REVIEW: LUCÍA ORELLANA DAMACELA’S ‘INHERENT’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | And yet here it was: so real I could almost feel its metallic, exhaust-fume breath blowing in my face. It made me wonder what other lost things live on inside my head, if only I could access them. ‘Inherent’, the 2020 collection from Ecuadorian-American poet Lucía Orellana Damacela is informed by a landscape rather more arresting […]
REVIEW: ANDREA MBARUSHIMANA’S ‘FATBERGS’
By Stella Backhouse | […] it’s hugely to Andrea Mbarushimana’s credit that she has not only confronted an urban phenomenon so unpalatable that most of us would prefer to not even think about it; but has turned it into a metaphor for modern life. Fatbergs is a mixed collection, embracing snapshots of 2020’s lockdowns along with poems about sex, childhood experiences and nature […]
MAY 2021: LIST OF LITERARY EVENTS ONLINE
Welcome to May! The HCE magazine team have created another list of literary open mics, events and workshops to help you plan for the weeks ahead. You can stay virus-free AND enjoy your favourite gigs. […]
TINA SEDERHOLM: FINAL WORD
Is your poem overwritten or underwritten? An advice article on the editing of poems, from guest writer Tina Sederholm.
REVIEW: TOM SASTRY’S ‘A MAN’S HOUSE CATCHES FIRE’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | Thanks to the pandemic, many of us are now wearyingly familiar with what Cohen calls “a contraction of life, and an almost parallel contraction of mental capacity”; yet at the same time, as Sastry captures in the poem ‘Thirty-two lines on loss’, the cautious inching back to ‘normality’ fills us with […]
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS COLIN WELLS
Colin Wells, multiple poetry slam finalist and winner of the 2019 Shrewsbury Festival of Literature Slam, was our Fire & Dust headliner in April 2021. We caught up with him after the gig, to ask a few questions…
April 2021: List of Literary Events Online
Welcome to April! The HCE magazine team have created another list of virtual literary open mics, events and workshops, to help you plan for the weeks ahead. Stay virus-free AND enjoy your favourite gigs. […]
‘FIRST LOOK’ BY EMMA EVANS
This piece of flash fiction by Emma Evans was written after (and inspired by) attending HCE’s launch event for The Green Issue.
REVIEW: ROMALYN ANTE’S ‘ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS’
By Stella Backhouse | Romalyn Ante’s 2020 meditation on the struggles and longings of migrant Filipino healthcare workers adjusting to life in dark, wintery Britain. The collection shines a welcome light on a too-often overlooked community, whose hard work and dedication to keeping the NHS afloat – both before the pandemic and even more so now […]
WRITING ADVICE: CHARACTERISING YOUR SETTING
By Emma Evans | Here, I want to look at writing settings in a slightly different way, or rather, look at aspects of setting you may not have considered in depth, which may help characterise settings further. I’ve chosen two points to focus on today, in particular, and hopefully they will be useful for you to put into practise when considering setting in your own pieces of writing. […]