Movement is this year’s theme for the York Literary Review 2022, the anthology stirring your mind to understand how movement may be integrated into your life in ways you’ve never before considered. The collection lets you roam the streets of York, catapults you to life on Mars, and gives you an intense choir performance — there really is no rest!
The York Literary Review is an annual creative writing journal started in 2016, making this their fifth anthology. They champion the most exciting new and emerging writers from all walks of life, showcasing diverse voices. The anthology is created by MA Publishing students at York St John University, who particularly aim at promoting Northern visibility, inclusion and representation. The anthology this year is published by Lendal press, with Seline Duzeli as managing editor.
“Between these pages tell the stories of tumult and blissful recollection, of defiance and transformation, of sensuality, and the moments that alter us imperceptibly”.
This year the theme selected encompasses a great deal more than just singular ideals. Movement is synonymous with development, journeys and memory. York itself is a place of constant movement. The city is unique because it is a gateway to a rich history while also providing a bustling present and promising future. With a booming tourist industry, residents of York need to possess a certain ability to move through a crowd, unnoticed in an ever-watching city.
The inextricable link between past and present in York is presented in Alex Bestwick’s short piece Ghost Story. Bestwick presents the bustling life of York from a resident’s perspective. The narrator attempts to take the quietest route outside of the city’s walls, bumping into Bloody Molly, the leader of one of York’s many ghost tours. “The ghost tour business seems like a competitive industry in the most haunted city in Europe”. For some, it is a place of leisure and for others, it is a place of living — but both require contributing to the flow of the city. The narrator learns that for Molly, the ghost stories are stagnant and circular. Ghost stories provide no life to the deceased, they only paint them with death. Bestwick suggests there is perhaps a better form, beyond ghost stories, to help keep the deceased of York moving.
The modernity of York is also encapsulated in Anna Boyle’s A Different Life to One We Have Known. Boyle’s piece follows a grandma sending her granddaughter off to university. A grandmother cannot keep her young at home forever no matter how hard she tries to preserve her youth in a photograph. “Her words remind me that she must indeed move on. To a new life. New Future. New Freedom”. The younger population — in particular students — encourage transitions throughout the city. They have a socio-political intensity, constantly reminding the city of the need to adopt.
Consequently, the theme of movement is often wonderfully intertwined with the political agenda of some pieces, particularly in Elizabeth Percy’s No Dancing and No Raining and A. T. Ainscough’s Dancing at Dusk. Both remind us that without movement, it is easier to be oppressed. They suggest that throughout movements and transitions, we will solve the large-scale problems that face us as a society.
Sometimes we just want to sit still and read a book, but we forget that this too is a form of movement. The York Literary Review 2022 reminds us how powerful literature can be in creating momentum within society. After reading this short anthology you will not only be wanting to take a little trip to York, but you will find yourself reflecting on how movement comes into play in your own life.
The York Literary Review 2022 launches as a hybrid event tonight – last minute free tickets can be booked here.
Words by Georgia McInnes
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