poetry

Poetry sale: Interfictions

Published on by Sara Norja

I’m extremely happy to announce that my piece ‘Orthography: A Personal History’ will be published in Interfictions.

It’s really exciting to be part of a new, intriguing publication like Interfictions. And I’m so pleased my piece found a home! I call it a poetry sale, although really – true to the spirit of Interfictions – ‘Orthography: A Personal History’ is a mixture of things. It consists of poetic prose and verse “lectures”. It deals with palaeography, orthography, multilingualism, language history, and (surprise!) my personal history.

It’s the most personal piece I’ve submitted so far, delving into my childhood history through writing and my relationship with my two languages, Finnish and English. Fictionalised, of course, but still: me, my deepest self. It’s scary and exhilarating to think that other people will read such a thing.

Addendum

Published on by Sara Norja

Oh – in my previous post I totally forgot to say that you should definitely read all the other poems in the current issue of Through the Gate as well as mine! The other poems are by Bogi Takács, Rose Lemberg, Mari Ness and Sonya Taaffe, and they’re gorgeous pieces every one of them.

I’m incredibly happy to be part of an issue with such talented writers. I’ve enjoyed and admired the work of all four of these people for quite a while, so it’s rather amazing to be in such company in this issue of Through the Gate.

Two things: Through the Gate and Niteblade

Published on by Sara Norja

My two forthcoming poems have now forthcome!

‘Boat-husk’ is available now in issue 4 of Through the Gate. Read it here.

‘Boat-husk’ is part of my worldbuilding-through-writing experiment: before I start to write a novel set in this forest world, I’m writing poems and short(ish) stories set in it, to get a feel for the thing and build the world up little by little. At some point I will have to sit down and do some more structured worldbuilding, but for now, this experimental approach is working. And it’s fun!

The poem was first inspired by something I actually saw at the start of May, though. Real world leads to fantasy-world; so it goes.

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The second publication is my poem ‘Bitter Mnemosyne’ in issue 25 of Niteblade, “Alice Underground”. The poem is inspired by Greek mythology, which I was excited by as a child and for which I still harbour a fondness. It includes impossible demands set by a lover; Persephone and Hades; and rivers of the underworld.

Now, this is how Niteblade works: for each issue, at first, there will only be teasers of the pieces included. When the magazine reaches its sales/donation goal for the issue, the pieces will thereafter be online for everyone to see.

So! I highly recommend going forth and buying issue 25 in .pdf, .mobi or .epub. It’s only $2.99 – totally affordable! – and you get 104 pages of sf/f/horror fiction and poetry. And my poem in full! The teaser for ‘Bitter Mnemosyne’ is here, but I’d much rather people read the whole piece. 🙂

I’ll post here when the issue is free for everyone to read, but in order for that to happen soon, do consider getting yourself a copy of the issue!

inkscrawl: the journey

Published on by Sara Norja

It’s half past midnight; I should be in bed. I can never manage this go-to-sleep early thing, even on work nights… *sigh* But before I rush off to brush my teeth and do my physiotherapy exercises (for my neck/back), a quick rec:

inkscrawl is a lovely poetry magazine, publishing speculative poetry of ten lines or shorter. I’ve liked the zine for quite a while – excellent minimalist poetry is such a sharp and direct joy.

The current issue, entitled the journey, is exceptionally wonderful. It’s such a beautiful whole that I really recommend reading all of it, in order – the structure is thought out and works very well.

Some pieces I especially enjoyed from this issue of inkscrawl:

– Alexandra Seidel’s The Adventurer Recalls Showing The Cartographer Her World.
– Genevieve MacKay’s Heptade.
– Peg Duthie’s Even an Empty Life Can Hold Water.
– Adrienne J. Odasso’s Fallout.
– S. Brackett Robertson’s Sowing Passage.
– Sonya Taaffe’s Larva.

…Just go and read the whole issue. It’s full of such beautiful word-magic.

‘The Understanding’ out in Plunge Magazine

Published on by Sara Norja

My poem ‘The Understanding’ is online in the second issue of Plunge Magazine, a zine publishing “quality genre literature, poetry, and essays about queer women” (as declared on their About page).

Read ‘The Understanding’ here! It’s what I call a “secondary-world manuscript edition”. This one’s a translation/edition of a Middle Argental chassiolet, written by a woman for a woman, evidence of the Silopphic love experience in Middle Argental times.

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In case it hasn’t become obvious already, I like history. And manuscripts.

I wrote my MA thesis about three Middle English poems with the subject of servanthood, and have been excited about manuscript studies and palaeography since I did a course on the topic in 2009. I want to pursue a PhD on something medieval and manuscript-related. Suffice it to say, I think manuscripts and editing them are awesome things! And sometimes quite often actually, this love comes out in my creative writing too.

I’m interested in the mysterious spaces left in a text by erasures, water damage, spilt ink, nibbling mice, cat paws, and all the other damage that can leave its marks in a manuscript. The possibilities for conjecture and guesswork intrigue me – and whereas for scholarly purposes it’s frustrating to handle a manuscript with lots of missing bits, when it comes to creative writing, those empty spaces are inspiring.

Poetry sale: Through the Gate

Published on by Sara Norja

Today’s been a lovely Friday despite the tiredness (it has been incredibly difficult to get my night owl sleep rhythm adjusted to my 9-to-5 job after my holiday). Some of the loveliness:

My poem ‘Boat-husk’ will be published in the fourth issue of Through the Gate. I’m very happy about this! Through the Gate is such a beautiful magazine.

