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Johanna Hedva
JOHANNA HEDVA is the author of the novel, ON HELL. Their collection of poems and essays, MINERVA THE MISCARRIAGE OF THE BRAIN, will be published in September 2020. Their essay, ‘Sick Woman Theory,’ published in MASK in 2016, has been translated into six languages, and their writing has appeared in TRIPLE CANOPY, FRIEZE, BLACK WARRIOR REVIEW, and ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW. Their work has been shown at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Performance Space New York, the LA Architecture and Design Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon. Their album, THE SUN AND THE MOON, was released in March 2019, and they’re currently touring BLACK MOON LILITH IN PISCES IN THE 4TH HOUSE, a doom metal guitar and voice performance influenced by Korean shamanist ritual. Their novel, YOUR LOVE IS NO GOOD is out in May 2023 from And Other Stories.  

Articles Available Online


‘They’re Really Close To My Body’: A Hagiography of Nine Inch Nails and their resident mystic Robin Finck

Essay

Issue No. 27

Johanna Hedva

Essay

Issue No. 27

‘We possess nothing in this world other than the power to say “I”. This is what we must yield up to God.’ — Simone...

Book Review

October 2019

She, Etcetera

Johanna Hedva

Book Review

October 2019

Every brainy queer of my generation, especially those born under the sign of Saturn, went through a phase where...

In her 2022 International Booker Prize-winning novel, Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree writes, ‘Anything worth doing transcends borders’ It is a sentiment that encapsulates the novel, which has gone on to establish itself as a paradigm of experimental South Asian literature Originally published as Ret Samadhi in 2018 in Shree’s native language, Hindi, Daisy Rockwell’s translation brings this story about family and loss to an Anglophone audience   Since her 1993 breakout novel, Mai, which follows three generations of women within the same family, Shree has tirelessly explored what it means to be a woman in Indian society, penning five novels and several short stories which traverse the nuances of intersectional womanhood Tomb of Sand is no different At the heart of the story is an octogenarian matriarch, referred to simply by the Hindi designation for mother – Ma The novel begins at a glacial pace, reflecting Ma’s bedridden inertia as she mourns the death of her husband She eventually reawakens, both physically and in terms of her outlook on life In her acceptance of modernity, Ma seems to age in reverse, breaking with tradition as she takes up residence with her daughter, instead of her son Her newfound freedom is reflected in her friendship with Rosie/Raza, a hijra, and it is this bond which acts as a catalyst for the novel’s grand odyssey: Ma’s return to the Pakistan of her youth   The traumatic legacy of India and Pakistan’s Partition looms in the background of Tomb of Sand, understated yet at the forefront of the story’s emotional framework The latter half of the novel centres around Ma’s tragic memories of Partition and her attempts to reconcile with the devastation and pain, but Shree’s humour provides a light-hearted counterpoint to the otherwise sombre subject matter Shree is an author who rides the waves and metrics of writing, surprising even herself with the novel’s structure and plot She describes the creative process as subconscious, as if the story has a life of its own, an entity that uses her as a conduit to make itself heard Her laissez-faire attitude is mirrored by the novel’s

Contributor

March 2018

Johanna Hedva

Contributor

March 2018

JOHANNA HEDVA is the author of the novel, ON HELL. Their collection of poems and essays, MINERVA THE MISCARRIAGE...

Jonah

Fiction

Issue No. 21

Johanna Hedva

Fiction

Issue No. 21

After The Eliza Battle, I went to Berlin to recuperate, to nurse my pride. I had been there many times at that point, since...

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Art

February 2014

Starting with a Bang: Hannah Höch and The First International Dada Fair

Daniel F. Herrmann

Art

February 2014

A spectre haunted the Lützow-Ufer – the spectre of Dadaism. It hung from the ceiling and peered down from the...

Art

May 2016

Sharon Hayes

Edwina Attlee

Art

May 2016

Sharon Hayes’ In My Little Corner of the World, Anyone Would Love You at Studio Voltaire features a five-channel...

fiction

February 2016

The Reactive

Masande Ntshanga

fiction

February 2016

My back cramps on the toilet bowl. I stretch it. Then I take two more painkillers and look down...

 

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