15 Presses & Journals That Will Make You Weep With Pleasure

August 23, 2017

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

I'm sure plenty of you know a few of these, but allow me, for those who might not, to introduce and love on the presses that are currently sending me into literary-body-psychic overdrive. What does this actually mean? It means I've been devouring their books for some time or that I've discovered their new work, or am re-reading their older work and losing my mind over it again and again. I believe that these presses and journals are doing beautiful, unique things, and I love the voices and work they're putting out there. To blood and beauty!

1. Wakefield Press

If you could press your hand against my chest, you would feel my heart fluttering. Wakefield Press is one of my new favorites, and it should be yours, too. Devoted to 'overlooked gems' in translation, literary oddities, and elegant packaging (oh god they are so good to us), this press is bringing immense beauty to the literary landscape.

I just got my hands on:

Spells by Michel de Ghelderode

Murder Most Serene by Gabrielle Wittkop

The Cathedral of Mist by Paul Willems

2. Siren Songs
Joanna C. Valente, managing editor here at Luna Luna, runs an imprint on Civil Coping Mechanisms—and they're publishing Devin Kelly, Cooper Wilhelm, Jayy Dodd, and Omatara James. Literally am waiting on the edge of my fucking seat. The press seeks work by queer, trans, nonbinary, women and people of color.

3. Inside the Castle

OK. So Inside the Castle runs a residency in October called Castle Freak. Do you feel that? That's me having an orgasm. This press is deliciously dark and strange, and everyone should check out their dedication to literature that does more. They publish 'difficult poetry and prose poetry.' Wouldst thou pick me up from the floor?

4. Cordella Magazine

I just discovered this gem—they publish women artists and writers, and the magazine itself is filled with unique, beautiful work. It feels like you're flipping pages as you move through the beautiful site.

5. Tarpaulin Sky

Full disclosure: I'm in a full-on romantic relationship with this press and journal. They might not know it, but I do. They've always been my go-to for good reading, they publish superb books, and they even chose my manuscript Nympholepsy as a finalist in their 2017 book awards. Their work is tight, well-crafted, and aesthetically inclined.

6. Occulum

Just click click click and indulge in the beauty. Their about page says, "Unreliable sources have claimed that OCCULUM is David Lynch’s favorite lit journal. This in turn, is also unreliable." Which, yes, please. They're ok with 'semi-normies' (lol no one here) but they publish speculative fiction and 'species' of poetry. Their peculiarities are why I dearly love them.

7. Monstering

As someone with a chronic illness, I love the fact that Monstering Mag makes a space for discussions around the body, disabled experiences, nombinary voices, and illness. Their work is vulnerable, necessary, and thoughtful.

8. Spork Press

Run by Richard Siken (I know he's your favorite, too), this lit journal and press puts out some fantastic work. Each issue is like a mini car crash you can't look away from. The work is always tight as fuck.

9. Paragraphiti

Just discovered their 'Romanian poet' issue, and I'm in love. It's so important that we are treated to translated work, and I'm so glad to see journals like this one do the heavy lifting.

10. Action Books

One of my favorite all-time presses, Action Books makes books that make me weep and then go write books that make other people weep. And repeat. There isn't a single solitary book in their catalogue that won't break your heart and threaten your ideas of the literary status quo. You will realize what you've been missing. You will drown in it. The work is transcendent of what we know and understand and accept.

11. Timeless Infinite Light

With their focus on the radical and mystical, this queer collective produces books that are loud and heavy in your hands. And always beautiful. Also, they've got a "west coast lean," which, to a New Yorker, means there's a hazy intoxicating palm tree ocean spray magic to it all. Their books also LOOK delicious. And, they focus on giving a voice to identities often excluded from the conversation.

12. Grimoire

Grimoire, like Luna Luna, makes a space for the occult alongside their literary selections. The work is stellar, and their little spell-treats and seances are especially to die for. I love this journal and can't wait to keep reading each new issue.

13. Dreginald

So apparently I was late to the party with Dreginald. Just discovered how awesome they are, and I am blown away. Their selections are carefully crafted, insanely unique, and they prick at you—leaving you feeling the wound long after you've left the site. Also, DREGINALD. Just say it.

Bonus Round: new journals

14. Bad Pony

This magazine is brandy-new, insanely beautiful, and not yet live. Their mission says, "We are a very bad pony. Maybe we have always been that way. Maybe we had a particularly bad childhood where instead of hay or grass, we were fed a large amount of Starburst," which has done me in. I am ready for this bad bad pony.

15. Moonchild Magazine

Our very own Nadia is launching her own literary magazine this Friday—and we can't wait. Nadia's eye for beautiful, audacious work helps shape Luna Luna, so I can't wait for her dreamy creation.