I had my writers’ group meeting today and read part of a story that I’ve been working on for the past couple of months, more intensely during the past couple of weeks. It’s part of the forest world that I think I’ve mentioned here – with this world, I’m attempting the initial worldbuilding process through shorter stories and poems. Incidentally, ‘Boat-husk’ is also an echo of the same world.

I’m really enjoying this kind of secondary world exploration. I hope all the stories I write for it don’t expand on me like this one, though – once more, I’m looking at a 10,000-word story rather than a 2,000-word one as per my original concept. Oooops.

What can I say? I’m a babbly person, and I like drawn-out character development and lush language. Mmm. Tasty, tasty words.

Strange Horizons poetry podcast

Published on by Sara Norja

My voice is now on the internet in the Strange Horizons poetry podcast for July: listen to the podcast here!

It is so weird to listen to myself doing a poetry reading. I like reading out loud,* but I haven’t ventured too much into actually performing my poetry. I’m fine with reading my own stuff out at my writers’ group, but anything more public, and the nerves start twanging. I’m glad I dared do this reading for the podcast, though!

* As a teenager, I read the Harry Potter books out loud to my youngest sister up till the fifth book or so. Lots of fun – I really liked doing all the different voices. My Dobby-voice was my wee sister’s favourite, because I aimed for hilariously high and squeaky. 😀

Poetry sale: Plunge Magazine

Published on by Sara Norja

I’m back from a wonderful trip to the UK – much silliness, laughter and shenanigans ensued in London, Elmswell and Deganwy. I swam in a glacial lake in my underwear, took lots of photos of castles and the Welsh hills, watched trolling Saruman and enjoyed myself muchly in the company of dear friends. The only downside is that my trip wasn’t long enough to produce proper homesickness for Finland, so now I’m missing the UK rather a lot. That’s what you get for having two home countries of a sort like I do, I suppose.

Anyway, now that I’m back, I can share news of the yayworthy variety: my poem ‘The Understanding’ will appear in the next issue of Plunge Magazine!

Plunge is an awesome new publication with a tagline that piqued my interest at once: “queer. women. genre.”. I’m really pleased that ‘The Understanding’ has found a home in such a lovely magazine. It’s a poem that is a marriage of my love for manuscript studies and fantasy: a lyric from an edition of “Middle Argental” poems. Mmm, fake manuscript editions. So much fun.

I’ll post a link when the new issue is up!

‘Wolf Daughter’ online at Strange Horizons!

Published on by Sara Norja

I feel like a fool because my poem ‘Wolf Daughter’ has been online at Strange Horizons for a week, and I’ve failed to notice before now!

Read it here!

Anyway! This is my celebratory wee-hours-of-the-night post. I feel really happy to have a poem in Strange Horizons – it’s a wonderful publication full of really excellent speculative writing. They also do podcasts of the stories and poems that are up – the podcast including me reading ‘Wolf Daughter’ will be up later this month. I’ll post a link to that when it’s up.

The first lines of ‘Wolf Daughter’ spilled out in a sudden burst last autumn, and the first draft was born in a rush of words. It’s set in a world like pseudo-nineteenth-century Finland, with tints of Finnishness and folklore. This loosely-inspired-by-Finnish-folklore thing is something of an occasionally-recurring feature in my speculative poems. There may well be more where ‘Wolf Daughter’ came from.

Poetry in Polu Texni: Beauty Remembers

Published on by Sara Norja

Excellent news for this June Monday: my poem ‘Beauty Remembers’ is now online at Polu Texni.

Read it here!

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Since the poem was inspired by the tale of Beauty and the Beast, I think this is the time to wax lyrical about how much that fairy tale has inspired and continues to inspire me.

I was first exposed to the fairy tale through the Disney movie. I was five years old when it came out, and it was the first film I ever went to see at a cinema. I remember me and my friend had to sit perched high on the seats to be able to see the screen. We were mesmerised.

It was a magical – and, I think, formative – experience. The Disney version of Beauty and the Beast has stayed with me all these years. I’m not ashamed to admit that I still love it. As a geeky brown-haired bookworm, I identified with Belle from the start. It was fabulous to have an animated character who also liked to read and who dreamt of adventures in the great wide somewhere. I still get shivers in the scene where Belle explores the forbidden west wing of the castle – the music, the animation, ah, such magic!

Later, I found the original fairy tale and loved it too. I was also drawn to other tales of animal transformation and love – The Black Bull of Norroway is a fantastic example, with its powerful female hero climbing the glass mountain to get to her love. And I’m a total sucker for retellings or adaptations of Beauty and the Beast or similar tales. Even if I think the adaptations/retellings are horrible, I’ll enjoy some part of them because hey, it’s Beauty and the Beast!

Naturally, the theme crops up in my own writing, too. Most notably, recently, in the novel I started during Nano 2008 and finished the first draft of last autumn. (The novel that I should edit properly sometime…) Anyway, it’s inspired by Beauty and the Beast, and is set in a strange city and a realm within that city.

While I was revising that novel last August, I was so caught up in the beauty/beast theme that this poem popped out, too. I’m really happy that ‘Beauty Remembers’ is available online now for all to read.