Burning House Press are excited to welcome BOLA OPALEKE as our JANUARY 2019 guest editor! As of today Bola will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the full month of January.
Submissions for Bola are open from today – 1st January and will remain open until 24th January. Continue reading “January 2019 Guest Editor Is BOLA OPALEKE!!! Theme/s: FAITH // FAITHLESSNESS // DIVINITY”
Forty-One
When
You wake
From sleep
You wake
From death
You know
Every Hour Hurts in Fall
By now, you have adjusted to time’s addition, waking
without alarm, your body’s sudden jolt of electricity—
your toes and fingers wiggle—eyelids flip open to stare
at the ceiling’s cold. You’re still here. Isn’t that crazy?
You want to get moving before you hold still, before
you find yourself between the flight of day & dream.
EXIT
on being broken / like shards of withered glass / my body
repels every music its soul makes / i close every door i
can’t walk back through / by this i mean i keep memories
in a box of cigar / god tells me i am a chapel Continue reading “Adedayo Agarau: 3 poems”
Growing, Up
The grass lies hungry, waiting
to swallow up water, worms,
seeds.
I scatter them. One by one
they are plunged into the
dampened fingers of fertile
earth,
Room 168, the Hotel S-
The door opens to a married man, a single bed.
You’re not here, but your presence is everywhere. The bed is meticulous, signs you’ve been here are subtle, imagined, your outline dimpling the duvet, just a trace; Continue reading “Ben Gedaliah: Room 168, the Hotel S-“
Portal
Strange goings on today televisions walk in and out the door pills spew from the cat’s mouth
here take your medicine fox at the door yip yips pit bull chews a piece of Wonder Bread the skull
of a boar on the table the boy reaches through a hole in his bathroom floor the door is open the
window is open Continue reading “Rebecca Loudon: Portal”
Isle of Brooders
From a jail in a far off island, boats arrive to
deport the sad. Grieving blood is tasty like the
legend of vanished rivers: an Acheron emptied
out by thirsty souls. Continue reading “Aditya Shankar: 2 poems”
Burning House Press are excited to welcome JAISHA JENSENA as our DECEMBER guest editor! As of today Jaisha will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the full month of December.
Submissions for Jaisha are open from today – 1st December and will remain open until 24th December.
Jaisha’s Theme for the month is as follows
D O O R S
Continue reading “DECEMBER 2018 Guest Editor Is JAISHA JANSENA!!! Theme: DOORS”
Burning House Press are excited to welcome PAUL HAWKINS as our NOVEMBER guest editor! As of today Paul will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the full month of November.
Submissions for Paul are open from today – 1st November and will remain open until 23rd November.
Paul’s Theme for the month is as follows
FACING UP TO THE FUTURE
Paul has introduced his theme for your guidance:
Facing up to the future
Please submit work of a future-facing, avant-garde nature that is singly or a combination of form(s): poetry, prose, visual artworks, collage, sound, photography, musical scores, architectural design, forms, maps, film, sketches, plans, short stories in which context dominates content.
for e.g.
the poetry of: space-junk, fake news, black ops, artificial intelligence,
the visual taste of global-warming, #metoo, rising-tides
the musical scent of Brexit, Trump, The Cloud
the sound map of: gentrification, water-shortage, anarchism
ENCOURAGED: work that is collaborative, radical, experimental, intersectional, across form(s) & across discipline(s).
Continue reading “NOVEMBER 2018 Guest Editor Is PAUL HAWKINS!!! Theme: FACING UP TO THE FUTURE”
GENDER & REVOLUTION EDITION – SELECTED/CURATED/PRESENTED BY OCTOBER 2018 GUEST EDITORS SHE SPEAKS UK
Aaand that’s a wrap! Burning House Press would like to thank October’s Guest Editors SHE SPEAKS UK for selecting, curating and presenting an INCREDIBLE array of writing and art on the theme/s GENDER & REVOLUTION – and for all of the endeavour and hard work that has gone into managing the month – THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, EMERCIANA, AOIFE, & JO!!!
Massive thank you also goes to everyone who contributed to the theme/s and all who continue to send BHP your writing and art – we are so happy and grateful that you entrust us with your work, thank you!!! xX
Here it is, the full GENDER & REVOLUTION EDITION – every selection in one place for you to read/peruse – enjoy!!! xX Continue reading “GENDER & REVOLUTION EDITION – SELECTED/CURATED/PRESENTED BY OCTOBER 2018 GUEST EDITORS SHE SPEAKS UK”
Yellow Flower
Are you a girl
or a boy?
my nephew would ask me,
puzzled.
I’d smile and try not to answer
for as long as I could.
But he was so persistent, so
needy for reassurance.
My nephew is secure in his boyhood;
no questions, no blurriness
in his mind. He, him,
boy things, boy clothes
and books.
