“A chance sighting in a Bulgarian park sparked a book for Dr Hannah Stevens, who talks to Keith Lyons about why the short story is the perfect form for shining a light on difficult experiences.”
We’re delighted to share this author feature in Borderless Journal about Wind&Bones co-director Dr Hannah Stevens and her writing, her latest collection ON THE BODIES OF STRANGERS, co-directing an independent publisher and so much more.
Borderless Journal publishes work that explores and develops the links beyond all artificial divides that exist in today’s world. The goal of the journal is to connect writers and readers and to transcend barriers of man made constructs. According to Borderless Journal, ’there are no boundaries for the imagination and for thoughts,’ and we agree. It is founded by Mitali Chakravarty who started as a journalist in The Times of India. Her bylines have appeared in The Statesman, The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Pioneer earlier and more recently in The Daily Star, Thumbprint NE and more journals.
We’ve shared an extract below but head here for the full interview. And don’t forget to read the full October issue and beyond.
KL: Your stories explore some quite intense human experiences. What themes or questions do you find yourself returning to again and again in your work?
HS: I tend to write about things that preoccupy me, things that worry me, things that inspire me and things that I’ve experienced too. Although the most obvious theme binding the stories together here is tattoos (and I have a few tattoos myself!), there are others too. A lot of the characters in the stories are queer, for example and there are bisexual, lesbian and gay characters. I didn’t set out with the idea to write queer stories, but these are the stories that came. I’m a queer woman who has had relationships with women, non-binary, trans people and men. I’ve inhabited various incarnations of queer worlds, and I think we often end up writing the worlds we know and the people we recognise.
Another theme I often think and write about is gendered violence and abuse because it is such a global issue. There are a number of stories that focus on gendered abuse with male protagonists who abuse their female partners. This kind of abuse is a common occurrence in the UK and around the world and something that’s worth bearing witness to. Some stories in the collection also document the cruelty and abuse that can happen in same sex and queer relationships, which can be overlooked. They highlight the harm we can do to each other by not saying how we really feel and what we truly desire. And there are cruelties in familial relationships here too: the violence parents can enact on their children as well as emotional neglect.
