Snipette Quarterly Review: New Writers, and #AskSnipette

Hello, Snipette readers.

We hope you’ve been enjoying our articles so far. We’ve covered several new topics these past three months — but before we look at them, we’d like to ask you a question: what do you want to know about?

Introducing #AskSnipette

At Snipette, much of what we chose to write about comes from the questions we have. What might an atom’s life look like? How do microwave ovens work? Why did I enjoy Ursula Le Guin as much as I did?

But Snipette isn’t only about us writers and editors. Snipette exists also for you, the readers. And, we realised, you probably have your own questions too. That’s why we’re starting a trial programme called #AskSnipette. Send your questions to us, and we’ll try to address them along with our own.

There are a few ways you can participate in #AskSnipette. Use the hashtag in a tweet to @snipettemag, a post to us on Google+, or a message on our Facebook Page. Or, you can simply leave a comment at the bottom of this Letter. We can’t guarantee an article for every question, but we’ll do our best to read them and reply.

For those of you who have the inclination to write, don’t forget our Writers’ Programme. Paste in your unfinished articles or abandoned drafts and let us help you finish them. If you’re a beginning or aspiring writer, this could be the perfect place to get your work going.

And now for a look at what we’ve published since last time. We haven’t included all the feature pictures, so be sure to click on every link to avoid missing anything!

We’re happy to have had a few more writers join us during the past few months, starting from Tarek’s photographic exploration of New York City at the start of the year. Tarek chose to use an analogue camera, in a time when an increasing number of pictures are taken on smartphones.

Incidentally, one set of photographs mysteriously arrived on someone’s WhatsApp, from an unknown sender. That’s just one of the many cases of mistaken identity that can happen in the weird world of phone-numbers. Despite all the new messaging technologies, speaking to people is not always easy — although speaking to computers may be harder.

But how do computers speak to you? Not through voice: more often, it’s through a screen. That’s why having a good screen is important — and in our opinion, the best kind of screen is one that is closest to paper. Your view may differ, of course.

Another of the new writers this year is an atom of Carbon, who has spent some time dwelling on childhood memories in a memoir entitled The Story of my Life.

Some of you may not consider the carbon atom as a valid “writer”. Especially if you’re so picky that you want all your writers to be human.

Even so, you should be glad to have atoms around — especially Carbon ones! As Thuận Sarzynski — another of our new writers — explains: without carbon, there can be no life.

And carbon is not enough. Life needs oxygen, too. A lot of it escaped from planet Mars (either out into space or forever falling like the Moon), which is one of the reasons there’s no Martian life today. If only Mars was a Magnet, things may have been different.

Speaking of Mars, did you hear about the man who could see Martian colours? To some people, certain numbers take on certain colours. It’s all relative, of course, just like the tiny bus, no bigger than a pendrive, that nevertheless managed to carry lots of passengers.

But enough of science. Maybe it’s time to turn to science fiction — and what better way to do that than through the works of Ursula Le Guin? As Aashutosha Lele found out, the imaginary settings and scenarios in her made-up worlds actually say a lot about people living here, now, today.

And here, now, today, we hope you enjoy reading the articles listed above, as well as the many more we have lined up for the future!

— Manasa and Badri, editors at Snipette

Ready to read? If you’re done with all the articles linked in this letter, you can dig into the archives find some more.

Ready to write? New or aspiring writers, check out our Writers’ Programme, where we guide you through the process of making a Snipette article. And here are the submission guidelines for those who already have an article ready.

Ready to connect? We’re always happy to receive feedback. So do write about, comment, and share our articles. You can also follow us on social media, at Facebook, Twitter or Google+.