Description
Flare is filled with beautiful, weird, and powerful writing and art. In this issue, fiction from Sophie Tegan Gardiner brings the reader into a strange world of queer loneliness. Jasmin McGaughey’s ‘Could an Ibis Kill?’ is the animal revenge story of your dreams. Morgan-Lee Snell writes about the difficulty of finding a place in a history disrupted and repressed by colonialism in ‘Haunted Countries’. Jim Thomas’ ‘Wyoming’ attempts to make sense of the loss of a beloved pet. Mirren Strahan laughs at hyper-masculinity in their poem ‘The Sporting Flare; Ballin’’. And daniel ward’s poem ‘going home’ beautifully captures the complexity of gender in relation to family.
Fiction this issue covers everything from the ups and downs of human-cloud marriage to possibly carnivorous trees to heartbreak so strong it survives the apocalypse. Nonfiction discusses the successes and failures of Dungeons and Dragons in representing the diversity of its players, treasure hunting, and a series of strange events all relating to Cher. Poetry weighs up human versus crocodile threats, re-imagines Aphrodite’s affair with Ares, and reflects on childhood experiences with religion. And comics wonder at small everyday interactions, from a teacher calmly putting their EpiPen training to use to two new housemates watching a shooting star.
The cover of this issue is once again designed by urbigfrog, and features urbigfrog’s soft sculpture, the House of Mutual Learning, aka Housey. In urbigfrog’s words, ‘The House of Mutual Learning represents the need for marginalised communities to seek communication and education as means of dealing with conflict rather than ousting individuals. Storing mutually-learned knowledge, they embody the practice of fostering accessible community learning amongst all, even amongst those with whom we conflict or disagree.’ Flare also features stunning illustrations by Iona Julian-Walters.
We hope you enjoy reading issue 113 of Voiceworks!
Featuring: Ashlee Poeppmann / Brianna Bulleen / Brigit Annie Lambert / Caitlin McGregor / Cat McLeod / daniel ward / Edie Bush / Elena Piakis / Elise Lawrence / Emma Jensen / Gavin Yuan Gao / Georgia Angus / Georgie Greentree / Hayden Soper / Jasmin McGaughey / Jim Thomas / Kiara Lindsay / Mirren Strahan / Morgan-Lee Snell / Nick van Buuren / Olivia Costa / Riley Hammond / Robin M Eames / Seneca Jakosky / Sophie Tegan Gardiner / urbigfrog113 / Zachary Durian / Ziva von der Borch
