My new essay - on the kinds of disabled eco-wisdom and learning that everyone needs right now. This came straight from the heart, with huge influence from many writers and thinkers and activitsts and teachers. An ecosystem of disabled knowledge and interconnected care. A poem that is a thought that is an essay that is an invitation.
I am incredibly honoured to have this sit alongside powerful work by writers I have long admired and learned from; I especially love Maya Chowdhry's poetic exploration of sea and bone, border and memory and carbon. Holding so much in such a compact space. And John Siddique's decolonisation of self and nature. Exactly the kinds of things that I look to for bearing in this late capitalist confusion of destruction.
Over 2023 and 2024 we (Heena Patel, Jasmine Gardner and myself) are working with a whole load of arts and community organisations across Greater Manchester to hold zine-making workshops, all culminating in a festival on August 17th: zine stalls, zine-making, and a showcase of the zines that have been made across the year.
Zines are ways of passing stories and feelings and ideas from hand to hand, and the brilliant thing about them is that they are by and for everyone. You don't need art school or a writing degree, you don't need to have been published, or have a website, or or or...
You need paper, and something to make a mark on that paper. That's it. You fold it, write it, paste it, glue it, washi tape and paint and marker pen and ink stamp and sticker and hand-drawn cartoon and printed text and handwriting and images collaged from a magazine or the back of the free paper from the train station. Whatever you have to hand. And you send it back to us and we will make copies for you - you keept 10 and we include 5 in the zine fest in August. Come join us, make a zine!
about
I'm a UK-based writer and one third of the Skear Zines editorial trio. I've performed at many festivals and live events across the UK and beyond, solo and in collaboration with other writers, musicians and visual/digital artists. My stories have featured on BBC Radio 4 and in Short Fiction Journal, among other places, with poetry appearing in numerous anthologies and magazines. My collection of short stories about the messy overlap of aid work and war (Jebel Marra, Comma Press 2015) was described by the Guardian as 'muscular', and 'exceptional' by the Irish Times. My novella exploring Manchester's housing crisis will be out with Comma Press in 2024, supported by the Society of Authors. I recently created and edited the TransBareAll anthology of trans writers and artists, as well as the accompanying podcast of the same name. My zine Knuckle Pushups is out now.