Cover of Interstice, Issue I, 2026: a lone figure in silhouette stands at the water's edge on a beach at dusk, waves breaking behind. Photograph by Tebo Pixels.

Interstice

Issue I, 2026

Interstice — Issue I brings together works that resist the expectation of completion: unfinished poems, abandoned images, sketches, marginalia, visual traces and works still searching for their final form.

Rather than asking what these works failed to become, this issue asks what they reveal in the process.

Works
19
Contributors
16
Sections
6
Published in
Accra, Ghana

Editor's Note

There is something profoundly human about unfinished things.

We spend so much of our lives moving toward completion. We are taught to arrive, to resolve, to be certain… About the things we want: to achieve … our ambitions, our identities, our relationships, our purpose. About the places we long to reach, the dreams we hope to fulfil, and the futures we imagine waiting for us. We celebrate what is polished, perfected, and complete, as though the value of existence lies only in what has successfully reached its final form.

And yet, so much of what it means to be human exists somewhere in between.

Between the knowing and the understanding. Between the longing and the contentment. Between who we were yesterday and who we are still trying to become tomorrow.

We are, in many ways, unfinished creatures.

Perhaps that is why creativity has always fascinated me – because creation mirrors life itself. Rarely linear and hardly certain. It meanders through hesitation, revision, instinct, doubt, discovery, abandonment, return.

In our minds, ideas emerge, disappear, transform, and sometimes remain suspended in forms we do not yet know how to complete. And often, we hide these moments, only to reveal what feels ready, what feels resolved and what appears whole.

But what if incompletion is not something to hide?

What if the fragment carries as much truth as the finished work? What if the sketch, the abandoned draft, the half-written poem, the photograph left uncropped, the thought that never fully arrived… what if these things matter just as deeply as what eventually becomes final?

Interstice was born from that question.

This journal exists as a space for the unfinished. Not to be seen as the evidence of failure, but rather as evidence of process. To serve as an archive for uncertainty, experimentation, process, and the deeply vulnerable act of creating before the final arrival of certainty.

The works gathered in this first issue remind us that creation is rarely a destination. To be and become is a continuous, almost unending act. A negotiation between intention and accident, in what we imagine and what eventually reveals itself to us.

Perhaps life itself is not so different.

We are all, in one way or another, works in progress, constantly revising, searching, evolving, leaving parts of ourselves unresolved as we move through the world. There is beauty in that condition. There is honesty in unfinished things.

And maybe the most meaningful parts of our existence are not found in arrival, but in everything that happens in between.

This is where Interstice chooses to exist.

In transit…

— Seyram Klu De-Souza, Founder & Chief Editor

Foreword

This journal exists because we believe the unfinished is not failure. The unfinished is a mode of thinking in its own right, a mode of doing that keeps its seams visible and lets you watch the decision being made rather than only its result. […] We invite you into the INTERSTICE. Experience the ordinary as extra-ordinary. Let the works in these pages keep working on you, as unfinished things do.

Aseye Tamakloe

Special Reflection

In Praise of the Unfinished

To look at unfinished work is to witness an idea in motion. To see how something begins, changes direction, hesitates, and perhaps remains unresolved. […] I believe there is value in allowing ourselves to see not only what a work has become, but also what it is still trying to become.

Prof. Ekaterina ShekovaNational Research University, Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Explore the Issue

  1. 1First Impulses

    1. Who Am I?Sheini Neindow David · Visual trace of unfinished works
      p. 7
    2. Utopia & ManiaDarya · Sketch with reflection
      p. 10
    3. DipoEnoch Nii Adjei Laryea · Visual trace of unfinished work; sculpture
      p. 13
  2. 2Fragments of Seeing

    1. In The Silence Between DreamsSuneeha Tahir · Unused image or photograph
      p. 15
    2. Hope For The Light & OthersChekmareva Maria Artemovna · Unused image or photograph
      p. 17
    3. Чыкчырык / Фотки бомбаThe Photos Are The BombPyrin Arseniy Andreyevich · Unused image or photograph
      p. 21
    4. СледыTracesIvanova Polina Ivanovna · Unused image or photograph
      p. 25
  3. 3The Private Interior

    1. The Messy Side Of Therapy!!!Portia Mensah · Unfinished poem
      p. 33
    2. Chasing SolitudesWinniefred Frederica Gbemuotor · Unfinished poem
      p. 34
    3. UntitledWinniefred Frederica Gbemuotor · Unfinished poem
      p. 35
    4. IkúṣìkàWinniefred Frederica Gbemuotor · Unfinished poem
      p. 37
    5. Концерт ГазмановаA Question to People. A Question to Feelings.Egorova Arina Vadimovna · Unfinished poem
      p. 38
  4. 4Interlude

    1. Flight Of The BumblebeeEvangel Yorke Acquaye · Unfinished poem
      p. 41
    2. Dzorwulu – CarlisleEvangel Yorke Acquaye · Unfinished poem
      p. 45
    3. Last Seat, Bus No. 2Seyram Klu De-Souza · Marginalia
      p. 48
  5. 5Things Left Unsaid

    1. WeddingK. Daki (Loretta Abla Fanou) · Unfinished poem
      p. 55
    2. Boys Don't SingVerny Joy Oforiwaa Mawufemor · Unfinished story
      p. 57
  6. 6The World Continues Without Us

    1. Seen & Heard: Stories From Pretoria 012Sipho Ndebele · Unused image or photograph
      p. 65
    2. UntitledTebo Pixels · Untitled photo series
      p. 70

Contributors & Editorial Team

Contributors

  • Sheini Neindow David
  • Darya
  • Enoch Nii Adjei Laryea
  • Suneeha Tahir
  • Chekmareva Maria Artemovna
  • Pyrin Arseniy Andreyevich
  • Ivanova Polina Ivanovna
  • Portia Mensah
  • Winniefred Frederica Gbemuotor
  • Egorova Arina Vadimovna
  • Evangel Yorke Acquaye
  • Seyram Klu De-Souza
  • K. Daki (Loretta Abla Fanou)
  • Verny Joy Oforiwaa Mawufemor
  • Sipho Ndebele
  • Tebo Pixels
About the contributors

Editorial Team

  • Seyram Klu De-SouzaFounder & Chief Editor
  • Evangel Yorke AcquayeCo-Editor
  • Aseye TamakloeVisiting Editorial Advisor
Meet the editorial team

Nothing living was ever meant to be complete. Perhaps the process alone is always enough.

Credits

Founder & Chief Editor
Seyram Klu De-Souza
Co-Editor
Evangel Yorke Acquaye
Visiting Editorial Advisor
Aseye Tamakloe
Special Reflection Contributor
Prof. Ekaterina Shekova
Cover Image Credit
Tebo Pixels
Magazine Designer
Michael Darku (MickDarku)

Acknowledgements

  • Contributors
  • Crowdfunding supporters
  • Project supporters
  • Special thanks to Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg

Next: Issue II, 2027 — Forthcoming · Submission guidelines