Hello again. It’s Jilly and I’m back with the last Showcase page for March. What a journey of discovery it has been, presenting so many amazing poems and stories this past few weeks by so many fabulous poets and authors! Not only have I been faced with so much talent, but I have also had the opportunity to feature such an eclectic mix of topics, from Neurodivergent awareness to Feminine Empowerment, as this Showcase demonstrates. I’ve enjoyed every second and, once again, thank you all for joining me on this journey.

Without further ado, let’s kick off this final Showcase with a short story by Ellie Blake. In the Chinese Calendar, this is the year of the Serpent and I think Ellie’s piece beautifully marries the start of spring and the garden of Eden imagery with the more Eastern traditions.

Reputation; Rise Of The Serpent

In Taylor Swift’s New York duplex penthouse, the gold snake microphone shimmered; a jewel in a treasure chest of feuds and love stories. As midnight fell, ushering in the Year of the Snake, the descendent of Nuwa awakened.

The microphone stand rocked and groaned. The snake tentatively unfurled. The jewels cascaded from her body, as though she were shedding her skin, scattering like sparkling teardrops across the wooden floor. Reshaping and stretching, sinew and skin replaced metal.

The snake released a satisfied hiss.

She leapt onto the rug and slithered across the room, her tongue flicking out and tasting the air. No human strumming a guitar, scribbling a song, sashaying in knee-high boots. No Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson or Benjamin Button – the cherished cats – pouncing, prancing, purring creeping, chasing their tails, sleeping, sprawling, swiftly scratching.

“Oooh,” the snake murmured raising herself up to half her length. “Look at what I can do.” Her willowy form swayed to the vibrations of the humming streets outside.

She thought of Nuwa, famed for her human head and serpent’s lower body, a divine being connected to both the heavens and the earth. According to Chinese mythology, the Goddess saved the earth from floods by gathering red, yellow, blue, black and white stones from the riverbed and melting them to patch up the sky.

The snake’s jaw tightened and her glassy black pupils darkened. She could slip into 2025 America, unnoticed, paparazzi-free, because she was wholly snake without magical powers.

Lowering herself onto her belly, she glided from room to room, observing the faint scent of perfume lingering, notes of sandalwood, ylang-ylang and, ugh, cinnamon!

The windows were locked. The doors were shut. Wretched winter pressed against the walls.

She was reminded of a garden, where a woman stood before an apple tree, her perplexed brow furrowed with the dilemma of disobedience.

The snake lamented: ‘A garden with gate that never opens, a Rapunzel in a tower, tamed, trapped, forced into a role she never chose.’

Minutes blended into hours, yet the snake persisted in her pursuit of liberty, though her weariness intensified, and her resolve wavered. Circling, almost surrendering to imaginary foes, she trembled from the unrelenting cold.

She bared her fangs, flattening herself against the ground to appear larger, more menacing. Rage. Rage against this prison impersonating paradise. Rage. Rage against those seeking to suppress her will.

As if summoned by a spell, the snake detected a gentle draft, a whisper, tantalising, teasing, taunting and tickling, like an enchanting siren with seductive red lips and open arms.

Ancient spirits stirred, emerging, converging, a whirlpool of eternal promises. The snake slipped into the velvet darkness, swallowed by the sultry shadows.

© Ellie Blake, 2025

Connect with Ellie via her website: mycreativeeveryday.weebly.com and connect with her on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X.

I love the flow of this story. To me, it’s written in a very sinewy, serpent-like way with all the colours and aromas brought alive by Ellie’s descriptions. Such a pleasure to read!

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Carrying on with the taste of female power from the last story, Azmina Sohail invites us into an interesting perspective on writer Virginia Woolf.

What Would Woolf Do?

There can be a deep level of comfort when reading Virgina Woolf; a woman heavily invested in the literary world and women’s place in it. In her most celebrated work, A Room Of One’s Own, she urged the continuation of women’s writing however we see fit as long as we stick to integrity. But in order to do so, we must first obtain financial freedom where a room can thus be owned and utilised, away from the disturbances of the world. The text was honest, hopeful and strange. It was 1928, when all women obtained the right to vote, so the possibilities of achievements were promising.

Woolf understood that there were nuances when it came to women. Women were young, old, educated, uneducated, daughters, sisters, mothers, wives, housewives, married, single, betrothed, promised and so on. She pulled us together, away from the rest of the world, into a ‘Room of Requirement’ and told us the secrets to success; to buy the flowers ourselves. We became umbilically linked, feeding on her knowledge and predictions until she felt we were ready and then pushed us out into the world.

Fast forward nearly a hundred years and these predictions have come true. But something else has occurred, with many different interpretations causing the cord to fray. Had Woolf been alive today her response to these would’ve undoubtedly swayed opinion. She hinted at a flexible viewpoint in women in 1928, so the possibility of her experimenting is almost certain.

Whether we liked it or not, in the name of experimentation or advancement she may’ve opened the doors to those who claimed they also knew how to write fiction. These new faces would’ve sat alongside the original occupants of the Room and offered a suggestion. Then another one. And another. Then another. Until all that can be heard is their voices echoing round the Room, tinging the air pale and sickly, eventually curdling the wallpaper yellow.

She would’ve been ripped from the very pages she created and the experiment would’ve failed.

Maybe it’s a blessing the text is confined to 1928. Women were on the brink of social and economic freedom and their aim in the world was simply to move forward as they were. Woolf’s aim was for women to write and to write truthfully. Any flexibility in this should only be taken as a result of her personal curiosities, not something to experiment with in the real world, because ‘our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women.’

