In the first of a two-part interview, poet and chair of Spread the Word Rishi Dastidar discusses a new eye-opening report on diversity in publishing.

For our latest submissions call we want you to embrace the theme ‘message in a bottle’ – you might take this literally and share a big idea that is contained in something small or opt for a more lateral approach and interpret this through the rediscovery of another artform – perhaps the sea shanty. You…

For issue 9, we asked artists to be inspired by what has happened before and the submissions blew us away. It was difficult to come down to a final list, especially when there were so many different interpretations of the theme. But we fought it out and we think the 17 pieces in this issue…

Issue 9 is now open for submissions and this quarter we’re asking artists to explore history through their art, blending knowledge with imagination to create something new.

For issue 8, we asked artists to look for meaning: underlying, hidden, obvious, secret and everything in between. And, as always, they wowed us. The search for meaning is central to the work of so many artists and we think you’ll love the varied approaches to and interpretations of this quarter’s theme. From the vibrant…