At last, we have the thrilling prospect of a humane socialist alternative, while the Tories and Labour play footsie together—and Reform looms menacingly on the horizon. Six hundred thousand people have already signed up to Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn’s new party, which remains unnamed—though we’ve suggested the Humane Socialist Party.
This issue begins with Alchemy. Arun Kapil has written an article on cooking with water, flowers, and perfume. It is delicious and wild. If you love and appreciate food, then read it and breathe in the jasmine.
We are also proud to present an interview with A.F. Moritz, alongside three of his exquisite poems. The interview, conducted by J.W. Wood, opens with Moritz reflecting:
“I have the suspicion of the body and the love of the body and the lament of the body and the praise of the body. And I don’t know what this means, but I know that I want to circle around it because it is ultimate.”
This issue is rich with poetry—and why not? We are delighted to publish Yogesh Patel’s poem: a retirement home for gods. Before the eminent poet Sudeep Sen took up his position, Yogesh Patel was our founding poetry editor. Yogesh, was awarded an MBE for his work as a poet, for producing wonderful anthologies and for introducing diaspora poets into the British curriculum and into the mainstream of British literature.
Peter Cowlam, the consummate literary craftsman, has provided us with three well-seasoned, finely-jointed and polished poems, each with its own lustre. From Latin America, we have a wonderful burst of language: Martín Tonalméyotl’s poems appear in Nahuatl, Spanish, and English, while Celerina Patricia Sánchez Santiago’s work is presented in Mixtec, Spanish, and English.
We also feature a delicate portrait of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Norman B. Schwartz. She was a complex and fascinating woman whom Gore Vidal described as “rapacious and salacious,” Schwartz argues she was also gracious.
Short stories abound. Charles Dean, a complete newcomer, offers a science-fiction tale about a broken man in a broken world who claws his way back from despair by putting pen to paper—it’s a powerful debut.
From the experienced polymath and journalist Tina Bexson, we have the first instalment of The Villa of Zamalek, which reads like the opening of a magnificent novel. Meanwhile, the accomplished Amal Chatterjee delivers a twisted story—or, if you prefer, a story with a twist—that only a writer of his skill could pull off.
David Yip presents the second part of his memoir: a moving account of revindication, tracing his journey from working in a Chinese takeaway to becoming a chef—it’s honest, forthright, and confessional writing.
Phil Hall contributes four provocative discussion pieces. One argues that Germany should return to its tradition of neutrality and diplomacy. Another calls for a deliberate act of “civilisational triage,” urging us to think like Venetians in an age of disaster in order to rescue our civilisation. Hall, in another piece, contends that the Arab world must open its borders and accept responsibility for taking in Palestinian refugees, noting the willingness and speed with which millions of Ukrainians were given refuge. Arab nations remain reluctant to take in Palestinians in the face of unspeakable horror. Why? Finally, Hall praises BRICS, not for taking an oppositional stance to the Western Alliance, but for offering an alternative and constructive framework to tackle global crises, from climate change and AI governance to conflict reduction and inequality. We should welcome and support BRICS.
Our final discussion piece stems from conversations—via email—with Avi Loeb, exploring the nature of an interstellar comet hurtling toward the inner solar system. Loeb entertains the faint possibility that it could be artificial. Why not? As he says, it’s a pedagogical exercise—one that compels us to consider the implications.
This issue is brimming with skill, thoughtfulness and imagination. We really hope you enjoy it.
Food & drink
Cooking with Waters, Flowers & Perfume
Arun Kapil: Cooking with waters, flowers, and perfumes isn’t trickery. It’s the oldest kind of alchemy. We distil, reduce, infuse, coax. We borrow what nature offers and remix it into emotion. This piece is for that art. For the cooks who understand that beauty isn’t owned. It’s noticed. It’s nurtured. It’s remembered.
POETRY
“POETRY IS PRIMORDIAL” – AN INTERVIEW WITH A.F. MORITZ
A.F. Moritz: I have the suspicion of the body and the love of the body. You know I have the lament of the body and the praise of the body, and so I don’t know that I know what this means, but I know that I want to circle around it because it’s ultimate. I want to stay near it and in it, because it’s ultimate.
GEOPOLITICS
Will Europe Escape the USA’s Death Spiral?
