REVIEW – KATHERINE OSBORNE, DESCANSOS

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged automatic writing, Descansos, featured, Katherine Osborne, loss, memory, metaphor, mythical, narrative, nature, poetry, review, Salò Press, surreal.

By Laura Potts

There is an obvious mythical essence to a number of the poems in Descansos, the new collection of poetry from Katherine Osborne, published by Salò Press, coupled with a flowing connection of the surreal which makes its way through each of the works, treading lightly on some and firmly on others. Throughout the poems, there is an unexpectedness of themes and figures, from God to Buffalo. This shift is sudden, like a stream of consciousness or a narrative story. Moreover, the pieces throughout this book seem to have been produced in a more automatic manner: repetition in titles, along with numbers and extended use of brackets. These automatic devices are sporadic and run parallel to themes of loss and nostalgia; both of which lead to a noticeable automatic writing style.

REVIEW – ANNA CATHENKA, THEY ARE REALLY MOLLUSCS

Posted on February 7, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged Anna Cathenka, biology, C.P. Snow, featured, humanities, imagery, metaphor, nostalgia, Observer's Books, ocean life, poetry, review, Salò Press, science, they are really molluscs.

By Laura Potts

A real literary personality runs through the poems Anna Cathenka has cleverly curated and carefully linked in her new book they are really molluscs, recently published by Salò Press. In producing this collection, Cathenka notes that she drew on three Observer’s Pocket Books, and as a result each poem stands as if it could belong to a passage from a textbook, with references to strange organisms and a scientific rigidity of structure. We are offered an insight into the world of the Anna Cathenka, and a number of other strange worlds, through the unfamiliar and occasionally confusing lens of biological ocean life.

ITALY’S FASCIST WATERMELON

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged ANPI, Beppe Grillo, Casapound, Cécile Kyenge, centrism, colonialism, dialogue, education, Emanuele Fiano, Emmanuel Chidi Namdi, Erdogan, EU, Europe, fascism, Forza Nuova, Generazion Identitaria, Igiaba Scego, imperialism, Italy, Matteo Salvini, Mediterranean, metaphor, migration, Mussolini, NGOs, ONG, Orban, partisan resistance, politics, propaganda, putin, racism, refugee, school, Trump, UE.

by Alex Valente

CW: racism, sexism, fascism

There’s an old home-grown metaphor that runs in the Italian side of my family – which may have been acquired by my great-grandfather through his context and peers, I just have never heard it anywhere else – which goes as follows:

Italy is a watermelon. The thick, green skin on the outside is democracy, the Republic. The thin white layer that keeps everything inside together is the Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democracy, the centre party that governed Italy after WWII, and the ancestor of pretty much all centrist politicians since). The red pulp is the Socialist, Communist heart of the country. But the seed, the black seed from which it all grows – that’s Fascism.

REVIEW: AUTUMN, BY ALI SMITH

Posted on May 20, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged affection, Ali Smith, arts, autumn, awkwardness, book, Brexit, bureaucracy, connection, division, ekphrasis, EU referendum, history, love, metaphor, neighbours, Penguin Random House, people, philosophy, Plato, prose, review, Socrates, writing, xenophobia.

by Eli Lambe

Rich with reference and metaphor, Ali Smith’s Autumn is a triumph. Published incredibly quickly following the chaos of the EU Referendum in June 2016, it fully captures the feelings of isolation, division, and distrust that seems to have characterised the 12 months since. The atmosphere of unreality is masterfully tied together with dream-sequence, ekphrasis, and lies. The principal character, Elisabeth sums it up concisely as an eight year old in 1993: “It’s about history, and being neighbours.”Continue Reading

SILENT EUROPE

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national and tagged Andalusia, ballot paper, Brexit, Buttermere, Cantabrian, Carpathian, Caspian, castles, creative, creative criticism, Dolomites, Eldfell, euRef, Europe, Garda, Hekla, Katla, Laki, landmarks, Lepontine, Lovozero, Marmara, metaphor, mountains, nature, photography, Pyrenees, referendum, uk, writing.

