PENning Heroes and Heroines

‘PENning Heroes and Heroines’

Welcome to the second issue of New Writing, PENning Heroes and Heroines. We thought that from now on we'd give a brief editorial report on the submissions and the thinking behind our final selection.

Editing this new magazine has been a most interesting and enjoyable learning process. If anyone were to ask us what we are looking for - aside from general competence and relevance to the theme - we would have to answer that we don't know until we see it. A great part of the interest is seeing what our chosen theme turns up. This batch produced plenty of heroes, but not so many heroines - where specific people were named the ratio was fourteen heroes to six heroines. In the final selection the balance has been largely redressed  -  nine heroes to six heroines. 

We aim too at a balance between poetry and prose, and a variety of tone and approach. The magazine's distinctive feature is to display the work of refugees and asylum seekers who may not in all cases be professional writers or indeed writers at all - this is an opportunity for their voices to be heard, urgent voices from experiences we can only guess at.  That is why we give priority to their work.

Although we are primarily interested in imaginative responses to the subject, we are open to other kinds of work. It's been pointed out to us that the 300 word limit is unfair to prose writers when poets get fifty lines - a good deal more than 300 words, though it must be said few poets write at anything like this length. We don't think we can cope with long prose submissions on a regular basis (though we might have an issue featuring only short stories) but we have agreed to extend the limit for prose pieces to 750 words as an absolute maximum.

For this issue we are privileged to be able to feature work from members of the Kenyan PEN centre, thanks to the contacts Linda Cracknell made on her visit there and we particularly welcome the President of Kenyan PEN, Philo Ikonya, to our featured writers page..

We hope you enjoy reading our selection as much as we have and will consider sending in submissions for our next issue, due out at the end of January. The theme is PENning the Warming World and the deadline is 10 January 2010.

14/10/09

PEN Kenya – where we are in 2009 by Philo Ikonya

Featured Writer
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Philo Ikonya is an author, human rights activist and President of Kenyan PEN. She was recently arrested and subsequently released for taking part in a peaceful protest about hyperinflation. To read an extract from her piece 'Ringing On My Mind' go to our New Writing page.

PEN Kenya – where we are in 2009

In April 2008, we got working vigorously on the re-birth of a vibrant PEN. Kenya had gone through an election fiasco in 2007 and the country was burning. Many writers in Kenya realised that they did not have a common voice and they needed one. Some of us had been writing but also participating in public life with faith that we could help our country grow. Suddenly, as it happens with politics here and in other parts of the world, we found ourselves helpless and voiceless as the media, churches and other platforms of self-expression had been swept into the confusion.

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14/10/09

Of Heroes by James Kemoli Amata

James Kemoli Amata is a retired secondary school teacher of Kiswahili, born in Kenya on December 22, 1952. Currently he has engaged a top gear to be a self-published author. He also does multilevel marketing with Tianshi (Tiens) International Company specializing in preventive health care.

Of Heroes

On 18 July 2009 the world celebrated the 91st birthday of former President Nelson Mandela Madiba of South Africa. There were parties in the United State of America, Britain and South Africa.

I chose to celebrate by starting to write Mandela's story in 67 days in 27 chapters. He had guided the world to celebrate this 91st birthday by individuals devoting 67 minutes of community work each. He had spent 67 years fighting for the good of his country, 27 of which he was in jail.
Africa is a very good continent although known more for bad things than good ones. She has had many bad leaders but she has some good things and some good leaders. It is difficult to pick the best leader in Africa. Most have been bad.

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14/10/09

Enlightened by Elspeth Brown

Elspeth Brown, a member of Scottish PEN, writes poetry, plays and short stories. Her collected poems, 'A Crab in the Moon's Mouth', has just been published by 'Markings.'

Now in Dunbar she is working on a series of poems about the ecologist John Muir who was born there.

Enlightened

For Alma who still works part time, makes beautiful jewellery, and is supportive and encouraging to her family, grandchildren and friends.

I am not from the blind world
not yet, for dark can fall by chance.
You say you have friends from both worlds,
blind and sighted.
Are we worlds apart?

