Indigo Express

Covid-19 as practice in collective action

Paul Behrens

An extract from the new edition of The Best of Times, The Worst of Times.

Academic, physicist, environmental expert and award-winning science communicator Paul Behrens presents a radical analysis of a civilisation on the brink of catastrophe. Setting out the pressing existential threats we face, he writes, in alternating chapters, of what the future could look like at its most pessimistic and hopeful.

Writing the wrong

Manuel Muñoz

‘Or maybe I write because one story, however hard-gained, is better than none at all, and there’s some value in working through the glimpse of a moment to gather what it might mean.’

Manuel Muñoz is the author of a novel, What You See in the Dark, and the short story collections Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, which was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He has been recognized with a Whiting Writer’s Award, three O. Henry Awards, and an appearance in Best American Short Stories.

The land of in-between

Anne Weber & Tess Lewis

‘There is a language which you don’t find, which you don’t look for either, but which you breathe when you enter the world, which you eat and drink. Absorbing this baby food is like posting a letter: you open your mouth and swallow, without thinking about it. However, does your mother tongue provide you with a place, even ‘your’ place?’

Anne Weber  is a German-French author, translator into both French and German and self-translator. She studied in Paris and worked for several publishers.

Anne Weber started writing and publishing in French, but immediately translated her first book Ida invente la poudre into German as Ida erfindet das Schießpulver. Since then she has written each of her books in French and German.

There are no longer any bees in Volhynia

Richard Seymour

‘In the middle of lockdown, a dying bee visited us. It was staggering about the houseplants next to the kitchen window, scarcely able to move its wings. My partner mixed a solution of sugar and water, and poured some out on the tiles for the bee to drink. We watched, rapt, as it warily approached and dipped its proboscis into the pool of improvised nectar. Its tiny black tongue flicked out, like the stroke of a pen, this way, then that. It drank. It was shocked and furious to then be captured in a glass. It beat its wings frantically, frantically against its prison. Released outside, into the open air, it took manic flight up one floor, two floors, three, over the trees and far and wide.‘

Richard Seymour is a writer and broadcaster from Northern Ireland and the author of numerous books about politics including Against Austerity and Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics.

His writing appears in The New York Times, the London Review of Books, the Guardian, Prospect, Jacobin, and innumerable other places including his own Patreon. He is an editor at Salvage magazine.

It didn’t start with me

Nataliya Deleva

‘I wanted to take my traumatic childhood experiences and to transform them into a book that will hopefully be an enjoyable read and start, and contribute to, important debates. On the one hand, about domestic abuse, and on the other, about our resilience and willpower to craft and change our lives.‘

Nataliya Deleva was born in Bulgaria and now lives in London. Her debut novel, Four Minutes, was originally published in Bulgaria (Janet 45, 2017), where the book was awarded Best Debut Novel and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year (2018). It has since been translated into German (eta Verlag, 2018), English (Open Letter Books, 2021) and Polish (Wydawnictwo EZOP, 2021).

On eco-activism & solastalgia

Grace Maddrell

I’m sure many of us know what it’s like waking up and feeling as if there’s a weight on your chest, for no apparent reason at all; of fighting for something to look forward to because the present circumstances are just so very bleak… what we’re talking about here is those global issues and crises that impact our mental well-being often more than even we know. More particularly, about a single, overwhelming global issue: The climate crisis.

Grace Maddrell first went on school strike for the climate at the age of thirteen, and has since become a passionate activist for equality and climate justice. In On Eco-Activism & Solastalgia she asks, what is the impact of the climate crisis on mental well-being and what is the cost of activism and advocacy against the climate crisis on our mental health?

Attitude

Lily O’Farrell

Lily O’Farrell started drawing cartoons as a way of making sense of the everyday sexism she encountered as a young woman, and her Instagram feed has now grown to over 225,000 followers.

Lily addresses the pressing issues of the day through hilarious and relatable cartoons, from #MeToo and the patriarchy, to racism, internet culture and how to deal with trolls.

What will become of you?

Anna Wood

You find £7000 on the pavement, in fives, tens and twenties. It’s quite a bundle. There’s no one around. What do you do?

Anna Wood, whose debut short story collection Yes Yes More More was published by The Indigo Press in May, asks what will become of you?

Take the quick quiz and find out exactly where your life is headed.

On Closure & Crime

Elizabeth Chakrabarty

Twice in my life, when I’ve least expected it – relaxed in a bar with acquaintances, a glass of wine in my hand – someone has asked me this question: “When did you realize you’re not white?”

Read Elizabeth Chakrabarty’s exclusive essay On Closure and Crime, written to support the publication of her novel Lessons in Love and Other Crimes.

Elizabeth Chakrabarty is an interdisciplinary artist who uses creative and critical writing, besides performance, to explore themes of race, gender and sexuality. 

Control of our destinies

Sam Mills

Current attacks on women who failed to fight or speak up remind me of the way that men were treated when they came back from the First World War. Their shell shock was initially downplayed and derided because in the public imagination the men ought to have returned as jolly war heroes rather than wrecked and distraught souls suffering hallucinations and the shakes.

Read Sam Mills’s exclusive essay Control of Our Destinies, written to support the publication of her Mood Indigo essay Chauvo-Feminism: On Sex, Power and #MeToo.

Sam Mills studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University and worked as a journalist and publicist before becoming a full-time writer.