Throwback to our fifth issue
Revisiting our Summer 2020 issue - and a reminder about our upcoming class.
Before we start, we just wanted to remind you that there are still spaces on our first non-fiction class in a few weeks here in Norwich on 12th July, aimed at beginners to writing non-fiction. You can find out more and book on to the course here:
As the sun is very much shining here in Norwich, we thought we’d cast our mind back five years to our Summer 2020 issue, Hinterland Issue 5. As we worked on it, in the midst of lockdown, the debate in the (virtual) office was whether to theme the issue around the topic of the pandemic. Ultimately, we decided that it was too raw, too current.1 Instead we themed the issue loosely around the subject of ‘hinterlands’, featuring writers who engaged in an ‘unflinching examination of the internal landscape’, as Freya wrote in the editorial.
Issue 5 was headlined by longtime supporter and returning author, Ian Thomson. ‘Refugee Blues’ was an extract from Ian’s forthcoming family memoir, which at the time was still in its nascent stages. In it, he unravels the complex legacy of his aunt’s émigré past, charting her flight from Estonia ahead of the Soviet army in 1944, her budding career as an artist and her subsequent commital in a psychiatric hospital.
Issue 5 also featured our first work in translation — Emma Rault’s translation of ‘No Petting’ by Nina Polak — which we decided to run side by side with the Dutch original. This was something we’d never done before, but worked really well — we keep meaning to revisit the idea, so watch this space (and if you’re a translator of non-fiction, do drop us a line…). The piece subsequently featured in Strangers Press’s Verzet series of Dutch translations.
This was an issue of standout pieces, amongst which were memoir by Lily Dunn reflecting on past relationships, a biopic of the naturalist Elzada Clover (the first woman to raft the Grand Canyon!) by Margaret Hedderman, and a devastating account of the after-effects of personal trauma by Hannah Storm.
Of course that’s just a small taster of what you can find inside Issue 5: as you can see from the contents page the issue was packed full of fantastic articles, ekphrasis, and flash non-fiction.
Copies of Issue 5 are still on sale via our webstore, in both print and digital formats.