darja bajagić

emily berry

laura jane faulds

alicia rodriguez

hannah regel

laura elliott

emily jones

luna miguel

donya todd

anna metcalfe

bea fremderman

emily toder

maya malou lyse

daniela olszewska

željka marošević

jan carson

alice charlotte ray

tender

4

7

8

14

16

17

19

23

27

30

33

35

38

41

42

43

45

one june 2012

bull

tender rsquotendən 1 lsquothe act or an instance of

tendering offerrsquo

a quarterly journal made by women

bull

editors sophie collins amp rachael allentendereditorsgmailcom

cover art by faye mcnulty

bull

3 tender bull one

What is commonly called literary history is actually a record of choices mdash Louise Bernikow The World Split Open

The idea for Tender came to us as a direct reaction to a quasi-viral YouTube video1 of Mark Grist performing his spoken-word piece lsquoI like a girl who readsrsquo2 Presenting us with a female cypher who has basic literacy but no critical faculties Gristrsquos poem expresses desires that correspond with the qualities historically demanded of lsquoladies in societyrsquo His ideal girl is charming acquiescent and quite literally in this instance voiceless

We are very conscious that Gristrsquos poem when compared with some of the consciously misogynistic violence and vitriol women encounter on a day to day basis doesnrsquot seem particularly threatening But it is a clear manifestation of the attitudes of ingrained sexism that are alive today evident in the way women continue to be objectified through menrsquos writing and in the chronic marginalisation of female writers artists and critics Gristrsquos poem makes a promise to the reader to perpetuate these attitudes

This type of female representation the silencing of the female voice and its writing out of history is just one fraction of a complex system of roots that exists in womenrsquos everyday experiences in the street in the media and in our relationships It acts as a catalyst for a society where men feel entitled to target women publicly where we always know what the rape victim was wearing where female victims of domestic violence are the ones facing judgement expected to speak out against their abusers andor lambasted for remaining with them

VIDA counts released in March are evidence of a problem persisting A project stemming from a simple idea lsquoto count the rates of publication between women and men in many of our writing worldrsquos most respected literary outletsrsquo VIDArsquos efforts met with an unanticipated volume of response on its exposition of the neglect of magazines such as Harpers The Paris Review and the Times Literary Supplement (among many others) to publish female writersrsquo work3

Reactions to the counts were as reprehensible as the numbers themselves ranging from lsquowomen writers should submit more work to magazinesrsquo and lsquomale

writers should submit lessrsquo to lsquowomen writers are whiners and should simply write better booksrsquo and lsquowomen writers should write about more ldquoimportantrdquo subjectsrsquo examples of the pervasiveness of internalised sexist attitudes that demonstrated at best a widespread ignorance of the history of a system of privilege and whitewashing and at worst complete denial of it The idea that work of high quality will against the odds always out is based in myth

The subject matter of women in the arts has always been a point of contention Louise Bernikow notes that lsquoit is interesting how the preoccupation with love in life or literature has been turned against womenrsquo Historically women have had to work within the confines of male tastes Some recognised that to write within these confines would place them in a position where they could hope to achieve success as authors some saw no other way to write But when they did deviate from themes of love or religion both of which are reinforced by a patriarchal value system they were heavily criticised At the same time the moment women began publishing love poems in their multitudes male arbiters of taste deemed lsquothe genre deflatedrsquo these feminine efforts dubbed sentimental saccharinemdash lsquothe heightened states of emotion out of which male poets were creating poetry were praised as revolutionary the heightened states of female emotion were denigrated and dismissed as second-ratersquo4

The same problem extends to visual arts In a recent article for The Guardian installation artist Judy Chicago professed to adopting lsquoldquomale dragrdquo ndash [making] work that looked like that of [her] male peers and echoed their concernsrsquo in order to create a space for herself5

We accept the belief that all-female platforms can be considered reductive arguably acting to increase the gulf between male and female writersartists through segregation Certain feminists will refuse inclusion in all-female anthologies on this basis not wanting to be defined by their gender allowing for a different kind of empowerment But because the concept of an all-female journal is still controversial provoking knee-jerk reactions to their exclusivity and accusations of (inverted) sexism the termlsquowomenrsquos workrsquo is still perceived as derogatory and archaic A female space is necessary mdash Editors

1 Video here 2 Full text here3 Look at the numbers here4 Introduction to The World Split Open Bernikow (Ed) p65 lsquoWe women artists refuse to be written out of historyrsquo

3 tender bull one

3 tender bull one

What is commonly called literary history is actually a record of choices mdash Louise Bernikow The World Split Open

The idea for Tender came to us as a direct reaction to a quasi-viral YouTube video1 of Mark Grist performing his spoken-word piece lsquoI like a girl who readsrsquo2 Presenting us with a female cypher who has basic literacy but no critical faculties Gristrsquos poem expresses desires that correspond with the qualities historically demanded of lsquoladies in societyrsquo His ideal girl is charming acquiescent and quite literally in this instance voiceless

We are very conscious that Gristrsquos poem when compared with some of the consciously misogynistic violence and vitriol women encounter on a day to day basis doesnrsquot seem particularly threatening But it is a clear manifestation of the attitudes of ingrained sexism that are alive today evident in the way women continue to be objectified through menrsquos writing and in the chronic marginalisation of female writers artists and critics Gristrsquos poem makes a promise to the reader to perpetuate these attitudes

This type of female representation the silencing of the female voice and its writing out of history is just one fraction of a complex system of roots that exists in womenrsquos everyday experiences in the street in the media and in our relationships It acts as a catalyst for a society where men feel entitled to target women publicly where we always know what the rape victim was wearing where female victims of domestic violence are the ones facing judgement expected to speak out against their abusers andor lambasted for remaining with them

VIDA counts released in March are evidence of a problem persisting A project stemming from a simple idea lsquoto count the rates of publication between women and men in many of our writing worldrsquos most respected literary outletsrsquo VIDArsquos efforts met with an unanticipated volume of response on its exposition of the neglect of magazines such as Harpers The Paris Review and the Times Literary Supplement (among many others) to publish female writersrsquo work3

Reactions to the counts were as reprehensible as the numbers themselves ranging from lsquowomen writers should submit more work to magazinesrsquo and lsquomale

writers should submit lessrsquo to lsquowomen writers are whiners and should simply write better booksrsquo and lsquowomen writers should write about more ldquoimportantrdquo subjectsrsquo examples of the pervasiveness of internalised sexist attitudes that demonstrated at best a widespread ignorance of the history of a system of privilege and whitewashing and at worst complete denial of it The idea that work of high quality will against the odds always out is based in myth

The subject matter of women in the arts has always been a point of contention Louise Bernikow notes that lsquoit is interesting how the preoccupation with love in life or literature has been turned against womenrsquo Historically women have had to work within the confines of male tastes Some recognised that to write within these confines would place them in a position where they could hope to achieve success as authors some saw no other way to write But when they did deviate from themes of love or religion both of which are reinforced by a patriarchal value system they were heavily criticised At the same time the moment women began publishing love poems in their multitudes male arbiters of taste deemed lsquothe genre deflatedrsquo these feminine efforts dubbed sentimental saccharinemdash lsquothe heightened states of emotion out of which male poets were creating poetry were praised as revolutionary the heightened states of female emotion were denigrated and dismissed as second-ratersquo4

The same problem extends to visual arts In a recent article for The Guardian installation artist Judy Chicago professed to adopting lsquoldquomale dragrdquo ndash [making] work that looked like that of [her] male peers and echoed their concernsrsquo in order to create a space for herself5

We accept the belief that all-female platforms can be considered reductive arguably acting to increase the gulf between male and female writersartists through segregation Certain feminists will refuse inclusion in all-female anthologies on this basis not wanting to be defined by their gender allowing for a different kind of empowerment But because the concept of an all-female journal is still controversial provoking knee-jerk reactions to their exclusivity and accusations of (inverted) sexism the termlsquowomenrsquos workrsquo is still perceived as derogatory and archaic A female space is necessary mdash Editors

1 Video here 2 Full text here3 Look at the numbers here4 Introduction to The World Split Open Bernikow (Ed) p65 lsquoWe women artists refuse to be written out of historyrsquo

3 tender bull one

7 tender bull one

Soap

This hope with Australian wild peach is what keeps me going I spell your namewith macademia nut never mind jojoba One oil is the aromathe other is the carrier Often I wonder how does the carrier feel I always see hierarchySome letters of the alphabet for exampleare more powerful T is oneT is such a strong character

Top note heart note base notewhich would you rather be I call my dadto ask what botanicals were in vogue in his dayWhenever I pick up the phone I hear the sea Maybe balsam he saysSometimes the last one you think of is the one whorsquoll know

emily berry

8 tender bull one

A List Of All The Things I Want To Do Like In General

1 Irsquove got this plant in my window I named it Harriet but Irsquom not really attached to it or anything Harriet is dying I donrsquot care Sometimes Irsquoll just dump some water out of my water bottle all over Harriet but for the most part Irsquom letting her die I might throw her out before she even dies fully

2 Every morning I wake up generally sort of jazzed to start out a new day My room is a filthy disgusting mess I donrsquot even like coffee I just drink it because I do

I bought some stupid pyjama pants at Value Village a month ago When Irsquom doing things in my apartment I usually am wearing those pants Theyrsquore very ugly pants I think theyrsquore meant for a man but obviously I donrsquot care

The city I live in is ugly Itrsquos Toronto All cities are ugly in my opinionmdash I feel like I have to make that clear to you I donrsquot want you to think Irsquom running around writing stories about how ugly Toronto is at the same time as Irsquom claiming I think say Paris is very beautiful I think Paris is ugly I guess I donrsquot know it well I went there once when I was eleven and the next summer I went again when I was twelve I remember eating a tuna sandwich with egg on it in the shade of the Eiffel Tower and really liking the egg the sandwich in general I know now itrsquos called a pan-bagnat and I guess I should feel pretty cool about that pretty great that I have that snazzy cool Paris memory but I donrsquot care about it I donrsquot care that I have that memory I donrsquot care about Paris and I hate when people make a big deal out of talking about all the fancy things they did the time they went to Paris once Or anywhere in France reallymdash unless itrsquos food or wine-related Food and wine Irsquom always down to talk about Otherwise Irsquom tired of listening to people explain about their stupid memories from Paris Boring brags I feel like most adults canrsquot handle the responsibility of Paris existing

My mother is from France Her father died and her mother is dying Her one brother is very macho very crass and then her sister is somebodyrsquos wife and her other sister is somebodyrsquos alcoholic wife then shersquos got just a normal brother Luc whorsquos just a regular guy So I guess this is me trying to prove that in real life therersquos nothing very cool or interesting about being from France

3 I was looking at a woman holding a Banana Republic shopping bag She was resting the shopping bag on the mucky subway floor and I was standing so I could see into the bag I looked at the womanrsquos face and clothing the make-up on her face

laura jane faulds

9 tender bull one

It was a long shoebox in the bag so I could tell it was for knee-high boots I looked back up at her face and thought lsquoThis is you on the day you bought those bootsrsquo maybe I was staring a little I was just staring down that box thinking of every day shersquod ever wear them boots like that probably leather boots I imaginedmdash very durable You buy them for work and fall and spring and snow and sleet You buy them to take them off at the end of a long day Yoursquore pretty happy to take them off but by a point theyrsquoll pretty muchrsquove welded to the shape of your foot and yoursquore pretty happy you donrsquot have a boyfriend at a point yoursquore pretty happy nobody ever has to smell that smell of your five-month-long boot-foot except for you

Some lady on the subwayrsquos future boots-relationship with her boots The boots just hanging out in the wherever she keeps her boots section of her apartment or home all summer long and then the frost the air chills socks you remember socks all her different socks and stockings touching the boots the elements beating them upmdash Banana Republic is a pretty high-quality brand or at least it claims to be Shersquoll have those boots for awhile Shersquoll do a lot of stuff

The dates shersquoll go on in those boots and the work-things the work Christmas parties nights when she thought she was going to wear sexier shoes but her feet hurt from a long day and she canrsquot be bothered so shersquoll just throw her good old boots on And shersquoll be happy to see them at the end of every summer and many or few but definitely some years will pass and air and time will surround her and I was just some girl who canrsquot remember what her face looks like and couldnrsquot even an hour later It makes me sad that I canrsquot see it all at once

It doesnrsquot make sense to me how you could look at me and not see every single thing I ever did I want to know everything about her boots until the day she throws her boots out and I want to know about her post-boots life and her bootrsquos post-her life and I want you to know everything about my boots I want to know everything about my own boots I want everyone to know everything about everyone

4 I work at a restaurant I went to work last night Itrsquos spring really decent spring and the weatherrsquos making some songs sound so good which makes me want to write down lists of songs I think sound so good and post them to the Internet but I havenrsquot yet and probably never will it just seems like a really trite and dumbass thing to do with my time

The front wall of my restaurant is floor-to-ceiling windows they open up into doors to let the breeze blow in My old bartender came from Mexico City and last September when the breeze turned cool and blew in he told me thatrsquos how the weather always feels in Mexico City I said I didnrsquot know that I said I just thought it was really hot in Mexico City because I donrsquot know Mexico thatrsquos just how we think of Mexico As being a hot place He told me Mexico Cityrsquos on top of a mountain and that sounded really nice to me When I think about being on top of a mountain I think about the blood inside your ears going thin

Last night it was just me and a busser A little busser I donrsquot pay very much attention to him The night passed and the sun set The air cooled down a bit as it naturally would do In the night the breeze can get a bit haunting

10 tender bull one

A group of three ladies walked in around 8 as my restaurant was just about to peak at its most lsquoMexico City on the peak of a mountaintoprsquo weather-vibes of the whole night I donrsquot know if I mean to say lsquoIt felt safe and magicalrsquo or lsquoI felt safe and magicalrsquo I expected myself to write lsquoProbably bothrsquo after writing that sentence but I donrsquot think lsquoProbably bothrsquo is true either I think it was either one or the other and my inability to figure it out is just sort of lsquowhere Irsquom atrsquo these days lsquoWhere Irsquom atrsquo is just one of those things people say that pretty much mean nothing but occasionally mean kind of something

They were probably not too much older than I am but they may as well have been forty-five and I may as well have been seventeen They probably got married when they were five years younger than I am and had babies one and three years later We obviously made some very different choices they and I Two wore glasses and one did not

There was this whole affair with the air I donrsquot know why some people get so hung up on making sure itrsquos always exact perfect room temperature I hate extreme cold as much as the next guy but yoursquove got to feel it Yoursquove got to get so hot your stomach hurts

lsquoI canrsquot have air blowing on mersquo said the one lady a glasses-wearer She had a voice so nasal it sounded literally like pinch your nose and say the sentence lsquoWell if she doesnrsquot get it without serrano shersquos going to send it backrsquo out loud and then there you have some insight into what it felt like to be me living my life last night

(lsquoThatrsquos tragicrsquo I imagined myself saying or maybe lsquoYes you can yoursquove got to have air blowing on you sometimesrsquo)

I turned off the AC and shut the window The night unfolded and was a night I opened the window I made a joke What if I lived in a parallel universe where I hadnrsquot cut the hem off that vintage dress I bought I wouldnrsquot have cut it too short to wear over bare legs and so what would all the days I didnrsquot wear it have looked like had I worn it and arenrsquot you so happy yoursquore not a fish Or are you sad yoursquore not a fish It seems like yoursquove got to be one or the other You could never be indifferent lsquoFish or human fish or human same thingrsquo

Irsquom personally very happy Irsquom not a fish Irsquod rather be a tree The leaves are popping out of the branches (itrsquos spring) the leaves are babies and they are alive the trees are so tall the branches form a canopy itrsquos magic itrsquos the most beautiful thingmdash safe and magical I just realised the best two things any thing could ever bemdash I just think about how old they are and I get so jealous of the trees for living as long as they do So much longer than me And then I pity the trees for not getting to think about things but I still think Irsquod rather be a tree Irsquod pick a couple hundred years over thinking Irsquod pick a couple hundred extra years over just about anything But I guess Irsquom still pretty young Maybe when Irsquom old Irsquoll be more bored of life

5 They drank water and were chintzy The one without the glasses was my favourite for no reason except that sometimes certain weirdos turn up in life so they can be arbitrarily loved by you Sometimes they teach you a lesson but for the most part they donrsquot Theyrsquore just semi-pleasant to be around for an hour or so and then theyrsquore gone and yoursquove forgotten

11 tender bull one

She wrapped her olive-drab chenille blanket tighter around her shoulders like she was Beth from Little Women dying I guess maybe it wasnrsquot a blanket it was probably a shawl She spoke in a whispery lisp It made me want to give her things

While I was filling up her water glass she asked her friends lsquoAre you going to come watch me do my Spice Girls thingrsquo

They said nothing lsquoIrsquom going to be Gingerrsquo she went on lsquoGingerrsquos my favouritersquo I saidmdash nah interjected lsquoDo you think I could pull it offrsquo she asked lsquoThe red hairrsquo I wondered why she was asking me that I was a stranger I said lsquoYesrsquo and brought her some tea

6 I do feel like she oddly clung to me lsquoIrsquom so weirdrsquo she said as I was waiting for the one with the nasal voice to finish paying up Her friends again ignored her She ignored their ignoring her and held up her phone to show them something It was an iPhone set to the program lsquoNotesrsquo That awful yellow picture of a page and that font She looked up at me Her eyebrows were thin and short I thought lsquoHer eyebrows are thin and shortrsquo lsquoI make these listsrsquo she said lsquoThese weird listsrsquo lsquoThatrsquos coolrsquo I said lsquoI make lists on Notes toorsquo (I thought about the last list Irsquod made on Notes It was a list of the more whimsical CAPTCHAs Irsquod been offered while illegally streaming episodes of 30 Rock on vidxdencom last Februarymdash Lucille 2Never give upSandy beachAbra cadabraDark horseShe sellsStar wars kidHim with herChicken soupWorship nothing) lsquoI make lists of like all the things I want to dorsquo she said lsquoThatrsquos normalrsquo said her friend lsquoTo-do listsrsquo lsquoI make to-do listsrsquo I piped up (I thought about the last to-do list Irsquod made

12 tender bull one

Figure out Karen Walker dress cleanliness levelsShampooCondishApplesBreakfastCall Canada Revenue AgencyDrink 0 or 1 night this week) lsquoItrsquos not a to-do listrsquo she snapped back a rubber band snapback lsquoItrsquos a list of all the things I want to do like in generalrsquo lsquoLike whatrsquo I asked lsquoKnittingrsquo she said lsquoKnittingrsquos a big one Knitting sewing That place Sew It Up I want to take a class therersquo lsquoThatrsquos awesomersquo I said lsquoYou should do that You should definitely do thatrsquo lsquoSwim with the dolphinsrsquo she said like duhhhhhh lsquoWork at McDonaldrsquosmdashrsquo lsquoReallyrsquo I asked lsquoYeahrsquo she said lsquoI just want to see what it would be likersquo lsquoProbably terriblersquo I said lsquoBut I just want to knowrsquo she said I said lsquoIrsquom sure theyrsquod hire yoursquo and wondered what it would feel like to have been born so rich yoursquod wonder what it felt like to work at McDonaldrsquos instead of just being grateful you never had to or worried that you one day might