But me? An enigma, Continue reading “Poem, Writing & Art by Alix Hyde”
Burning House Press are excited to welcome SHE SPEAKS UK as our October guest editors!!! As of today She Speaks will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the full month of October.
Submissions for She Speaks are open from today – 1st October and will remain open until 24th.
She Speaks Theme/s for the month are as follows
GENDER & REVOLUTION
She Speaks have introduced their theme/s for your guidance:
Gender & Revolution
“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
Audre Lorde
“No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… Revolution is but thought carried into action.”
Emma Goldman (Writer and Anarchist)
What does gender look like to you? If gender is a construct, how would you deconstruct it? If you could re-write or reframe gender norms, would you? What would your world look like? What changes, if any, would you like to see?
What does revolution look like? Why is it important and what changes are needed?
We want you to use words or images to investigate gender, revolution, or both. You could draw on personal experiences, historical / her-storical narratives, imagined environments or cultural commentary. We welcome voices that represent different worldviews, beliefs and geographical locations.
We want art that breaks rules; that challenges patriarchy; that expresses personal struggle; that exposes the impact of cultural norms. Don’t be afraid to break out of your comfort zone and push the boundaries.
We can’t wait to see your submissions.
Love,
She Speaks
x
Continue reading “October 2018 Guest Editor/s are SHE SPEAKS UK!!! Theme/s: GENDER & REVOLUTION”
What a month! Burning House Press would like to thank September’s Guest Editor RACHAEL DE MORAVIA for selecting, curating and presenting an INCREDIBLE array of writing and art on the theme/s BELONGING//RETURNING//RETREATING – and for all of the endeavour and hard work that has gone into managing the high volume of contributions received over the month – and the wonderful way Rachael has engaged with, and encouraged, submitters to BHP – THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, RACHAEL!!!
Massive thank you also goes to everyone who contributed to Rachael’s theme/s and all who continue to send BHP your writing and art – we are so happy and grateful that you entrust us with your work, thank you!!! xX
Here it is, the BELONGING//RETURNING//RETREATING EDITION – every selection in one place for you to read/peruse – enjoy!!! xX
Last of the Barbary Lions
ii.
There’s no Hippocratic Oath for vets;
in this world a man is what morals make him. I’m indentured to a thug
with a pocket full of mobile phones,
two weeks into a handshake pact of pills and powders.
I’ve been paid to wait, collude
in the plaza haze, my feet
kicking alleys of August wind.
Perched on a stool in Calle Melo’s limestone glower,
watching ocean and sea blur in the Strait.
I’m doling tablets to door knocks,
cutting chorizo with a necktie knife; listing
on a nightly lullaby of horse tranquillisers.
I breathe in the dry air, breath out
a stem of opioid desire
and settle at the bar,
petals in my mouth.
This is my last night swallowing broken Spanish,
feet on the solstice line
a half step ahead of winter shade.
The ferries from Morocco
are on endless loop, red hulls
split sky and sea.
Continue reading “Last of the Barbary Lions and other poems; a haibun sequence by Rico Craig”
Burning House Press are excited to welcome RACHAEL DE MORAVIA as our eighth guest editor! As of today Rachael will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the full month of September.
Submissions for Rachael are open from today – 1st September and will remain open until 23rd September.
Rachael’s Theme/s for the month are as follows
BELONGING // RETURNING // RETREATING
NON-NONFICTION // E D I T I O N – SELECTED/CURATED/PRESENTED BY AUGUST 2018 GUEST EDITOR JOHN TREFRY
Burning House Press would like to thank August’s Guest Editor John Trefry for selecting a fantastic theme in // NON-NONFICTION // – and for all of the endeavour and hard work that has gone into selecting/curating/presenting the contributions received over the month – THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, JOHN!!!
Massive thank you also goes to everyone who contributed to John’s theme and who continues to send BHP your writing and art – we are so happy and grateful that you entrust us with your work, thank you!!! xX
Here it is, the NON-NONFICTION edition – every selection in one place for you to read/peruse – enjoy!!! xX
…bled speeches from dead ocular of throughout final carve of turn of in breathless to absorb it of in no longer of in what nor of throughout a pageant taint steel drawn as if to pass through slash mark unto forage nothing there as all what fallen is scattered seed of exhale burn in pit of nothing ever have in or which collapsed before lest broken nothing to claim ocular roving no longer it what stun in rat of feel of broken tabulets of skins flung to dog’s devour where null vacant eye cannot from denizen of passage present nothing as before once travailed through reek what matter solace of detritus dreamed of laconic shadows breaking Continue reading “3 Sketches from “cold zero reflect” by Michael Mc Aloran”
As the room done deep.
Told to, by, and, so, that it cold is a truth.
throne stretches mark, maid, bare muscle
BURNING HOUSE PRESS 