“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” – Rosa Luxemburg
My wife and I left Berlin as winter set in.
Our residence visas had expired. We were broke. Bailiffs were at the door. We had just enough money to make a run for it. I gave notice to the utility companies and our health insurer, forwarded our mail to a cancelled mailbox, and closed our bank account.
Continue reading “Notes From The Drift by C.C. O’Hanlon”
As April draws to a close – our guest editor for the month, C.C. O’Hanlon, has posted his final selections, and is winding down his tenure.
Burning House Press would like to thank C.C. for everything he has done this month – it has been a colossal few weeks of submissions and engagement – and this successful month has meant an abundance of admin and responsibilities – C.C. has managed every challenge that his editorship has brought him with total aplomb – and we are truly grateful for all his hard work.
We would also like to extend a massive thank you to all who have submitted work to BHP during April – and for the amazing way that your submissions and contributions have engaged with C.C.’s fantastic themes of Place: Movement / Escape / Exploration / Architecture. We have been absolutely blown away by your creations. Thank you so much for continuing to entrust BHP with your precious art.
Be sure to catch all the fantastic, diverse, incredibly wide-ranging and glorious pieces of writing, art, photography and hybrids selected and featured by C.C. as part of his themed editorship HERE.
We appreciate every single submission that we receive – and although not all submissions make it onto the site, every single submission sent is valued and of merit, and we encourage you to continue to submit to future editors and respond to forthcoming themes.
The main idea behind the guest editorships at BHP is so that we can keep the platform fresh, continue widening the scope of the community, the readership and the work and artists featured, to posit new approaches and directions to themes both old and new, to bring new work to new audiences, to stimulate a correspondence of ideas and responses, to offer creatives an inclusive space and platform to take the reins as editors, to instigate and initiate creative cross-pollinations and cultural contaminations – and during his editorship C.C. has ably fulfilled every facet of that remit and then some – THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING C.C.!!! WE TRULY HOPE YOU COME BACK AND EDIT BHP AGAIN!!! Xx
We now prepare to hand over to May’s guest editor – more themes, and more opportunities to submit your genius creations to BHP! Thanks again, C.C.!
This is the end.
I’m going to miss these few weeks I’ve spent as a guest editor for BHP. Thanks to everybody who submitted their works around my loosely framed theme of Place: Movement / Escape / Exploration / Architecture. With few exceptions, they were exactly what I’d hoped for.
Thanks to everybody who read them. My immediate predecessors, Florence Lenaers and Amee Nassrene Broumand, had broadened BHP‘s readership significantly and I’m happy (and relieved) that I managed to add to its growth.
I’m also happy to have maintained a similarly rich diversity of contributors. Old, white males – like me – were few.
Thank you, Miggy Angel, for allowing me to be part of this. I’ve had a blast.
I’ll let myself out.
A convenient, comprehensive index of the works selected by guest editor C.C. O’Hanlon in April, 2018. Check it out, make sure you didn’t miss anything.
April 3rd
Chainsaw Demolition Waltz, a poem by Tara Lynn Hawk
April 4th
Wonderment, a poem by Tara Lynn Hawk
Waiting For The Ocean, words and photographs by by hiromi suzuki
April 5th
Nothing Dries Sooner Than A Tear, a memoir by Joanna Pickering
April 6th
Tom Jeffreys: In Conversation with C.C. O’Hanlon
April 7th
Badlands, a poem by Betsy Housten
Peach On The Beach, a prose poem by Kate Feld
April 9th
Static In The Bones, a poem by Amy Kinsman
April 10th
In Dudley, two prose poems by R.M. Francis
Writing A Winter Sunset, a diary by Oliver Cable
April 11th
The Catskills Dream, collages and brief memoir by Anna Louise Simpson
April 12th
Under A Wave Off Kanagawa, a poem by William Doreski
Meeting Robert Graves, a memoir by Larry Buttrose
April 13th
Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, Four Poems by Sam Lou Talbot
April 14th
Fernando Sdrigotti: In Conversation with C.C. O’Hanlon
April 15th
On Becoming A Storyteller: A Berlin Memoir by Jessica Ciccarelli
April 16th
The Tyranny of the Horizon, words and photos by Laurence Mitchell
April 17th
Arrival As A Form Of Departure: the lamentation of an immigrant, a poem by Bola Opaleke
Dream Vision, a poem by Lucie Richter-Mahr
April 18th
Dreaming St. Conan’s Kirk, a memoir by Ever Dundas
Sahara, a poem by Petero Kalulé
April 19th
Two Poems by Janet Reed
April 20th
This Is Not A Memorial, And Other Stories Of Remembrance, a pilgrimage by Alan Nance
April 21st
Mulure Mike: In Conversation with C.C. O’Hanlon
Creation, a poem by Erynn Pontius
April 22nd
Make A Way If There Isn’t One, a poem by Heather Saunders Estes
Sh-Boom, a poem by Mare Leonard
April 23rd
Skin, flash fiction by Olga Dermott-Bond
In Casablanca, a travel story (sort of), by Ganzeer
April 24th
You’re The Crocodile Now: Journal Fragments by E.F. Fluff
Who’d Pick A Fight With Lee Marvin?, a travel story by David Dragon
April 25th
Walking Westward, Toward Jerusalem, Across The Jordan Valley, a poem by Aiya Sakr
This Place is Ours, a poem by Hazel Warren
Journeys, art by Jodie Day
L.A. Lust, words and images by Yanina Spizzirri
April 26th
whatitoka (doorway), a prose poem by Kathleen McLeod
Two Poems by John Boursnell
