**To participate in OF ZOOS Issue 13.1, check in with the hammerhead shark.**
The heron delivers Issue 12.1 — P R (I) S E, January 2024
Welcoming 12.1, P R (I) S E: the issue that ran away from itself. We invited prose writers, poets, artists, and creators of all stripes to prise apart genre definitions, beginning with prose. The result was a wildness customary of our zoo community: a recollection of an art exhibition, reclaimed Orientalist texts, deconstructed and generative poetry alike, a family genealogy. Spiders, tigers, magpies, fireflies, lizards, androids. A-level literature paraphernalia, unsigned letters, court documents, Google searches, grocery lists.
Thank you, fabulous contributors, for generously gifting us your work, and for sustaining and inspiring us for more than a decade. This year, we Zookeepers have been thinking about how OF ZOOS can support the local and online literary ecosystem better—both in Singapore, where two-thirds of us are based, and beyond. We want to continue as a dynamic space where all types of creators can participate, collaborate, co-create, “attempt-ate” (to borrow from Wahidah Tambee). During our open call for 12.1, we introduced prompts (“Writing Tasks”) on the off-chance that someone could use a gentle nudge; and during the reading period, we worked with contributors to edit and sharpen pieces for publication. We hope to do even more this year in 2024. All this is to say, exciting developments are afoot for Issue 13.1! Please keep your eyes peeled on our socials for more info.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy P R (I) S E, and we appreciate you all dearly.
PS In pursuit of (just a little) more transparency about who we are, we have a new masthead up at the lizard!