Phil Hall: Germany is being steered toward a reckless confrontation with Russia, inverting its post-war legacy, but this alignment with Washington’s neoconservative agenda (backing NATO expansion, sabotaging energy autonomy, and escalating arms shipments to Ukraine) must be seen for what it is: a temporary hijacking of German policy, not its natural trajectory.
SHORT STORY
Amal Chatterjee: The windows shudder as another train roars past. Through the grey-streaked glass, he sees the city growing, cranes yellow against the sky, towering over the already giant blocks that have risen while he’s been at his desk. Or so it feels, each day stepping out into a city just that fraction more different, each month clearly a little more, every quarter changed, every year almost renewed.
MEMOIR
OUT OF THE FRYER
David Yip: One day, sitting together having something to eat, we are all given bowls of rice with chopsticks—we are to help ourselves to the other dishes. I whisper to my dad, who gets up and comes back with a fork for me. The other chefs notice this, and one says, “What? Your dad didn’t teach you Chinese, and you can’t use chopsticks either? He is a bad man!” My dad doesn’t reply, and we continue eating. That night, I take a pair of chopsticks from the takeaway back to the flat and ask my dad to teach me how to use them.
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Think Like a Venetian
Phil Hall: Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. We need a deliberate act of civilizational triage. The first step to survival isn’t hoarding guns, food, or medicine in a bunker in Iowa, it’s thinking like a Venetian.
SHORT STORIES
The Villa of Zamalek
Tina Bexson: He’d taken just two steps back to the street when the gate rattled. Then a staccato rhythm of unlocking. Then he saw her. She wore a burgundy chiffon dress and multi-strapped heels. Her face shone under the moonbeam light.
SCIENCE FICTION
THE BROKEN BANKER
Charles Dean: This, then, is my story—a story about a broken man in a broken world, a writer named Carston Dean, who clawed his way back from the edge of despair by putting pen to paper.
GEOPOLITICS
Let Gaza Live: The Arab World Must Open Its Borders Now
Phil Hall: If Europe can accept millions of Ukrainians, why are Arab nations like Jordan, and Saudi Arabia reluctant to take in Palestinian refugees?
GEOPOLITICS
BRICS: A New Planet Swims into View
Phil Hall: BRICS is not merely oppositional. It offers a constructive framework addressing existential challenges faced by all members of the Global South for many years, and a way to tackle serious problems that face the entire world, from climate change to AI governance and the reduction of conflict and inequality. As the old order breaks down in violence and corruption, the contours of a fairer system are emerging—and we should welcome and support it.
SCIENCE
Don’t Panic, 3I/ATLAS is Coming
Phil Hall: The possibility of a planet-killing / alien visitation / alien fly-by black swan event, however remote, must be taken seriously due to its catastrophic potential. If 3I/ATLAS were an artificial impactor, we would have roughly 100 days until collision and no means to stop it.
DON’T PANIC!
POETRY
Martín Tonalméyotl in Náhuatl, Spanish & English
BIOGRAPHY
10. Gracious, Salacious & Rapacious?
Norman B. Schwartz: Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy-and-Onassis was a very complex woman determined to live her life as she wished. Her half-brother Gore Vidal, who knew her well, perhaps better than most people ever did, said of her that the one thing we must never forget about Jackie was that she was both “rapacious and salacious.” In her honor, examining Jackie’s life led fully with courage and elegance, I believe we should precede his description with another word, perhaps more fitting … “Gracious”.
POETRY
Celerina Patricia Sánchez Santiago in Mixteco, Spanish & English
ARS NOTORIA
July Issue
Ars notoria
June Issue
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The Lottery Gates
Photograph El Capra by Peter Cowlam The Transmutation Si came down from the fields, where he’d been working, for the day was nearly departed. The sun had sunk towards the mountains, while the mingling hues of evening had faded in a wash of summer twilight. It was a pleasant, tranquil hour. As was his…
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RODRIGO TRUJILLO: A WATER JUG OF LARKS
Photograph Salih Pexels.com A Water Jog of Larks You wore zopilotes in your hairand you didn’t knowyou went down to the river to submergethe light blue as you movedthe river washed you of timethe river carried your time awayWhen are you from?How much of you has gone?in the depths of dream you gather flowersA…
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THREE POEMS FROM ARMENIDA QYQJA
Armendia Qyqja. Courtesy of the author A few years ago, I published an anthology of contemporary Albanian poetry called The New Condemned with my company World Inkers Printing and Publishing. Its purpose was to document the effects of the repressive communist regime on Albanian culture and to highlight its cultural uniqueness in literature. This…
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Dear President Donald Trump . . . MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN!
