Mysteries. Ideas uncovered. Strange creatures. Forbidden words, used anyway. Ideas that scare us, make us angry, wistful, ashamed. The importance of a tiny, electric moment. All this pulled into the light, revealed by the imagination and bravery of our writers. They bring to life the sound of an act of charity; the delicious strut of a woman the day after taking a new lover; the one person in university halls who notices the stealth details of a cheating couple.
The stories and poetry here – some long and unfolding, others short like hearty glugs of vodka – honour these unsung moments. They also showcase the voices of the habitually unseen. These authors write of fear translated into bigotry; tribalism and the violence it causes; the patient suffering of a drag queen, watching his mother deny him to her death bed; the racist imprint of a father on a daughter’s love life. The importance of finding the right voice and language. The colloquial, the vernacular, the dialect, the accents. The ‘bad’ language.
Welcome to The Unseen. We hope it illuminates you.