Sending Nudes: short stories & poetry
"Have you ever sent a nude selfie? The question draws a thick red line between generations, throwing one side into a panic while the other just laughs..." — Claire Armitstead, The Guardian, read the full review here.
Sending Nudes is an intimate collection of fiction, nonfiction and poetry about the various reasons people send nudes.
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Watch the video of our virtual launch with readings by: Molly McLellan, Shyama Laxman, Karla Linn Merrifield, Michał Piotrowski, Issy Flower, Lynda Scott Araya, and Miriam Navarro Prieto.
About the anthology
Some touch on feminist & LGBTQ+ issues, while others focus on aging and our flawed human bodies. Some are light and playful, and others go deeper. The common thread is: they all raise interesting questions about the nude, and why we are compelled to send it.
Contributors
Lynda Scott Araya - 'The Photograph' - lives in a beautiful heritage house in rural New Zealand. She has a background in education and has taught in a diverse range of settings including at tertiary level and in men's prisons. Her passion, however, has always been writing. Recently, she has been published in Chaos, the Blue Nib, Mindfood and Prospectus A Literary Offering. She has work forthcoming in Landfall 240.
Glen Armstrong - 'Today's Photography' - holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters and has three current books of poems: Invisible Histories, The New Vaudeville, and Midsummer. His work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Conduit, and Cream City Review.
Claire Askew - '8 ways to lie in a hotel bed alone' - is the author of This changes things (Bloodaxe, 2016), shortlisted for an Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and the 2017 Saltire First Book Award, among others. Claire is also the author of three novels, all published by Hodder & Stoughton. Her debut, All The Hidden Truths (2018, Hodder) won the 2019 Bloody Scotland Crime Debut Award, and she has been twice shortlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger Award. She was the 2017 Jessie Kesson Fellow and Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh from 2017-2019.
Issy Flower - 'Marble' - is a writer and actor, going into her third year at Durham University. Her journalism and prose writing have been published by Palatinate, the Bubble, From the Lighthouse, and Lucent Dreaming. Her writing has been performed by JustOut Theatre, Kickitdown Productions, RapidReel, Sedos and Castle Theatre Company, and won ‘Best Writing’ at Durham Drama Festival 2020. She enjoys wallowing in nostalgia and keeps up a healthy twitter feed at @IssyFlower.
Edward Ginn - 'Easter Island Head' - is originally from Merseyside and moved to South East London to study Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths. When he is not writing poems or stories he is a stand-up comedian and comedy writer. He also works in a High School supporting SEN students.
Emma Grae - 'Turtleneck Andy' - is a Scottish author and journalist from Glasgow. She has published fiction and poetry in the UK and Ireland since 2014 in journals including The Honest Ulsterman, From Glasgow to Saturn and The Open Mouse. Most recently, her work was selected to be performed by Liars' League at two of their London-based events in 2020. Her first novel, Be guid tae yer Mammy, is being published by Unbound in May 2021.
Katy Haber (Kat/y/Haber) - 'Digital Flesh' - is a poet, writer and artist residing in London. Their real identity is manifested in the digital sphere. Their body is currently a full time student and activist, working in gender and queer culture studies. They hate TERFS, fascists and racists. For now, they philosophise, eat and sleep when not writing as a self-created AI.
Michael Wayne Hampton - 'Sex for the Quarantined' - is the author of five books. His criticism, essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in The Southeast Review, McSweeney's, and Rust+Moth among many others. He can be reached via his website michaelwaynehampton.com or via Twitter (@motelheartache).
Liam Hogan - 'The Giver' - is an award-winning short story writer, with stories in Best of British Science Fiction 2016 & 2019, and Best of British Fantasy 2018 (NewCon Press). He’s been published by Analog, Daily Science Fiction, and Flame Tree Press, among others. He helps host Liars’ League London, volunteers at the creative writing charity Ministry of Stories, and lives and avoids work in London. More details at http://happyendingnotguaranteed.blogspot.co.uk
Shyama Laxman - 'The Nudes Editor' - has an MA in Creative Writing from City University, London. Her areas of interest include gender, sexuality and LGBTQ. Her work has been published in The Quint, Huffington Post, Muse India, Gaysi and ShethePeople TV. She has written a rubbish draft of her first novel and wonders if she is even cut out to write fiction. She lives in London with her husband, two cats and 31 house plants. She loves the cats and tolerates the plants. If ever she is on death row, then she’d want Rice and Dal as her last meal. And the one thing in her handbag that she ‘cannot live without’ is a lip balm, like those famous women out there.
Rebekah LS - 'Unthinkable' - is an American teacher in London with big dreams of owning a big dog. Rebekah writes about the only thing she really knows: her life.
Karla Linn Merrifield - 'Tangibility' - is a nine-time Pushcart-Prize nominee and National Park Artist-in-Residence, has had 800+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has 14 books to her credit. Following her 2018 Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select) is the 2020 full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North from Cirque Press. She is currently at work on a poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars (2021, Before Your Quiet Eyes NY). She is a frequent contributor to The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, and assistant editor/poetry book reviewer emerita for The Centrifugal Eye.
Molly McLellan - 'Ender' - is a research nut to say the least. It never seems to fail that her pieces of fiction always end up leading her down the endless rabbit hole of sources, upon sources, upon sources. Perhaps this is why she felt the need to obtain a Masters degree from Oxford in Creative Writing. Combining her two great loves of research and writing fiction in a place with one of the world’s largest libraries and oldest collection of books. Now back home in Canada she spends her days writing, out adventuring with her beloved dog Jack, and generally avoiding the mythical land known as “adulthood”.
Ellie Nova recently completed an MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths University. She previously worked in fundraising and communications in the charity sector. Her non-fiction, poetry and short stories have been published in various places online and in print including Goldfish Anthology, Her Stry and Popshot Quarterly – you can find out more at www.alittlefantastic.com. She lives in London and is working on writing her memoir.
Michal Kamil Piotrowski - 'Dick Pic' - is a poet living and working in London. He writes mostly experimental, visual and technology-powered poetry. He enjoys making poetry interactive and he mostly works with found text. His interactive book The Cursory Remix has been co-written by Google Translate and is available to read on issuu.com with a print version forthcoming from Contraband Books.
Miriam Navarro Prieto (she/her) - 'I Dare You' - Spanish artist who drifted from performance art to drawing, currently is mainly focused on writing poems and short stories on autobiography, ecology, gender and queerness. Her first self-published poetry chapbook is titled Todo está vivo, also available in English as Everything Is Alive. Her poetry in English has been featured in journals like Ayaskala and Capsule Stories. She sends out a bilingual newsletter twice a month on her creative process, plants and translated poetry: https://tinyletter.com/miriam-navarro-prieto