Dear NVQ readers,

Welcome to Issue 6 of Not Very Quiet, March 2020.

When we opened this issue, we decided on a ‘No Theme’ provocation so that you could let your imaginations run wild to herald the new decade. And you did, through the submission period, producing poems on a wide range of issues and topics.

Now in Australia, as we have worked towards publication, we have been overtaken by drought, fire and smoke, flood and rain and hail, pestilence (locusts) and, with the rest of the world, plague. The Full Monty, so to speak.

Read the poetry in Issue 6 as a reflection of the world before. And then sit down and write about the world we have now, the world after.

Four of our editors have contributed a poem each about the January/February bushfires in Australia where we lost so much of our wildlife and habitat, and which changed huge areas of our environment forever.

We have also added a new feature – the NVQ virtual mic – since we were unable to have our launch event due to the virus lockdown. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to our call out and make recordings!

We wish you all the best for the coming months in 2020. It will be a time where countries draw in on themselves, throw up physical borders and, hopefully, reflect on and understand themselves better. We are grateful that NVQ has an international contribution and readership base. We hope we can continue to reach you all, and we hope you enjoy this collection.

Sandra Renew and Moya Pacey, Editors