Writers with expertise of homelessness share tales of overcoming adversity in a brand new e book
Writers with lived expertise of hardship have united for a groundbreaking new anthology aiming to reshape perceptions of homelessness and poverty.
Extra Than One Story, curated by the humanities and social justice charity Cardboard Residents, brings collectively 37 rising and established writers to share rarely-heard tales from the entrance line of adversity.
“Once we requested for the voices of Extra Than One Story, we weren’t positive who would reply,” stated Cardboard Residents CEO Chris Sonnex. “What we acquired was a refrain – voices from each nook of the UK, carrying truths formed by poverty and homelessness, by resilience, by love, by survival, pleasure, and rage.”
The gathering builds on the charity’s acclaimed 2024 brief movie collection with the Large Subject, which showcased 9 monologues from new scribes.
An open call-out drew 135 submissions. Members of Cardboard Residents – lots of whom have skilled housing insecurity and poverty – had been educated to hitch business professionals in studying and critiquing the work.
Twenty-two tales had been chosen and later printed alongside unique commissions from established authors and playwrights, in addition to the monologues from Cardboard Residents’ flm collection. Contributors embody former youngsters’s laureate Malorie Blackman, Olivier Award-winner Chris Bush and the T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Joelle Taylor.
Yvonne Wickham, Danusia Samal, Nicôle Lecky and Katherine Devlin carry out as a part of Cardboard Residents’ Extra Than One Story at Trafalgar Theatre
Regardless of its bleak context, Sonnex, who has his personal experiences of homelessness, stated the e book was removed from unrelentingly gloomy. Most of the monologues crackle with humour, defiance and hope, he stated. “It isn’t a e book of ‘woe is me’,” he explains. “Whenever you’ve had that lived expertise you’ll be able to take it with some jest, as a result of it turns into a coping mechanism.
“There’s a humanising issue right here; as a substitute of being a statistic, you’re a flawed or humorous or no matter precise human. That’s what I feel will change the thought of what it means to be homeless, or to return from poverty.”
As a substitute of being a statistic, you’re a flawed or humorous precise human
Sonnex stated he now hopes the e book will function a calling card for the broader arts and leisure industries to broaden their seek for new expertise.
“As you undergo trauma, you don’t essentially consider you need to be taking over these areas,” he stated. “When you have a look at the proportion of individuals from working-class backgrounds within the artistic and cultural industries, it’s one thing like 8%.”
“This e book says, have a look at these sensible writers, have a look at the breadth of their backgrounds. Anyone may have a look at it and rent any of these writers to write down a play or a TV programme, or to take a threat on them, their expertise is evident.”
Pictures by Piers Allardyce
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