“I said that there are prayers even to say upon witnessing lightning.” – Chloe N. Clark, “We Who Vanish”
As I said last week, I’m the parent of a pre-k graduate as of Monday. As such, please excuse any typos.
What I’ve Been Reading Lately:
There was a time where I didn’t have money for books, but there was also a time where I wasn’t making time for books. A lot of this past year or so has been catching up on what my brain refers to as “reading debt”—either books I feel I should read because I want to/they fit my projects/whatever, or books people I care about wrote that I haven’t gotten to yet. Not sure when I’ll feel like that debt is scratched. Maybe that’s what retirement is.
THE GOOD NEWS is that the homies write some good books. I read two and started another this week, and I’m thrilled about all of them.
Chokecherry by Lyd Havens: Man, I read this book with really severe neck pain from sleeping wrong, like heating-pad-on-my-shoulders, not-in-the-mood-for-poems pain. Yet Lyd’s poetry still sung in the harmonies of cicadas! What a collection. There is some much in here about family, place, your place in the world, rage, aching love, grief, various trees—each shorter poem satelliting around a haunting long poem, “Boomtown (all the places I am not).” It’s so very worth your time, and if you’re still not convinced, here’s an episode of The Line Break podcast where we interview Lyd.
Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark: Back in undergrad, when everything you think of is the first time anyone has ever thought of that thing, I decided I wanted to write what I called “poemstories.” Basically short stories with run-on sentences and line breaks. Then I read, you know, some writers, and realized the multimodal was all around me. These poems feel cut out from genre movies, like someone had a searing moment of lyrical brilliance while filming Venomous Velvet Whalefish From The Planet Venus for the SyFy channel. There’s horror (particularly body horror, do I need to say that?), there’s mad science experiments, there’s sex, there’s the difference between a bloom and a swarm when describing jellyfish. And yet, as always with Chloe’s work, everything is infused with such an honest tenderness. It’s so very worth your time, and if you’re still not convinced, here’s an episode of The Line Break podcast where we interview Chloe.
LINKS!
Let’s start with a harrowing tale of picking up pigeon peas, this Camille U. Adams CNF in The Forge should with a warning to talk to your doctor before reading if you have hypertension. But the real thing is the language—precise, lyrical, wholly inimitable.
You want a kick-ass pirate and witch story? One with, like, sooo much gore? Of course you do. Linda H. Codega over at Uncharted has got you covered.
This delightful micro from Alyson Mosquera Dutemple over in Cincinnati Review would pair nicely with Brendan’s album.
In this Guardian profile of Brandon Taylor, the author claims he can type as fast as he can think. Do you know how much I am seething with jealousy? I haven’t picked up Taylor’s work yet, but the way these books are framed in this piece really sets me a-quiver.
For no particular reason at all, here’s something in Decider about Hollywood’s conscious decision to stop making labor movies. As a firm believer in movies’ ability to shape cultural imagination and greatly influence the possibilities people can see for themselves, I think it’s great that On The Waterfront came out before either of my parents were born. Someone sneak a villain based on Scabby The Rat into Marvel or something, please. Do I have to be a white person right now? Do I have to roll a The Wire Season 2 clip?
Sorry you got an email,
Chris