Stories from Elsewhere at Zabriskie
Elsewhere: A Journal of Place was launched in 2015 and is dedicated to writing and visual art that explores the idea of place in all its forms, whether city neighbourhoods or island communities, heartlands or borderlands, the world we see before us or landscapes of the imagination. Elsewhere No.04 was published in September 2016 and features writing from Australia, Indonesia, England, Czech Republic, Hawaii and Portugal, as well as a special feature dedicated to map-making and interviews with cartographers Daniel Reeve and Jake Coolidge.
On Friday 18th November writers and editors from Elsewhere will be at Zabriskie for an evening of conversation and readings, including Saskia Vogel talking about her journey into the northern Swedish wilderness, Paul Scraton speaking of the sense of home that he finds on the Welsh coastline and Nicky Gardner, writer and co-editor of Hidden Europe magazine who will be talking about Kosovo, a place she wrote about in Elsewhere: A Journal of Place No.01.
All four editions will be available of a journal described by Robert Macfarlane as „outstanding in its production qualities, its attention to detail, and the strong sense of wit, vigour and passion that suffuses the whole“.
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About Elsewhere #4
Places…
London, England by Jeanette Farrell
“Ormside Street exemplifies all of Bermondsey’s highlights: an industrial street surrounded by industrial streets that finally reaches the river on its serpentine bend. Tumbledown buildings are interspersed with murky laneways and, if it appears sinister, a quick internet search on the local area will confirm that it is..”
Papua, Indonesia by Ho-Ming So Denduangrudee
“The necessity for mapping is borne from a world that tells entire communities that what they know of themselves and their surroundings is not enough, is not real, not in any way that counts. Communities shoulder the burden of fixing the inhumanity of a system they never chose to partake in, that tells them everyone is equal, but whose first inclination is to ravage their lands and destroy their existence without a second thought.”
Prague, Czech Republic by Paul Scraton
“I stop now at the point where Palach died and where, laid into the cobblestoned pavement, a sunken cross has been left in memory of the two young men. As I stand there, people pass either side of me, on their way to work or to the station, following their daily routines.”
Madeira, Portugal by Ellie Broughton
“Inside the jamjar-tight lamp, the technician unclips the curtains and turns the light on by hand. Buttery electric light floods the great glass lens. As the lens spins, the gold beam orbits the lighthouse, shining its bright face on nearby hills.“
Pilbara, Australia by Peter Papathanasiou
“For mile after mile, the brown draughty tufts and spindly trees of Australia blurred by. The heat hit me like a blast of dragon’s breath. My sweat evaporated before it had a chance to pool, the moisture sucked right out of me as soon as it emerged. In the distance, mountains loomed out of the sky, and the rumbling of machines shattered the silence of spinifex country.”
Hilo, Hawaii by Robert Savage
“The camps have become beachheads. A taking of territory and a flashpoint for skirmishes with those who dare to encroach. Non-islanders are not welcome here. They are part of the problem, and often a part of the country that promised so much, took a lot, and failed to give back the gains needed to quell impoverishment.”
Rhoscolyn, Wales by Paul Scraton
“If I dream of home, it is not the lettuce fields of the West Lancashire plain, but the white horses of the Irish Sea, dancing around the rocks of Rhoscolyn beacon or the mouth of the bay..”
Photo Essay…
Independence Day – Words: Stephen Glennon, Photos: Chiara Dazi
In 1989, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 republics of the USSR, established Romanian, written in the Roman alphabet, as the official language of the republic. Transnistria, a Russian-speaking sliver of land on Moldovan soil between the Dniester River and Ukraine, responded by declaring its independence, which, after a brief civil war, still exists as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), despite a complete lack of international recognition. 2 September is Independence Day, and a day of celebration in the capital Tiraspol.
Cartography Special…
The wonderful world of maps plus interviews with Daniel Reeve and Jake Coolidge
Reviews…
A Kind of Compass – Stories on Distance, edited by Belinda McKeon
Dear Esther video game, created by Dan Pinchbeck and Robert Briscoe
Mapping the Nation – History and Cartography in Nineteenth-Century America, by Susan Schulten
