Ian Gouge

New Contexts: 2 Ian Gouge

In many ways making the selection of pieces to include in New Contexts: 2 was a much more difficult task than it had been for the inaugural edition of New Contexts. This was largely due to three factors.




The first was the breadth of submissions. For New Contexts: 2 the geographical spread of contributors was much greater with many more offerings from the United States, and others from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand. Inevitably with such diversity comes a wider range of voices and styles - which led to some interesting dilemmas when trying to compare 'apples with pears'.




Secondly, the themes of the work offered for consideration were much more varied, including far fewer that were Covid-related. There were more submissions that touched on fundamental topics such as sexuality, diversity, and the political.




And thirdly, there were a greater proportion of prose submissions than for New Contexts: 1 - and a small number of pieces that seemed to have their feet rooted in both poetry and prose camps.




All of which made the final selection challenging.




Overall, I would like to believe that we have been able to strike an acceptable balance - prose versus poetry, the innovative versus the traditional - in terms of content, theme, and voice.