“A special issue of mini things,” Minicry brings together poetry, headlines, Tweets, and conversations in a tiny riso-printed, hand-stitched collection. Produced by the people who brought together Mimicry and Mimicry 2, the 24 teeny-tiny pages showcase works from emerging writers, such as Henry Cooke, alongside well-known New Zealand authors and poets the likes of Ashleigh Young and Courtney Sina Meredith.
Minicry is far from being just a Mimicry–lite — it does something quite different than its more serious older sibling. Capturing snapshots and fragments, each piece seems to flow seamlessly to the next, despite canvassing a range of artists. Minicry reads like a series of half-heard conversations, intimate snippets of the most interesting, most eloquent voices at the party. Guy Montgomery’s “From Email” encapsulates this:
I had my headphones
in, google maps
open and no music
playing: the perfect
crime
Illustrations by Kate Depree — a packet of soy sauce, a thimble, a Tangy Apple — punctuate the pages, further drawing the pieces together as a cohesive collection of small, but special, everyday moments. Kate’s doodles, paired with the handwritten nature of the pieces, highlight the intimacy of the collection — at times, the work is raw and self-conscious, more like diary entries than parts of a published collection. Uther Dean’s “Haiku” highlights this:
panic architects
designing the best places
for hidden crying
As individual works, each piece holds its own; but it is when presented together in this pocket-sized publication that they really resonate. Foretelling good things for Mimicry 3, which will be released in September, Minicry highlights the diversity of talent within New Zealand’s writing community.