Covert Literary Magazine Issue 4 Launch: Handmade/Made by Hand

This is a free event and opportunity to celebrate the publication of Covert Issue 4 with us and hear live readings from some of the contributors.

For our fourth issue of Covert, we welcome Guest Editors Sean Wai Keung and Titilayo Farukuoye, who are both based in Glasgow, Scotland, and Elaine Chiew, who is based in the South East of England. Our Editorial Team includes Zita Holbourne, Akila Richards, Tammye Huf, Alessandra Duse and Amy Zamarripa Solis.

Contributions explore all things food and craft — and more. The homemade dumplings, chapatis, tortillas, stew, breads and chutneys. The artisan made guitars, drums and other musical instruments. Rugs, tapestry, beaded work, stained glass... Sean Wai Keung adds: “Handmade to me means human-touched, person-specific and one-of-a-kind. That could be something as intricate as a wood-carving or as in-the-moment as a slice of toast, something destined for the privacy and comfort of ourselves or for the giving love and kinship of others. It is embracing imperfections, experimentations and mistakes as part of the process and collaborating with nature on structure, form or content.”

Covert Literary Magazine is supported by Arts Council England. Writing Our Legacy is part of ACE’s National Portfolio Programme.

Contributors: Amy Zamarripa Solis, Asha Krishna, Barsa Ray, Be Manzini, Clare Serugo, Dean Atta, Elaine Chiew, Hannah Collisson, Heather Pearson, Hongwei Bao, Jasmine Sharif, Jenny Arach, Joyoti Grech, Lesa Ng, Marina Murphy, Natalia Equihua, Niharika Jain, Nina Bhirangi-Bishop, Sean Wai Keung, Seema Kapila, Shabnam Shabazi, Shasta Hanif Ali, Sheyna Zaid Lam, Snehal Amembal, S.D. Chatterjee, Sunita Crowley, Teji Dhaliwal, Titilayo Farukuoye, Umi Sinha, Zara Masood, Zita Holbourne.

is an arts and heritage organisation that enables Black, Asian and ethnically diverse/BPOC* people to tell their story through writing and the creative arts. We were established in 2012.

We give writers and other creatives a platform and community to feel supported, nurtured and evolve their work through the creative pipeline, from start to publication. We share stories and heritage of diaspora communities and bring them to life through various art forms for audiences to learn and take part in cultural heritage. We are an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

*BPOC stands for ‘Black people, People of Colour’ and is a self-identifying term. While we use the term BPOC, we acknowledge the limitations of this terminology. At the core of our network is the aim to address and overcome systemic barriers that our members face directly or indirectly based on their ethnic or national identities, race or perceived racial identities, or the colour of their skin as per the Equality Act of 2010. This includes people who identify as Black, brown, people of colour, Global Majority, mixed-race, multiple heritage and/or are from the Global South, and/or are East and South-East Asian, West Asian, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, African-Caribbean, Caribbean, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Indigenous, or First Nations, and diasporas.

Host or Publisher Writing Our Legacy CIC