Read a New Short Story by Ivan Vladislavic, Written in One Hour for Visual Verse

 
A new short story by Ivan Vladislavić has been published this morning by Visual Verse.

Visual Verse is an online anthology of art, poetry, short fiction and non-fiction, which recently celebrated its second birthday and 100th submission.

For each piece, writers are asked to respond to an image with between 50 and 500 words, written in one hour.

Visual Verse is a celebration. Of the drama of seeing and the desire to express it. Of the things that inspire us, move us, and that we find hardest to articulate.

Visual Verse is a challenge. We offer you the chance to experience the rush of writing without overthinking. Sometimes strange, sometimes beautiful, let the picture be the start of something you can’t predict: your own response.

• More information: Visual Verse

Other familiar names who have participated are Hedley Twidle, Nick Mulgrew and Arja Salafranca.

Vladislavić’s piece, “Catch”, was inspired by an illustration by Coralie Bickford-Smith:

Read the story:

Skin and bone, the boy thinks, as he carries the stool over to the cabinet. The stool has wooden legs and a cracked leather seat, but the cabinet is a tower of plain glass. He gazes up through the tiered shelves at the undersides of objects. The odd fish is still there, drifting beneath the ceiling, illuminated.

        In the adjoining office, behind a closed door, his mother goes on talking in a low voice. Mr Jerome will be leaning in to catch the words that fall from her lips. Every week, when Mr Jerome flings open the office door so that his mother may enter, the boy expects him to speak, but he never does.

• Keep reading: Visual Verse

Related:

• Ivan Vladislavic’s First and Latest Books, The Folly and 101 Detectives, Hit America

• Vlad the Detailer: Michele Magwood Discusses 101 Detectives With Ivan Vladislavic

• The Magwood on Books Podcast: Ivan Vladislavic Talks About 101 Detectives and What Drives a Writer

• “I’m a Lucky Man”: Ivan Vladislavic on His Distinguished Professorship at Wits and Windham Campbell Prize

• JM Coetzee Recommends Ivan Vladislavic in World Literature Today Interview

Book details

• 101 Detectives by Ivan Vladislavić
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  EAN: 9781415206904
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• The Folly by Ivan Vladislavić
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  EAN: 9781415205525
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• Flashback Hotel: Early Stories by Ivan Vladislavic
  EAN: 9781415201077
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• Double Negative by Ivan Vladislavic
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  EAN: 9781415201329
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• The Loss Library by Ivan Vladislavic
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  EAN: 9781415201626
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• The Restless Supermarket by Ivan Vladislavic
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  EAN: 9781415201695
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