Danielle Wilde is our latest Resident at The Writers' Room and says:
An auspicious day to begin my one month residency with @wild_pansy_press at @wpp_writersroom !
In the Catholic calendar, January 6th is the date of the Epiphany (the coming of the Magi with their unhinged funereal gifts) and is also (a total coincidence when we scheduled this) the birthday of Saint Joan of Arc ⚜️⚜️⚜️
During this residency I will be producing a new body of work, a 14 sonnet sequence called Saint Joan of BFD. It’s about Bradford, Catholic schoolgirls, doomed teenage lesbianism, boy bands, girls’ magazines and Peter Andre.
The sonnets will be accompanied by collages made from these frankly shocking magazines (1994-1998), all of which were targeted at a 13- 15 year old female demographic and which contain features such as blowjob tutorials and sex position of the week ????
The primary text I will be guided by is Vita Sackville-West’s controversial biography of the Saint in which she says what we are all thinking; that Joan was one of us.
Of course the Church lost their minds over this, in spite of the fact that they literally burned her at the stake not for witchcraft, not as a prisoner of war, but for being a woman who wore men’s clothing which was strictly forbidden. She was initially granted a pardon on the condition that she never wear men’s clothing again but within days she had reneged. It was just who she was.
I’ll be showing various parts of my process here as I put this work together and will be closing my residency with a suitably heretical performance on Saturday Feb 8th so please save the date and keep your eye out for further info
⚜️ It’s what she would have wanted
Click here to buy a copy of "SAINT JOAN OF BFD"
