é-zine // menace // editorial

 

​

Welcome to the 13th edition of the époque press é-zine on the theme, Menace. Once more we have been overwhelmed with the fantastic response we have received.  The process of working through the submissions, to settle on the final content featured here, has been extremely difficult due to the volume of excellent and thought-provoking work we received.

​

We will all have experienced the feeling of menace at some point in our lives and for us it certainly feels that we are surrounded by menace now more than ever before. In this edition the pieces we have selected look at a personal feeling of menace that can be experienced, when you are made to feel threatened or scared by an individual, through specific life events or through an internal psychological pressure. There is reference to the collective feeling of menace caused by political ideology and the existential sense of menace caused by the continuing rise in AI and technological advances. Then there is also the feeling of menace that can be invoked through a sense of place, that tingling feeling at the back of your neck or the shiver up your spine, an irrational feeling of discomfort.

​

We have a selection of short stories for you, including stories by two of our published authors. Christopher Boon’s short story, ‘Goo’, explores the quiet menace that children face from a confusing and unfamiliar adult world and ‘Write me a Story’ by Effie Black deals with the menace of AI. Christopher’s debut novel, ‘The Passing Of The Forms That We Have Loved’, was published in September 2021 and Effie’s debut novel, ‘The Shape of Guilt’, is published in July 2023. Both are available to order from our website and from all good bookshops.

​

The short story, ‘The Trouble With Visitors’ by N.K. Woods, follows a tourist who is plagued by buzzing while trying to sleep, a nightmare encounter that leads down a path to fever, confusion and hospital. ‘Pieces of Me’ by Fiona Gubbins deals with remembrance of a menace walked everyday through childhood and later life, offering hope at how the cycle can be broken. In ‘No. 62 Wolfstone Haven’, Jessica O’Brien writes of mental illness, anxiety and isolation, motherhood and grief in a story where the real menace is a sick mind.

​

We are also delighted to feature the folk horror film script, ‘Far from Flat’, by Will Alligham. Will was the inaugural winner of the Brighton University Epoque Press Award for ‘Outstanding Creative Dissertation 2022’ and as we move forward we will be featuring all the winners of this annual prize in our é-zines.

​

In terms of visual response to the theme, we have the photography series called ‘Raging Mother’, by Kristofer Dan-Bergman which explores how mother nature is not happy with how we are treating her and in particular the sense of menace many feel when looking at the sea. Darran Andersen’s photography captures the sense of menace that can be found in both urban and natural environments and in her selection of images, Laura Keogh blends photography and digital art to create a series of eerie scenes that were originally intended to form part of an Alternative Reality Game, purporting the images to be real documentation of events.

​

In terms of poetry we have David Henningham’s poem, ‘Liturgy: the work of the people’, which is based upon the menace excluded through the mass performances regularly staged by North Korea's totalitarian regime. Rupert Loydell’s poetry explores the menace that comes with disinformation and the myth of Satanic attacks and the social menace caused by the  rise of AI. Ivan de Monbrison gives us three stream-of-consciousness poems which delve deep into a sense of personal and mental menace. We also welcome back Declan Geraghty, whose short story ‘Waiting on Pilar’  we featured in the ‘Ecstasy’ themed edition of our e-zine. Declan’s poem looks at how people who commit menacing acts have a complete lack of self awareness and how narcissistic tendencies can turn a person completely blind to everyday social situations and surroundings.

​

We hope you enjoy all of the pieces featured.

​

Sean & Adam.