REVIEW: BEN ARMSTRONG’S ‘PERENNIAL’
“The whale king extends a flipper, walk with him”. To get the most from Ben Armstrong’s début collection, Perennial: Notes from a Weatherproof Journal, set aside your hesitations about the weirdness of this command, and go with it. You will be rewarded with a trip through an internal landscape that is spare, surreal and in places impenetrably strange; but which also […]
Announcement: Contributors to The Rituals Issue
In The Rituals Issue (January 2019), “everyone” was…
FIRE & DUST MEETS: HOLLY WATSON
We don’t want to pigeonhole you, so – in your own words, can you tell our readers what you do and what you’re about. I write a blog called The Coventry Conch about growing up on the outskirts of the city in the 90s and early 00s. […]
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS PETER RAYNARD
PRECARIOUS BY PETER RAYNARD Smokestack Books
ISBN 978-0-9957675-9-1 £7.99/95 pages
“Young Timmy knows how to enjoy himself, / he cleans double breasted windows, / or checks under the sink for some / scantily clad plumbing, before delivering / a whipped cream double entendre […]
INTERVIEW: FIRE & DUST MEETS NYANDA FODAY
In October 2016, Nyanda Foday became the 11th Birmingham Young Poet Laureate, a respected post that lasts two years. She has also worked with Beatfreaks, organising and performing at Beatfreak poetry events, and working to promote them. A regular at gigs across the city, Nyanda describes herself as inspired by the impact that words can have, and aiming to […]
REVIEW: DEBORAH ALMA’S ‘DIRTY LAUNDRY’
DIRTY LAUNDRY BY DEBORAH ALMA Nine Arches Press ISBN: 978-1911027416 £9.99/80 pages Reviewed by: Stella Backhouse For me, the turning point of Deborah Alma’s debut collection Dirty Laundry comes near the end. Until that point, Alma’s poems brim with with people: friends, family and – most notably – lovers. With the lovers, it usually […]
REVIEW: ANDREA MBARUSHIMANA’S ‘THE AFRICA IN MY HOUSE’
THE AFRICA IN MY HOUSE BY ANDREA MBARUSHIMANA Silhouette Press ISBN: 978-0993431524 £6.00/53 pages Reviewed by: Stella Backhouse A few lines into ‘Hyena’, the opening narrative of Andrea Mbarushimana’s short prose and poetry collection The Africa in my House, the unnamed narrator casually observes that “the buses are not […]
Three Benefits of Pre-ordering The Rituals Issue
Start your new year with some quality literature. Benefit Number 1: Free goodies included in the parcel If you’re one to get excited with little goodies included within a shipping, especially for books, this is your chance to get one. HCE strives to give our readers quality material to read along with the magazine, such as the occasional […]
REVIEW: ROY MCFARLANE’S ‘BEGINNING WITH YOUR LAST BREATH’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | ‘Home’ should ideally be the definition of ‘security’; but in Beginning With Your Last Breath, Roy McFarlane’s deeply affecting debut collection, the poet navigates the complexities of creating identity amidst a double-dose of unease. Firstly, growing up black in a […]
RITUALS FICTION: ‘FOOD FOR THOUGHT’ BY JOSEPHINE ALLEN
She looked at the four deep gashes. All it needed was a diagonal slice across and it would make a four-bar gate of a tally. It made her wonder who first began to count that way. […]