A Writer's Wonderland [PDF] - University of Portsmouth

Afterword
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." - Walt Disney
A Writer’s Wonderland showcases the very best work from the students of the University of
Portsmouth. The anthology focuses on displaying a variety of voices and writing styles, and the
chosen works have achieved in presenting our readers with emotive, exciting and exceptional
material.
There was no given theme for submissions to the anthology, despite its name. We did
however, find recurring themes arise in the content of the submissions. These were
unintentional, the most common being fantasy, death and love and these have spread right
across A Writer’s Wonderland. The best of these have been selected because we have been
captivated by their words and enchanted by their worlds, and this was our desired intention.
Sarah and I instead wanted to create a wonderland of our own through worlds created by our
writers, and we feel that we have accomplished this very well.
A Writer’s Wonderland is a beautiful insight into our students, as every writer’s
wonderland is a place in which they can truly express themselves. Writers can release their
burdens and they can create a land completely of their own. One wonderland especially
explored throughout the anthology, is that of the fairytale. We have lands of castles and
monsters, where the moral overcome the wicked, and then we also have the lands in which the
good does not always triumph and so the monsters can feast on their tasty meal. We are offered
lans of harsh realism, the sights of the roadsides of India, the troubled lives of teenagers growing
up in a home speckled with drugs and children used for ‘the greater good’. We read through
worlds of lost love, of the pain and sorrow brought forth through words, where names and dates
do not matter because you can see your own lost lovers on the page. My own wonderland is
exploring through lands already passed, where stories are ready to be retold. A Humble Vow
gives voice and world back to Catherine of Aragon, so that I can explore her everyday life, her
fights for survival and her triumphs as Queen.
A writer can escape reality and they can transform themselves into anyone and
anything that they desire, or they can look at themselves in the mirror and they can bravely
scrutinize themselves. The tone of the A Writer’s Wonderland therefore, is varied. Some pieces
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