the fierce work of speaking back
August 2024
Aaaand it’s out! Yes, issue #30 of Gutter, marking our fifteenth anniversary, is now out and about in the world. We are so pleased with this one. Delighted. Ecstatic. Over the moon. I mean, just look at that beautiful golden cover.
Those of you who are subscribers should now have received your copy in the post. And if you’re not a subscriber then what on earth are you thinking? It’s only twenty pounds a year if you’re in the UK – or four pounds a month, if you’d like to receive one of our stunning Words from the Gutter giclée prints and be among our loyal crowd of Friends (and frankly, why wouldn’t you?)
This issue is so packed full of great writing, it’s hard to know where to start in introducing it all. If you’d like, you can read our editorial, which is as good a place as any to begin. Or you could dive right in with the work itself.
Amongst the poets in this issue, you’ll find the magnificent Hollie McNish – her first appearance in Gutter. There are also marvellous poems from Zain Rishi, Rushika Wick, Sherre Vernon, Lesley Benzie and many, many others. An embarrassment of riches, we reckon.
Other writers in this issue include the amazing Irish author Sara Baume, who’s written about the artist Mollie Douhit; Helen Mort’s essay about Greenland is a particular highlight; as is an excellent essay on palm oil by our very own Katie Goh. Helen McClory’s darkly witty short story ‘Hardly to be an Accountable Creature’ is inspired by James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (the 200th anniversary of which is this year), and Doug Johnstone explains ‘The Sugababes Paradox’, with the help of Buckfast and a bazooka.
As if those weren’t enough, we’ve got an essay about the underwater world, from Christina Riley; fiction from W.D. Wetherell, Ciara Maguire, Jesús Nares Jaramillo and many others; reviews of books by Jackie Kay and Kapka Kassabova; plus, an interview with the poet Jen Hadfield, one of the winners of this year’s supremely prestigious Windham Campbell Prize. That interview is now available to read for free over on our website, and we’ll be sharing some more of these pieces there in the coming months. But for now, that’s almost it.
I say ‘almost’ because our Book of the Month review is also now online, and that book is Unwritten Woman, poet Hannah Lavery’s new collection, published by Polygon. Titilayo Farukuoye sings the praises of these poems. They demonstrate, she writes, ‘not only the fierce work of speaking back, Lavery also creates spaces for much gentleness, love, vulnerability and calm.’ Thanks to Titilayo for her brilliant review, and for providing the title of this month’s newsletter.
If you’d like to hear some of the writers from Issue #30 read their work, we have two launches coming up. The first, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 17th August, features Doug Johnstone, Helen McClory, Zain Rishi and Helen McClory, plus music from the spectacular Kathryn Joseph. It’ll be hosted by Katie Goh and Malachy Tallack, and you can get your tickets here. The second launch is in Glasgow, at the Alchemy Experiment, on the 23rd August at 7pm. That event will feature Meredith MacLeod Davidson, Akshay Anilal Sreeja, Marianne MacRae and Ciara Maguire, and will be hosted by Cal Bannerman and April Hill. It’s free, and you don’t need to book a ticket.
We also have an extra event in Edinburgh on the 27th August, celebrating our fifteenth birthday, featuring three writers: one whose work appeared in issue #1 (nicky melville), one from issue #15 (Tessa Berring) and one from issue #30 (Freya Whiteside). That’s at Typewronger Books at 6pm
If you’re not subscribed to Gutter but would like to read this issue anyway, you can buy your copy from our website here. We really, really hope you enjoy it, and we hope to see lots of you at one or other of these events.