7 (A list of all the things I want to do like in general) I want myself to have already written every word Irsquoll ever write and I wish I never wrote any of the words I already wrote I want to save a child from drowning I want to play baseball in a league or field hockey I want to ski again I want to be the kind of person who calls other people by their last names and itrsquod sound really breezy very easy I want to make up nicknames for some of my co-workers and call my co-workers by their adorable new nicknames that make them feel loved by me I want to go to one of those perfumiers and get my dream perfume made I want to be nicer to my mother I want to hire a personal trainer and get ripped At Starbucks when they ask me my name for the cup I want to start lying and saying my name is Kate I think Irsquod make a really good Kate I want to move away I want to make a lot of money I want to move to London I want to run awayI want a dog I want two dogs I want a dog and a cat I want two dogs and two cats I want to live in tiny terrible apartments for most of my life I want to spend all my money on clothes and food and booze I want to live in a treehouse for a while I want to be a tree I want to run restaurants and own restaurants and sell restaurants I want a husband and a dog When Irsquom old I want my hair to turn white and Irsquoll have a bob I want to spend so much time in the sun my skin turns to leather like an

13 tender bull one

Australian personrsquos I want to write a novel but only one I want the world to be sad I only wrote one novel and Irsquoll roll my eyes and curl up my lip and tell the world lsquoSuck it up worldrsquomdash I want to get harder and harder I want someone to tie me up Irsquod like to own an extensive collection of vintage office supplies I want a Rolodex I want to cry a lot because I like crying I want to kiss his collarbone I want him to kiss my collarbone I want a winery I want lsquoIrsquom gonna make a lot of money and Irsquom gonna quit this crazy scenersquo to just get truer and truer about me Maybe I donrsquot want a winery after all Irsquod probably move to France I believe that I am a person who can handle the responsibility of France existing I want to get bored of France I want to be extraordinarily successful so I can scorn my success and run away to India Irsquove seen God but only on psychedelic drugs I always think itrsquos going to stick but it never does I want to stop painting black crap on my eyelashes and thinking I look like shit if I donrsquot Sometimes when I have a crush on a boy I entertain myself by looking through all the pictures on my phone from his perspective think about how many cool things I look at and then remember to take a picture of and applaud myself I try to be sweet to service employees and not sigh audibly when people are taking a long time in line in front of me The other day I hated a guy I went to high school with for Facebook status-updating lsquoMcMuffin for dinnerhellip Irsquom a bad widdle boyrsquo which is also really weird when you think about how itrsquos kind of common knowledge that McDonaldrsquos stops serving egg McMuffins at like ten in the fucking morning so I guess maybe he uses the blanket term lsquoMcMuffinrsquo to designate all breakfast sandwiches and I hated him for that and I sort of hate myself for bothering to write down the words lsquobreakfast sandwichrsquo lsquodesignatersquo and italicizing all How drippy And earlier today I hated a girl for saying lsquoIrsquom fatter than yoursquo to her two friends meaning she had eaten her full sandwich while they had each only eaten one sandwich half and then I hated her again when she said she was worried about how the boy she had a crush on ate mushrooms Mushrooms the drug She was really making a mountain out of a molehill He already took the mushrooms He didnrsquot die So ideally I would want to eliminate all parts of my personality that make me think those sorts of thoughts I want to paint that colour powder on my face that people paint on their hair and faces when they go to India I want them to invent an iPod screen that works with mittens on I guess I want AmEx instead of Visa and while Irsquom on the subject sort of why do Visa the credit card and Visas the travel document have the same name Theyrsquore too similar to have the same name but not similar enough to be the same thing I just looked it up on the Internet and found out that lsquovisarsquo is Latin and means lsquopaper that has been seenrsquomdash what a beautiful five word phrasing This is a visa too then This is visa

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

8 tender bull one

A List Of All The Things I Want To Do Like In General

1 Irsquove got this plant in my window I named it Harriet but Irsquom not really attached to it or anything Harriet is dying I donrsquot care Sometimes Irsquoll just dump some water out of my water bottle all over Harriet but for the most part Irsquom letting her die I might throw her out before she even dies fully

2 Every morning I wake up generally sort of jazzed to start out a new day My room is a filthy disgusting mess I donrsquot even like coffee I just drink it because I do

I bought some stupid pyjama pants at Value Village a month ago When Irsquom doing things in my apartment I usually am wearing those pants Theyrsquore very ugly pants I think theyrsquore meant for a man but obviously I donrsquot care

The city I live in is ugly Itrsquos Toronto All cities are ugly in my opinionmdash I feel like I have to make that clear to you I donrsquot want you to think Irsquom running around writing stories about how ugly Toronto is at the same time as Irsquom claiming I think say Paris is very beautiful I think Paris is ugly I guess I donrsquot know it well I went there once when I was eleven and the next summer I went again when I was twelve I remember eating a tuna sandwich with egg on it in the shade of the Eiffel Tower and really liking the egg the sandwich in general I know now itrsquos called a pan-bagnat and I guess I should feel pretty cool about that pretty great that I have that snazzy cool Paris memory but I donrsquot care about it I donrsquot care that I have that memory I donrsquot care about Paris and I hate when people make a big deal out of talking about all the fancy things they did the time they went to Paris once Or anywhere in France reallymdash unless itrsquos food or wine-related Food and wine Irsquom always down to talk about Otherwise Irsquom tired of listening to people explain about their stupid memories from Paris Boring brags I feel like most adults canrsquot handle the responsibility of Paris existing

My mother is from France Her father died and her mother is dying Her one brother is very macho very crass and then her sister is somebodyrsquos wife and her other sister is somebodyrsquos alcoholic wife then shersquos got just a normal brother Luc whorsquos just a regular guy So I guess this is me trying to prove that in real life therersquos nothing very cool or interesting about being from France

3 I was looking at a woman holding a Banana Republic shopping bag She was resting the shopping bag on the mucky subway floor and I was standing so I could see into the bag I looked at the womanrsquos face and clothing the make-up on her face

laura jane faulds

9 tender bull one

It was a long shoebox in the bag so I could tell it was for knee-high boots I looked back up at her face and thought lsquoThis is you on the day you bought those bootsrsquo maybe I was staring a little I was just staring down that box thinking of every day shersquod ever wear them boots like that probably leather boots I imaginedmdash very durable You buy them for work and fall and spring and snow and sleet You buy them to take them off at the end of a long day Yoursquore pretty happy to take them off but by a point theyrsquoll pretty muchrsquove welded to the shape of your foot and yoursquore pretty happy you donrsquot have a boyfriend at a point yoursquore pretty happy nobody ever has to smell that smell of your five-month-long boot-foot except for you

Some lady on the subwayrsquos future boots-relationship with her boots The boots just hanging out in the wherever she keeps her boots section of her apartment or home all summer long and then the frost the air chills socks you remember socks all her different socks and stockings touching the boots the elements beating them upmdash Banana Republic is a pretty high-quality brand or at least it claims to be Shersquoll have those boots for awhile Shersquoll do a lot of stuff

The dates shersquoll go on in those boots and the work-things the work Christmas parties nights when she thought she was going to wear sexier shoes but her feet hurt from a long day and she canrsquot be bothered so shersquoll just throw her good old boots on And shersquoll be happy to see them at the end of every summer and many or few but definitely some years will pass and air and time will surround her and I was just some girl who canrsquot remember what her face looks like and couldnrsquot even an hour later It makes me sad that I canrsquot see it all at once

It doesnrsquot make sense to me how you could look at me and not see every single thing I ever did I want to know everything about her boots until the day she throws her boots out and I want to know about her post-boots life and her bootrsquos post-her life and I want you to know everything about my boots I want to know everything about my own boots I want everyone to know everything about everyone

4 I work at a restaurant I went to work last night Itrsquos spring really decent spring and the weatherrsquos making some songs sound so good which makes me want to write down lists of songs I think sound so good and post them to the Internet but I havenrsquot yet and probably never will it just seems like a really trite and dumbass thing to do with my time

The front wall of my restaurant is floor-to-ceiling windows they open up into doors to let the breeze blow in My old bartender came from Mexico City and last September when the breeze turned cool and blew in he told me thatrsquos how the weather always feels in Mexico City I said I didnrsquot know that I said I just thought it was really hot in Mexico City because I donrsquot know Mexico thatrsquos just how we think of Mexico As being a hot place He told me Mexico Cityrsquos on top of a mountain and that sounded really nice to me When I think about being on top of a mountain I think about the blood inside your ears going thin

Last night it was just me and a busser A little busser I donrsquot pay very much attention to him The night passed and the sun set The air cooled down a bit as it naturally would do In the night the breeze can get a bit haunting

10 tender bull one

A group of three ladies walked in around 8 as my restaurant was just about to peak at its most lsquoMexico City on the peak of a mountaintoprsquo weather-vibes of the whole night I donrsquot know if I mean to say lsquoIt felt safe and magicalrsquo or lsquoI felt safe and magicalrsquo I expected myself to write lsquoProbably bothrsquo after writing that sentence but I donrsquot think lsquoProbably bothrsquo is true either I think it was either one or the other and my inability to figure it out is just sort of lsquowhere Irsquom atrsquo these days lsquoWhere Irsquom atrsquo is just one of those things people say that pretty much mean nothing but occasionally mean kind of something

They were probably not too much older than I am but they may as well have been forty-five and I may as well have been seventeen They probably got married when they were five years younger than I am and had babies one and three years later We obviously made some very different choices they and I Two wore glasses and one did not

There was this whole affair with the air I donrsquot know why some people get so hung up on making sure itrsquos always exact perfect room temperature I hate extreme cold as much as the next guy but yoursquove got to feel it Yoursquove got to get so hot your stomach hurts

lsquoI canrsquot have air blowing on mersquo said the one lady a glasses-wearer She had a voice so nasal it sounded literally like pinch your nose and say the sentence lsquoWell if she doesnrsquot get it without serrano shersquos going to send it backrsquo out loud and then there you have some insight into what it felt like to be me living my life last night

(lsquoThatrsquos tragicrsquo I imagined myself saying or maybe lsquoYes you can yoursquove got to have air blowing on you sometimesrsquo)

I turned off the AC and shut the window The night unfolded and was a night I opened the window I made a joke What if I lived in a parallel universe where I hadnrsquot cut the hem off that vintage dress I bought I wouldnrsquot have cut it too short to wear over bare legs and so what would all the days I didnrsquot wear it have looked like had I worn it and arenrsquot you so happy yoursquore not a fish Or are you sad yoursquore not a fish It seems like yoursquove got to be one or the other You could never be indifferent lsquoFish or human fish or human same thingrsquo

Irsquom personally very happy Irsquom not a fish Irsquod rather be a tree The leaves are popping out of the branches (itrsquos spring) the leaves are babies and they are alive the trees are so tall the branches form a canopy itrsquos magic itrsquos the most beautiful thingmdash safe and magical I just realised the best two things any thing could ever bemdash I just think about how old they are and I get so jealous of the trees for living as long as they do So much longer than me And then I pity the trees for not getting to think about things but I still think Irsquod rather be a tree Irsquod pick a couple hundred years over thinking Irsquod pick a couple hundred extra years over just about anything But I guess Irsquom still pretty young Maybe when Irsquom old Irsquoll be more bored of life

5 They drank water and were chintzy The one without the glasses was my favourite for no reason except that sometimes certain weirdos turn up in life so they can be arbitrarily loved by you Sometimes they teach you a lesson but for the most part they donrsquot Theyrsquore just semi-pleasant to be around for an hour or so and then theyrsquore gone and yoursquove forgotten

11 tender bull one

She wrapped her olive-drab chenille blanket tighter around her shoulders like she was Beth from Little Women dying I guess maybe it wasnrsquot a blanket it was probably a shawl She spoke in a whispery lisp It made me want to give her things

While I was filling up her water glass she asked her friends lsquoAre you going to come watch me do my Spice Girls thingrsquo

They said nothing lsquoIrsquom going to be Gingerrsquo she went on lsquoGingerrsquos my favouritersquo I saidmdash nah interjected lsquoDo you think I could pull it offrsquo she asked lsquoThe red hairrsquo I wondered why she was asking me that I was a stranger I said lsquoYesrsquo and brought her some tea

6 I do feel like she oddly clung to me lsquoIrsquom so weirdrsquo she said as I was waiting for the one with the nasal voice to finish paying up Her friends again ignored her She ignored their ignoring her and held up her phone to show them something It was an iPhone set to the program lsquoNotesrsquo That awful yellow picture of a page and that font She looked up at me Her eyebrows were thin and short I thought lsquoHer eyebrows are thin and shortrsquo lsquoI make these listsrsquo she said lsquoThese weird listsrsquo lsquoThatrsquos coolrsquo I said lsquoI make lists on Notes toorsquo (I thought about the last list Irsquod made on Notes It was a list of the more whimsical CAPTCHAs Irsquod been offered while illegally streaming episodes of 30 Rock on vidxdencom last Februarymdash Lucille 2Never give upSandy beachAbra cadabraDark horseShe sellsStar wars kidHim with herChicken soupWorship nothing) lsquoI make lists of like all the things I want to dorsquo she said lsquoThatrsquos normalrsquo said her friend lsquoTo-do listsrsquo lsquoI make to-do listsrsquo I piped up (I thought about the last to-do list Irsquod made

12 tender bull one

Figure out Karen Walker dress cleanliness levelsShampooCondishApplesBreakfastCall Canada Revenue AgencyDrink 0 or 1 night this week) lsquoItrsquos not a to-do listrsquo she snapped back a rubber band snapback lsquoItrsquos a list of all the things I want to do like in generalrsquo lsquoLike whatrsquo I asked lsquoKnittingrsquo she said lsquoKnittingrsquos a big one Knitting sewing That place Sew It Up I want to take a class therersquo lsquoThatrsquos awesomersquo I said lsquoYou should do that You should definitely do thatrsquo lsquoSwim with the dolphinsrsquo she said like duhhhhhh lsquoWork at McDonaldrsquosmdashrsquo lsquoReallyrsquo I asked lsquoYeahrsquo she said lsquoI just want to see what it would be likersquo lsquoProbably terriblersquo I said lsquoBut I just want to knowrsquo she said I said lsquoIrsquom sure theyrsquod hire yoursquo and wondered what it would feel like to have been born so rich yoursquod wonder what it felt like to work at McDonaldrsquos instead of just being grateful you never had to or worried that you one day might

7 (A list of all the things I want to do like in general) I want myself to have already written every word Irsquoll ever write and I wish I never wrote any of the words I already wrote I want to save a child from drowning I want to play baseball in a league or field hockey I want to ski again I want to be the kind of person who calls other people by their last names and itrsquod sound really breezy very easy I want to make up nicknames for some of my co-workers and call my co-workers by their adorable new nicknames that make them feel loved by me I want to go to one of those perfumiers and get my dream perfume made I want to be nicer to my mother I want to hire a personal trainer and get ripped At Starbucks when they ask me my name for the cup I want to start lying and saying my name is Kate I think Irsquod make a really good Kate I want to move away I want to make a lot of money I want to move to London I want to run awayI want a dog I want two dogs I want a dog and a cat I want two dogs and two cats I want to live in tiny terrible apartments for most of my life I want to spend all my money on clothes and food and booze I want to live in a treehouse for a while I want to be a tree I want to run restaurants and own restaurants and sell restaurants I want a husband and a dog When Irsquom old I want my hair to turn white and Irsquoll have a bob I want to spend so much time in the sun my skin turns to leather like an

13 tender bull one

Australian personrsquos I want to write a novel but only one I want the world to be sad I only wrote one novel and Irsquoll roll my eyes and curl up my lip and tell the world lsquoSuck it up worldrsquomdash I want to get harder and harder I want someone to tie me up Irsquod like to own an extensive collection of vintage office supplies I want a Rolodex I want to cry a lot because I like crying I want to kiss his collarbone I want him to kiss my collarbone I want a winery I want lsquoIrsquom gonna make a lot of money and Irsquom gonna quit this crazy scenersquo to just get truer and truer about me Maybe I donrsquot want a winery after all Irsquod probably move to France I believe that I am a person who can handle the responsibility of France existing I want to get bored of France I want to be extraordinarily successful so I can scorn my success and run away to India Irsquove seen God but only on psychedelic drugs I always think itrsquos going to stick but it never does I want to stop painting black crap on my eyelashes and thinking I look like shit if I donrsquot Sometimes when I have a crush on a boy I entertain myself by looking through all the pictures on my phone from his perspective think about how many cool things I look at and then remember to take a picture of and applaud myself I try to be sweet to service employees and not sigh audibly when people are taking a long time in line in front of me The other day I hated a guy I went to high school with for Facebook status-updating lsquoMcMuffin for dinnerhellip Irsquom a bad widdle boyrsquo which is also really weird when you think about how itrsquos kind of common knowledge that McDonaldrsquos stops serving egg McMuffins at like ten in the fucking morning so I guess maybe he uses the blanket term lsquoMcMuffinrsquo to designate all breakfast sandwiches and I hated him for that and I sort of hate myself for bothering to write down the words lsquobreakfast sandwichrsquo lsquodesignatersquo and italicizing all How drippy And earlier today I hated a girl for saying lsquoIrsquom fatter than yoursquo to her two friends meaning she had eaten her full sandwich while they had each only eaten one sandwich half and then I hated her again when she said she was worried about how the boy she had a crush on ate mushrooms Mushrooms the drug She was really making a mountain out of a molehill He already took the mushrooms He didnrsquot die So ideally I would want to eliminate all parts of my personality that make me think those sorts of thoughts I want to paint that colour powder on my face that people paint on their hair and faces when they go to India I want them to invent an iPod screen that works with mittens on I guess I want AmEx instead of Visa and while Irsquom on the subject sort of why do Visa the credit card and Visas the travel document have the same name Theyrsquore too similar to have the same name but not similar enough to be the same thing I just looked it up on the Internet and found out that lsquovisarsquo is Latin and means lsquopaper that has been seenrsquomdash what a beautiful five word phrasing This is a visa too then This is visa

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

9 tender bull one

It was a long shoebox in the bag so I could tell it was for knee-high boots I looked back up at her face and thought lsquoThis is you on the day you bought those bootsrsquo maybe I was staring a little I was just staring down that box thinking of every day shersquod ever wear them boots like that probably leather boots I imaginedmdash very durable You buy them for work and fall and spring and snow and sleet You buy them to take them off at the end of a long day Yoursquore pretty happy to take them off but by a point theyrsquoll pretty muchrsquove welded to the shape of your foot and yoursquore pretty happy you donrsquot have a boyfriend at a point yoursquore pretty happy nobody ever has to smell that smell of your five-month-long boot-foot except for you

Some lady on the subwayrsquos future boots-relationship with her boots The boots just hanging out in the wherever she keeps her boots section of her apartment or home all summer long and then the frost the air chills socks you remember socks all her different socks and stockings touching the boots the elements beating them upmdash Banana Republic is a pretty high-quality brand or at least it claims to be Shersquoll have those boots for awhile Shersquoll do a lot of stuff

