Rushika Wick describes a new anthology of writing on the theme of disease
Disease is an international poetry and visual art anthology, published by Carnaval Press in collaboration with sunseekers poetry project in winter 2022. The concept arose after a conversation between the three editors who were asking questions of contemporary aesthetics in poetry – is there a trend for purism in poetics? Are we seeing a narrowing of definitionsrelating to diversity of voice? Not just equality-aligned but in textural and naivety terms? We felt that many contemporary collections left little room for accidental interpretation and spontaneous link/ association making between works.
Two of the editors, Rushika Wick and Virna Teixeira, are medical doctors and all three fascinated by systems failures and what this enables. Ana Seferovic migrated from Belgrade and has lived through the Balkan wars and regime collapses of the 90s. Her last poetry book Materina was released to critical acclaim in Serbia (forthcoming with Verve Poetry press, July 2023). The editors are women with international heritages – Virna moved from Brazil and Rushika has Sri-Lankan inherited identity. An international lens was desirable and ‘disease’ seemed a natural choice of concept which demanded new perspectives – not just in terms of lived experience but also in semantic and social unpacking. For example, as disease is often a naturally arising process and usually inevitable, how do social framings engage with this? Who is responsible for managing disease and why? What power does the language of disease hold? The social hiatus created by the pandemic seemed a timely point to pause and reflect on disease in all its guises.
An open call went out via Carnaval and sunseekers poetry project on Instagram. Founded by Ana Seferovic, sunseekers had already attracted an international following after showcasing a series (archived on reels) of “why I write (poetry)” with videos submitted by poets across the world, notably including Serbian poet Nina Zivancevic, a Sorbonne academic and contemporary of Ginsberg, the late Michael Horowitz and SJ Fowler at Kingston University, creator of the Poem Brut movement and of the European Poetry Festival. All went on to contribute to the anthology.
Carnaval Press was created by poet and translator Virna Teixeira in 2015, after she migrated to London. Initially specialising in Brazilian contemporary poetry in translation, her catalogue expanded to include Latin American and international authors, and has favoured the work of women poets, Portuguese poetry and hybrid work translations into English. Virna’s editorial catalogue already represented work relating to mental illness, gender identities, sexualities,migration and social inequality (Virna trained as a neurologist in Brazil and currently works with mental health and addictions) Similarly, Carnaval’s international connections enabled participation from the Americas and Europe.
Exciting voices in UK poetry are included – Fran Lock, Sascha A. Akhtar and Kate Simpson to name a few. International contributors include Eduardo Jorge, Ilias Tsagas and Ivana Maksic. Visual artists were also invited to contribute with the stunning hyper-plasticised and organic cover piece by Anna Ruback. Disease, the anthology, was born.
It was a joy to engage with the authenticity in all of the selected poems. They come in courage, foreshadowed and yet liberating. All bringing new thinking and articulation to the recognised duality:
Yes, you are dying inside yet sparkling apparently.
Matthew Haigh
Disease is being promoted by a series of launches – please follow Carnaval Press on Instagram, Facebook, or on their website, for more details. You can purchase a copy of Disease here.