Sasha Darvas’ cultural highlights

Sasha Darvas is a 23-year-old emerging writer. She graduated from Cambridge University, where she studied English Literature and founded Catharine, a feminist magazine. She was the president of Cambridge’s oldest poetry society, and she has been published in Varsity, The Wicked Ant, and Euphony. She is currently working on her first novel.

Book: Send Nudes (2022) by Saba Sams

In this trailblazing collection of short stories, Saba Sams explores the darker side of modern girlhood, creating a femininity rooted in boundary pushing, ruthless ambition, and often, meanness. Sams’ prose has a visual quality that lends itself to explorations of contemporary feminism; the imagery surrounding women is constantly shifting, reflecting dysmorphic body images, but also providing the characters with endless ways of identifying themselves. I particularly love her attention to all things gross – whether it’s butchery or body fat – Sams places it at the forefront of her narrative world, compelling us to consider the reality of our own gross existences. Her women are fabulously imperfect; tricky, but defined entirely on their own terms.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/send-nudes-9781526621795/ 

Radio: About the Girls

In five, fifteen-minute episodes, Catherine Carr interviews secondary school girls across Britain, exploring their experiences as young women in an increasingly misogynist world. I listened to the episode on education on my way to work and almost welled up on the bus. Their discussions of equality and opportunity were intelligent and tragic in equal measure; these were ambitious, smart, young women, all of whom believed that the world did not want their cleverness. With the rise of this new wave of misogyny stemming from digital cultures, who can blame them? To me, the programme represented a sobering failure in our society, as patriarchy is quite literally shaping the lives of young people. It’s on BBC Sounds and is absolutely worth a listen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002tzpy 

Poetry: George Szirtes

I had the pleasure of meeting George a few months back, when he held an evening of poetry readings at St John’s College, Oxford. He was an enthralling speaker right from the get-go. George was born in Hungary but migrated to Britain after the second world war, taking a similar journey to my grandfather, who escaped from Hungary to London in 1938. With the exhilaration of Hungary’s recent overthrow of the far right, I’ve been trying to uncover more about my Hungarian heritage. George spoke beautifully about his work in translating seminal Hungarian literature into English and his experience as an émigré. His poetry felt tender and profound, tuning into a compassion for his fellow migrants that this country could do with a lot more of.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/george-szirtes 

Photography: Anna Tihanyi 

Viewing Anna Tihanyi’s photography feels like entering a world of dreams – beautiful, bizarre, deeply unsettling. Based in Budapest, Anna’s photography explores themes of memory, identity, and femininity. She creates wildly uncanny compositions, juxtaposing images of childhood with adulthood to intimately reflect upon the dreams and traumas of the female psyche. I personally adore the creepiness of her photography. To me, it encapsulates the simultaneously pretty and rageful aesthetics of modern girlhood. The photo ‘The Dreamer’ from the collection HER: Cycles of Womanhood, shows a blonde woman in an Alice band and all white clothing, cradling a small bird; its imitation of innocence scared me, but just made me love it more. If the notion that that all a girl can be is pretty repulses you, Tihanyi is definitely worth looking into.

https://www.instagram.com/annatihanyi_photography/?hl=en-gb

Music: Joy Crookes

As a life-long Londoner, I’ve always loved singers who maintain the brash, tongue-in-cheek twang of the London accent. Joy Crookes – born and raised in South London – does just that, entwining that bold London intonation in an aura of jazz, neo-soul, and alternative R&B. The myriad influences in her music infuse it with a dynamic energy and showcases the wonders of London’s diverse music scene. Songs like ‘When You Were Mine’ feel like a summer day in Regent’s Park; ‘London Mine’ reminds me of a morning walk down the Southbank. She recently headlined London’s ‘Cross The Tracks’ festival, performing to a crowd of thousands as the sun set in a golden blaze over Brockwell Park.

https://www.joycrookes.com/ 

Favourite WritersMosaic writer: Sita Brahmachari 

I have been a fan of Sita’s writing since I was a child. Sita has worked extensively towards inditing a love of literature in young people by going into schools – not just in London, but across the UK – and speaking about her experiences of storytelling. I’ll never forget her visit to my primary school, where she spoke about how our own memories and images can help inspire our writing.

Sasha Darvas

Sasha Darvas is an emerging writer who graduated from Cambridge University.