The cord is still attached and the Room is still ours. The most we can do is place our flowers on the desk, hold fast to the key and carry on writing.

© Azmina Sohail, 2025

I found this piece incredibly exciting to read. What Azmina says here marries nicely with some of the comments I put in my second Showcase, where I highlighted International Women’s Day. Though I’ve never read Virginia Woolf myself, I was still aware she was a pioneer for women as well as being a celebrated writer.

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This next piece by Afsana Elanko ties in perfectly with Azmina’s feature, offering a brief profile of some of the world’s best known female writers.

Influential Female Writers

At a time when female voices were not heard in society, women were not regarded as equals but were marginalised into certain roles. Some women wrote to create change in society and influenced literature. These great female writers challenged the norms, innovated, pushed boundaries to be heard and, in turn, changed literary history. Here are a few examples:

Sappho (circa 610BC) was a Greek poet whose work has survived through history. She pioneered first-person narration and centralised females in her lyrical poetry. She is well known for expressing personal feelings and emotion in poetry.

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was one of the first female authors to become famous while making strong, intelligent and independent females centre stage in her novels. She  influenced – and continues to influence – English literature through her techniques of detailed observation, astute wit and comprehensive understanding of societal satire, manners and matters of the heart. Her perseverance in making her voice heard has opened doors for many women writers since, bringing a new era of realism and novel narration into storytelling.

Mary Shelly (1797 –1851) influenced the gothic novel, horror and science fiction genre through her works. Her ability to raise and balance ethical questions, explore human nature and question scientific advancement, inspired important conversations about humanity in society which are as pertinent now as when she was alive.

Charlotte Bronte (1816 – 1855) and Emily Bronte (1818 – 1848) wrote strong female leads and addressed complex themes, making a unique mark on the literary world.

Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) was pioneering in modernist literature by providing narrative structure through a stream-of-consciousness writing to capture the many feelings and thoughts that pass through the mind, balanced with beautiful prose packages. Through writing, she inspired change, challenging the role woman played in society by advocating for creative and intellectual autonomy. Her use of literary devices to forge beautiful sentences created insightful pockets of wisdom and is inspiring as well as  challenging social injustices.

Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) a prolific writer, had a profound impact on mystery and crime novels through her use of suspense right to the end. Her ability to use the figure of speech, imagery and her own developed convention for writing has been cemented in time.

Sarojini Naidu (1879 – 1949) known as the “Nightingale of India” due to her lyrical romantic poetry. She used vivid sensory imagery in her writing that portrayed lush, rich depictions of India that celebrated India’s culture and the struggles faced due to colonisation and reality of society. Her poetry was written in English, though this was not her mother tongue.

Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) is often referred to as a “literary powerhouse” due to her impact through her poetry and autobiographical work on civil injustice. Her writing techniques vividly describe vulnerability, resilience, strength of women and human spirit, while opening up a hidden world in society. She does not shy away from hard themes and, through her powerful messaging techniques, eloquently pens them down, allowing a window to be opened for others to see.

J K Rowling (1965 – ) is an influential author in children’s literature and recognised as the bestselling children’s author in history through her use of description to create a new world within which to create stories.

These are just a few of many great female writers that have made a pivotal difference and I’m sure there are many more to follow. I hope this has whetted your appetite and your own thirst to explore and read.

© Dr Afsana Elanko, 2025

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My final piece is an extract from a story by Catherine Whitehead.

Antoine’s Escape

Antoine Bernard stretches his brittle limbs, clutches the edge of a crisp ivory sheet, fearful of the endless expanse of empty days ahead. Roused from the security of his silken cocoon by a plaintive yapping, he watches the patchwork dog lift a leg on the bushy greenery, through the square side window.

Outside in the glaring gold metallic morning, his tension evaporates, and he’s swept into the promise of the day, a dashing figure in his Alan Delon disguise; soft cream shirt, dark raincoat and black tie. The sweet spring air refreshes the tired boulevards, injects hurrying figures with a fresh elan.

He crunches his breakfast croissant surrounded by rowdy reminders of absent warmth. Khalil greets him with a friendly familiar smile and slides his usual bitter espresso down the shiny counter. His small son Amir tugs at his white waiter’s jacket with loving impatience.

Teenagers cluster around the next table, torsos concealed behind a stack of dented files. Two of them link hands furtively under the table. They laugh and chatter and flick their phones insouciantly.

“So casual and chaotic,” Antoine mutters wistfully.

Memories of love reside in the tactile contents of his jutting Bohemian home; ties from a stunt man friend, ornate crystal glass bowls from a former lover, and photographs of his dead parents in thick gold frames. An oily floral aroma permeates the lofty rooms, lavender cologne, a residual scent of his childhood.

© Catherine Whitehead, 2025

Connect with Catherine on X: @Seaside644

Catherine demonstrates brilliantly how to move a story forward by using imagery, description and the use of aromas to set a scene.

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That’s about it from me; another month gone as 2025 marches on. If I’ve learned anything this month, it’s that all writers, regardless of age, race or gender, have it within themselves to preserve the art of creative writing and it’s important for all of us to Just Keep Writing! Yes, the world will always need writers – like me and you. So, thanks for keeping me company this March!

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If you’d like to see your writing appear in the Write On! Showcase, please submit your short stories, poetry or novel extracts to: pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/

Hear extracts from Showcase in our podcast. Write On! Audio. Find us on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Google Podcasts and Spotify. Type Pen to Print into your browser and look for our logo or find us on Spotify for Pocasters.

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