Meeting Frank, a poem by Loretta Oleck
April 27th
A Believing Place, a journey by Nina Foushee
In Anticipation Of The Singularity, a poem by Mark Beechill
Smithsonian Destruction Vigil, experimental prose by John Trefry
This Would Be The Perfect Day, flash fiction by Cathy Ulrich
Everything, a poem by Line Toftsø
April 28th
Jo Tinsley: In Conversation with C.C. O’Hanlon
Phrygians In The Rigging, a pilgrimage by Caroline Stockford
April 29th
Three Fragments On The Portative Organ, prose by Eva Ferry
Jo Tinsley is the founder and editor of Ernest Journal – “an independent magazine for the curious and adventurous”. She is also the co-author of two books, The Odditorium: The tricksters, eccentrics, deviants and inventors whose obsessions changed the world and The Mysterium: Unexplained and extraordinary stories for a post-Nessie generation, and editor of Waterfront, a magazine celebrating a connection with water for the Canal & River Trust. Somehow, she also finds time to work as a freelance writer and curator. Continue reading “Jo Tinsley: In Conversation with C.C. O’Hanlon”
Mulure Mike is an award-winning Kenyan social entrepreneur, film-maker and musician. Born in the rural town of Siaya in 1986, and raised in Kericho, he moved at a young age to Nairobi. He ended up in the city’s notorious slum, Kibera, the largest in Africa. But it was, in his words, “a blessing in disguise.” There he met someone who owned video equipment and who offered to teach him how to use it. Continue reading “Mulure Mike: In Conversation with C.C. O’Hanlon”
There’s a five-mile block in the northernmost part of Prenzlauer Berg that I haunted during my last weeks in Berlin. Within this five-mile block, I allowed myself to fade in and out of memories – I let past and present mingle surreptitiously. I chose it in the exact breath it chose me. Even knowing what writing my memoirs would mean, I had no idea the gravity, but each time I got too lost or too overwhelmed, one man was there to encourage me forward. Continue reading “On Becoming A Storyteller: A Berlin Memoir by Jessica Ciccarelli”
Tom Jeffreys is an English author, critic, and editor. He is also, in his own words, “a reluctant traveller”.
In 2013, he was made redundant just as he and his wife – artist and writer Crystal Bennes – had to leave their flat in east London. They travelled for six months in South America, then lived for two years in Helsinki, where Crystal completed a masters’ degree in fine art. There was a year in Paris after that. Now they’re in Edinburgh. Continue reading “Tom Jeffreys: In Conversation with C.C. O’Hanlon”
Burning House Press are excited to welcome C.C. O’HANLON as our third guest editor! C.C. will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the full month of April – when he will then hand over the reins to our fourth guest editor for the month of May.
Submissions for C.C. are open from today – 1st April and will remain open until 23rd April.
C.C. will be responding and publishing your submissions on a rolling basis during the month of April – and has chosen his themes for submissions!
C.C.’s Themes are
Place: Movement, Escape, Exploration, Architecture.
C.C. has introduced the themes himself for your guidance:
“The act of journeying contributes to a sense of physical and mental well-being, while the monotony of prolonged settlement or regular work weaves patterns in the brain that engender fatigue and a sense of personal inadequacy…”
– Bruce Chatwin, from Nomad Invasions
Overall, I’m not looking to reassure, but rather, to some extent, to unsettle.
For submissions, C.C. is looking for your poetry, short stories, flash fiction, prose poems, art, collage, painting, photography – as well as non-fiction submissions: essays, reviews, commentary, features, interviews.
Submission Guidelines
All submissions should be sent as attachments to guesteditorbhp@gmail.com
Please state the theme and form of your submission in the subject of the email. For example: ARCHITECTURE/POETRY
Poetry and Fiction
For poetry submissions, submit no more than three of your best poems. Short stories should be limited to 1,500 words or (preferably) less. We encourage flash fiction submissions, no more than three at a time. Send these in as a .doc or .docx file, along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.
Art
Submit hi-res images of your works (drawings, paintings, illustrations, collages, photography, etc) with descriptions of the work (Title, Year, Medium, etc) in the body of the email. Files should be in .JPEG unless they are GIFs or videos, and should not exceed 2MB in size for each work. File names should correspond with the work titles. Video submissions can be uploaded onto Youtube or Vimeo for feature on our website. Send these submissions along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.
Non-fiction
Non-fiction submissions (essays, reviews, commentary, interviews, etc) should be no more than 1, 500 words and sent as a .doc or .docx file along with your third-person bio/and optional photograph.
Submissions are open from 1st March til 24th March – and will reopen again on 1st April for our third guest editor.
BHP online is now in the capable hands of the amazing C.C. O’HANLON – Friends, send him your best!
C.C. O’Hanlon is a relentless traveller, polymath and occasional diarist. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Ernest, Minor Literatures and The Learned Pig. It has also been included in several anthologies and ‘best of…’ collections. Born in Sydney, and raised nearly everywhere else, he has lived for the past five years in Berlin. He is now en route to somewhere else.
BURNING HOUSE PRESS 