As part of The Pixel Project’s Read For Pixels campaign, we interview authors and poets from genres as diverse as Science Fiction and Fantasy to Romance to Horror about why they support the movement to end violence against women and girls.
For Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2025, we present an interview with Read For Pixels poet Lynne Sargent who contributed her original poem Horror, Identified to our 1st charity poetry collection, UNDER HER EYE. Lynne is a queer writer, aerialist, and holds a Ph.D in Applied Philosophy. Their work has been nominated for Rhysling, Elgin, and Aurora Awards. Watch out for their non-fiction book Not Just Playing Make Believe, forthcoming from ECW Press. To find out more visit them at scribbledshadows.wordpress.com.
Inspired to support The Pixel Project’s anti-violence against women work? Make a donation to us today OR buy our 1st poetry collection, UNDER HER EYE, that is published in partnership with Black Spot Books. All donations and net proceeds from book sales go towards supporting our campaigns, programmes, and initiatives.
1. Why is ending violence against women important to you and why did you decide to support The Pixel Project by contributing your poem Horror, Identified to UNDER HER EYE which is The Pixel Project’s first charity poetry collection published in partnership with Black Spot Books?
Ending violence against women is important to me because violence is so often gendered and so-called “feminine” attributes which resist violence and cultivate care are so widely degraded and devalued in our culture—and devalued through their association with femininity.
I wanted to support The Pixel Project because the organisation took such a wide lens on what violence is, and also how women and their networks are affected by that violence. I think there’s been a cultural shift that tries to downplay just how lopsided violence as a gendered thing is—and that those of marginalised genders are the most at risk and least likely to perpetrate violence. I appreciated The Pixel Project continuing to draw awareness to that fact.
2. What do you think poets can do to help with the cultural change needed to stop violence against women and girls?
I think poets as boundary crossers and poetry as a boundary-crossing medium can continue to push at what exactly violence is, and the myriad ways it expresses itself. I think having an expansive notion of violence and harm is necessary to truly understand what’s at work in our current system, where violence is perpetrated by systems like capitalism and kyriarchy, as well as by individuals. I think poetry is also an important avenue to voice very complicated and potentially un-say-able notions of violence, especially by those who have experienced violence, given the flexibility and imagistic nature of poetry as an art form.
3. Any final thoughts about why everyone should support stopping violence against women?
Horror, Identified looks at how violence is also done because of the mindset that violence forces one into—that of hypervigilance, that women lack the privilege to be able to be unaware of the contingencies of society because they are so often subject to violence. Violence is a threat to everyone in society, and when violence can be perpetrated against women with impunity, it’s a slippery slope.
Listen to Carol read Horror, Identified here: