What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week:<\/strong><\/p> I have a confession: I love chapbooks, but more often than not, I\u2019d rather spend cash on the collection. Idk, I\u2019m beginning to think of the writing scene in a similar way to the punk scene I was big into in high school. We\u2019re all passing around our indie-published books, like bands trading merch at the show. Chapbooks are kinda like 7\u201ds, Fat Mike was always talking about 7\u201ds. I\u2019d pick up a 7\u201d (or more realistically, a CD single, high school me didn\u2019t have a record player) if I was at a show<\/em>. I\u2019d look forward <\/em>to album releases. But reading this chapbook was such a delightful way to spend an hour, \u201cI should think more fondly of the singular experience of a chapbook\u201d was my big takeaway. There\u2019s so much to this story, but it also doesn\u2019t need to be any longer\u2014very much a Goldilocks book. I\u2019m talking, of course, about Dyke (geology) <\/em>by Sabrina Imbler. <\/p> Another confession: I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s name from me linking their excellent \u201cCreaturefector\u201d series on Defector<\/em> a bunch. Well, this is as deft a combination of science writing and relationship drama\/love stories as I\u2019ve seen this side of Lydia Millet. They really nail that clinical, left-justified \u201cparagraph-paragraph on a new subject-paragraph on a new subject-oh holy shit somehow it all ties together and my heart\u2019s broken?\u201d style of writing I wish I was good at. Seriously, I closed this book just elated I\u2019d been lucky enough to be alive at the same time it was written. So good. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> We\u2019re starting with a big ol\u2019 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\u2019re linking K.C.\u2019s stuff right now, first this cool interview in hex<\/a><\/em>, and then her excellent Peacock Mantis Shrimp newsletter<\/a> (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<\/a>. <\/p><\/li> 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 \u201cBlack Annis\u201d in <\/a>New Flash Fiction Review<\/a><\/em>.<\/p><\/li> Paulette Pierce advertised their story as \u201cflash fic about eating your own tits after top surgery,\u201d so obviously I was gonna click on that. Check out \u201cTits \u00e0 la Flamb\u00e9\u201d in <\/a>Sundog<\/a><\/em>, it does not<\/em> disappoint. Even got a little weepy at the end.<\/p><\/li> I\u2019ve linked her work before, but not her poetry, so please go get wrecked by DeMisty D. Bellinger\u2019s \u201cSweet Potato Pie\u201d in <\/a>West Trestle Review<\/a><\/em>. This is the classic \u201celegy for a family member with food memories\u201d 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. <\/p><\/li> Mention DeMisty\u2019s poetry because we are also reading poets, the podcast is called The Line Break<\/em>, after all, so let\u2019s break some more lines with Terri Linn Davis in <\/a>Five South<\/a><\/em>, with the Best Of The Net-nominated \u201cAn Etymology of Loss.\u201d<\/a> Really dynamite last two stanzas here. <\/p><\/li><\/ul> Now, what\u2019re you still doing here? It\u2019s weekend! Oh, were you wondering if I\u2019d seen the new Covet videos on Audiotree<\/em>? Come on, of course I had, h\/t to Brendan for that. Idk if the songs on catharsis<\/em> are just the best Yvette\u2019s ever written, but man, I really like their new drummer. <\/p>![\"book:](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/af1d0161-71ad-4fbd-bd08-d0fd5553c585_3024x4032.jpeg\")
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