The dates shersquoll go on in those boots and the work-things the work Christmas parties nights when she thought she was going to wear sexier shoes but her feet hurt from a long day and she canrsquot be bothered so shersquoll just throw her good old boots on And shersquoll be happy to see them at the end of every summer and many or few but definitely some years will pass and air and time will surround her and I was just some girl who canrsquot remember what her face looks like and couldnrsquot even an hour later It makes me sad that I canrsquot see it all at once

It doesnrsquot make sense to me how you could look at me and not see every single thing I ever did I want to know everything about her boots until the day she throws her boots out and I want to know about her post-boots life and her bootrsquos post-her life and I want you to know everything about my boots I want to know everything about my own boots I want everyone to know everything about everyone

4 I work at a restaurant I went to work last night Itrsquos spring really decent spring and the weatherrsquos making some songs sound so good which makes me want to write down lists of songs I think sound so good and post them to the Internet but I havenrsquot yet and probably never will it just seems like a really trite and dumbass thing to do with my time

The front wall of my restaurant is floor-to-ceiling windows they open up into doors to let the breeze blow in My old bartender came from Mexico City and last September when the breeze turned cool and blew in he told me thatrsquos how the weather always feels in Mexico City I said I didnrsquot know that I said I just thought it was really hot in Mexico City because I donrsquot know Mexico thatrsquos just how we think of Mexico As being a hot place He told me Mexico Cityrsquos on top of a mountain and that sounded really nice to me When I think about being on top of a mountain I think about the blood inside your ears going thin

Last night it was just me and a busser A little busser I donrsquot pay very much attention to him The night passed and the sun set The air cooled down a bit as it naturally would do In the night the breeze can get a bit haunting

10 tender bull one

A group of three ladies walked in around 8 as my restaurant was just about to peak at its most lsquoMexico City on the peak of a mountaintoprsquo weather-vibes of the whole night I donrsquot know if I mean to say lsquoIt felt safe and magicalrsquo or lsquoI felt safe and magicalrsquo I expected myself to write lsquoProbably bothrsquo after writing that sentence but I donrsquot think lsquoProbably bothrsquo is true either I think it was either one or the other and my inability to figure it out is just sort of lsquowhere Irsquom atrsquo these days lsquoWhere Irsquom atrsquo is just one of those things people say that pretty much mean nothing but occasionally mean kind of something

They were probably not too much older than I am but they may as well have been forty-five and I may as well have been seventeen They probably got married when they were five years younger than I am and had babies one and three years later We obviously made some very different choices they and I Two wore glasses and one did not

There was this whole affair with the air I donrsquot know why some people get so hung up on making sure itrsquos always exact perfect room temperature I hate extreme cold as much as the next guy but yoursquove got to feel it Yoursquove got to get so hot your stomach hurts

lsquoI canrsquot have air blowing on mersquo said the one lady a glasses-wearer She had a voice so nasal it sounded literally like pinch your nose and say the sentence lsquoWell if she doesnrsquot get it without serrano shersquos going to send it backrsquo out loud and then there you have some insight into what it felt like to be me living my life last night

(lsquoThatrsquos tragicrsquo I imagined myself saying or maybe lsquoYes you can yoursquove got to have air blowing on you sometimesrsquo)

I turned off the AC and shut the window The night unfolded and was a night I opened the window I made a joke What if I lived in a parallel universe where I hadnrsquot cut the hem off that vintage dress I bought I wouldnrsquot have cut it too short to wear over bare legs and so what would all the days I didnrsquot wear it have looked like had I worn it and arenrsquot you so happy yoursquore not a fish Or are you sad yoursquore not a fish It seems like yoursquove got to be one or the other You could never be indifferent lsquoFish or human fish or human same thingrsquo

Irsquom personally very happy Irsquom not a fish Irsquod rather be a tree The leaves are popping out of the branches (itrsquos spring) the leaves are babies and they are alive the trees are so tall the branches form a canopy itrsquos magic itrsquos the most beautiful thingmdash safe and magical I just realised the best two things any thing could ever bemdash I just think about how old they are and I get so jealous of the trees for living as long as they do So much longer than me And then I pity the trees for not getting to think about things but I still think Irsquod rather be a tree Irsquod pick a couple hundred years over thinking Irsquod pick a couple hundred extra years over just about anything But I guess Irsquom still pretty young Maybe when Irsquom old Irsquoll be more bored of life

5 They drank water and were chintzy The one without the glasses was my favourite for no reason except that sometimes certain weirdos turn up in life so they can be arbitrarily loved by you Sometimes they teach you a lesson but for the most part they donrsquot Theyrsquore just semi-pleasant to be around for an hour or so and then theyrsquore gone and yoursquove forgotten

11 tender bull one

She wrapped her olive-drab chenille blanket tighter around her shoulders like she was Beth from Little Women dying I guess maybe it wasnrsquot a blanket it was probably a shawl She spoke in a whispery lisp It made me want to give her things

While I was filling up her water glass she asked her friends lsquoAre you going to come watch me do my Spice Girls thingrsquo

They said nothing lsquoIrsquom going to be Gingerrsquo she went on lsquoGingerrsquos my favouritersquo I saidmdash nah interjected lsquoDo you think I could pull it offrsquo she asked lsquoThe red hairrsquo I wondered why she was asking me that I was a stranger I said lsquoYesrsquo and brought her some tea

6 I do feel like she oddly clung to me lsquoIrsquom so weirdrsquo she said as I was waiting for the one with the nasal voice to finish paying up Her friends again ignored her She ignored their ignoring her and held up her phone to show them something It was an iPhone set to the program lsquoNotesrsquo That awful yellow picture of a page and that font She looked up at me Her eyebrows were thin and short I thought lsquoHer eyebrows are thin and shortrsquo lsquoI make these listsrsquo she said lsquoThese weird listsrsquo lsquoThatrsquos coolrsquo I said lsquoI make lists on Notes toorsquo (I thought about the last list Irsquod made on Notes It was a list of the more whimsical CAPTCHAs Irsquod been offered while illegally streaming episodes of 30 Rock on vidxdencom last Februarymdash Lucille 2Never give upSandy beachAbra cadabraDark horseShe sellsStar wars kidHim with herChicken soupWorship nothing) lsquoI make lists of like all the things I want to dorsquo she said lsquoThatrsquos normalrsquo said her friend lsquoTo-do listsrsquo lsquoI make to-do listsrsquo I piped up (I thought about the last to-do list Irsquod made

12 tender bull one

Figure out Karen Walker dress cleanliness levelsShampooCondishApplesBreakfastCall Canada Revenue AgencyDrink 0 or 1 night this week) lsquoItrsquos not a to-do listrsquo she snapped back a rubber band snapback lsquoItrsquos a list of all the things I want to do like in generalrsquo lsquoLike whatrsquo I asked lsquoKnittingrsquo she said lsquoKnittingrsquos a big one Knitting sewing That place Sew It Up I want to take a class therersquo lsquoThatrsquos awesomersquo I said lsquoYou should do that You should definitely do thatrsquo lsquoSwim with the dolphinsrsquo she said like duhhhhhh lsquoWork at McDonaldrsquosmdashrsquo lsquoReallyrsquo I asked lsquoYeahrsquo she said lsquoI just want to see what it would be likersquo lsquoProbably terriblersquo I said lsquoBut I just want to knowrsquo she said I said lsquoIrsquom sure theyrsquod hire yoursquo and wondered what it would feel like to have been born so rich yoursquod wonder what it felt like to work at McDonaldrsquos instead of just being grateful you never had to or worried that you one day might

7 (A list of all the things I want to do like in general) I want myself to have already written every word Irsquoll ever write and I wish I never wrote any of the words I already wrote I want to save a child from drowning I want to play baseball in a league or field hockey I want to ski again I want to be the kind of person who calls other people by their last names and itrsquod sound really breezy very easy I want to make up nicknames for some of my co-workers and call my co-workers by their adorable new nicknames that make them feel loved by me I want to go to one of those perfumiers and get my dream perfume made I want to be nicer to my mother I want to hire a personal trainer and get ripped At Starbucks when they ask me my name for the cup I want to start lying and saying my name is Kate I think Irsquod make a really good Kate I want to move away I want to make a lot of money I want to move to London I want to run awayI want a dog I want two dogs I want a dog and a cat I want two dogs and two cats I want to live in tiny terrible apartments for most of my life I want to spend all my money on clothes and food and booze I want to live in a treehouse for a while I want to be a tree I want to run restaurants and own restaurants and sell restaurants I want a husband and a dog When Irsquom old I want my hair to turn white and Irsquoll have a bob I want to spend so much time in the sun my skin turns to leather like an

13 tender bull one

Australian personrsquos I want to write a novel but only one I want the world to be sad I only wrote one novel and Irsquoll roll my eyes and curl up my lip and tell the world lsquoSuck it up worldrsquomdash I want to get harder and harder I want someone to tie me up Irsquod like to own an extensive collection of vintage office supplies I want a Rolodex I want to cry a lot because I like crying I want to kiss his collarbone I want him to kiss my collarbone I want a winery I want lsquoIrsquom gonna make a lot of money and Irsquom gonna quit this crazy scenersquo to just get truer and truer about me Maybe I donrsquot want a winery after all Irsquod probably move to France I believe that I am a person who can handle the responsibility of France existing I want to get bored of France I want to be extraordinarily successful so I can scorn my success and run away to India Irsquove seen God but only on psychedelic drugs I always think itrsquos going to stick but it never does I want to stop painting black crap on my eyelashes and thinking I look like shit if I donrsquot Sometimes when I have a crush on a boy I entertain myself by looking through all the pictures on my phone from his perspective think about how many cool things I look at and then remember to take a picture of and applaud myself I try to be sweet to service employees and not sigh audibly when people are taking a long time in line in front of me The other day I hated a guy I went to high school with for Facebook status-updating lsquoMcMuffin for dinnerhellip Irsquom a bad widdle boyrsquo which is also really weird when you think about how itrsquos kind of common knowledge that McDonaldrsquos stops serving egg McMuffins at like ten in the fucking morning so I guess maybe he uses the blanket term lsquoMcMuffinrsquo to designate all breakfast sandwiches and I hated him for that and I sort of hate myself for bothering to write down the words lsquobreakfast sandwichrsquo lsquodesignatersquo and italicizing all How drippy And earlier today I hated a girl for saying lsquoIrsquom fatter than yoursquo to her two friends meaning she had eaten her full sandwich while they had each only eaten one sandwich half and then I hated her again when she said she was worried about how the boy she had a crush on ate mushrooms Mushrooms the drug She was really making a mountain out of a molehill He already took the mushrooms He didnrsquot die So ideally I would want to eliminate all parts of my personality that make me think those sorts of thoughts I want to paint that colour powder on my face that people paint on their hair and faces when they go to India I want them to invent an iPod screen that works with mittens on I guess I want AmEx instead of Visa and while Irsquom on the subject sort of why do Visa the credit card and Visas the travel document have the same name Theyrsquore too similar to have the same name but not similar enough to be the same thing I just looked it up on the Internet and found out that lsquovisarsquo is Latin and means lsquopaper that has been seenrsquomdash what a beautiful five word phrasing This is a visa too then This is visa

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

10 tender bull one

A group of three ladies walked in around 8 as my restaurant was just about to peak at its most lsquoMexico City on the peak of a mountaintoprsquo weather-vibes of the whole night I donrsquot know if I mean to say lsquoIt felt safe and magicalrsquo or lsquoI felt safe and magicalrsquo I expected myself to write lsquoProbably bothrsquo after writing that sentence but I donrsquot think lsquoProbably bothrsquo is true either I think it was either one or the other and my inability to figure it out is just sort of lsquowhere Irsquom atrsquo these days lsquoWhere Irsquom atrsquo is just one of those things people say that pretty much mean nothing but occasionally mean kind of something

They were probably not too much older than I am but they may as well have been forty-five and I may as well have been seventeen They probably got married when they were five years younger than I am and had babies one and three years later We obviously made some very different choices they and I Two wore glasses and one did not

There was this whole affair with the air I donrsquot know why some people get so hung up on making sure itrsquos always exact perfect room temperature I hate extreme cold as much as the next guy but yoursquove got to feel it Yoursquove got to get so hot your stomach hurts

lsquoI canrsquot have air blowing on mersquo said the one lady a glasses-wearer She had a voice so nasal it sounded literally like pinch your nose and say the sentence lsquoWell if she doesnrsquot get it without serrano shersquos going to send it backrsquo out loud and then there you have some insight into what it felt like to be me living my life last night

(lsquoThatrsquos tragicrsquo I imagined myself saying or maybe lsquoYes you can yoursquove got to have air blowing on you sometimesrsquo)

I turned off the AC and shut the window The night unfolded and was a night I opened the window I made a joke What if I lived in a parallel universe where I hadnrsquot cut the hem off that vintage dress I bought I wouldnrsquot have cut it too short to wear over bare legs and so what would all the days I didnrsquot wear it have looked like had I worn it and arenrsquot you so happy yoursquore not a fish Or are you sad yoursquore not a fish It seems like yoursquove got to be one or the other You could never be indifferent lsquoFish or human fish or human same thingrsquo

Irsquom personally very happy Irsquom not a fish Irsquod rather be a tree The leaves are popping out of the branches (itrsquos spring) the leaves are babies and they are alive the trees are so tall the branches form a canopy itrsquos magic itrsquos the most beautiful thingmdash safe and magical I just realised the best two things any thing could ever bemdash I just think about how old they are and I get so jealous of the trees for living as long as they do So much longer than me And then I pity the trees for not getting to think about things but I still think Irsquod rather be a tree Irsquod pick a couple hundred years over thinking Irsquod pick a couple hundred extra years over just about anything But I guess Irsquom still pretty young Maybe when Irsquom old Irsquoll be more bored of life

5 They drank water and were chintzy The one without the glasses was my favourite for no reason except that sometimes certain weirdos turn up in life so they can be arbitrarily loved by you Sometimes they teach you a lesson but for the most part they donrsquot Theyrsquore just semi-pleasant to be around for an hour or so and then theyrsquore gone and yoursquove forgotten

11 tender bull one

She wrapped her olive-drab chenille blanket tighter around her shoulders like she was Beth from Little Women dying I guess maybe it wasnrsquot a blanket it was probably a shawl She spoke in a whispery lisp It made me want to give her things

While I was filling up her water glass she asked her friends lsquoAre you going to come watch me do my Spice Girls thingrsquo

They said nothing lsquoIrsquom going to be Gingerrsquo she went on lsquoGingerrsquos my favouritersquo I saidmdash nah interjected lsquoDo you think I could pull it offrsquo she asked lsquoThe red hairrsquo I wondered why she was asking me that I was a stranger I said lsquoYesrsquo and brought her some tea

6 I do feel like she oddly clung to me lsquoIrsquom so weirdrsquo she said as I was waiting for the one with the nasal voice to finish paying up Her friends again ignored her She ignored their ignoring her and held up her phone to show them something It was an iPhone set to the program lsquoNotesrsquo That awful yellow picture of a page and that font She looked up at me Her eyebrows were thin and short I thought lsquoHer eyebrows are thin and shortrsquo lsquoI make these listsrsquo she said lsquoThese weird listsrsquo lsquoThatrsquos coolrsquo I said lsquoI make lists on Notes toorsquo (I thought about the last list Irsquod made on Notes It was a list of the more whimsical CAPTCHAs Irsquod been offered while illegally streaming episodes of 30 Rock on vidxdencom last Februarymdash Lucille 2Never give upSandy beachAbra cadabraDark horseShe sellsStar wars kidHim with herChicken soupWorship nothing) lsquoI make lists of like all the things I want to dorsquo she said lsquoThatrsquos normalrsquo said her friend lsquoTo-do listsrsquo lsquoI make to-do listsrsquo I piped up (I thought about the last to-do list Irsquod made

12 tender bull one

Figure out Karen Walker dress cleanliness levelsShampooCondishApplesBreakfastCall Canada Revenue AgencyDrink 0 or 1 night this week) lsquoItrsquos not a to-do listrsquo she snapped back a rubber band snapback lsquoItrsquos a list of all the things I want to do like in generalrsquo lsquoLike whatrsquo I asked lsquoKnittingrsquo she said lsquoKnittingrsquos a big one Knitting sewing That place Sew It Up I want to take a class therersquo lsquoThatrsquos awesomersquo I said lsquoYou should do that You should definitely do thatrsquo lsquoSwim with the dolphinsrsquo she said like duhhhhhh lsquoWork at McDonaldrsquosmdashrsquo lsquoReallyrsquo I asked lsquoYeahrsquo she said lsquoI just want to see what it would be likersquo lsquoProbably terriblersquo I said lsquoBut I just want to knowrsquo she said I said lsquoIrsquom sure theyrsquod hire yoursquo and wondered what it would feel like to have been born so rich yoursquod wonder what it felt like to work at McDonaldrsquos instead of just being grateful you never had to or worried that you one day might

7 (A list of all the things I want to do like in general) I want myself to have already written every word Irsquoll ever write and I wish I never wrote any of the words I already wrote I want to save a child from drowning I want to play baseball in a league or field hockey I want to ski again I want to be the kind of person who calls other people by their last names and itrsquod sound really breezy very easy I want to make up nicknames for some of my co-workers and call my co-workers by their adorable new nicknames that make them feel loved by me I want to go to one of those perfumiers and get my dream perfume made I want to be nicer to my mother I want to hire a personal trainer and get ripped At Starbucks when they ask me my name for the cup I want to start lying and saying my name is Kate I think Irsquod make a really good Kate I want to move away I want to make a lot of money I want to move to London I want to run awayI want a dog I want two dogs I want a dog and a cat I want two dogs and two cats I want to live in tiny terrible apartments for most of my life I want to spend all my money on clothes and food and booze I want to live in a treehouse for a while I want to be a tree I want to run restaurants and own restaurants and sell restaurants I want a husband and a dog When Irsquom old I want my hair to turn white and Irsquoll have a bob I want to spend so much time in the sun my skin turns to leather like an