The USA targeted and killed 175 girls in its opening salvo against Iran. The US people are now deeply demoralised at home and the US government and corporations are desperately hated abroad for their death dealing and grotesque warmongering. Mehr News Agency My second letter to Trump was written in the warning tone of…
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CHERYLL BARRON ANSWERS
My visitors were mule deer, not pronghorn antelope. Photo by Samuel Sweet Pexels.com A reply to the article: Carol Rumens & the Birth of the Online Literary Commons Dear virtual Phil, What a surprise. Thank you for including such a stimulating delving down to the seeds of the keiretsu-cooperative in your elegant tribute to…
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ULISES PANIAGUA OLIVARES: ‘SENSIBILITY IS THOUGHT’
The Poet and founder of the International Colloquium of Poetry and Philosophy, Ulises Paniagua Olivares Our wondrous journey to the 6th International Colloquium of Poetry and Philosophy The International Colloquium of Poetry and Philosophy comes round again. This year, 2026, it happens in two countries: Colombia (face-to-face) and Mexico (online). The celebrations will take…
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THE GERSOIS MEAL
Sara. Illustration Pete Field An Extract from Paul Halas’s forthcoming book, Sara’s Lives To be published by AN Editions in March 2027 The Riversmeet Coffeehouse was just opening when we approached it, but they were happy to serve us very fine St Helena Peaberry coffees and a couple of excellent but horribly expensive croissants.…
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From Empire to Domestic Ethnic Cleansing?
Welsh Tea Cakes. Zingy Yellow. Wikimedia Commons Reflections on English and Welsh Nationalism by Pete Field Before I start asking questions I must state my position. I am English, from the North-East of England and I support a United Ireland, an Independent Scotland, a free Wales and independence for the North of England. Devolution…
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A SELECTION OF JENNIFER JOHNSON’S AFRICAN POEMS
The White Nile. Photograph Flavia Corpas At Ars Notoria we are pleased to be able to introduce Jennifer Johnson to our readers. She was born in 1956 in Sudan, by the side of the Nile, between Khartoum and what is now the border of South Sudan – on the edge of the dividing line…
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The futility of War and the Hapless Victims of War
A B-29 over Osaka on 1 June 1945. US Air Force Public Domain “Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare.” — Peter Ustinov, actor, writer, and director (16 Apr…
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Daljit Nagra’s Poetics of Tactile Sabotage
Writing becomes grooming: repetitive, humble, necessary. Richard Steinhardt. Photograph by Lisa Steinhardt (p. 77, Versed) Nagra, Daljit. Yiewsley. Faber & Faber, June 2026. Hardback: £14.99; ebook. Faber Poetry Subscription title for June 2026 (subscribe by 31 May to receive). “A return to the poet’s boyhood and the town that made him.” by Yogesh Patel…
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SUDEEP SEN’S WALKS IN LEOPARD COUNTRY
Sudeep Sen is the International and Poetry Editor at Ars Notoria and a leading international poet whose prize-winning books include: Postmarked India: New & Selected Poems (HarperCollins), Aria (A K Ramanujan Translation Award), Fractals: New & Selected Poems | Translations 1980-2015 (London Magazine Editions), EroText (Penguin), Kaifi Azmi: Poems | Nazms (Bloomsbury), Anthropocene (Pippa Rann, Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize), and Red. Edited landmark anthologies include: The HarperCollins Book of…
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The Orbis Poetry Prize 2025: A Subscribers’ Choice
Crystal Orb. Photograph Phil Hall by Yogesh Patel There is a particular genuine sincerity in a prize decided not by a closed jury but by the interactive poets of a literary journal. This is the unique and honest quality for which my Word Masala Foundation sponsors the Orbis Poetry Annual Prize. It is fully…
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18. Hitching the Wagon
Kennedys From Patriarch to Son by Norman B. Schwartz Part I: Ambassador Kennedy. Like Father, Like Son Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr (1888–1969) was a man of enormous political ambition, first for himself and then for his sons – the first killed in the Second World War, two others assassinated, John F. Kennedy (born 1917)…
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Black Pepper, White Salt, Green Magic
Parsley. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko Pexels.com Herbs as care, spellwork, scandal and the people’s green masala by Arun Kapil The first herb that properly got me was not basil, not rosemary, not some noble Mediterranean shrub clinging to a hot stone wall. It was cress. Tiny brown specks on damp tissue. Nothing much to…
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The Birth of the Atlantic and the Construction of the Figure of the “Negro”
