“Of course, forests are not born fossilized. It happened by way of eruption…” – Sabrina Imbler, ‘Dyke (geology)’
Who wants to make some new writer friends? And by “make new writer friends,” I mean specifically, “gush about their work.” It’s one of the main reasons we started The Line Break, and one of the main reasons I started this blog. We’re celebrating art! Anyway, I’m finding that the new communities forming on Bluesky are big on self-promo, so I’m highlighting a few (not all, I semi-limit myself to five links per Friday Links) writers I’ve noticed just by having my social media timeline wiped clean.
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
I have a confession: I love chapbooks, but more often than not, I’d rather spend cash on the collection. Idk, I’m beginning to think of the writing scene in a similar way to the punk scene I was big into in high school. We’re all passing around our indie-published books, like bands trading merch at the show. Chapbooks are kinda like 7”s, Fat Mike was always talking about 7”s. I’d pick up a 7” (or more realistically, a CD single, high school me didn’t have a record player) if I was at a show. I’d look forward to album releases. But reading this chapbook was such a delightful way to spend an hour, “I should think more fondly of the singular experience of a chapbook” was my big takeaway. There’s so much to this story, but it also doesn’t need to be any longer—very much a Goldilocks book. I’m talking, of course, about Dyke (geology) by Sabrina Imbler.
Another confession: I didn’t know about the Wikipedia-esque parenthetical in the title, but sure enough, a dyke is a sheet of rock that forms in a fracture of a pre-existing rock body. You might recognize Sabrina Imbler’s name from me linking their excellent “Creaturefector” series on Defector a bunch. Well, this is as deft a combination of science writing and relationship drama/love stories as I’ve seen this side of Lydia Millet. They really nail that clinical, left-justified “paragraph-paragraph on a new subject-paragraph on a new subject-oh holy shit somehow it all ties together and my heart’s broken?” style of writing I wish I was good at. Seriously, I closed this book just elated I’d been lucky enough to be alive at the same time it was written. So good.
LINKS!
We’re starting with a big ol’ H/T to the homie K.C. Mead-Brewer, who, along with my guy Cristian Ramirez, is making my transition from Twitter to Bluesky very pleasant simply by being the good people they are. But we’re linking K.C.’s stuff right now, first this cool interview in hex, and then her excellent Peacock Mantis Shrimp newsletter (a great way to find new fiction), and finally an article she linked to, which is this rad-as-hell entrance to the Zapotec underworld found recently beneath a church in Oaxaca.
Matt Kendrick has a craft newsletter, , that you should go check out, and whole bunch of fiction online. I really enjoyed the haunted fairy tale “Black Annis” in New Flash Fiction Review.
Paulette Pierce advertised their story as “flash fic about eating your own tits after top surgery,” so obviously I was gonna click on that. Check out “Tits à la Flambé” in Sundog, it does not disappoint. Even got a little weepy at the end.
I’ve linked her work before, but not her poetry, so please go get wrecked by DeMisty D. Bellinger’s “Sweet Potato Pie” in West Trestle Review. This is the classic “elegy for a family member with food memories” poem with a twist, with an extra touch of care, with some longing that made me hurt in anticipation of future versions of this poem in my life.
Mention DeMisty’s poetry because we are also reading poets, the podcast is called The Line Break, after all, so let’s break some more lines with Terri Linn Davis in Five South, with the Best Of The Net-nominated “An Etymology of Loss.” Really dynamite last two stanzas here.
Now, what’re you still doing here? It’s weekend! Oh, were you wondering if I’d seen the new Covet videos on Audiotree? Come on, of course I had, h/t to Brendan for that. Idk if the songs on catharsis are just the best Yvette’s ever written, but man, I really like their new drummer.
Service industry homies: may you clean up in tips this weekend.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris