Editors' Note
Annabelle and Carlotta
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Every time we pick a theme, we imagine the colours, the sounds, the words we’d like to read. We brief illustrators, photographers, designers. Sometimes we approach writers to ask for specific pieces to accompany an illustration or photograph – and every time, without a doubt, we end up with something entirely different to what we first imagined.
In any other industry, for any other magazine, that strategy might not work. It’s easy for us. We’re not bound by the Big Man or content restrictions. We thrive on the imagination of others from all around the world – it’s the only way we could work. Each issue ends up differently to how we first pictured it because we never know what submissions we’ll receive, how many, where from – will they be 80% short stories and 20% poetry?
We did our research for ‘nonsense’ – we read nursery rhymes, riddles, played with acrostic puzzles, fiddled around with letters and songs and verbs. We played disassociation games with each other. I think of ‘peaches’; you think of ‘birds’. But research can only get you so far – literary nonsense, we learnt, is a gift. Jacqui Pack's ‘The Church of Oulipo’ on page 12 showed us that.
John Saunders’ series of ‘Animalistics’ poems trickle throughout this issue like a preying tiger cat (check out 'Goldfish' and 'Kitten'), and Geri Hutyan’s illustrations depicting Disney heroines in gowns from leading fashion houses – Alice in Dior, Tiana in Givenchy – show a little fantastical edge to a glittering interpretation of nonsense.
We also talk to Gina Tsang, chef and philosopher, about her using synaesthesia to create a vegetarian menu for Synaesthesia Feast’s Project Zero – a five-course meal feasting on the senses. On page 18, Myriam Frey talks about the library living in her head, and why Oscar Wilde reminds her of string.
And, obviously, we interview Amanda Oosthuizen - winner of the Synaesthesia Magazine Short Story Competition 2014. You can read the winning story, ‘Love and Glitter’, on page 36, and see why our guest judge, Adam Marek, chose it.
A big thank you to all our contributors once again – as always, you made this issue what it is. You found the logic in the nonsense, which is far, far harder than it sounds. To our readers - this one's for you.