THIS WEEK


Narratives exploring new developments in currency, as well as fresh takes on the occult, form the backbone of a new list which purports to challenge dominant narratives around wealth, culture and gender


Natasha Onwu @tashaisblue


P uemezi i


ublishing professional Sarah Shin is launching a new festival and press,


both rooted in the use of magic and myth-making as tools to reconsider the world in which we live and to help create new narra- tives that beter represent it. Shin says both projects are born out of the belief that we are living in a time of “intense histori- cal confusion” in which “our collectively hallucinated ‘realit’ has become more precarious than ever”. Citing the current frenzied political and cultural climate, Shin argues that “those seriously engaged in the production of culture must atend to the crea- tion of new narratives that enable a habitable and sustainable future, as the old narratives (such as financial capitalism) glitch and fail around us.” Atempting to create a publish- ing space that can make these new narratives possible, Ignota Books is the brainchild of Shin


12 26th October 2018


and co-founder Ben Vickers, and intends to publish titles at the intersection between technology, storytelling and magic. Shin, who also co-founded feminist publisher Silver Press last year, and is communications director for Verso, says Ignota Books hopes to provide transformative tools for the practice of everyday life through a list that draws from emergent, contemporary and ancient systems of knowledge. On Halloween, the press will début with Spells: 21st Century Occult Poetry, a collection of 36 poems that explore themes of justice in relation to the trans- formative power of the occult, and in November the Ignota Diary (soſtback, £14.99), intended as a mindfulness tool for the practice of everyday life. In January 2019, Ignota will


publish The White Paper by Satoshi Nakamoto, the name used by the unknown developer of crypto-currency bitcoin,


PUBLISHERS WILL HAVE A PRESENCE AT THE NEW SUNS FESTIVAL AT


MORE THAN 30 THE BARBICAN


I place New Suns within a lineage of feminist speculative thinking that asks: ‘What new stories and counter-narratives can be invented?’ Sarah Shin, event organiser


described by Shin as being as “technologically revolutionary as the invention of the printing press”. The book charts the cultural history of encryption and coincides with the 10th anniversary of the release of the blockchain currency. In May 2019, Ignota will publish a reworking of 12th-century abbess Hildegard von Bingen’s Lingua Ignota by Huw Lemmey. Spells, The White Paper and Lingua Ignota are all B-format paperbacks, priced £12.99 and distributed by Inpress and NBN International. Meanwhile, in conjunction with the Barbican, feminist literary festival New Suns will “explore the potential of myths to be the matrix in which radical new visions can be discovered to create a more habitable 21st century”. Recent Women’s March protests, the #MeToo movement and global struggles for bodily autonomy have created an “explosion of energy”, says


The Independents New narratives


Ignota Books launches with four titles aimed at challenging prevailing ideologies


Photography: Max Colson


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