Sandra Alland
"This is not My Coming Out Poem of Pain, this is Sandra Alland's brilliant Beckett cut-ups...The images come so fast you sometimes feel like a Slinky falling down the stairs, yet the emotion and intention are clear, moving, and often funny..."– The Skinny (Edinburgh/Glasgow), 4-star review
photo by Christiana Papazoglou
Bio: Sandra is a writer, multimedia artist and performer. Her work has been published and presented throughout North America, the UK and Europe.
In 2009, Edinburgh's Forest Publications published Sandra's chapbook of short fiction, Here's To Wang, which went into its second printing in September 2010. Sandra has also published two books of poetry, Blissful Times (BookThug, Toronto, 2007) and Proof of a Tongue (McGilligan, Toronto, 2004).
Sandra has recently been anthologized in Crisis Book (press press press, 2010), Outspoken (Playwrights Canada Press, 2009), Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction From Broken Pencil Magazine (ECW, 2009) and Matrix Magazine's New Feminisms. Other publication highlights include Gutter, Chroma Journal, SCREE, anything anymore anywhere, Drunken Boat (U.S.A.), make/shift (U.S.A.) and Alucema Review (Spain).
"Alland’s poetry flies, and it is full of her life’s intelligence
and emotion, social and political connection."
– rabble.ca
Besides being known for text-based work, Sandra has a reputation for innovative intermedia collaborations and performances. She currently collaborates with Y Josephine in the multimedia performance troupe, Zorras. Zorras have performed widely throughout the UK, including at Soho Theatre (Oxford Playhouse/Chroma), Bar Wotever, Museum of London, Jawdance (Apples & Snakes), Edinburgh International Book Festival (Words Per Minute), Scratch (The Arches), Noisy Nights (Traverse Theatre), Aye Write! Festival, Itsy's Kabarett (Voodoo Rooms) and Edinburgh Festival. Zorras toured Canada this past autumn, and appeared at such events and locations as Grey Borders (Saint Catharines), Facing Out (Toronto Women's Bookstore), Gallery 101 (Ottawa) and The Art Bar (Toronto).Sandra’s film about migrants to Scotland, Here, screened at Berlin's 2010 Entzaubert Queer Film Festival, and continues to screen at Equality Network's Everyone IN anti-racist LGBT events across Scotland. Her short films, including Slippery, have shown at major galleries and events in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, San Francisco and Berlin. Sandra has had major exhibitions in both Birmingham and Glasgow.
Since early 2009, Sandra has co-curated Edinburgh's multimedia, multicultural, queer and trans cabaret, Cachín Cachán Cachunga!. She also co-created Canada's first Silent Slam (a live, projected writing competition), and has created events for entities including Toronto's This Ain't the Rosedale Library, The Theatre Centre and The Queen West Art Crawl. In 2003-04, Sandra took part in an exchange between Canada and Mexico to explore the nuances of translation between languages and media (Banff Centre and FONCA). She has also been artist-in-residence at Glasgow's Trongate 103 and GoMA.
sandraslittlebookshop, for which Sandra is publisher, editor and translator, has published five chapbooks and one book, Some Poems By People I Like. The press has an online presence with More Poems By People I Like.
Sandra writes arts criticism and occasional other forms of journalism.