13 tender bull one

Australian personrsquos I want to write a novel but only one I want the world to be sad I only wrote one novel and Irsquoll roll my eyes and curl up my lip and tell the world lsquoSuck it up worldrsquomdash I want to get harder and harder I want someone to tie me up Irsquod like to own an extensive collection of vintage office supplies I want a Rolodex I want to cry a lot because I like crying I want to kiss his collarbone I want him to kiss my collarbone I want a winery I want lsquoIrsquom gonna make a lot of money and Irsquom gonna quit this crazy scenersquo to just get truer and truer about me Maybe I donrsquot want a winery after all Irsquod probably move to France I believe that I am a person who can handle the responsibility of France existing I want to get bored of France I want to be extraordinarily successful so I can scorn my success and run away to India Irsquove seen God but only on psychedelic drugs I always think itrsquos going to stick but it never does I want to stop painting black crap on my eyelashes and thinking I look like shit if I donrsquot Sometimes when I have a crush on a boy I entertain myself by looking through all the pictures on my phone from his perspective think about how many cool things I look at and then remember to take a picture of and applaud myself I try to be sweet to service employees and not sigh audibly when people are taking a long time in line in front of me The other day I hated a guy I went to high school with for Facebook status-updating lsquoMcMuffin for dinnerhellip Irsquom a bad widdle boyrsquo which is also really weird when you think about how itrsquos kind of common knowledge that McDonaldrsquos stops serving egg McMuffins at like ten in the fucking morning so I guess maybe he uses the blanket term lsquoMcMuffinrsquo to designate all breakfast sandwiches and I hated him for that and I sort of hate myself for bothering to write down the words lsquobreakfast sandwichrsquo lsquodesignatersquo and italicizing all How drippy And earlier today I hated a girl for saying lsquoIrsquom fatter than yoursquo to her two friends meaning she had eaten her full sandwich while they had each only eaten one sandwich half and then I hated her again when she said she was worried about how the boy she had a crush on ate mushrooms Mushrooms the drug She was really making a mountain out of a molehill He already took the mushrooms He didnrsquot die So ideally I would want to eliminate all parts of my personality that make me think those sorts of thoughts I want to paint that colour powder on my face that people paint on their hair and faces when they go to India I want them to invent an iPod screen that works with mittens on I guess I want AmEx instead of Visa and while Irsquom on the subject sort of why do Visa the credit card and Visas the travel document have the same name Theyrsquore too similar to have the same name but not similar enough to be the same thing I just looked it up on the Internet and found out that lsquovisarsquo is Latin and means lsquopaper that has been seenrsquomdash what a beautiful five word phrasing This is a visa too then This is visa

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

11 tender bull one

She wrapped her olive-drab chenille blanket tighter around her shoulders like she was Beth from Little Women dying I guess maybe it wasnrsquot a blanket it was probably a shawl She spoke in a whispery lisp It made me want to give her things

While I was filling up her water glass she asked her friends lsquoAre you going to come watch me do my Spice Girls thingrsquo

They said nothing lsquoIrsquom going to be Gingerrsquo she went on lsquoGingerrsquos my favouritersquo I saidmdash nah interjected lsquoDo you think I could pull it offrsquo she asked lsquoThe red hairrsquo I wondered why she was asking me that I was a stranger I said lsquoYesrsquo and brought her some tea

6 I do feel like she oddly clung to me lsquoIrsquom so weirdrsquo she said as I was waiting for the one with the nasal voice to finish paying up Her friends again ignored her She ignored their ignoring her and held up her phone to show them something It was an iPhone set to the program lsquoNotesrsquo That awful yellow picture of a page and that font She looked up at me Her eyebrows were thin and short I thought lsquoHer eyebrows are thin and shortrsquo lsquoI make these listsrsquo she said lsquoThese weird listsrsquo lsquoThatrsquos coolrsquo I said lsquoI make lists on Notes toorsquo (I thought about the last list Irsquod made on Notes It was a list of the more whimsical CAPTCHAs Irsquod been offered while illegally streaming episodes of 30 Rock on vidxdencom last Februarymdash Lucille 2Never give upSandy beachAbra cadabraDark horseShe sellsStar wars kidHim with herChicken soupWorship nothing) lsquoI make lists of like all the things I want to dorsquo she said lsquoThatrsquos normalrsquo said her friend lsquoTo-do listsrsquo lsquoI make to-do listsrsquo I piped up (I thought about the last to-do list Irsquod made

12 tender bull one

Figure out Karen Walker dress cleanliness levelsShampooCondishApplesBreakfastCall Canada Revenue AgencyDrink 0 or 1 night this week) lsquoItrsquos not a to-do listrsquo she snapped back a rubber band snapback lsquoItrsquos a list of all the things I want to do like in generalrsquo lsquoLike whatrsquo I asked lsquoKnittingrsquo she said lsquoKnittingrsquos a big one Knitting sewing That place Sew It Up I want to take a class therersquo lsquoThatrsquos awesomersquo I said lsquoYou should do that You should definitely do thatrsquo lsquoSwim with the dolphinsrsquo she said like duhhhhhh lsquoWork at McDonaldrsquosmdashrsquo lsquoReallyrsquo I asked lsquoYeahrsquo she said lsquoI just want to see what it would be likersquo lsquoProbably terriblersquo I said lsquoBut I just want to knowrsquo she said I said lsquoIrsquom sure theyrsquod hire yoursquo and wondered what it would feel like to have been born so rich yoursquod wonder what it felt like to work at McDonaldrsquos instead of just being grateful you never had to or worried that you one day might

7 (A list of all the things I want to do like in general) I want myself to have already written every word Irsquoll ever write and I wish I never wrote any of the words I already wrote I want to save a child from drowning I want to play baseball in a league or field hockey I want to ski again I want to be the kind of person who calls other people by their last names and itrsquod sound really breezy very easy I want to make up nicknames for some of my co-workers and call my co-workers by their adorable new nicknames that make them feel loved by me I want to go to one of those perfumiers and get my dream perfume made I want to be nicer to my mother I want to hire a personal trainer and get ripped At Starbucks when they ask me my name for the cup I want to start lying and saying my name is Kate I think Irsquod make a really good Kate I want to move away I want to make a lot of money I want to move to London I want to run awayI want a dog I want two dogs I want a dog and a cat I want two dogs and two cats I want to live in tiny terrible apartments for most of my life I want to spend all my money on clothes and food and booze I want to live in a treehouse for a while I want to be a tree I want to run restaurants and own restaurants and sell restaurants I want a husband and a dog When Irsquom old I want my hair to turn white and Irsquoll have a bob I want to spend so much time in the sun my skin turns to leather like an

13 tender bull one

Australian personrsquos I want to write a novel but only one I want the world to be sad I only wrote one novel and Irsquoll roll my eyes and curl up my lip and tell the world lsquoSuck it up worldrsquomdash I want to get harder and harder I want someone to tie me up Irsquod like to own an extensive collection of vintage office supplies I want a Rolodex I want to cry a lot because I like crying I want to kiss his collarbone I want him to kiss my collarbone I want a winery I want lsquoIrsquom gonna make a lot of money and Irsquom gonna quit this crazy scenersquo to just get truer and truer about me Maybe I donrsquot want a winery after all Irsquod probably move to France I believe that I am a person who can handle the responsibility of France existing I want to get bored of France I want to be extraordinarily successful so I can scorn my success and run away to India Irsquove seen God but only on psychedelic drugs I always think itrsquos going to stick but it never does I want to stop painting black crap on my eyelashes and thinking I look like shit if I donrsquot Sometimes when I have a crush on a boy I entertain myself by looking through all the pictures on my phone from his perspective think about how many cool things I look at and then remember to take a picture of and applaud myself I try to be sweet to service employees and not sigh audibly when people are taking a long time in line in front of me The other day I hated a guy I went to high school with for Facebook status-updating lsquoMcMuffin for dinnerhellip Irsquom a bad widdle boyrsquo which is also really weird when you think about how itrsquos kind of common knowledge that McDonaldrsquos stops serving egg McMuffins at like ten in the fucking morning so I guess maybe he uses the blanket term lsquoMcMuffinrsquo to designate all breakfast sandwiches and I hated him for that and I sort of hate myself for bothering to write down the words lsquobreakfast sandwichrsquo lsquodesignatersquo and italicizing all How drippy And earlier today I hated a girl for saying lsquoIrsquom fatter than yoursquo to her two friends meaning she had eaten her full sandwich while they had each only eaten one sandwich half and then I hated her again when she said she was worried about how the boy she had a crush on ate mushrooms Mushrooms the drug She was really making a mountain out of a molehill He already took the mushrooms He didnrsquot die So ideally I would want to eliminate all parts of my personality that make me think those sorts of thoughts I want to paint that colour powder on my face that people paint on their hair and faces when they go to India I want them to invent an iPod screen that works with mittens on I guess I want AmEx instead of Visa and while Irsquom on the subject sort of why do Visa the credit card and Visas the travel document have the same name Theyrsquore too similar to have the same name but not similar enough to be the same thing I just looked it up on the Internet and found out that lsquovisarsquo is Latin and means lsquopaper that has been seenrsquomdash what a beautiful five word phrasing This is a visa too then This is visa

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

12 tender bull one

Figure out Karen Walker dress cleanliness levelsShampooCondishApplesBreakfastCall Canada Revenue AgencyDrink 0 or 1 night this week) lsquoItrsquos not a to-do listrsquo she snapped back a rubber band snapback lsquoItrsquos a list of all the things I want to do like in generalrsquo lsquoLike whatrsquo I asked lsquoKnittingrsquo she said lsquoKnittingrsquos a big one Knitting sewing That place Sew It Up I want to take a class therersquo lsquoThatrsquos awesomersquo I said lsquoYou should do that You should definitely do thatrsquo lsquoSwim with the dolphinsrsquo she said like duhhhhhh lsquoWork at McDonaldrsquosmdashrsquo lsquoReallyrsquo I asked lsquoYeahrsquo she said lsquoI just want to see what it would be likersquo lsquoProbably terriblersquo I said lsquoBut I just want to knowrsquo she said I said lsquoIrsquom sure theyrsquod hire yoursquo and wondered what it would feel like to have been born so rich yoursquod wonder what it felt like to work at McDonaldrsquos instead of just being grateful you never had to or worried that you one day might

7 (A list of all the things I want to do like in general) I want myself to have already written every word Irsquoll ever write and I wish I never wrote any of the words I already wrote I want to save a child from drowning I want to play baseball in a league or field hockey I want to ski again I want to be the kind of person who calls other people by their last names and itrsquod sound really breezy very easy I want to make up nicknames for some of my co-workers and call my co-workers by their adorable new nicknames that make them feel loved by me I want to go to one of those perfumiers and get my dream perfume made I want to be nicer to my mother I want to hire a personal trainer and get ripped At Starbucks when they ask me my name for the cup I want to start lying and saying my name is Kate I think Irsquod make a really good Kate I want to move away I want to make a lot of money I want to move to London I want to run awayI want a dog I want two dogs I want a dog and a cat I want two dogs and two cats I want to live in tiny terrible apartments for most of my life I want to spend all my money on clothes and food and booze I want to live in a treehouse for a while I want to be a tree I want to run restaurants and own restaurants and sell restaurants I want a husband and a dog When Irsquom old I want my hair to turn white and Irsquoll have a bob I want to spend so much time in the sun my skin turns to leather like an

13 tender bull one

Australian personrsquos I want to write a novel but only one I want the world to be sad I only wrote one novel and Irsquoll roll my eyes and curl up my lip and tell the world lsquoSuck it up worldrsquomdash I want to get harder and harder I want someone to tie me up Irsquod like to own an extensive collection of vintage office supplies I want a Rolodex I want to cry a lot because I like crying I want to kiss his collarbone I want him to kiss my collarbone I want a winery I want lsquoIrsquom gonna make a lot of money and Irsquom gonna quit this crazy scenersquo to just get truer and truer about me Maybe I donrsquot want a winery after all Irsquod probably move to France I believe that I am a person who can handle the responsibility of France existing I want to get bored of France I want to be extraordinarily successful so I can scorn my success and run away to India Irsquove seen God but only on psychedelic drugs I always think itrsquos going to stick but it never does I want to stop painting black crap on my eyelashes and thinking I look like shit if I donrsquot Sometimes when I have a crush on a boy I entertain myself by looking through all the pictures on my phone from his perspective think about how many cool things I look at and then remember to take a picture of and applaud myself I try to be sweet to service employees and not sigh audibly when people are taking a long time in line in front of me The other day I hated a guy I went to high school with for Facebook status-updating lsquoMcMuffin for dinnerhellip Irsquom a bad widdle boyrsquo which is also really weird when you think about how itrsquos kind of common knowledge that McDonaldrsquos stops serving egg McMuffins at like ten in the fucking morning so I guess maybe he uses the blanket term lsquoMcMuffinrsquo to designate all breakfast sandwiches and I hated him for that and I sort of hate myself for bothering to write down the words lsquobreakfast sandwichrsquo lsquodesignatersquo and italicizing all How drippy And earlier today I hated a girl for saying lsquoIrsquom fatter than yoursquo to her two friends meaning she had eaten her full sandwich while they had each only eaten one sandwich half and then I hated her again when she said she was worried about how the boy she had a crush on ate mushrooms Mushrooms the drug She was really making a mountain out of a molehill He already took the mushrooms He didnrsquot die So ideally I would want to eliminate all parts of my personality that make me think those sorts of thoughts I want to paint that colour powder on my face that people paint on their hair and faces when they go to India I want them to invent an iPod screen that works with mittens on I guess I want AmEx instead of Visa and while Irsquom on the subject sort of why do Visa the credit card and Visas the travel document have the same name Theyrsquore too similar to have the same name but not similar enough to be the same thing I just looked it up on the Internet and found out that lsquovisarsquo is Latin and means lsquopaper that has been seenrsquomdash what a beautiful five word phrasing This is a visa too then This is visa

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

13 tender bull one

Australian personrsquos I want to write a novel but only one I want the world to be sad I only wrote one novel and Irsquoll roll my eyes and curl up my lip and tell the world lsquoSuck it up worldrsquomdash I want to get harder and harder I want someone to tie me up Irsquod like to own an extensive collection of vintage office supplies I want a Rolodex I want to cry a lot because I like crying I want to kiss his collarbone I want him to kiss my collarbone I want a winery I want lsquoIrsquom gonna make a lot of money and Irsquom gonna quit this crazy scenersquo to just get truer and truer about me Maybe I donrsquot want a winery after all Irsquod probably move to France I believe that I am a person who can handle the responsibility of France existing I want to get bored of France I want to be extraordinarily successful so I can scorn my success and run away to India Irsquove seen God but only on psychedelic drugs I always think itrsquos going to stick but it never does I want to stop painting black crap on my eyelashes and thinking I look like shit if I donrsquot Sometimes when I have a crush on a boy I entertain myself by looking through all the pictures on my phone from his perspective think about how many cool things I look at and then remember to take a picture of and applaud myself I try to be sweet to service employees and not sigh audibly when people are taking a long time in line in front of me The other day I hated a guy I went to high school with for Facebook status-updating lsquoMcMuffin for dinnerhellip Irsquom a bad widdle boyrsquo which is also really weird when you think about how itrsquos kind of common knowledge that McDonaldrsquos stops serving egg McMuffins at like ten in the fucking morning so I guess maybe he uses the blanket term lsquoMcMuffinrsquo to designate all breakfast sandwiches and I hated him for that and I sort of hate myself for bothering to write down the words lsquobreakfast sandwichrsquo lsquodesignatersquo and italicizing all How drippy And earlier today I hated a girl for saying lsquoIrsquom fatter than yoursquo to her two friends meaning she had eaten her full sandwich while they had each only eaten one sandwich half and then I hated her again when she said she was worried about how the boy she had a crush on ate mushrooms Mushrooms the drug She was really making a mountain out of a molehill He already took the mushrooms He didnrsquot die So ideally I would want to eliminate all parts of my personality that make me think those sorts of thoughts I want to paint that colour powder on my face that people paint on their hair and faces when they go to India I want them to invent an iPod screen that works with mittens on I guess I want AmEx instead of Visa and while Irsquom on the subject sort of why do Visa the credit card and Visas the travel document have the same name Theyrsquore too similar to have the same name but not similar enough to be the same thing I just looked it up on the Internet and found out that lsquovisarsquo is Latin and means lsquopaper that has been seenrsquomdash what a beautiful five word phrasing This is a visa too then This is visa

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

My mother who I miss from now on more than ever 2013 Oil on mdf board 12 x 12cm

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

Votive 2013 Oil and dammar varnish on mdf board 7 x 11cm

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

17 tender bull one

un)touchable

the sunglasses on my head are hilariousto the women who wash dishesin the back of the hotel which is not a hotelbut a restaurant at a bus stationwhich is not a bus station but a collectionof tin cans hoofing dust besidea concrete platform on which the hotel standsgrimy as anythingmdash I thoughtI could use the bathroom walk through the kitchen intoa man taking a piss in acupboard that is not a cupboard but a room Irsquodrather not talk about and thewomen laugh at my glasses pull my scarf overmy eyes they laugh touching my headand my eyelids they mean your eyes are on your scalpthat is not where eyes belong andI donrsquot understand for a long time until theyeach try my eyes and put them backand shake my hands for too long whisperingare you ready yet nearly

laura elliott

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

18 tender bull one

The First Husband Poem

I was making a film watching the film back making another of a green and white patterned sheet drying on the balconythe wind pushing up to reveal a brown glass bottle trying to get the film the shadows the frame just right exclude the beatenplastic chairs the chicken wire went downstairs to where my husband had pulled back the mosquito net set the covers lain a singlepillow down I waited he says how is your film not finished yet I say and help him shave the bits of his head he canrsquot see orreach then he lays me down on a green and white patterned sheet and puts his head between my legs his tongue inside me it is hot weleave the fan off until the bed is wet stripes bleed like newsprint the psychedelic flowers cling what are we going to do aboutall this muff he says we shower dress rub sun cream on our bodies make another film this time the green and white patterned sheet at oddswith itself at once falling and rising the stripes are newsprint he says the curtain sticks to the wall wonrsquot let go of the brown bottle now not ever

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq

The Restoration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace

Lake Urmia 377000deg N 453167deg EMesopotamian Marshes 33deg00rsquoN 47deg00rsquoE

Suez Canal 307050deg N 323442deg ESudd Swamp 6ndash9N 30ndash32E

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq is a research and design initiative that uses the trans-boundary narrative of modern conservation as its founding basis

The project operates from dmmiraqinfo and serves as a pooling of information and data relating in the first instance to the marshes in Iraq then spreading radially to other sacred bodies of water located in the Middle East Europe the Americas and Africa This gives rise to a geographic nomadism which renders each site replaceable with another thus creating a sense of universality

The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq uses its title and subtitles The Res-toration of the Marshes is an Act of Peace ~ the con-secration of the entire world as weighted mantras which when vocalised serve to evoke a sense of space action re-action and power These movement orientated words should be taken with the sensitiv-ity and receptivity of a sea anemone the space to breathe deeply and consciously the agency of action and reaction and the transference of power

To these ends the project employs a globally available drop-leaf desk and the colour yel-

low as sculptural and painterly anchors The metal desk is displayed with the drop-leaf down making space for a fluid mental movement whereby the desk can lift its wing as such to accommodate two rather than one persons

The act of draining the marshes is at once symbolic deeply tragic and hugely significant in understand-ing our position within this anthropocene Our tragedies can be seen diagnostically as an extended meditation into the movement of water and the heal-ing potential of reflooding

---dmmiraqinfowikipediaorgwikiprunela_vulgaris

Aral Sea 450000deg N 600000deg ELake Hamoun 30deg50rsquoN 61deg40rsquoE

Persian Gulf 269047deg N 515475deg EThe Everglades 26deg0000degN 807000deg W

At the start of the twenty-first century the once-lush richly diverse wetlands of Mesopotamia had been decimated In the decades leading up to the new century hydro-engineering mdash dams for flood control and hydroelectricity canals and reservoirs for agricultural irrigation mdash had greatly reduced the volume of the annual marsh-renewing floods Then in the 1990s the marshes became a political pawn former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein drained large areas in part to punish the tribes who lived there the Marsh Arabs for participating in anti-government rebellions

