In conversation with Sentire zine

With Sentire’s very first issue launching soon, I talked to the team – Hendrikje and Hannah – about their zine, the inspiration behind it, and why the student writing scene in Cambridge has witnessed a recent explosion. Having gotten my hands on an early copy of the first issue, I can safely say that the production quality is gorgeous and the curation of both writing and art within the covers is delightfully arranged.

So, what was the inspiration behind Sentire? Boredom. They recount how there was a need to latch onto something, a craving for a printed form of writing, a material copy of “something you’ve made.” And what sets Sentire apart? The overall vibe is chill and fun. They’re also big on events – the issue one launch is being hosted at the Grain & Hop Store Pub on the 9^th of March!

Their issues are based around four themes. For the first issue, these themes are “transformed”, “dreams”, “gigantic” and “insect”. Hannah and Hendrikje explained how while this has given breath to submission, it also allows for the production of an issue where you can see intriguing connections and parallels between otherwise separate pieces. This unique model sees the team take a sentence from a book, deconstruct it, and extract its key themes to come up with the four prompts. For the first issue, the sentence was taken from Kafka’s Metamorphosis.  

Looking to the future, in terms of upcoming projects, Sentire is hoping to run charity events, talks, and a “drink and draw” session for the next issue. With the enthusiasm for their first issue clear through the sheer amount of submissions – from creative writing submissions to pieces of visual art – Sentire seems well on its way to establishing itself as one of the core zines of Cambridge’s student literary zine. Perhaps it is down to that intriguing method of theirs of using several interconnected themes as prompts to get people’s imaginations going.

All of this got us thinking about why the student writing scene in Cambridge has witnessed such an explosion recently in terms of the number of zines being established and students hoping to get their work published in them. Lockdown certainly has been an influence, giving people the time to be artistic and creative, as well as giving people the ambition to establish new spaces for this work. The Cambridge Arts Facebook page has also enabled a community to be built, making this thriving scene accessible to all.

To look out for updates, or to buy a copy of the current issue, you can follow Sentire on Instagram here, or like their Facebook here. They even have their own website, which you can check out here!  

Cover image credits: Sentire zine

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