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’
‘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 society that could seem – at best – ambivalent to his presence within it; and secondly, discovering that the couple he knew as Mum and Dad were […]
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. […]
RITUALS POETRY: ‘ALL SOULS’ BY RACHEL BURNS
All SoulsRachel Burns Collecting leaves for the compost heap, and flat-capped mushrooms on your knees in the wet grass. Stripping elderberries from branches at the roadside to make red ruby wine that will bubble in tall plastic vats in the airing cupboard....
RITUALS FICTION: ‘THE RITE OF ODOBENA’ BY ADAM MARKS
The Rite of OdobenaAdam Marks It was a dark, cloudy night: perfect! A group was gathered in a corner of Old St Pancras Churchyard. They were not a regular congregation. They were men and women of various ages, pepper-pot faces, ordinarily dressed, mostly;...
RITUALS FICTION: ‘WATCHING THE SATANISTS’ BY GERARD MCKEOWN
Watching The SatanistsGerard McKeown ‘We bought that goat with our own money and can sacrifice it to our Lord Satan if we feel like it.’Her screams land over the roof as I press the ignition. Something has died, or will die – a goat? Air clears through the...
RITUALS POETRY – ‘DECO DECORUM’ BY JANINA AZA KARPINSKA
Deco DecorumJanina Aza Karpinska As a young man he developed a taste forart deco artefacts – attracted by theirgeometric designs; curvaceous furniture,and dressers that displayed, to good effect,cups and saucers, and bric-a-brac, collecting as much as he...