By Niven Govinden.
He remembers roaming the forest one afternoon, and chasing a dog away from a tray of leftovers on a picnic table. Though he still recalls the taste of the meat; scraps on a chicken leg, still wet with the dog’s saliva, the overwhelming memory is one of relief: temporarily sating the cramps in his stomach; that an hour would follow when he would no longer have to think about food.
It was our pleasure to host a discussion on collaboration and experimental writing in the Irish Writers’ Centre on Thursday night, as part of the Yes But Are We Enemies project. On the panel were gorse contributors Rob Doyle (nos. 1 & 2), Christodoulos Makris (no. 2), SJ Fowler (nos. 1 & 2) and Kit Fryatt of Wurm im Apfel Press.
To celebrate the launch of Karl Whitney’s book, Hidden City, in Dublin on Monday, 1 September, we are pleased to post a longer extract from ‘The Run of the Streets,’ Karl’s essay for gorse no. 1. Hidden City has already had a five-star review in the Telegraph.
We’ll be putting pre-order details for gorse no. 2 on the site this week, but we couldn’t resist showing off a draft of the cover, designed by the very brilliant Niall McCormack.
1. The Circa Words experimental writing weekend we took part in with John Holten (gorse no. 1) over Bloomsday weekend gets a mention in the Irish Times (and moderator Dave Lordan’s report can be read here).