by Hannah Rose

Vote only once by putting a cross (X) in the box next to your choice. My ballot paper reads like a lover’s ultimatum: Leave or Remain. There is no room on my ballot paper to explain, negotiate with, mediate between. All dialogue between us has ended. Now there is only silence lingering like the smell of damp coats.Continue Reading

REVIEW: ROWENA KNIGHT’S ALL THE FOOTPRINTS I LEFT WERE RED

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged #readwomen, artivism, arts, book, Cadaverine, creative writing, Dorothy Parker, Enid Blyton, feminist, food, gender, humour, immigrant, language, Magma, metaphor, migration, New Zealand, personal, poetry, review, rhyme, Rialto, She Grrrowls, sound, teenage, terminal illness, vegetarian, woman, women, women poets, women writers, writing.

by Carmina Masoliver

Rowena Knight has been making waves both in terms of poetry on the page (including Magma, Cadaverine and The Rialto) and on the stage, being a regular at poetry nights across London, as well as a team member of She Grrrowls. Self-identifying ‘Feminist Killjoy’, the collection deals with becoming a woman and growing up as an immigrant from New Zealand as a teenager.Continue Reading

REVIEW: THE GIRL IN THE DOG-TOOTH COAT, BY ZELDA CHAPPEL

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged #readwomen, Bare Fiction, book, closure, collection, elbowroom, grief, hope, human, literature, love, metaphor, personal, poem, poet, poetry, reading, relationship, review, sexism, teen, water, women writers, writing, zelda chappel.

by Carmina Masoliver

A book filled with moths, whiskey and full moons; reading Zelda Chappel’s debut collection The Girl in the Dog-Tooth Coat, published with Bare Fiction (2015), forces you to be in the moment with each and every piece. With each turn of the page comes a fresh clarity and precision, yet still connected like water – at times a stream, and at others, a rushing waterfall. It explores grief, and through its dark and sombre tones, there is a glimmer of hope: that this is a tale of survival.

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged academia, Angela Carter, art, Arthur Krystal, books, China Miéville, commercial, Connie Willis, criticism, Docx, Don Winslow, fantasy, form, genre, Girl with all the gifts, guest, high brow, horror, Jonathan Jones, Kurt Vonnegut, literary fiction, literature, Lord Dunsany, low brow, Melanie, Mervyn Peake, metaphor, mike carey, money, mr carey, myth, novel, Oliver Burkeman, pandora, politics, Pulp, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, reading, school, sci-fi, smart, study, Ted Chiang, Ursula LeGuin, writer, writing, zombie.

by Mike Carey

Continued from part one, published on The Norwich Radical two weeks ago.

I hate to rake up ancient history, but here’s another example from a little further back – dredged up because in this case it is a writer of literary novels (Edward Docx, in the Observer in 2010) who’s saying this, so the agenda is maybe a little more naked.

Even good genre… is by definition a constrained form of writing. There are conventions and these limit the material. That’s the way writing works and lots of people who don’t write novels don’t seem to get this: if you need a detective, if you need your hero to shoot the badass CIA chief, if you need faux-feminist shopping jokes, then great; but the correlative of these decisions is a curtailment in other areas. If you are following conventions, then a significant percentage of the thinking and imagining has been taken out of the exercise. Lots of decisions are already made.

Considering that Docx rails against “a fundamental dishonesty” in the way this subject is usually discussed, I’m going to pick my words with care.

metaphor

REVIEW – KATHERINE OSBORNE, DESCANSOS

REVIEW – ANNA CATHENKA, THEY ARE REALLY MOLLUSCS

ITALY’S FASCIST WATERMELON

REVIEW: AUTUMN, BY ALI SMITH

SILENT EUROPE

REVIEW: ROWENA KNIGHT’S ALL THE FOOTPRINTS I LEFT WERE RED

REVIEW: THE GIRL IN THE DOG-TOOTH COAT, BY ZELDA CHAPPEL

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

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