We are Tessera
noun (plural: tesserae). A small block of stone, tile, glass, or other material used to compose images in mosaics.
Welcome to Tessera, where we celebrate the writings in English of people of diverse cultural, racial and first language backgrounds. These poems, stories and ruminations, or essays, each shine as tessera in the creative mosaic of this online writers magazine.
Tessera is a digital extension of Mosaic, a high production print magazine launched in 2010 under the auspices of the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar and its Advanced Writing Centre. It was conceived and produced by Paula Hayden, then the AWC Coordinator, to feature the creative output of participants in CNA-Q's writing workshops. Paula oversaw the publication of four Mosaic issues before she left the AWC to take up other duties at the College.
With the success of Mosaic's limited print runs, the AWC team decided to exploit digital media and the internet to embrace writers world wide and to give them a world wide audience. Matt Stranach, a Writing Mentor and workshop presenter, set up Mosaic 2.0, a blog based magazine. Matt edited the first few issues until he also moved on. Since then, each of our workshop facilitators have taken turns as editor to keep it going.
Tessera combines the missions of both Mosaic and Mosaic 2.0: it is reserved exclusively for writings by our workshop participants; and, through the global reach of the internet, it offers contributors a potentially global audience.
Tessera completes our trio of writing venues, designed singly and collectively to affirm new and experienced writers of English and to validate their creative output. If you visit as contributors who share with other writers represented here, or as first time or regular visitors to Tessera, come simply for the reading, you are bound to be affected by the authenticity and expressiveness of these disparate voices.
As the CNA-Q writing workshops proceed, I hope that our participants will continue to submit their work to both Mosaic and Tessera (and perhaps to Mosaic 2.0, as well) for all readers who find their way here, as much as for themselves.
Kevin Pittman
Coordinator,
Advanced Writing Centre
College of the North Atlantic - Qatar