In this highly anticipated new issue, we encounter brilliant examples of what writing can do in a hypernormal time – whether that's Benjamin Gready on the absurdity of fieldwork on land under active occupation or Zahid Gamieldien's short story about a dancing rat who finds itself enmeshed in systems too shadowy to be true. But, as with the emotional cycles of resistance, hope and snark are features too. Dan Hogan considers the lawn as a class obsession, and π.ο. asks a question: why people hate poetry? We also read about a rakhasa family who passes on wisdom to their young kin, a story by Shefali Mathew. And you’ll find new poetry by Eli McLean, Fiona Hile and Sol Chan, among others, as well as a comic by Safdar Ahmed, plus heaps more. Co-editors Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk write in the editorial, "Writing always matters, but it matters most directly in the face of this kind of thuggish assault on language, our first and last commons. We can’t let the bastards have it.”
Andy Campbell is the Director of Digital Media for One to One Development Trust, a UK arts/media charity whose pioneering digital fiction project Dreaming Methods has been online for 15 years. Dreaming Methods houses over 30 works of collaborative electronic literature and experimental narrative games, including new episodes of the award-winning series Inanimate Alice in association with The Bradfield Company, and #PRISOM with Australian digital artist Mez Breeze which made the shortlist for the Western Australia Premier Book Awards 2014 for Best Digital Narrative.