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14/10/09

Psalm-writer by Stuart B Campbell

Stuart B Campbell, a member of Scottish PEN, lives in Portsoy on the Moray Firth. He is regularly published in UK literary journals, and his most recent poetry collection is 'The Stone Operation' (Dionysia Press 2008); a fourth collection is currently under consideration. He is presently working on a commission to contribute poetry for a book on Scotland's mountain areas.

Psalm-writer

It's when you go to the brink
of the burn and plunge
your hand in to the depth
of your arm; it's mind-numbing
cold to begin with, as
if that part of you has become
disconnected

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Ken Cockburn is the former Assistant Director and Fieldworker at the Scottish Poetry Library. Since 2004 he has worked as a freelance writer, translator, editor and writing tutor. He lives in Edinburgh.

On the flyleaf of Submariner #36 (c.1971)

Once at Easter or maybe autumn
with the railway-line on my right
and on my left the flat silver-grey of the firth
I walked past Stark's Park and the Teil Burn
across the Auchtertool road
almost as far as the colliery gates

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14/10/09

Emily Dickinson In Love by Ian Crockatt

Ian Crockatt, a member of Scottish PEN, lives in North Aberdeenshire, and has published a number of collections of poetry. 'Emily Dickinson in Love' is from his collection 'Blizzards Of The Inner Eye' (Peterloo Poets 2003), and is also one of a series of 42 sonnets published separately under the title 'The Lyrical Beast' (Salix Publications, 2004).

Emily Dickinson In Love

I see it like this – a rock arrives
on her front porch and puts on a display
of pyrotechnics as stupendous as the Northern Lights
then rolls on its way, having first contrived
a trail of poppers and fizzers as its finale.

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14/10/09

Isabella Bird In The Rocky Mountains by Jenni Daiches

Jenni Daiches' published poetry includes Mediterranean (1995), Smoke (2005), and contributions to many Scottish magazines. Her fiction includes Letters from the Great Wall (Luath, 2006). She writes on literary and historical subjects as Jenni Calder. Her most recent book is Frontier Scots: The Scots Who Won the West (Luath, 2009). She is currently president of Scottish PEN.

Isabella Bird in the Rocky Mountains

In the Sierra Nevada Isabella
rode alone out of the blazing discord
of the Truckee bars and brothels
into entrancing silence.

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14/10/09

Portrait Of The Artist As A Family Man by Lesley Duncan

Lesley Duncan, a graduate of Glasgow and Pennsylvania State Universities, is poetry editor of The Herald newspaper. With Maurice Lindsay, she co-edited 'The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry' (Edinburgh University Press, 2005). Her study of the watercolour artist James Miller was published by the Royal Scottish Academy in 1990.

Portrait Of The Artist As A Family Man

He painted from a need
That cut him off from siblings
And ill-mated parents.
Who would have thought a merchant-seaman,
Caught in mid-Atlantic trough
Instead of Flanders trench,
Should ache to hold a paintbrush

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14/10/09

My Mother by Iyad Hayatleh

Iyad Hayatleh, a Palestinian refugee poet, was born and grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria in 1960. He started writing poetry early and published his work in Arabic magazines, giving many readings in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. He has lived in Glasgow since 2000. He is now an active member of Scottish PEN and Artists In Exile Glasgow and has taken part in many events and translation and poetry workshops giving many readings in Glasgow, Inverness, Belfast, Wigtown, Aberdeen, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and published some of his poems in magazines and collective pamphlets in Scotland.

His first collection, 'Beyond all measure'. is published by Survivor's Press. Recently he co-led two poetry workshops in Glasgow and Inverness sponsored by Scottish Poetry Library and Oxfam. He is putting together a book of verse for publication later this winter will be published in Arabic in Damascus. This translation of 'My Mother' was published in Poetry Scotland.

