For our 10th issue, we asked artists to take their inspiration from the idea of a message in a bottle. The submissions poured in with all sorts of messages to and from people, places and things. We were impressed with the breadth of interpretation and think you will be, too.

Many of the submissions asked questions about the messages we miss or never try to deliver. Hunter McLaren’s ‘Sometimes, I live in a place called Saddle’ is heartbreaking in its truth about the truths we find we cannot say, and Katherine C. Frye’s eerie short story, ‘Mille and the wendigo’, also looks at how we deliver the truths about ourselves to the people around us. Irene Allison‘s protagonist receives a message from his past, while Holly Day’s poem, ‘The guardians’, sends an unheeded message to the future. Many artists interpreted the theme metaphorically, like Terry Graff’s political artwork and Linda Boroff’s flash fiction, whereas Rosalie Lander issues a literal invitation.

The artwork that fills this issue is rich and thought-provoking. We hope you find it as challenging and satisfying as we do.

Below, you’ll find a list of our included artists so you can explore this issue in any way that you choose. Alternatively, you can click the ‘Try this’ button at the bottom of each page to follow the path we’ve designed through the art. We recommend you start with Hunter McLaren’s ‘Sometimes, I live in a place called Saddle’.

Enjoy.

Lisa & Sinéad

Was und warum bist du? – Irene Allison
Breakup – Linda Boroff
Fleeting ideas – Serene Chan
The guardians – Holly Day
The history of walnuts – Matthew James Friday
Millie and the wendigo – Katherine C. Frye
A hazy shade of postcolonial melancholia – Howie Good
Sea – Giles Goodland
Out of the mouths of babes – Terry Graff
23 or 50 – John Grey
A prospect of lyme – Geoffrey Heptonstall
I’d like – Trevor Knorr
The invitation – Rosalie Lander
Reach – Edward Lee
Disney’s land – David Lohrey
Sometimes, I live in a place called Saddle – Hunter McLaren
Untitled – Jeremy Szuder

 

try this