Following the Second Gulf War and the end of Saddam Husseinrsquos regime in 2003 the demolishing of the dikes and canals that had drained the marshes began By February 9 2004 a dramatic transformation was underway in Mesopotamia Several large marsh areas north and south of the Euphrates had been re-flooded and the dry land south of Al-Hawizeh Marsh was being systematically filled In aerial photos these areas appear almost purely dark blue or nearly black which indicates that standing water was present but that vegetation was absent or extremely sparse By 2005 additional areas were flooded especially north of the Euphrates In some places the water appeared more greenish than it did in 2004 this could be because plants or algae were growing or because the water was shallower than it

was the previous year

As the decade drew to a close the recovering marshes faced new threats including new dam construction upstream and drought The amount of flooding visible in the 2009 image was considerably less than in 2008 not only the marshes but also the adjacent irrigated crop areas appeared far less lush than they did the previous year The 2009 drought had a severe impact on winter and spring crops in Iraq The image from 2010 seems to tell a different story however While the marshes appeared to have shrunk still further the irrigated agricultural areas in the center of the image appeared more extensive and greener than they were the previous year

A United Nations Environment Program assessment of the Iraq marsh restoration in 2006 concluded that roughly 58 percent of the marsh area present in the mid-1970s had been restored in the sense that standing water was seasonally present and vegetation was reasonably dense Two years of field research by Iraqi and American scientists concluded that there had been a lsquoremarkable rate of reestablishment of native macroinvertebrates macrophytes fish and birds in re-flooded marshesrsquo However the lack of connectedness among the various re-flooded marshes remained a concern for species diversity and local

endemic UUPantheism

territorial transformationcultural shifts

extinction In addition the volume of water that flowed into the marshes in the first years of restoration may not be able to be sustained as the country stabilizes and economic and agricultural activity resume As a result the ultimate fate of Mesopotamian marshes is still uncertain

confluenceriparian zone

Rivers Information System transboundary dialogue

23 tender bull one

Luna Miguel is a poet and journalist currently living in Barcelona She has published multiple books of poetry in Spanish and more recently her first English language collection Bluebird and Other Tattoos (Scrambler Books) She is twenty-three years old We spoke to her via email with the help of translator Sharon Black

We encountered you and your work online via e-zines like The Scrambler and New Wave Vomit Beyond being a great publicity tool do you think your daily interaction with the Internet has had an effect on your writing And what are your feelings on Alt Lit as a scene generated and working online The Internet has given life to a generation in the sense that thanks to this tool we have been able to create our own codes and our way of managing literature differently As you say itrsquos true that today it is easier to have followers or to be read in many parts of the world One of the wonders of this is that we are able to find out what writers such as David Meza (Mexico 1990) Lysiane Rakotoson (France 1987) Tao Lin (USA 1983) Radu Vancu (Romania 1978) or Natalia Litvinova (Belarus 1986) are doing at this precise moment in time Moreover having everything at your fingertips isnrsquot easymdash we have to get out there learn languages and learn about other literatures other gazes which will inevitably influence our writing Not stylistically I donrsquot think but rather by opening the mind of the new writer We have new horizons Bluebird is an unusual thing It features small selections of poems from each of your previous four books statements from yourself and your translator as well as a range of contemporary American writers regarding your work and you personally It therefore acts as a general introduction to you as an author for an English speaking readership How come you decided to go with this for your English language debut rather than simply translating the most recent book

When Jeremy Spencer suggested to me that we publish

something together I still hadnrsquot finished writing my latest book La tumba del marinero so I wasnrsquot absolutely sure that I would be able to publish it in English as it would require a lot of translation work So we chose this selection of my poems effectively in order to recognise development It was also useful for me to revisit my work and find out what it was about and where I wanted it to go I consider it an honour that some of my colleagues mdash Ana Carrete Kendra Grant Malone and Blake Butler mdash have read these texts with care and affection My gratitude towards every reader of Bluebird outside of my country is infinite Yoursquore a translator yourself How closely did you work with Jeremy Spencer on the translations Do you feel a certain protectiveness over the rendering of your work in another language or a need to step back and allow the translator their process I wasnrsquot greatly involved in the translation with the exception of sorting some queries raised by the translator I prefer to grant total freedom to the person who has decided to carry out this task of transfer into another language I also really liked Jacob Steimbergrsquos translations of some of my new texts and I was struck when I read some of my poems in Romanian and Portuguese Itrsquos a beautiful thing because you donrsquot recognise yourself Itrsquos as if your texts didnrsquot belong to you I like that sensation In another interview you said you couldnrsquot understand why contemporary Spanish poets in translation havenrsquot received more attention in the English-speaking literary world In Ben Lernerrsquos novel Leaving the Atocha Station his protagonist gives a fairly damning review of the Spanish readingpoetry style Tomaacutes looked less like he was going to read poetry and more like he was going to sing flamenco or weep [] the delivery was so cloying the thought crossed my mind that his apparent earnestness might be parodyrsquo Do you recognise his description of this stereotype and the charges of over- sentimentality which are maybe levelled against contemporary Spanish poetry I think this stereotype can be found everywheremdash there are silly vain or fake poets in every country and in all literatures This excerpt really made me laugh because it is representative of many in the literary scene in Madrid which I am not interested in This

interview withluna miguel

extinction In addition the volume of water that flowed into the marshes in the first years of restoration may not be able to be sustained as the country stabilizes and economic and agricultural activity resume As a result the ultimate fate of Mesopotamian marshes is still uncertain

confluenceriparian zone

Rivers Information System transboundary dialogue

23 tender bull one

Luna Miguel is a poet and journalist currently living in Barcelona She has published multiple books of poetry in Spanish and more recently her first English language collection Bluebird and Other Tattoos (Scrambler Books) She is twenty-three years old We spoke to her via email with the help of translator Sharon Black

We encountered you and your work online via e-zines like The Scrambler and New Wave Vomit Beyond being a great publicity tool do you think your daily interaction with the Internet has had an effect on your writing And what are your feelings on Alt Lit as a scene generated and working online The Internet has given life to a generation in the sense that thanks to this tool we have been able to create our own codes and our way of managing literature differently As you say itrsquos true that today it is easier to have followers or to be read in many parts of the world One of the wonders of this is that we are able to find out what writers such as David Meza (Mexico 1990) Lysiane Rakotoson (France 1987) Tao Lin (USA 1983) Radu Vancu (Romania 1978) or Natalia Litvinova (Belarus 1986) are doing at this precise moment in time Moreover having everything at your fingertips isnrsquot easymdash we have to get out there learn languages and learn about other literatures other gazes which will inevitably influence our writing Not stylistically I donrsquot think but rather by opening the mind of the new writer We have new horizons Bluebird is an unusual thing It features small selections of poems from each of your previous four books statements from yourself and your translator as well as a range of contemporary American writers regarding your work and you personally It therefore acts as a general introduction to you as an author for an English speaking readership How come you decided to go with this for your English language debut rather than simply translating the most recent book

When Jeremy Spencer suggested to me that we publish

something together I still hadnrsquot finished writing my latest book La tumba del marinero so I wasnrsquot absolutely sure that I would be able to publish it in English as it would require a lot of translation work So we chose this selection of my poems effectively in order to recognise development It was also useful for me to revisit my work and find out what it was about and where I wanted it to go I consider it an honour that some of my colleagues mdash Ana Carrete Kendra Grant Malone and Blake Butler mdash have read these texts with care and affection My gratitude towards every reader of Bluebird outside of my country is infinite Yoursquore a translator yourself How closely did you work with Jeremy Spencer on the translations Do you feel a certain protectiveness over the rendering of your work in another language or a need to step back and allow the translator their process I wasnrsquot greatly involved in the translation with the exception of sorting some queries raised by the translator I prefer to grant total freedom to the person who has decided to carry out this task of transfer into another language I also really liked Jacob Steimbergrsquos translations of some of my new texts and I was struck when I read some of my poems in Romanian and Portuguese Itrsquos a beautiful thing because you donrsquot recognise yourself Itrsquos as if your texts didnrsquot belong to you I like that sensation In another interview you said you couldnrsquot understand why contemporary Spanish poets in translation havenrsquot received more attention in the English-speaking literary world In Ben Lernerrsquos novel Leaving the Atocha Station his protagonist gives a fairly damning review of the Spanish readingpoetry style Tomaacutes looked less like he was going to read poetry and more like he was going to sing flamenco or weep [] the delivery was so cloying the thought crossed my mind that his apparent earnestness might be parodyrsquo Do you recognise his description of this stereotype and the charges of over- sentimentality which are maybe levelled against contemporary Spanish poetry I think this stereotype can be found everywheremdash there are silly vain or fake poets in every country and in all literatures This excerpt really made me laugh because it is representative of many in the literary scene in Madrid which I am not interested in This

interview withluna miguel

23 tender bull one

Luna Miguel is a poet and journalist currently living in Barcelona She has published multiple books of poetry in Spanish and more recently her first English language collection Bluebird and Other Tattoos (Scrambler Books) She is twenty-three years old We spoke to her via email with the help of translator Sharon Black

We encountered you and your work online via e-zines like The Scrambler and New Wave Vomit Beyond being a great publicity tool do you think your daily interaction with the Internet has had an effect on your writing And what are your feelings on Alt Lit as a scene generated and working online The Internet has given life to a generation in the sense that thanks to this tool we have been able to create our own codes and our way of managing literature differently As you say itrsquos true that today it is easier to have followers or to be read in many parts of the world One of the wonders of this is that we are able to find out what writers such as David Meza (Mexico 1990) Lysiane Rakotoson (France 1987) Tao Lin (USA 1983) Radu Vancu (Romania 1978) or Natalia Litvinova (Belarus 1986) are doing at this precise moment in time Moreover having everything at your fingertips isnrsquot easymdash we have to get out there learn languages and learn about other literatures other gazes which will inevitably influence our writing Not stylistically I donrsquot think but rather by opening the mind of the new writer We have new horizons Bluebird is an unusual thing It features small selections of poems from each of your previous four books statements from yourself and your translator as well as a range of contemporary American writers regarding your work and you personally It therefore acts as a general introduction to you as an author for an English speaking readership How come you decided to go with this for your English language debut rather than simply translating the most recent book

When Jeremy Spencer suggested to me that we publish

something together I still hadnrsquot finished writing my latest book La tumba del marinero so I wasnrsquot absolutely sure that I would be able to publish it in English as it would require a lot of translation work So we chose this selection of my poems effectively in order to recognise development It was also useful for me to revisit my work and find out what it was about and where I wanted it to go I consider it an honour that some of my colleagues mdash Ana Carrete Kendra Grant Malone and Blake Butler mdash have read these texts with care and affection My gratitude towards every reader of Bluebird outside of my country is infinite Yoursquore a translator yourself How closely did you work with Jeremy Spencer on the translations Do you feel a certain protectiveness over the rendering of your work in another language or a need to step back and allow the translator their process I wasnrsquot greatly involved in the translation with the exception of sorting some queries raised by the translator I prefer to grant total freedom to the person who has decided to carry out this task of transfer into another language I also really liked Jacob Steimbergrsquos translations of some of my new texts and I was struck when I read some of my poems in Romanian and Portuguese Itrsquos a beautiful thing because you donrsquot recognise yourself Itrsquos as if your texts didnrsquot belong to you I like that sensation In another interview you said you couldnrsquot understand why contemporary Spanish poets in translation havenrsquot received more attention in the English-speaking literary world In Ben Lernerrsquos novel Leaving the Atocha Station his protagonist gives a fairly damning review of the Spanish readingpoetry style Tomaacutes looked less like he was going to read poetry and more like he was going to sing flamenco or weep [] the delivery was so cloying the thought crossed my mind that his apparent earnestness might be parodyrsquo Do you recognise his description of this stereotype and the charges of over- sentimentality which are maybe levelled against contemporary Spanish poetry I think this stereotype can be found everywheremdash there are silly vain or fake poets in every country and in all literatures This excerpt really made me laugh because it is representative of many in the literary scene in Madrid which I am not interested in This

interview withluna miguel

24 tender bull one

type of figure makes poetry old Fortunately on the other hand we have Unai Velasco Elena Medel Berta Garciacutea Faet Laura Rosal Layla Martiacutenez Juan Andreacutes Garciacutea Romaacutenmdash examples of young Spanish poets who represent the complete opposite of Lernerrsquos description I hope someone will dare to translate them They deserve to be read outside of our borders Did you ever had any reservations about your poems which frequently deal with distinctly feminine experiences and rites of passage being translated by a male writer Itrsquos strange but I had never thought about this But now that you say it I am really excited about the fact that a considerable number of my texts have been translated by men On the other hand the Italian edition of Bluebird and Other Tattoos (entitled Musa ammalata ndash Damocle Edizioni) was translated by Sunshine Faggio a female poet who is very committed to feminism and to poetry written by women We understood each other very well but then the same can be said of Jeremy Spencer and of Jacob Steinberg even though they are men I suppose this demonstrates how literature transcends genres generations and stereotypes

In an interview with 3AM dated 2010 you were asked about the visibility of female writers in your country You seemed to express some aversion to the publication of all-female anthologiesmdash lsquoI donrsquot think

itrsquos a different genrersquo Has your attitude toward these types of publications changed or do you still think that beyond the all-female websites and magazines in which your work has been featured (Very Beautiful Women Illuminati Girl Gang) such lsquoofficialrsquo or lsquoauthorisedrsquo or lsquohistoricalrsquo collections of lsquowomenrsquos writingrsquo are damaging on a greater level I think that the work of Gabby Bess and other editors of female magazines is very interesting I also created an anthology recently on the theme of menstruation (Sangrantes Origami 2013)mdash a collection of poems by very important writers in the Spanish language and also by young poets What I am against is the use of absurd categories particularly as critics are saying that all women lsquowrite the samersquo However there are anthologies like the one mentioned above which are created on the basis of common themes connections and obsessions I think they make sense when they are well justified And they make sense when they do not exclude male readers This is also paramount As a female poet who has been photographed a lot are you conscious of your image or personal brand in relation to your poems I am conscious of it but I understand it as something purely generational and circumstantial I donrsquot know if you will agree with me but havenrsquot we all taken millions of photos of ourselves since the creation of blogs social

25 tender bull one

networks smartphones and so on Itrsquos true I do sense a certain lsquobrandrsquo behind my image but I relate it more to my life as a blogger journalist and editor than to my life as a poet Could you give us a brief overview of your impressions on the contemporary Spanish poetry scene and how do you feel you work sits within it I think there is a very rich panorama and we should ensure we do not lose it Despite the recession and the difficulties there are many interesting poets some of which I have already mentioned above Regardless of their ages they are unique writers each one with her or his own distinct style Poetry is becoming increasingly fashionable and there are more blogs more anthologies more magazines more parties more meetings more connections We want to read and to discover and to travel outside of our country and to translate and to meet in other places This is a curious and collaborative generation As I said before I hope yoursquoll be able to read the work of all of those writers very soon I hope Bluebird will only be the beginning and that soon English and Spanish-speaking poets will be able to collaborate more and learn from each other That would be absolutely wonderful

Who are your favourite contemporary poets Spanish or otherwise Who do you think has influenced your writing The contemporary poets that most stand out for me are Tracy K Smith Dorothea Lasky Daniela Camacho Natalia Litvinova and Julieta Valero How curious- they are all women However if I had to say who has influenced me most in my writing I would go a little further back in time to authors such as Joseacute Aacutengel Valente Joyce Mansour Sylvia Plath Leopoldo Mariacutea Panero Ingeborg Bachmann Ted Hughes Reneacute Char Charles Bukowski Paul Celanhellip

You started writing and publishing when you were still a teenager Are you embarrassed of anything yoursquove ever published The truth is that I always have many doubts and I can feel embarrassed about some of the texts in my books Estar enfermo and Poetry is not dead (both written before I was 19) However I also know that without

those texts and without everything that happened when they were published I wouldnrsquot have been able to progress and continue on my path You have to read the texts you wrote in the past to learn how to correct yourself To criticise yourself To grow

26 tender bull one

luna miguel

Jealousy

I donrsquot know how to tell you that I donrsquot think of other men

shave off to zero

shave the word

scrape with silence

other hands that I donrsquot want

27 tender bull one

28 tender bull one

29 tender bull one

30 tender bull one

Translating Kafka

The NoTebook

I have examined the notebook carefully and have seen that nothing good can be written in it Its brown leather covers are dirty The pages are a fraction too narrow so that one cannot get into the run of a sentence Furthermore this particular notebook is littered with scraps of abandoned ideas and quite dreadful early drafts of pieces later rewritten in other superior notebooks The notebook is an uncomfortable confrontation with the disorder of my thoughts I am going now to buy a new notebook beiNg ouTside

It is a shock to be among people soliTude

After several days of being in my own company I forget to appreciate the soothing powers of solitude I have bought my notebook It is clean and new I am going home where it is quiet goiNg home

Walking into the entrance hall of my building I am watched by my neighbourrsquos cat It is a pleasant kind of watching I am included in his collection of familiar tolerable things A slice of fruiTcAke

Having not yet eaten today I go to the kitchen where I find a single slice of fruitcake in the biscuit tin I do not remember buying it but it looks to be of good quality I break off a piece and put it in my mouth It does not taste good Why so difficult to obtain proper sustenance for The coNsiderATioN of The housekeeper upsTAirs ANd The TAxi driver ouTside

The housekeeperrsquos broom across the floor of the apartment above the floor that is at the same time my ceiling is somehow louder than the engine of the taxi outside which the driver leaves running long after the vehicle is stopped and parked at the side of the road descripTioN of A suNdAy AfTerNooN

From the window by my desk I see them wander down the street decked out in their Sunday best At this remove they appear far more charming than they do as I walk among them I can appreciate them for what they are That is strangers

anna metcalfe

31 tender bull one

WAsTed hours

I have achieved nothing There used to be a fever or a fervour that made me swing from side to side never restful or at peace Now I simply look at my thoughts as though from above refusing to be moved However while asleep I had a quite interesting dream dreAm

The sun is shining and a great crowd is gathered I am standing by the side of a large open-air stage I look about me and I know that I am in Athens but not the Athens of today the Athens of the tragedians although it is unclear to me whether I am in the Hellenic Athens of the performance or the distant bronze age in which the tragedies are set I turn to face the stage and see that it is the Antigone that is being performed A young boy takes my hand and pulls me onto the stage Suddenly I choke I feel that I must have lines to say but I cannot remember a single word I do not even know what role I am to play The boy speaks for me while I remain frozen on stage Then I understand that I am Tiresias but instead of being blind I am mute I forget to listen to the fable of warning the boy is telling on my behalf distracted as I am by the audience and the bright colours of their robes Absurd that I could play such a role A seNTeNce

lsquoWhen he awoke from the dream it was as though nothing in the world had ever happenedrsquo It is a sentence that appears as though one must have read or heard it before Yet it is entirely possible that one has never encountered this particular arrangement of words as they appear in this moment upon this particular page The elecTric lighT

It is almost midnight and the building is silent I am sitting down to write by the electric light At this stage of the day it will only be the most necessary and miserable stuff and I should write it in a hurry iTAliAN

How a single Italian word mdash intaglio mdash can brighten up a dreary German sentence A suN beAm

A sun beam through the leaves of a tree outside my window is scattering leaf shapes over my desk It is joyous to see the light and shadow play but at the same time it is quite distracting WriTiNg A Novel