Hazel Frew who collaborated with Iyad in the translation of this poem was born in Baillieston in 1968. She grew up on the east coast of Scotland in Broughty Ferry and graduated from Glasgow University in 1991. Her first poem was published in 1995 and since then she has had many poems published in magazines and anthologies including 'The Rialto', 'Orbis' and 'New Writing Scotland'. A pamphlet, 'Clockwork Scorpion' was published in 2007 and her first poetry collection, 'Seahorses' was published by Shearsman Books in 2008.

My Mother (translated by the author and Hazel Frew)

My guide if I get lost
Ammunition for time's betrayal
A sword that never blunts,
guarding my soul, when I come,
when I go, when I leave.

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14/10/09

Robert Mugabe by Tendai Huchu

Tendai Huchu was born in Bindura a small mining town north of Harare and came to Scotland in 2005 to study.

Robert Mugabe

My Hero had a Knighthood
My Hero has it no more
Her Majesty took it
What a big racket

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14/10/09

Who Was That Masked Woman? by Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter, a member of Scottish PEN, is a children's author, short story writer and poet, and poetry editor for "Dark Horizons" magazine.

Who Was That Masked Woman?

I unblock the vacuum cleaner
She prevents a North Sea oil spillage

I hang out the washing
She stops a runaway train

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14/10/09

The Consequences of Freedom by Kusay Hussein with Sue Reid Sexton

Kusay Hussein is from Baghdad, Iraq. As a fully qualified civil engineer he worked for the American and British authorities building hospitals and schools for the Iraqi people until he was kidnapped by an unknown military group for several months and had to seek asylum in Britain on his release. He has published many short stories in Iraqi magazines such as AFAK ARABIA and ALFA – BET.

Sue Reid Sexton, who collaborated with Kusay on this story, is from Glasgow and a member of University Writers' PEN. She worked as a counsellor for over a decade and spent another decade working with homelessness. She writes novels about war, ordinary people and freedom of expression. She has been published in 'From Glasgow To Saturn' and the anthology '(In) Fidelity'.

The Consequences of Freedom (with Sue Reid Sexton)

Under the huge bent old mulberry tree, I gathered with some neighbours on the riverbank. We remained silent, listening to the magic roar of the Tigris waters running away towards Al Aeimma Bridge where there was another river, a human wave, all in black, heading to the holy shrine of Al Khadthim on the anniversary of his death.
 

Me: There is a big difference between freedom and the pretence of freedom, isn't there?
 

No one answered. It seemed that they were under some kind of spell

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14/10/09

Extract From 'Ringing On My Mind' by Philo Ikonya

Philo Ikonya is an author, human rights activist and President of Kenyan PEN. She was recently arrested and subsequently released for taking part in a peaceful protest about hyperinflation. To read her own account of Kenya PEN's activities go to our featured writers page.

Extract From 'Ringing On My Mind'

... If I were them, I would not know how to live from minute to minute. But they, they are heroes and heroines of hope; faith and a love that never gives up. ...

"The world does not understand the situation!" Yinini says desperately. And fearfully looks around every moment even when there is no one near him. He is afraid that someone flew in the same plane with us to kill him. All the time he remembers the way they killed other writers in his country, Hashi and Yunus. And in other parts of the world he knew many dead writers.

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13/10/09

Our President Is Running Mad (Extracts) by Kingwa Kamencu

Kingwa Kamencu is a 25 year old Kenyan writer. She writes poetry, prose and non-fiction and is the author of 'To Grasp at a Star'. She is a Rhodes scholar to Oxford and deputy secretary general for PEN Kenya chapter.

Our President Is Running Mad (Extracts)

Our president runs mad
It grieves me to say
She's cuckoo, ballistic bonkers,
Totally off her rocker,
Somebody stop her!

Our president doesn't know how to talk normal
She garbles out lines of poetry
You can't understand her text messages
You have to call her back and ask her what she means

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13/10/09

The Hero by Susie Maguire

Susie Maguire, a member of Scottish PEN, is author of short story collections 'The Short Hello' and 'Furthermore', and editor of the anthology 'Little Black Dress'. Over twenty of her stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland, and her first poetry collection 'How To Hug' will be published in December 09, by Mariscat. She lives in Edinburgh. 'The Hero' is to be published in 'How to Hug and other poems' in a pamphlet by Mariscat, in December 09 – editor Hamish Whyte.

