUGH’S ‘RECKLESS PAPER BIRDS’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | These are not miserable poems – many of them brim with sensual pleasure in sex, tea and the natural world, flash with references to the city of Brighton, Grindr and Lady Gaga and sparkle with a vibrant colour symbolism reminiscent of […]
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS J. VAN RYAN
VanRyan is a Coventry-based poet and musician who describes himself as “appearing on the poet’s podium out of nowhere”. He spent 20 years as a singer/sax player, but that part of his life was unfortunately curtailed by a stroke…
REVIEW: GENEVIEVE CARVER’S ‘A BEAUTIFUL WAY TO BE CRAZY’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | Something invisible has magically become visible. This collection shines a light on the hidden experience of women in the music business. But it’s also about more than that. […]