I will never finish the novel ToWArds sTillNess

I am absolutely calm Will it never end

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

26 tender bull one

luna miguel

Jealousy

I donrsquot know how to tell you that I donrsquot think of other men

shave off to zero

shave the word

scrape with silence

other hands that I donrsquot want

27 tender bull one

28 tender bull one

29 tender bull one

30 tender bull one

Translating Kafka

The NoTebook

I have examined the notebook carefully and have seen that nothing good can be written in it Its brown leather covers are dirty The pages are a fraction too narrow so that one cannot get into the run of a sentence Furthermore this particular notebook is littered with scraps of abandoned ideas and quite dreadful early drafts of pieces later rewritten in other superior notebooks The notebook is an uncomfortable confrontation with the disorder of my thoughts I am going now to buy a new notebook beiNg ouTside

It is a shock to be among people soliTude

After several days of being in my own company I forget to appreciate the soothing powers of solitude I have bought my notebook It is clean and new I am going home where it is quiet goiNg home

Walking into the entrance hall of my building I am watched by my neighbourrsquos cat It is a pleasant kind of watching I am included in his collection of familiar tolerable things A slice of fruiTcAke

Having not yet eaten today I go to the kitchen where I find a single slice of fruitcake in the biscuit tin I do not remember buying it but it looks to be of good quality I break off a piece and put it in my mouth It does not taste good Why so difficult to obtain proper sustenance for The coNsiderATioN of The housekeeper upsTAirs ANd The TAxi driver ouTside

The housekeeperrsquos broom across the floor of the apartment above the floor that is at the same time my ceiling is somehow louder than the engine of the taxi outside which the driver leaves running long after the vehicle is stopped and parked at the side of the road descripTioN of A suNdAy AfTerNooN

From the window by my desk I see them wander down the street decked out in their Sunday best At this remove they appear far more charming than they do as I walk among them I can appreciate them for what they are That is strangers

anna metcalfe

31 tender bull one

WAsTed hours

I have achieved nothing There used to be a fever or a fervour that made me swing from side to side never restful or at peace Now I simply look at my thoughts as though from above refusing to be moved However while asleep I had a quite interesting dream dreAm

The sun is shining and a great crowd is gathered I am standing by the side of a large open-air stage I look about me and I know that I am in Athens but not the Athens of today the Athens of the tragedians although it is unclear to me whether I am in the Hellenic Athens of the performance or the distant bronze age in which the tragedies are set I turn to face the stage and see that it is the Antigone that is being performed A young boy takes my hand and pulls me onto the stage Suddenly I choke I feel that I must have lines to say but I cannot remember a single word I do not even know what role I am to play The boy speaks for me while I remain frozen on stage Then I understand that I am Tiresias but instead of being blind I am mute I forget to listen to the fable of warning the boy is telling on my behalf distracted as I am by the audience and the bright colours of their robes Absurd that I could play such a role A seNTeNce

lsquoWhen he awoke from the dream it was as though nothing in the world had ever happenedrsquo It is a sentence that appears as though one must have read or heard it before Yet it is entirely possible that one has never encountered this particular arrangement of words as they appear in this moment upon this particular page The elecTric lighT

It is almost midnight and the building is silent I am sitting down to write by the electric light At this stage of the day it will only be the most necessary and miserable stuff and I should write it in a hurry iTAliAN

How a single Italian word mdash intaglio mdash can brighten up a dreary German sentence A suN beAm

A sun beam through the leaves of a tree outside my window is scattering leaf shapes over my desk It is joyous to see the light and shadow play but at the same time it is quite distracting WriTiNg A Novel

I will never finish the novel ToWArds sTillNess

I am absolutely calm Will it never end

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

27 tender bull one

28 tender bull one

29 tender bull one

30 tender bull one

Translating Kafka

The NoTebook

I have examined the notebook carefully and have seen that nothing good can be written in it Its brown leather covers are dirty The pages are a fraction too narrow so that one cannot get into the run of a sentence Furthermore this particular notebook is littered with scraps of abandoned ideas and quite dreadful early drafts of pieces later rewritten in other superior notebooks The notebook is an uncomfortable confrontation with the disorder of my thoughts I am going now to buy a new notebook beiNg ouTside

It is a shock to be among people soliTude

After several days of being in my own company I forget to appreciate the soothing powers of solitude I have bought my notebook It is clean and new I am going home where it is quiet goiNg home

Walking into the entrance hall of my building I am watched by my neighbourrsquos cat It is a pleasant kind of watching I am included in his collection of familiar tolerable things A slice of fruiTcAke

Having not yet eaten today I go to the kitchen where I find a single slice of fruitcake in the biscuit tin I do not remember buying it but it looks to be of good quality I break off a piece and put it in my mouth It does not taste good Why so difficult to obtain proper sustenance for The coNsiderATioN of The housekeeper upsTAirs ANd The TAxi driver ouTside

The housekeeperrsquos broom across the floor of the apartment above the floor that is at the same time my ceiling is somehow louder than the engine of the taxi outside which the driver leaves running long after the vehicle is stopped and parked at the side of the road descripTioN of A suNdAy AfTerNooN

From the window by my desk I see them wander down the street decked out in their Sunday best At this remove they appear far more charming than they do as I walk among them I can appreciate them for what they are That is strangers

anna metcalfe

31 tender bull one

WAsTed hours

I have achieved nothing There used to be a fever or a fervour that made me swing from side to side never restful or at peace Now I simply look at my thoughts as though from above refusing to be moved However while asleep I had a quite interesting dream dreAm

The sun is shining and a great crowd is gathered I am standing by the side of a large open-air stage I look about me and I know that I am in Athens but not the Athens of today the Athens of the tragedians although it is unclear to me whether I am in the Hellenic Athens of the performance or the distant bronze age in which the tragedies are set I turn to face the stage and see that it is the Antigone that is being performed A young boy takes my hand and pulls me onto the stage Suddenly I choke I feel that I must have lines to say but I cannot remember a single word I do not even know what role I am to play The boy speaks for me while I remain frozen on stage Then I understand that I am Tiresias but instead of being blind I am mute I forget to listen to the fable of warning the boy is telling on my behalf distracted as I am by the audience and the bright colours of their robes Absurd that I could play such a role A seNTeNce

lsquoWhen he awoke from the dream it was as though nothing in the world had ever happenedrsquo It is a sentence that appears as though one must have read or heard it before Yet it is entirely possible that one has never encountered this particular arrangement of words as they appear in this moment upon this particular page The elecTric lighT

It is almost midnight and the building is silent I am sitting down to write by the electric light At this stage of the day it will only be the most necessary and miserable stuff and I should write it in a hurry iTAliAN

How a single Italian word mdash intaglio mdash can brighten up a dreary German sentence A suN beAm

A sun beam through the leaves of a tree outside my window is scattering leaf shapes over my desk It is joyous to see the light and shadow play but at the same time it is quite distracting WriTiNg A Novel

I will never finish the novel ToWArds sTillNess

I am absolutely calm Will it never end

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

28 tender bull one

29 tender bull one

30 tender bull one

Translating Kafka

The NoTebook

I have examined the notebook carefully and have seen that nothing good can be written in it Its brown leather covers are dirty The pages are a fraction too narrow so that one cannot get into the run of a sentence Furthermore this particular notebook is littered with scraps of abandoned ideas and quite dreadful early drafts of pieces later rewritten in other superior notebooks The notebook is an uncomfortable confrontation with the disorder of my thoughts I am going now to buy a new notebook beiNg ouTside

It is a shock to be among people soliTude

After several days of being in my own company I forget to appreciate the soothing powers of solitude I have bought my notebook It is clean and new I am going home where it is quiet goiNg home

Walking into the entrance hall of my building I am watched by my neighbourrsquos cat It is a pleasant kind of watching I am included in his collection of familiar tolerable things A slice of fruiTcAke

Having not yet eaten today I go to the kitchen where I find a single slice of fruitcake in the biscuit tin I do not remember buying it but it looks to be of good quality I break off a piece and put it in my mouth It does not taste good Why so difficult to obtain proper sustenance for The coNsiderATioN of The housekeeper upsTAirs ANd The TAxi driver ouTside

The housekeeperrsquos broom across the floor of the apartment above the floor that is at the same time my ceiling is somehow louder than the engine of the taxi outside which the driver leaves running long after the vehicle is stopped and parked at the side of the road descripTioN of A suNdAy AfTerNooN

From the window by my desk I see them wander down the street decked out in their Sunday best At this remove they appear far more charming than they do as I walk among them I can appreciate them for what they are That is strangers

anna metcalfe

31 tender bull one

WAsTed hours

I have achieved nothing There used to be a fever or a fervour that made me swing from side to side never restful or at peace Now I simply look at my thoughts as though from above refusing to be moved However while asleep I had a quite interesting dream dreAm

The sun is shining and a great crowd is gathered I am standing by the side of a large open-air stage I look about me and I know that I am in Athens but not the Athens of today the Athens of the tragedians although it is unclear to me whether I am in the Hellenic Athens of the performance or the distant bronze age in which the tragedies are set I turn to face the stage and see that it is the Antigone that is being performed A young boy takes my hand and pulls me onto the stage Suddenly I choke I feel that I must have lines to say but I cannot remember a single word I do not even know what role I am to play The boy speaks for me while I remain frozen on stage Then I understand that I am Tiresias but instead of being blind I am mute I forget to listen to the fable of warning the boy is telling on my behalf distracted as I am by the audience and the bright colours of their robes Absurd that I could play such a role A seNTeNce

lsquoWhen he awoke from the dream it was as though nothing in the world had ever happenedrsquo It is a sentence that appears as though one must have read or heard it before Yet it is entirely possible that one has never encountered this particular arrangement of words as they appear in this moment upon this particular page The elecTric lighT

It is almost midnight and the building is silent I am sitting down to write by the electric light At this stage of the day it will only be the most necessary and miserable stuff and I should write it in a hurry iTAliAN

How a single Italian word mdash intaglio mdash can brighten up a dreary German sentence A suN beAm

A sun beam through the leaves of a tree outside my window is scattering leaf shapes over my desk It is joyous to see the light and shadow play but at the same time it is quite distracting WriTiNg A Novel

I will never finish the novel ToWArds sTillNess

I am absolutely calm Will it never end

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

29 tender bull one

30 tender bull one

Translating Kafka

The NoTebook

I have examined the notebook carefully and have seen that nothing good can be written in it Its brown leather covers are dirty The pages are a fraction too narrow so that one cannot get into the run of a sentence Furthermore this particular notebook is littered with scraps of abandoned ideas and quite dreadful early drafts of pieces later rewritten in other superior notebooks The notebook is an uncomfortable confrontation with the disorder of my thoughts I am going now to buy a new notebook beiNg ouTside

It is a shock to be among people soliTude

After several days of being in my own company I forget to appreciate the soothing powers of solitude I have bought my notebook It is clean and new I am going home where it is quiet goiNg home

Walking into the entrance hall of my building I am watched by my neighbourrsquos cat It is a pleasant kind of watching I am included in his collection of familiar tolerable things A slice of fruiTcAke

Having not yet eaten today I go to the kitchen where I find a single slice of fruitcake in the biscuit tin I do not remember buying it but it looks to be of good quality I break off a piece and put it in my mouth It does not taste good Why so difficult to obtain proper sustenance for The coNsiderATioN of The housekeeper upsTAirs ANd The TAxi driver ouTside

The housekeeperrsquos broom across the floor of the apartment above the floor that is at the same time my ceiling is somehow louder than the engine of the taxi outside which the driver leaves running long after the vehicle is stopped and parked at the side of the road descripTioN of A suNdAy AfTerNooN

From the window by my desk I see them wander down the street decked out in their Sunday best At this remove they appear far more charming than they do as I walk among them I can appreciate them for what they are That is strangers

anna metcalfe

31 tender bull one

WAsTed hours

I have achieved nothing There used to be a fever or a fervour that made me swing from side to side never restful or at peace Now I simply look at my thoughts as though from above refusing to be moved However while asleep I had a quite interesting dream dreAm

The sun is shining and a great crowd is gathered I am standing by the side of a large open-air stage I look about me and I know that I am in Athens but not the Athens of today the Athens of the tragedians although it is unclear to me whether I am in the Hellenic Athens of the performance or the distant bronze age in which the tragedies are set I turn to face the stage and see that it is the Antigone that is being performed A young boy takes my hand and pulls me onto the stage Suddenly I choke I feel that I must have lines to say but I cannot remember a single word I do not even know what role I am to play The boy speaks for me while I remain frozen on stage Then I understand that I am Tiresias but instead of being blind I am mute I forget to listen to the fable of warning the boy is telling on my behalf distracted as I am by the audience and the bright colours of their robes Absurd that I could play such a role A seNTeNce

lsquoWhen he awoke from the dream it was as though nothing in the world had ever happenedrsquo It is a sentence that appears as though one must have read or heard it before Yet it is entirely possible that one has never encountered this particular arrangement of words as they appear in this moment upon this particular page The elecTric lighT

It is almost midnight and the building is silent I am sitting down to write by the electric light At this stage of the day it will only be the most necessary and miserable stuff and I should write it in a hurry iTAliAN

How a single Italian word mdash intaglio mdash can brighten up a dreary German sentence A suN beAm

A sun beam through the leaves of a tree outside my window is scattering leaf shapes over my desk It is joyous to see the light and shadow play but at the same time it is quite distracting WriTiNg A Novel

I will never finish the novel ToWArds sTillNess

I am absolutely calm Will it never end

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

30 tender bull one

Translating Kafka

The NoTebook

I have examined the notebook carefully and have seen that nothing good can be written in it Its brown leather covers are dirty The pages are a fraction too narrow so that one cannot get into the run of a sentence Furthermore this particular notebook is littered with scraps of abandoned ideas and quite dreadful early drafts of pieces later rewritten in other superior notebooks The notebook is an uncomfortable confrontation with the disorder of my thoughts I am going now to buy a new notebook beiNg ouTside

It is a shock to be among people soliTude

After several days of being in my own company I forget to appreciate the soothing powers of solitude I have bought my notebook It is clean and new I am going home where it is quiet goiNg home

Walking into the entrance hall of my building I am watched by my neighbourrsquos cat It is a pleasant kind of watching I am included in his collection of familiar tolerable things A slice of fruiTcAke

Having not yet eaten today I go to the kitchen where I find a single slice of fruitcake in the biscuit tin I do not remember buying it but it looks to be of good quality I break off a piece and put it in my mouth It does not taste good Why so difficult to obtain proper sustenance for The coNsiderATioN of The housekeeper upsTAirs ANd The TAxi driver ouTside

The housekeeperrsquos broom across the floor of the apartment above the floor that is at the same time my ceiling is somehow louder than the engine of the taxi outside which the driver leaves running long after the vehicle is stopped and parked at the side of the road descripTioN of A suNdAy AfTerNooN

From the window by my desk I see them wander down the street decked out in their Sunday best At this remove they appear far more charming than they do as I walk among them I can appreciate them for what they are That is strangers

anna metcalfe

31 tender bull one

WAsTed hours

I have achieved nothing There used to be a fever or a fervour that made me swing from side to side never restful or at peace Now I simply look at my thoughts as though from above refusing to be moved However while asleep I had a quite interesting dream dreAm

The sun is shining and a great crowd is gathered I am standing by the side of a large open-air stage I look about me and I know that I am in Athens but not the Athens of today the Athens of the tragedians although it is unclear to me whether I am in the Hellenic Athens of the performance or the distant bronze age in which the tragedies are set I turn to face the stage and see that it is the Antigone that is being performed A young boy takes my hand and pulls me onto the stage Suddenly I choke I feel that I must have lines to say but I cannot remember a single word I do not even know what role I am to play The boy speaks for me while I remain frozen on stage Then I understand that I am Tiresias but instead of being blind I am mute I forget to listen to the fable of warning the boy is telling on my behalf distracted as I am by the audience and the bright colours of their robes Absurd that I could play such a role A seNTeNce

lsquoWhen he awoke from the dream it was as though nothing in the world had ever happenedrsquo It is a sentence that appears as though one must have read or heard it before Yet it is entirely possible that one has never encountered this particular arrangement of words as they appear in this moment upon this particular page The elecTric lighT

It is almost midnight and the building is silent I am sitting down to write by the electric light At this stage of the day it will only be the most necessary and miserable stuff and I should write it in a hurry iTAliAN

How a single Italian word mdash intaglio mdash can brighten up a dreary German sentence A suN beAm

A sun beam through the leaves of a tree outside my window is scattering leaf shapes over my desk It is joyous to see the light and shadow play but at the same time it is quite distracting WriTiNg A Novel

I will never finish the novel ToWArds sTillNess

I am absolutely calm Will it never end

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

31 tender bull one

WAsTed hours

I have achieved nothing There used to be a fever or a fervour that made me swing from side to side never restful or at peace Now I simply look at my thoughts as though from above refusing to be moved However while asleep I had a quite interesting dream dreAm

The sun is shining and a great crowd is gathered I am standing by the side of a large open-air stage I look about me and I know that I am in Athens but not the Athens of today the Athens of the tragedians although it is unclear to me whether I am in the Hellenic Athens of the performance or the distant bronze age in which the tragedies are set I turn to face the stage and see that it is the Antigone that is being performed A young boy takes my hand and pulls me onto the stage Suddenly I choke I feel that I must have lines to say but I cannot remember a single word I do not even know what role I am to play The boy speaks for me while I remain frozen on stage Then I understand that I am Tiresias but instead of being blind I am mute I forget to listen to the fable of warning the boy is telling on my behalf distracted as I am by the audience and the bright colours of their robes Absurd that I could play such a role A seNTeNce

lsquoWhen he awoke from the dream it was as though nothing in the world had ever happenedrsquo It is a sentence that appears as though one must have read or heard it before Yet it is entirely possible that one has never encountered this particular arrangement of words as they appear in this moment upon this particular page The elecTric lighT

It is almost midnight and the building is silent I am sitting down to write by the electric light At this stage of the day it will only be the most necessary and miserable stuff and I should write it in a hurry iTAliAN

How a single Italian word mdash intaglio mdash can brighten up a dreary German sentence A suN beAm

A sun beam through the leaves of a tree outside my window is scattering leaf shapes over my desk It is joyous to see the light and shadow play but at the same time it is quite distracting WriTiNg A Novel

I will never finish the novel ToWArds sTillNess

I am absolutely calm Will it never end

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

32 tender bull one

hope

There is a sudden glimmer of enthusiasm It makes me afraid A momentary optimism A reckless hurtling towards the future The demise of some fundamental critical faculty It is precisely this genre of whimsy that entices me to write more nonsense Numb

The enthusiasm has passed Thank god Still I am so numb that I fear I must be becoming very ill doubTiNg my preseNce iN The room

I am more than a little unconvinced of my presence in the room ToWArds The eNd

I have not enough in me for another sentence Would that I could find a single syllable into which I could pour my whole self The leTTer

I have opened a letter from my mother I am furious with her Too furious to write any more I need only imagine her voice making the sounds dictated by the hieroglyphs (such is her handwriting) on the page and I almost scream The day is ruined AppeTiTe

