A Review of Seaborne Issue 2 'Storms, Omens & Monsters' by Tia Jade Woolcock

MA student Tia Jade Woolcock reviews issue 2 of Seaborne Magazine, dedicated to the darker side of the sea. Each page is filled with stories from the hidden depths that hosts many mythological and real monsters, from the deadly Kraken to pesky fishing nets.

Falmouth alumni Adriana Ciontea and Kevin Woodley have recently released their newest issue of Seaborne, which consists of twenty new titles encompassing some of the most bewitchingly beautiful poetry, fiction, non-fiction and artwork about the sea.

The first stories of the issue are 'The Storm Petrel' by Jacqueline McNeil and 'Lighthouse' by Sadie Maskery. With both titles named after warning signals, it is clear that there will be no blissful opening, as both stories forebode the threats of the sea that are yet to come.

Alison Chandler's 'Holding Tight' brings a frightful and evocative standout to the issue, as the narrator gets caught in a strong current and, luckily, only cuts their leg. As the sea captures them, the realisation floods in, how in a single moment 'the sea can pluck me from the throttle of the cove and out into the open water, and I will be gone, and it will happen in seconds' (Chandler, 2021: 37). The narrator later feels mindless for not reading the signs, to not ‘question why there was so much churning seaweed below the still surface' or 'weigh up why no one else was in, in a place where locals learn to read water before words’ (Chandler, 2021: 38). But, they are not the only ones. One year later, two men visit the beach and are not so lucky.

One of the most gripping stories is 'Galway Sinking' by Claire-Lise Kiefferm. The story hones in on a couple who live in a third floor flat in Galway, destroyed by floods. The narrator, who fails to find any danger in the flooding, describes how 'we didn't need to go outside anymore to see the water level’ (Kiefferm, 2021: 45). While most locals flee, the narrator and her partner, Dean, stay behind to learn new skills, like catching and gutting fish from their balcony or canoeing. They find their new lives exhilarating; the narrator creates lots of art of the sea, which is physically on her doorstep, and their sex feels more potent and alive than before. It is not until ‘Barry's men’ start looting empty apartment complexes does it all become too much, and the narrator realises that this is no way to live. She unmoors the canoe, leaving Dean behind, and feels the 'dull grey earth, solid and fishless' (Kiefferm, 2021: 59) beneath her feet once more. The uniqueness of this story surpassed my initial speculations, especially situating a flood in the close-to-home city of Galway, which has experienced a series of flash flooding in the past few years.

Another merit of this issue is how it speaks about climate change and the pollution in our waters. The genre of cli-fi (Climate Fiction) is on the rise, as novelists, such as Omar el-Akkad, explains '[climate change] is happening geologically in the blink of an eye' (O'Dowd, 2021).

Humanity can no longer afford to ignore the effects of climate change. This is a clear statement in Sally Flint's 'Garbage Patch', headlined with a quote from Mariah Beckman's The Plastic Rock: ‘the new discovery of plastiglomerates may have cemented the likelihood that plastic will be preserved in the geologic records as humanity’s footprint’ (Flint, 2021: 78). In the story, the sea is filled with 'mutant confetti' that 'accumulates on shores, fuses with embrittled remains of fishing nets and bottles. Through fires and light, plastic adheres to anything organic, creates the first man-made rock' (Flint, 2021: 78). Flint exposes the traces that we leave in the sea from 'toothbrushes, combs, lighters' (Flint, 2021:78) and how they will all one day be our legacy, our future fossils.

In her own words, Adriana Ciontea believes "through stories and art we make people care, we open their eyes. We have such an old connection with nature; it is primordial." The connections and passion felt towards the ocean are evident in all of these stories, as this enthralling second issue takes the reader on a captivating voyage across our chilling seas, our coasts and their future in our warming climate.

References

Ciontea, A. and Woodly, K., 2021. Storms, Omens & Monsters. Seaborne, (2), pp.13-78.

O’Dowd, P., 2021. Novelists illustrate the climate futures that could await us. Wbur. Available at: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/11/05/kim-stanley-robinson-climate-change [Accessed January 19, 2022].

Find out more about Seaborne here. You can also follow them on Twitter @SeaborneMag and on Instagram @SeaborneMag.

Edited by Conrad Gardner