The hero

my hero talks with dragons
sits right down with them
in their musty hidden caves
toasting marshmallows
on their fiery breath

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13/10/09

Llechwedd by Andrew Murray Scott

Andrew Murray Scott is the author of four novels, most recently The Big J in 2008 and ten non-fiction books including biographies of Graham of Claverhouse and Alexander Trocchi. 'Llechwedd' is included in his first
poetry collection, Dancing Underwater, published in September 2009. Further information from website: www.andrewmurrayscott.com.

Llechwedd

By some artifice
candle lights across
the cavern's broken face
contrive to flicker and fade
illuminating the lives of miners
four hundred and fifty feet below
Blaenau-Ffestiniog.

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13/10/09

The perfit sodger by Liz Niven

Liz Niven is a Glasgow-born, Dumfries-based writer. She publishes poetry in English and Scots and delivers creative writing workshops for bodies including the Scottish Poetry Library, London Poetry Society, National Galleries Scotland. She has written and edited a wide range of education resources for poetry and for Scots language.

The perfit sodger
"The landmine is eternally prepared to take victims. It is the perfect
soldier."
Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel peace prize winner & founding coordinator
of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Aka Ra thinks he's thirtie,
he's no shair.
Orphant in Cambodia,
he wis telt,
at five year aul,
hou tae lay lanmines

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13/10/09

Immortal Speech by Khainga O'Okwemba

Khainga O'Okwemba is a poet, literary critic, social commentator, champion of freedom of expression and thought, and Treasurer, international PEN Kenya Chapter.

Immortal Speech

Even that disquietude, and mirth
Even those unmuted soundbites, and mirth
Are born with a sting in the tail
 

 

A seaful of young stars, moving together,
Where dark clouds gather,
We hear footfalls of metal whips
 

Forging ahead

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13/10/09

Drum Rider (Excerpts) by Shailja Patel

Shailja Patel, award-winning Kenyan poet, has swum many oceans: shark-infested currents of corporate London, swirling seas of monastic life, high surf of slam poetry and political activism. Her work is translated into ten languages. She always returns to her natal waters - the Indian Ocean of East Africa, and to www.shailja.com

Drum Rider (Excerpts)

The woman planted a drum on the grass before her.
Twisted a soft worn khanga round her hips.
As if she was going to wash clothes, chop vegetables;
hike a child to her back to go to market.
None of us really paid any attention.

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13/10/09

John Muir in Dunbar, 1893 by James Robertson

James Robertson, a member of Scottish PEN, is a poet, short story writer and novelist. He writes in English and Scots, and is a co-founder and the general editor of the Scots language imprint for children, Itchy Coo. His novels are The Fanatic, Joseph Knight and The Testament of Gideon Mack. He stays in Angus. 'John Muir in Dunbar, 1893' was originally published in Present Poets 2 (National Museums of Scotland, 1999).

John Muir in Dunbar, 1893

I am a Scotchman and at home again.

Once, I mind it well, I climbed a Douglas fir
High in the Sierra, a storm was rising
And I squirrelled up that forest mainmast
So when it struck I'd feel what like it was
To be a storm-tossed tree.

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13/10/09

John Woolman (1720-1772) by Leslie Stevenson

Leslie Stevenson is a member of Scottish PEN and Lecturer, then Reader in Philosophy, University of St.Andrews, 1968-2000. He is the co-author of Ten Theories of Human Nature (5th edition 2008) and a member of The Religious Society of Friends.

John Woolman (1720-1772)


The phrase 'Quaker saint' is incongruous (Quakers have not been in the habit of canonization), but it has been applied to John Woolman, an American Quaker of the eighteenth century.
 

He lived in white colonial society, before the industrial revolution and shortly before the American Revolution, at a time when Quakers formed a larger proportion of the population than now (in Jersey and Pennsylvania).
 

Woolman is most famous for his pioneering opposition to slavery.
 

 

 

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