Etudiante lisant L’unité culturelle de l’Afrique noire, en 2021. JN Picture ‘European civilisation has been a long process of epistemicide—the destruction of knowledge, languages, cultures, and the production and distribution of wealth.’ Afrocentrism and Identity Construction “Mɔgɔ kelen tɛ yɛlɛma kɔni kelen ka kɛ bɛɛ ye.”A single person cannot become everything all alone.—Bambara proverb, Mali.…
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Frusick: Making Sweeter Music
by J.W. Wood They came up with the technology at the end of the last century: right after they’d perfected WiFi and 3D optics. Like so many inventions, Frusick was just waiting for some bright spark to pluck it out of the ether – and that’s exactly what some bright spark did. Via cute…
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Paul Halas: Mon Oncle
The Légion d’ honneur was awarded to Uncle. Photograph Alexei Nikolay Evichromanov During my very infrequent visits to Paris, passing Drancy Station on the RER suburban line between Orly Airport and Paris is always a poignant experience. My uncle spent some time there during World War Two. In 1966, as a seventeen year old,…
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Attracted to Conspiracy Theories and Fascism?
by Bryan Greetham I wanted to examine the claim that fascism was a last-ditch response to a failing capitalism – an attempt to rescue it. One powerful incentive to embrace a radical right party, like the National Socialists, was self-interest. The radical right appealed more to all those social groups (teachers, civil servants, army…
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The Phobos Anomaly, John Brandenburg, and the Case for the Artificial Destruction of Martian Civilisation, and 3I Atlas as the future drive-by killer of Earth
Does Phobos look as if it is a pile of rubble, or does it look like a battered 500 million year old metallic hulk? Photograph NASA Will 3I/ATLAS, bide its time in the Oort cloud before swinging in again for the kill? by Phil Hall John E. Brandenburg is a plasma physicist with a…
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Carol Rumens & the Birth of the Online Literary Commons
Carol Rumens RIP (10 December 1944 – 25 April 2026, aged 81) was born in Forest Hill, South London, and died from a brain tumour. She studied Philosophy at the University of London and earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Writing for the Stage from City College Manchester. She served as poetry editor for Quarto and the Literary Review,…
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J. L. Borges: Berkeleianism versus Buckleianism
The Philosophy of Tlön, Uqbar, & Orbis Tertius By Peter Cowlam Berkeley, who was Bishop of Cloyne in 1734, denied the existence of matter in a reply to Locke (1632–1704), whose conception of the universe was Newtonian and mechanistic, a place where material bodies conformed to a clockwork modus operandi – that is to…
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Hanging out with Muhammad Ali
Andy Hall with Muhammad Ali, photo by Don King Andy Hall Meets the Greatest Of All Time by Andy Hall In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would be hanging out spending time with my hero Muhammad Ali, let alone have the opportunity to get to see him; but I did just that…
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A LONDON PUB CRAWL
Photograph Phil Hall From the Lamb & Flag to the Red Lion (with Anthony) by Phil Hall This is the story of a pub crawl. The first pub I remember going to was the Barley Mow near Abingdon; they let children in, and sometimes we were allowed to drink shandy—lemonade with a little beer. When…
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Roadkill: Eat it, you are not guilty of its death
Stag in Richmond Park. Photograph Phil Hall Trillions of creatures die yearly, a massive cull which goes virtually unnoticed by Pete Field In the mid-sixties driving in the countryside meant squashed insects on the windscreen, sometimes hundreds of them. You had to get the wipers going, smear them off with water. Now our insect…
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Photo Essay: Celebrating Holi in the Streets of Mumbai
Photograph Andy Hall by Andy Hall The principle practice in street photography, and why I love it, is the immersive experience. That’s the only way you’re going to snatch those serendipitous, split-second moments you long for, as you wade through the river of human activity around you; all the time not asking, not showing, just…
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Morning, world. Still here!
Photograph Bryan Smith The inspirational minister of the Methodist Church in New Malden and Kingston, Karl Rutlidge is sick with an inflamed heart. This is not a metaphor! He has Myocarditis an inflammation of the heart muscle. It is usually triggered by viral infections. His many friends in and outside the Methodist Church wish him…
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