The single sensible thing expressed by my mother in her letter was to enquire as to my eating habits I am reminded that I have not eaten since the morsel of fruitcake I am utterly incapable oN self-loAThiNg

An indulgence Writing with the image of the published book before you If there were less time perhaps I would not bother But then there is never enough time as it is Novel

I have almost finished the novel No That is not the case I have almost finished the words of the novel beiNg AloNe

Finally in my bed there is a sudden pang of loneliness amid all my cravings for solitude How I loathe such contradictions How they are repugnant to me And the happiness of being with other people

35 tender bull one

emily toder

Assisi

Each day I inventa way to praycause I want to win

The limestones are cheeryin the grey rainand in the cheesy rays

I visit the churchesand truly praycause I want to win

The weather systemrsquoshuge news to the porkchefs who grin

having killed or not killedhardly thinkingtoo kind and tired

The branches sink in dewtime doesnrsquot movespace moves

the trees shakein the chrome mountainsand droop

the mountains decayin the chrome skyand erode

the wolves die in the dirt

36 tender bull one

Cleaning the Basilica

Irsquom really sorry you had toclean the basilicaitrsquos so big and vaulty

Irsquom so sorry I canrsquot eat food

Whatrsquos art

The friend of the friendrsquosskinny daughter throwing upwhile giving blood

The limp rag on the face of the deadson of Godmoving down the stone of his dead knees

37 tender bull one

Throwing Life Away

O Irsquom so good at throwinglife awayI can do it driving a manualmanually with my hand with no other powerwith a man I can throw my life away by a riveryes itrsquos incredibly easy when the water is movingbut you know I can alsotoss it into a lakeno problem I can stand in a wet forestnot a rain forest per sebut a wet oneand throw it awayjust smoking into the chlorophyllthrilled to strip my own air of juice I can instead of observing embers thinkI can think while others lectureI can hold and kiss a tiny babyI can change a tireIrsquoll hold a cat or dog The world is rich and each gorgeous placeis a place you can completely forget itThatrsquos what people forget that naturalbeauty actually worsens griefStill people speak of the tawny sunall the timemoving up or down at the crustthe magic of thatmaking the others cry

36 tender bull one

Cleaning the Basilica

Irsquom really sorry you had toclean the basilicaitrsquos so big and vaulty

Irsquom so sorry I canrsquot eat food

Whatrsquos art

The friend of the friendrsquosskinny daughter throwing upwhile giving blood

The limp rag on the face of the deadson of Godmoving down the stone of his dead knees

37 tender bull one

Throwing Life Away

O Irsquom so good at throwinglife awayI can do it driving a manualmanually with my hand with no other powerwith a man I can throw my life away by a riveryes itrsquos incredibly easy when the water is movingbut you know I can alsotoss it into a lakeno problem I can stand in a wet forestnot a rain forest per sebut a wet oneand throw it awayjust smoking into the chlorophyllthrilled to strip my own air of juice I can instead of observing embers thinkI can think while others lectureI can hold and kiss a tiny babyI can change a tireIrsquoll hold a cat or dog The world is rich and each gorgeous placeis a place you can completely forget itThatrsquos what people forget that naturalbeauty actually worsens griefStill people speak of the tawny sunall the timemoving up or down at the crustthe magic of thatmaking the others cry

37 tender bull one

Throwing Life Away

O Irsquom so good at throwinglife awayI can do it driving a manualmanually with my hand with no other powerwith a man I can throw my life away by a riveryes itrsquos incredibly easy when the water is movingbut you know I can alsotoss it into a lakeno problem I can stand in a wet forestnot a rain forest per sebut a wet oneand throw it awayjust smoking into the chlorophyllthrilled to strip my own air of juice I can instead of observing embers thinkI can think while others lectureI can hold and kiss a tiny babyI can change a tireIrsquoll hold a cat or dog The world is rich and each gorgeous placeis a place you can completely forget itThatrsquos what people forget that naturalbeauty actually worsens griefStill people speak of the tawny sunall the timemoving up or down at the crustthe magic of thatmaking the others cry

41 tender bull one

THIRTEENZ

IMHOComfortIzKindOUnderratedEFFThislt3lt3lt3lt3AffairWSufferingSaturdayLoungeOnCherryFeatherOrWaterDeerBedClipYrNestHairPurtyYetFessionalHideATiniestMatryoshkaInYrMiddleLuxeOrganDontBAnOffTopicHauteMessThisRequirezMOAREfforztButLesserAchez

THIRTEENZ

My zROverlyPedestrianButIFeelIDeserveAReward4SwitchingFromCoffee2TeaFromGivingUpOnCrushingOnStraightWomen+GayMenTMIMyParentzRGr8PatriotzButIndifferentAffectionistzUKeepThinkingThatGettingBackIntoRiotGrrrlMightSAVEMeButAllThaRealRiotGrrlzInRussianPrisonzNow+ImWay2Attached2Comfortz

daniela olszewska

THIRTEENZ

WishUWereHere2HelpMeDecipherThaConiferousTopzOnThisSelf-HelpingHikeTheTeamLeaderzKeepAskingUsToIdentifyThaTrackMarkzIKeepGuessingWrongItsNotMyFaultEverythingMirrorzThaChupacabraFeetISawOnBuzzfeedEhBootCamp4TroubledUteriIzABig$PitDontMindMeImJustThaBucolicVentriloquizerInARespiteNoveltyAsylum

tender bull one42

željka marošević

Violins

Babies swim towards violins I saw so on TV but will they remember the swivel chairs upturned in fight Prince Nicholas is sleeping In his hotel bed in Paris From the mountains they came uninvited we gave them bread and our stares lsquoThink of the unarmed ringsrsquo she wasnrsquot joking after the explosion in her quest for limbs Is it possible our people are petty is it possible theyrsquoll watch the money under the floorboards and eat it They aim for the kneecaps you topple a man like you topple a tower Men can sew they taught us that they taught us the tank when tradition comes we canrsquot keep our hands off each other Stranger squatting in our flat in his suit wearing my slippers he had leafed through your books I said were you looking for money he said no I was looking for words I left him there Hold its head itrsquos a good brown nut therersquos a room where they leave the mongrel babies Donrsquot save torture only for the extravagant it can also be used for parking tickets You scrubbed their floors naked and you let them see your blood arenrsquot you ashamed to remember that Babies swim towards violins but we scooped ours up before they could remember and wiped them dry

43 tender bull one

When Things Were Over People Forgot When things were over people forgot Women gave birth in hospitals and beds The pain was tremendous At the time they imagined themselves splitting in two tectonic plates straining East and West until all that remained was a volcanic new continent of smart red heat Afterwards they did not remember and gave birth to many more babies When things were over people forgot They ate their cookies and drank their milk and afterwards wondered where the crumbs had come from They reached for a second cookie and poured a second glass of milk because milk sounded good and the cookie jar was present and available They were capable of three maybe four rounds before the inclination quit or the milk ran out Even then belly full of oatmeal raisin they could neither recall nor regret their eatings When things were over people forgot They argued on the bus ride home fell into silence and recommenced the very same argument during the ten blocks from bus stop to home They fell through the door fists flying and when the morning found them reconciling greedily on the living room floor invented stories for their battle wounds lsquoWherersquo she asked tracing her torn fingernails across the spot where shersquod left teeth-marks lsquoDid this come fromrsquo lsquoDowntown foxesrsquo he replied and instantly forgot her question so when she asked a second time he had the audacity to suggest dinosaurs lsquoDinosaursrsquo she yelled lsquoWhat the Hellrsquos a dinosaurrsquo And because dinosaurs were at least five thousand years forgotten he could only shrug and brace himself for the next argument When things were over people forgot This was for the most part a choice People wished to forget They favoured forwards over back-wards They could not remember a time when the future had been more accessible or appealing A cross section of the community ndash approximately nine hundred participants in total ndash were rigor-ously surveyed and agreed that things would be much better forgotten once they were over lsquoFor example filmsrsquo suggested one participant lsquoWho has time to talk about something theyrsquove already seenrsquo lsquoOr television programmes or people or vacationsrsquo lsquoSimilarly surgery No one wants to remember the stitches coming outrsquo

jan carson

44 tender bull one

When things were over people forgot To avoid confusion almost everything was given an expiry date Every event commenced and concluded with a stopwatch People soon found they could endure almost anything ndash five hour sermons two day funerals Ben Stiller movies ndash if amnesia came as standard The stopwatch sim-ply reminded them how long to hold out for In other circumstances individual items could be turned upside down and scanned for an accurate idea of when they would be over This helped people not to have unrealistic expectations lsquoItrsquos better this wayrsquo they explained lsquoIf yoursquore aware that there are only twenty seven chips in the bag you know yoursquore going to be disappointed before you even begin eatingrsquo lsquoAnd thenrsquo they added lsquoonce yoursquore done you can forget your disappointment and open another bag of chipsrsquo This made sense to most people Most people were realists but did not like to be reminded of this in polite company When it came to people babies were easy to read Adults were more difficult The elderly in particular resented both the inconvenience of being tipped upside down and the casual reminders of just how soon theyrsquod be forgotten Discovering your expiry date was universally frowned upon Most individuals ndash gymnasts and contortionists withstanding ndash were incapable of examining their own heels This was no accident Ordinary people could not cope with knowing Secretly they did not want to disappear Though they all agreed that things were much better forgotten once they were over they saw themselves as the exception to this rule Those who cheated using periscopes or bathroom mirrors to read their own heels developed unrealistic expectations driving themselves thin and frantic with over-living Regardless of how loudly theyrsquod lived when they were over everyone still forgot the helicopter rides the champagne Caribbean vacations and exciting sex these people had crammed into their last few months When things were over people forgot They stood on the edge of the city and asked themselves honestly if theyrsquod ever been here before They looked at their hands and wondered if theyrsquod ever been held fondly or even in spite They contemplated an entire world of songs and books and theatre plays and could not recall a single word And they felt very old and very empty and could not remember the name for this place

45 tender bull one

46 tender bull one

Darja Bajagić was born in former Yugoslavia raised in Egypt and has lived in the United States since 1999 Cur-rently she is an MFA Candidate at Yale University She will be exhibiting a solo show at Appendix Project Space in Portland Oregon at the end of June

Emily Berry co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives and is a contributor to The Breakfast Bible a compendium of breakfasts Her debut poetry collection is Dear Boy published by Faber amp Faber

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast Northern Ireland She has a BA in English Literature from Queenrsquos University Belfast and an MLitt In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St Andrewrsquos University Scotland

Laura Elliott studied at Norwich University College of the Arts and has since completed her MA in Poetry at the University of East Anglia

Emily Jones lives and works in London She graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2008 Recent works in-clude Lingua Franca and Universal Donor which explore motherhood and were recently shown in FUTUREMYTH at 319 scholes New York

Laura Jane Faulds is a Toronto-based writer of French-Moroccan descent Her work has been published in Hazlitt Drunken Boat and Cal Morgans Forty Stories she also co-runs the blog Strawberry Fields Whatever strawberry-fieldswhateverblogspotcouk

Born in Kishinov Moldova Bea Fremderman finished her studies at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2012 where she currently lives

Maja Malou Lyse (also known as boothbitch) is a 20 yr old photographer and internet-based artist currently living in Copenhagen and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Željka Marošević writes fiction and poetry She also runs Melville House UK an independent publishing house

Faye McNulty is a textile designer and illustrator She teaches at Chelsea College UAL across a range of hand print techniques Her work has been exhibited at galleries such as 193c Gallery Brooklyn NY and Customs House New-castle

Anna Metcalfe was born in Germany in 1987 Her work has been published in Elbow Room Lighthouse Journal and elsewhere She lives in Norwich

Luna Miguel lives in Barcelona where she works as a journalist and as an editorial assistant at Random House She is the author of seven poetry books and has written a novella with her husband Exhumacioacuten lunamiguelcom

Daniela Olszewska is the author of four books of poetry including Citizen J forthcoming Autumn 2013 from Artifice books You can follow her on tumblr danielaolszewskatumblrcom

Alice Charlotte Ray is a dancer and artist living in London She is mostly unable to see the line between being the subject and discussing the subject alicecharlotteraycom Hannah Regel lives and works in London as the co-editor in chief of SALT Magazine She has exhibited internation-ally and has been selected to take part in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries later this year salt-magazineblogs-potcouk

Alicia Rodriguez is currently completing a degree in Fine Art at NUA Over the past two years Alicia has exhibited in group shows around Norwich and performed at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery alicia-sasablogspotcouk

Donya Todd is an illustrator and comic artist who lives on a farm in Cornwall England Donyarsquos graphic novel Death amp The Girls is being published by Blank Slate Books this summer She is the publisher of all-girl comic anthology Bimba bimbagirlcomicscouk

Emily Toder is the author of Science (Coconut Books) and the chapbooks Brushes With (Tarpaulin Sky) I Hear a Boat (Duets) and No Land (forthcoming 2013 from Brave Men Press) She lives in Northampton USA where she translates Spanish and Catalan literature and works at a university archives

tender bull one42

željka marošević

Violins

Babies swim towards violins I saw so on TV but will they remember the swivel chairs upturned in fight Prince Nicholas is sleeping In his hotel bed in Paris From the mountains they came uninvited we gave them bread and our stares lsquoThink of the unarmed ringsrsquo she wasnrsquot joking after the explosion in her quest for limbs Is it possible our people are petty is it possible theyrsquoll watch the money under the floorboards and eat it They aim for the kneecaps you topple a man like you topple a tower Men can sew they taught us that they taught us the tank when tradition comes we canrsquot keep our hands off each other Stranger squatting in our flat in his suit wearing my slippers he had leafed through your books I said were you looking for money he said no I was looking for words I left him there Hold its head itrsquos a good brown nut therersquos a room where they leave the mongrel babies Donrsquot save torture only for the extravagant it can also be used for parking tickets You scrubbed their floors naked and you let them see your blood arenrsquot you ashamed to remember that Babies swim towards violins but we scooped ours up before they could remember and wiped them dry

43 tender bull one

When Things Were Over People Forgot When things were over people forgot Women gave birth in hospitals and beds The pain was tremendous At the time they imagined themselves splitting in two tectonic plates straining East and West until all that remained was a volcanic new continent of smart red heat Afterwards they did not remember and gave birth to many more babies When things were over people forgot They ate their cookies and drank their milk and afterwards wondered where the crumbs had come from They reached for a second cookie and poured a second glass of milk because milk sounded good and the cookie jar was present and available They were capable of three maybe four rounds before the inclination quit or the milk ran out Even then belly full of oatmeal raisin they could neither recall nor regret their eatings When things were over people forgot They argued on the bus ride home fell into silence and recommenced the very same argument during the ten blocks from bus stop to home They fell through the door fists flying and when the morning found them reconciling greedily on the living room floor invented stories for their battle wounds lsquoWherersquo she asked tracing her torn fingernails across the spot where shersquod left teeth-marks lsquoDid this come fromrsquo lsquoDowntown foxesrsquo he replied and instantly forgot her question so when she asked a second time he had the audacity to suggest dinosaurs lsquoDinosaursrsquo she yelled lsquoWhat the Hellrsquos a dinosaurrsquo And because dinosaurs were at least five thousand years forgotten he could only shrug and brace himself for the next argument When things were over people forgot This was for the most part a choice People wished to forget They favoured forwards over back-wards They could not remember a time when the future had been more accessible or appealing A cross section of the community ndash approximately nine hundred participants in total ndash were rigor-ously surveyed and agreed that things would be much better forgotten once they were over lsquoFor example filmsrsquo suggested one participant lsquoWho has time to talk about something theyrsquove already seenrsquo lsquoOr television programmes or people or vacationsrsquo lsquoSimilarly surgery No one wants to remember the stitches coming outrsquo

jan carson

44 tender bull one

When things were over people forgot To avoid confusion almost everything was given an expiry date Every event commenced and concluded with a stopwatch People soon found they could endure almost anything ndash five hour sermons two day funerals Ben Stiller movies ndash if amnesia came as standard The stopwatch sim-ply reminded them how long to hold out for In other circumstances individual items could be turned upside down and scanned for an accurate idea of when they would be over This helped people not to have unrealistic expectations lsquoItrsquos better this wayrsquo they explained lsquoIf yoursquore aware that there are only twenty seven chips in the bag you know yoursquore going to be disappointed before you even begin eatingrsquo lsquoAnd thenrsquo they added lsquoonce yoursquore done you can forget your disappointment and open another bag of chipsrsquo This made sense to most people Most people were realists but did not like to be reminded of this in polite company When it came to people babies were easy to read Adults were more difficult The elderly in particular resented both the inconvenience of being tipped upside down and the casual reminders of just how soon theyrsquod be forgotten Discovering your expiry date was universally frowned upon Most individuals ndash gymnasts and contortionists withstanding ndash were incapable of examining their own heels This was no accident Ordinary people could not cope with knowing Secretly they did not want to disappear Though they all agreed that things were much better forgotten once they were over they saw themselves as the exception to this rule Those who cheated using periscopes or bathroom mirrors to read their own heels developed unrealistic expectations driving themselves thin and frantic with over-living Regardless of how loudly theyrsquod lived when they were over everyone still forgot the helicopter rides the champagne Caribbean vacations and exciting sex these people had crammed into their last few months When things were over people forgot They stood on the edge of the city and asked themselves honestly if theyrsquod ever been here before They looked at their hands and wondered if theyrsquod ever been held fondly or even in spite They contemplated an entire world of songs and books and theatre plays and could not recall a single word And they felt very old and very empty and could not remember the name for this place

45 tender bull one

46 tender bull one

Darja Bajagić was born in former Yugoslavia raised in Egypt and has lived in the United States since 1999 Cur-rently she is an MFA Candidate at Yale University She will be exhibiting a solo show at Appendix Project Space in Portland Oregon at the end of June

Emily Berry co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives and is a contributor to The Breakfast Bible a compendium of breakfasts Her debut poetry collection is Dear Boy published by Faber amp Faber

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast Northern Ireland She has a BA in English Literature from Queenrsquos University Belfast and an MLitt In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St Andrewrsquos University Scotland

Laura Elliott studied at Norwich University College of the Arts and has since completed her MA in Poetry at the University of East Anglia

Emily Jones lives and works in London She graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2008 Recent works in-clude Lingua Franca and Universal Donor which explore motherhood and were recently shown in FUTUREMYTH at 319 scholes New York

Laura Jane Faulds is a Toronto-based writer of French-Moroccan descent Her work has been published in Hazlitt Drunken Boat and Cal Morgans Forty Stories she also co-runs the blog Strawberry Fields Whatever strawberry-fieldswhateverblogspotcouk

Born in Kishinov Moldova Bea Fremderman finished her studies at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2012 where she currently lives

Maja Malou Lyse (also known as boothbitch) is a 20 yr old photographer and internet-based artist currently living in Copenhagen and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Željka Marošević writes fiction and poetry She also runs Melville House UK an independent publishing house

Faye McNulty is a textile designer and illustrator She teaches at Chelsea College UAL across a range of hand print techniques Her work has been exhibited at galleries such as 193c Gallery Brooklyn NY and Customs House New-castle

