A: What inspired you to start a newer shell?

Q: I was reading Sianne Ngai and was intrigued with her idea of the ‘unprestigious emotion’ – not strong feelings like rage or despair, but pettier conditions such as envy, irritation, passive-aggressiveness... I felt it was important to provide a home for work with this ambient subtlety as described by Ngai, poems with the ambience of contemporary capitalism, and so the understated complexity of our times.

 

A: What makes a submission stand out to you?

Q: Standards of excellence are often associated with a conflict between selfhood and the world, but I will say I find poetics that centre entirely around a lyrical I, absent of critique, heavily contentious. Any poem that distances itself from kyriarchy will impress me.
 

A: Where is the best place to grab a coffee in Hounslow?
 

Q: I haven’t been in years because of the rent but Café Pera is delightful. I am also a big advocate for The Fallow Deer, though the Starbucks on the High Street does the job adequately.