The Local Voices Project

A unique anthology by a collection of Hackney and Haringey based writers about how London has been instrumental in championing their identity, and what home means to them.
 
London has been described as a big unfriendly place, with unfriendly people. This anthology demonstrates that nothing can be further from the truth. We start with a farewell to Hackney by journalist Kate Pasola, reflecting on the acceptance she has felt given by this corner of London, where she held her girlfriend’s hand in public for the first time. Her story ‘The Yoke’ paints a visceral and hilarious portrait of house-sharing and hosting dinner parties on squeezed incomes. Angela Kay Austin writes a powerful letter to her deceased parents in Memphis, Tennessee from her new home in Stoke Newington. Her words chart an emotive map of racism on both sides of the Atlantic from the intensely emotive form of the letter. 
 
Thirty-four writers bring together these themes of individual and place, of home as a space between the economic, political, and emotional.