Anna Metcalfe was born in Germany in 1987 Her work has been published in Elbow Room Lighthouse Journal and elsewhere She lives in Norwich

Luna Miguel lives in Barcelona where she works as a journalist and as an editorial assistant at Random House She is the author of seven poetry books and has written a novella with her husband Exhumacioacuten lunamiguelcom

Daniela Olszewska is the author of four books of poetry including Citizen J forthcoming Autumn 2013 from Artifice books You can follow her on tumblr danielaolszewskatumblrcom

Alice Charlotte Ray is a dancer and artist living in London She is mostly unable to see the line between being the subject and discussing the subject alicecharlotteraycom Hannah Regel lives and works in London as the co-editor in chief of SALT Magazine She has exhibited internation-ally and has been selected to take part in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries later this year salt-magazineblogs-potcouk

Alicia Rodriguez is currently completing a degree in Fine Art at NUA Over the past two years Alicia has exhibited in group shows around Norwich and performed at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery alicia-sasablogspotcouk

Donya Todd is an illustrator and comic artist who lives on a farm in Cornwall England Donyarsquos graphic novel Death amp The Girls is being published by Blank Slate Books this summer She is the publisher of all-girl comic anthology Bimba bimbagirlcomicscouk

Emily Toder is the author of Science (Coconut Books) and the chapbooks Brushes With (Tarpaulin Sky) I Hear a Boat (Duets) and No Land (forthcoming 2013 from Brave Men Press) She lives in Northampton USA where she translates Spanish and Catalan literature and works at a university archives

43 tender bull one

When Things Were Over People Forgot When things were over people forgot Women gave birth in hospitals and beds The pain was tremendous At the time they imagined themselves splitting in two tectonic plates straining East and West until all that remained was a volcanic new continent of smart red heat Afterwards they did not remember and gave birth to many more babies When things were over people forgot They ate their cookies and drank their milk and afterwards wondered where the crumbs had come from They reached for a second cookie and poured a second glass of milk because milk sounded good and the cookie jar was present and available They were capable of three maybe four rounds before the inclination quit or the milk ran out Even then belly full of oatmeal raisin they could neither recall nor regret their eatings When things were over people forgot They argued on the bus ride home fell into silence and recommenced the very same argument during the ten blocks from bus stop to home They fell through the door fists flying and when the morning found them reconciling greedily on the living room floor invented stories for their battle wounds lsquoWherersquo she asked tracing her torn fingernails across the spot where shersquod left teeth-marks lsquoDid this come fromrsquo lsquoDowntown foxesrsquo he replied and instantly forgot her question so when she asked a second time he had the audacity to suggest dinosaurs lsquoDinosaursrsquo she yelled lsquoWhat the Hellrsquos a dinosaurrsquo And because dinosaurs were at least five thousand years forgotten he could only shrug and brace himself for the next argument When things were over people forgot This was for the most part a choice People wished to forget They favoured forwards over back-wards They could not remember a time when the future had been more accessible or appealing A cross section of the community ndash approximately nine hundred participants in total ndash were rigor-ously surveyed and agreed that things would be much better forgotten once they were over lsquoFor example filmsrsquo suggested one participant lsquoWho has time to talk about something theyrsquove already seenrsquo lsquoOr television programmes or people or vacationsrsquo lsquoSimilarly surgery No one wants to remember the stitches coming outrsquo

jan carson

44 tender bull one

When things were over people forgot To avoid confusion almost everything was given an expiry date Every event commenced and concluded with a stopwatch People soon found they could endure almost anything ndash five hour sermons two day funerals Ben Stiller movies ndash if amnesia came as standard The stopwatch sim-ply reminded them how long to hold out for In other circumstances individual items could be turned upside down and scanned for an accurate idea of when they would be over This helped people not to have unrealistic expectations lsquoItrsquos better this wayrsquo they explained lsquoIf yoursquore aware that there are only twenty seven chips in the bag you know yoursquore going to be disappointed before you even begin eatingrsquo lsquoAnd thenrsquo they added lsquoonce yoursquore done you can forget your disappointment and open another bag of chipsrsquo This made sense to most people Most people were realists but did not like to be reminded of this in polite company When it came to people babies were easy to read Adults were more difficult The elderly in particular resented both the inconvenience of being tipped upside down and the casual reminders of just how soon theyrsquod be forgotten Discovering your expiry date was universally frowned upon Most individuals ndash gymnasts and contortionists withstanding ndash were incapable of examining their own heels This was no accident Ordinary people could not cope with knowing Secretly they did not want to disappear Though they all agreed that things were much better forgotten once they were over they saw themselves as the exception to this rule Those who cheated using periscopes or bathroom mirrors to read their own heels developed unrealistic expectations driving themselves thin and frantic with over-living Regardless of how loudly theyrsquod lived when they were over everyone still forgot the helicopter rides the champagne Caribbean vacations and exciting sex these people had crammed into their last few months When things were over people forgot They stood on the edge of the city and asked themselves honestly if theyrsquod ever been here before They looked at their hands and wondered if theyrsquod ever been held fondly or even in spite They contemplated an entire world of songs and books and theatre plays and could not recall a single word And they felt very old and very empty and could not remember the name for this place

45 tender bull one

46 tender bull one

Darja Bajagić was born in former Yugoslavia raised in Egypt and has lived in the United States since 1999 Cur-rently she is an MFA Candidate at Yale University She will be exhibiting a solo show at Appendix Project Space in Portland Oregon at the end of June

Emily Berry co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives and is a contributor to The Breakfast Bible a compendium of breakfasts Her debut poetry collection is Dear Boy published by Faber amp Faber

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast Northern Ireland She has a BA in English Literature from Queenrsquos University Belfast and an MLitt In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St Andrewrsquos University Scotland

Laura Elliott studied at Norwich University College of the Arts and has since completed her MA in Poetry at the University of East Anglia

Emily Jones lives and works in London She graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2008 Recent works in-clude Lingua Franca and Universal Donor which explore motherhood and were recently shown in FUTUREMYTH at 319 scholes New York

Laura Jane Faulds is a Toronto-based writer of French-Moroccan descent Her work has been published in Hazlitt Drunken Boat and Cal Morgans Forty Stories she also co-runs the blog Strawberry Fields Whatever strawberry-fieldswhateverblogspotcouk

Born in Kishinov Moldova Bea Fremderman finished her studies at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2012 where she currently lives

Maja Malou Lyse (also known as boothbitch) is a 20 yr old photographer and internet-based artist currently living in Copenhagen and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Željka Marošević writes fiction and poetry She also runs Melville House UK an independent publishing house

Faye McNulty is a textile designer and illustrator She teaches at Chelsea College UAL across a range of hand print techniques Her work has been exhibited at galleries such as 193c Gallery Brooklyn NY and Customs House New-castle

Anna Metcalfe was born in Germany in 1987 Her work has been published in Elbow Room Lighthouse Journal and elsewhere She lives in Norwich

Luna Miguel lives in Barcelona where she works as a journalist and as an editorial assistant at Random House She is the author of seven poetry books and has written a novella with her husband Exhumacioacuten lunamiguelcom

Daniela Olszewska is the author of four books of poetry including Citizen J forthcoming Autumn 2013 from Artifice books You can follow her on tumblr danielaolszewskatumblrcom

Alice Charlotte Ray is a dancer and artist living in London She is mostly unable to see the line between being the subject and discussing the subject alicecharlotteraycom Hannah Regel lives and works in London as the co-editor in chief of SALT Magazine She has exhibited internation-ally and has been selected to take part in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries later this year salt-magazineblogs-potcouk

Alicia Rodriguez is currently completing a degree in Fine Art at NUA Over the past two years Alicia has exhibited in group shows around Norwich and performed at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery alicia-sasablogspotcouk

Donya Todd is an illustrator and comic artist who lives on a farm in Cornwall England Donyarsquos graphic novel Death amp The Girls is being published by Blank Slate Books this summer She is the publisher of all-girl comic anthology Bimba bimbagirlcomicscouk

Emily Toder is the author of Science (Coconut Books) and the chapbooks Brushes With (Tarpaulin Sky) I Hear a Boat (Duets) and No Land (forthcoming 2013 from Brave Men Press) She lives in Northampton USA where she translates Spanish and Catalan literature and works at a university archives

44 tender bull one

When things were over people forgot To avoid confusion almost everything was given an expiry date Every event commenced and concluded with a stopwatch People soon found they could endure almost anything ndash five hour sermons two day funerals Ben Stiller movies ndash if amnesia came as standard The stopwatch sim-ply reminded them how long to hold out for In other circumstances individual items could be turned upside down and scanned for an accurate idea of when they would be over This helped people not to have unrealistic expectations lsquoItrsquos better this wayrsquo they explained lsquoIf yoursquore aware that there are only twenty seven chips in the bag you know yoursquore going to be disappointed before you even begin eatingrsquo lsquoAnd thenrsquo they added lsquoonce yoursquore done you can forget your disappointment and open another bag of chipsrsquo This made sense to most people Most people were realists but did not like to be reminded of this in polite company When it came to people babies were easy to read Adults were more difficult The elderly in particular resented both the inconvenience of being tipped upside down and the casual reminders of just how soon theyrsquod be forgotten Discovering your expiry date was universally frowned upon Most individuals ndash gymnasts and contortionists withstanding ndash were incapable of examining their own heels This was no accident Ordinary people could not cope with knowing Secretly they did not want to disappear Though they all agreed that things were much better forgotten once they were over they saw themselves as the exception to this rule Those who cheated using periscopes or bathroom mirrors to read their own heels developed unrealistic expectations driving themselves thin and frantic with over-living Regardless of how loudly theyrsquod lived when they were over everyone still forgot the helicopter rides the champagne Caribbean vacations and exciting sex these people had crammed into their last few months When things were over people forgot They stood on the edge of the city and asked themselves honestly if theyrsquod ever been here before They looked at their hands and wondered if theyrsquod ever been held fondly or even in spite They contemplated an entire world of songs and books and theatre plays and could not recall a single word And they felt very old and very empty and could not remember the name for this place

45 tender bull one

46 tender bull one

Darja Bajagić was born in former Yugoslavia raised in Egypt and has lived in the United States since 1999 Cur-rently she is an MFA Candidate at Yale University She will be exhibiting a solo show at Appendix Project Space in Portland Oregon at the end of June

Emily Berry co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives and is a contributor to The Breakfast Bible a compendium of breakfasts Her debut poetry collection is Dear Boy published by Faber amp Faber

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast Northern Ireland She has a BA in English Literature from Queenrsquos University Belfast and an MLitt In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St Andrewrsquos University Scotland

Laura Elliott studied at Norwich University College of the Arts and has since completed her MA in Poetry at the University of East Anglia

Emily Jones lives and works in London She graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2008 Recent works in-clude Lingua Franca and Universal Donor which explore motherhood and were recently shown in FUTUREMYTH at 319 scholes New York

Laura Jane Faulds is a Toronto-based writer of French-Moroccan descent Her work has been published in Hazlitt Drunken Boat and Cal Morgans Forty Stories she also co-runs the blog Strawberry Fields Whatever strawberry-fieldswhateverblogspotcouk

Born in Kishinov Moldova Bea Fremderman finished her studies at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2012 where she currently lives

Maja Malou Lyse (also known as boothbitch) is a 20 yr old photographer and internet-based artist currently living in Copenhagen and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Željka Marošević writes fiction and poetry She also runs Melville House UK an independent publishing house

Faye McNulty is a textile designer and illustrator She teaches at Chelsea College UAL across a range of hand print techniques Her work has been exhibited at galleries such as 193c Gallery Brooklyn NY and Customs House New-castle

Anna Metcalfe was born in Germany in 1987 Her work has been published in Elbow Room Lighthouse Journal and elsewhere She lives in Norwich

Luna Miguel lives in Barcelona where she works as a journalist and as an editorial assistant at Random House She is the author of seven poetry books and has written a novella with her husband Exhumacioacuten lunamiguelcom

Daniela Olszewska is the author of four books of poetry including Citizen J forthcoming Autumn 2013 from Artifice books You can follow her on tumblr danielaolszewskatumblrcom

Alice Charlotte Ray is a dancer and artist living in London She is mostly unable to see the line between being the subject and discussing the subject alicecharlotteraycom Hannah Regel lives and works in London as the co-editor in chief of SALT Magazine She has exhibited internation-ally and has been selected to take part in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries later this year salt-magazineblogs-potcouk

Alicia Rodriguez is currently completing a degree in Fine Art at NUA Over the past two years Alicia has exhibited in group shows around Norwich and performed at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery alicia-sasablogspotcouk

Donya Todd is an illustrator and comic artist who lives on a farm in Cornwall England Donyarsquos graphic novel Death amp The Girls is being published by Blank Slate Books this summer She is the publisher of all-girl comic anthology Bimba bimbagirlcomicscouk

Emily Toder is the author of Science (Coconut Books) and the chapbooks Brushes With (Tarpaulin Sky) I Hear a Boat (Duets) and No Land (forthcoming 2013 from Brave Men Press) She lives in Northampton USA where she translates Spanish and Catalan literature and works at a university archives

45 tender bull one

46 tender bull one

Darja Bajagić was born in former Yugoslavia raised in Egypt and has lived in the United States since 1999 Cur-rently she is an MFA Candidate at Yale University She will be exhibiting a solo show at Appendix Project Space in Portland Oregon at the end of June

Emily Berry co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives and is a contributor to The Breakfast Bible a compendium of breakfasts Her debut poetry collection is Dear Boy published by Faber amp Faber

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast Northern Ireland She has a BA in English Literature from Queenrsquos University Belfast and an MLitt In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St Andrewrsquos University Scotland

Laura Elliott studied at Norwich University College of the Arts and has since completed her MA in Poetry at the University of East Anglia

Emily Jones lives and works in London She graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2008 Recent works in-clude Lingua Franca and Universal Donor which explore motherhood and were recently shown in FUTUREMYTH at 319 scholes New York

Laura Jane Faulds is a Toronto-based writer of French-Moroccan descent Her work has been published in Hazlitt Drunken Boat and Cal Morgans Forty Stories she also co-runs the blog Strawberry Fields Whatever strawberry-fieldswhateverblogspotcouk

Born in Kishinov Moldova Bea Fremderman finished her studies at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2012 where she currently lives

Maja Malou Lyse (also known as boothbitch) is a 20 yr old photographer and internet-based artist currently living in Copenhagen and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Željka Marošević writes fiction and poetry She also runs Melville House UK an independent publishing house

Faye McNulty is a textile designer and illustrator She teaches at Chelsea College UAL across a range of hand print techniques Her work has been exhibited at galleries such as 193c Gallery Brooklyn NY and Customs House New-castle

Anna Metcalfe was born in Germany in 1987 Her work has been published in Elbow Room Lighthouse Journal and elsewhere She lives in Norwich

Luna Miguel lives in Barcelona where she works as a journalist and as an editorial assistant at Random House She is the author of seven poetry books and has written a novella with her husband Exhumacioacuten lunamiguelcom

Daniela Olszewska is the author of four books of poetry including Citizen J forthcoming Autumn 2013 from Artifice books You can follow her on tumblr danielaolszewskatumblrcom

Alice Charlotte Ray is a dancer and artist living in London She is mostly unable to see the line between being the subject and discussing the subject alicecharlotteraycom Hannah Regel lives and works in London as the co-editor in chief of SALT Magazine She has exhibited internation-ally and has been selected to take part in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries later this year salt-magazineblogs-potcouk

Alicia Rodriguez is currently completing a degree in Fine Art at NUA Over the past two years Alicia has exhibited in group shows around Norwich and performed at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery alicia-sasablogspotcouk

Donya Todd is an illustrator and comic artist who lives on a farm in Cornwall England Donyarsquos graphic novel Death amp The Girls is being published by Blank Slate Books this summer She is the publisher of all-girl comic anthology Bimba bimbagirlcomicscouk

Emily Toder is the author of Science (Coconut Books) and the chapbooks Brushes With (Tarpaulin Sky) I Hear a Boat (Duets) and No Land (forthcoming 2013 from Brave Men Press) She lives in Northampton USA where she translates Spanish and Catalan literature and works at a university archives

46 tender bull one

Darja Bajagić was born in former Yugoslavia raised in Egypt and has lived in the United States since 1999 Cur-rently she is an MFA Candidate at Yale University She will be exhibiting a solo show at Appendix Project Space in Portland Oregon at the end of June

Emily Berry co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives and is a contributor to The Breakfast Bible a compendium of breakfasts Her debut poetry collection is Dear Boy published by Faber amp Faber

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast Northern Ireland She has a BA in English Literature from Queenrsquos University Belfast and an MLitt In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St Andrewrsquos University Scotland

Laura Elliott studied at Norwich University College of the Arts and has since completed her MA in Poetry at the University of East Anglia

Emily Jones lives and works in London She graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2008 Recent works in-clude Lingua Franca and Universal Donor which explore motherhood and were recently shown in FUTUREMYTH at 319 scholes New York

Laura Jane Faulds is a Toronto-based writer of French-Moroccan descent Her work has been published in Hazlitt Drunken Boat and Cal Morgans Forty Stories she also co-runs the blog Strawberry Fields Whatever strawberry-fieldswhateverblogspotcouk

Born in Kishinov Moldova Bea Fremderman finished her studies at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2012 where she currently lives

Maja Malou Lyse (also known as boothbitch) is a 20 yr old photographer and internet-based artist currently living in Copenhagen and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Željka Marošević writes fiction and poetry She also runs Melville House UK an independent publishing house

Faye McNulty is a textile designer and illustrator She teaches at Chelsea College UAL across a range of hand print techniques Her work has been exhibited at galleries such as 193c Gallery Brooklyn NY and Customs House New-castle

Anna Metcalfe was born in Germany in 1987 Her work has been published in Elbow Room Lighthouse Journal and elsewhere She lives in Norwich

Luna Miguel lives in Barcelona where she works as a journalist and as an editorial assistant at Random House She is the author of seven poetry books and has written a novella with her husband Exhumacioacuten lunamiguelcom

Daniela Olszewska is the author of four books of poetry including Citizen J forthcoming Autumn 2013 from Artifice books You can follow her on tumblr danielaolszewskatumblrcom

Alice Charlotte Ray is a dancer and artist living in London She is mostly unable to see the line between being the subject and discussing the subject alicecharlotteraycom Hannah Regel lives and works in London as the co-editor in chief of SALT Magazine She has exhibited internation-ally and has been selected to take part in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries later this year salt-magazineblogs-potcouk

Alicia Rodriguez is currently completing a degree in Fine Art at NUA Over the past two years Alicia has exhibited in group shows around Norwich and performed at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery alicia-sasablogspotcouk

Donya Todd is an illustrator and comic artist who lives on a farm in Cornwall England Donyarsquos graphic novel Death amp The Girls is being published by Blank Slate Books this summer She is the publisher of all-girl comic anthology Bimba bimbagirlcomicscouk

Emily Toder is the author of Science (Coconut Books) and the chapbooks Brushes With (Tarpaulin Sky) I Hear a Boat (Duets) and No Land (forthcoming 2013 from Brave Men Press) She lives in Northampton USA where she translates Spanish and Catalan literature and works at a university archives