Hello and welcome!
époque press is an independent publisher based between Brighton and Dublin established to promote and represent the very best in new literary talent.
Through a combination of our main publishing imprint and our online ezine we aim to bring inspirational and thought provoking work to a wider audience.
Our main imprint is seeking out new voices, authors who are producing high-quality literary fiction and who are looking for a partner to help realise their ambitions. Our commitment is to fully consider all submissions on literary merit alone and to provide a personal response.
Our ezine will showcase a combination of the written word, visual and aural art forms, bringing together artists working in different mediums to encourage and inspire new perspectives on specific themes.
For details of how to submit your work to us for consideration please follow the submissions guidelines and for all other enquiries please email info@epoquepress.com
Hello and welcome!
époque press is an independent publisher based between Brighton and Dublin established to promote and represent the very best in new literary talent.
Through a combination of our main publishing imprint and our online ezine we aim to bring inspirational and thought provoking work to a wider audience.
Our main imprint is seeking out new voices, authors who are producing high-quality literary fiction and who are looking for a partner to help realise their ambitions. Our commitment is to fully consider all submissions on literary merit alone and to provide a personal response.
Our ezine will showcase a combination of the written word, visual and aural art forms, bringing together artists working in different mediums to encourage and inspire new perspectives on specific themes.
For details of how to submit your work to us for consideration please follow the submissions guidelines and for all other enquiries please email info@epoquepress.com
époque press
pronounced: /epƏk/
definition: /time/era/period
époque press
pronounced: /epƏk/
definition: /time/era/period
é-zine // desire // editorial
Welcome to the époque press é-zine on the theme, Desire. We can’t believe that we are already up to our 14th edition and we hope that once again you will savour all of the amazing work we have featured…some of which comes with a warning - but what would you expect from an edition with desire as its theme!
The response we received for this edition was overwhelming and the selection process has been extremely difficult. We do hope though that you enjoy the superb range of work, across a number of different artistic mediums, that we have featured for you. You may also have noticed that we now have a ‘Buy Us A Coffee’ button and we hope that you will consider giving us a small caffeine treat to help keep us going with our future editions.
Desire can take many forms, and can be expressed through terms such as wanting, wishing, longing and craving. Desires can be satisfied but they can also be left unfulfilled and repressed. In this edition the pieces we have featured tackle desire from many different angles.
The short stories featured include Fire, Ice, Waterfall by Jacqueline Kaufman whose protagonist wrestles with desire, love, and the difference between them. From Fire and Cloud and Darkness Given by Kevin Hora, looks at destructive desire and inner chaos through a fractured narrative whilst Olumo Rock by Priscilla Temitope Keshiro centres on love, longing, and a pinch of regret. Drew Gummerson explores the corrupting effects of desire and the impact it can have on an individual's future longing for acceptance, intimacy and love in his short story The Color of Money, and Kapu Lewis in the short story, Self Portrait, looks at the desire for a perfect love when the character is yet to learn what love really means. In An t-Aiséirí (The Resurrection), Geraldine Creed uses Irish mythology, in a modern environment, to celebrate the desire for female power and Sarah Turner in the story Collected looks at the obsessive longing that can accompany desire. Rachel Miranda, in the Kafkaesque story Title Transfer, looks at the spasms of desire that continue, sometimes long after a couple has separated and Ethan Crane, in the story The Second Husband, explores the idea that many desires can have less than desirable outcomes.
In terms of poetry, we have Anna Battersby’s video poems which look at the journey of desire and how, like Japanese Kintsugi, repairing the broken parts of ourselves with gold, embracing imperfections and scars, can show us something more beautiful and valuable. Sandy Swain, in the poem Saddest Lesbian Novel, blends desire, voyeurism, and fetishisation to represent bisexuality's meanings in society and the poetry of Christina Hennemann looks at how condemning women as insane or accusing them of witchcraft were used historically to silence women's sexual desire. Elena Stevanoska gives us the poem I want to make a 70s disco track, which looks at universal desires and how longing can take over our thought processes whilst Elin Johnston’s video poetry explores remembrance, yearning and a desired for presence.
In terms of visual art, we have the photography of Lucy Le Brocq which focuses on people 'owning their wanting' within sexuality, gender euphoria or identity and how desire can be seen as the place between the itch and the scratch. Jesse Kay’s comic book illustrations layer together fantasy tropes and nonsensical recollections of their childhood to explore how desire can be fast tracked into shame and JC Alfier’s collages mirror, or illustrate, Carl Jung’s concept of the Anima: the female part of the male psyche.
Our music offering comes from A/C/R/E/S with the title track of I Want To Be Alive For The End Of The World (And I Commend This Statement To The House). Behind the lyrics there is a desire for hope and a passion for change on various levels.
So, sit back – look, listen and read. We hope you enjoy this edition, and all of the great pieces we have featured, and if you do then please consider buying us a coffee!
Adam & Sean