Lisa Marie Basile is an editor, writer and poet living in NYC. She is the founding editor-in-chief of Luna Luna Magazine and the author of APOCRYPHAL (Noctuary Press, 2014), as well as a few chapbooks: Andalucia (Poetry Society of New York), War/Lock (Hyacinth Girl Press), and Triste (Dancing Girl Press). Her bookNYMPHOLEPSY (co-authored with poet Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein), was a finalist in the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards. She is working on her first poetic fiction novella, to be released by Clash Books/Clash Media.

Second Goodbye, Non Fiction by Ron Gibson, Jr.

August 23, 2017

With other emergency room patients watching, I retched, filling and overfilling the tray. A janitor was sent for to mop up around my feet. The nurse brought over two trays this time, but it was the same story: I retched, filled, then overfilled them. The nurse and the janitor's body language seemed to indicate (at least to me) they were growing increasingly alarmed at the volume I was spewing.

Self Portrait: Natasha Carlos

August 18, 2017

My body is present in my landscapes, because I want to reflect my immersive, exploratory relationship with nature. There are countless landscapes in art history that feature women as beautiful props in the foreground with nature serving as a mere backdrop. There is no real dialogue with the environment. Artists like Ana Mendieta and Judy Dater challenged that norm and prompt me to think of the role my own body plays in the landscape.

For Babes Who Kiss Wet On First Meeting Especially Liana

August 17, 2017

BY LAURA MARIE MARCIANO

A persistent dry spell

no wet

for two months mollycoddle

He was like a musician and all like had a music video

Orange leaves on window or asking

Will you meet me in the park

and wake with grass stains on lips

He texts and I texted

something about legs being fine as hell

The prophet suggested that bee saving was better than dick picks

sent me enough so many - enough to fill a whole room

traveling in my pocket for three weeks like a dead ass prayer

And this empty prescription bottle like a fish that saved me

in empty empty water

I met you in the park first fucked on knees from behind

told to be quieter when I screamed through green

and grey light

ambient city nature buzz and cool spit off small but plump mouth watched your pleasure twisted face below me

It was the best sex I had in three years Or some shit

but then you came

got up and asked me if I always kissed men that passionately when

I first met them when i first allowed them to stretch my adidas track pants off in the summer suss garden

shame or

near home

Said if you knew I had a car you would have made me drive you

I don't know what a prayer is but Mary I do know how to bend on my knees for 15 hot minutes and repent

I asked all my girlfriends to text bomb you when you ghosted

I asked Solange to stop letting you perform in her show

I asked the whatever to tell your girlfriend about your habits

I just wish for the culture

sunflower seed stuck in teeth pretending not to weep into brown
leather seats

I just wish

This could be different or

I asked for Ana that we all know she was an actual victim of hot dead boys

#alreadydead

What did I expect - perpetuating rape culture with my wet pussy in your fuckboi hands way after bedtime for

girls who don't kiss as passionately when they first meet anyway

ever

they never Quazz

your name? is that your name I swear those other girls

they never do that

Laura Marie Marciano is a poet, performer, educator and media artist. She is the founder of gemstone readings and the author of Mall Brat ( CCM 2016). She received her MFA from Brooklyn College and is a PhD candidate at URI. She works as the managing editor of Barrow Street Press. She lives on the Internet.

How to Be a Duplicitous Woman

August 17, 2017

Wake up one morning and see yourself, really see yourself in a mirror, in a window, in the blackened television screen.

Self Portrait: Lindsay Wheeler

August 16, 2017

This picture makes me both a "threat" and deeply human at the same time. It displays a face of what the media calls "mentally unsound," because God forbid we ever give anything less than our best smiles. And so, we exploit our every ability to emotionally vacate; to put on a happy face when all is broken inside. We deserve more self-compassion. Is a picture "worth a thousand words" when it's only an illusion? This picture is worth a thousand more.

Penguis by Sebastiᾶo SalgadoDescription: This photo provokes an image in my mind of the passing of millenia and the relentlessness of the cycles of life. — Penguis by Sebastiᾶo Salgado
Description: This photo provokes an image in my mind of the passing of millenia and the relentlessness of the cycles of life.

On Black & White Photography & a Memory

August 15, 2017

I have always been drawn to black and white photos more so than color. I know the basics of color theory: black is the reflection of no color and white is the reflection of all colors and the colors we perceive are a matter of how much of the color present in light is reflected versus how much is absorbed. But theory does not help me answer these aesthetic questions: What is the appeal of black and white photography? How do photos, whether in black and white or color, relate to the stories we tell ourselves about the world?

Alternative Gardens: 7 WOC Talk Wellness, Ritual, and Artist Identity

August 14, 2017

...in the flowers of their intersectional feminism

Which Damned Song Are You Based on Your Zodiac?

August 10, 2017

Basically, which Dave Vanian and Captain are you? Or, you know, which songs should you be listening to right now? (Well, all of them, but here's a few.)

Poetry by Janice Lobo Sapigao

August 9, 2017

Janice Lobo Sapigao is a daughter of Filipina/o immigrants. She is the author of like a solid to a shadow, forthcoming from Timeless, Infinite Light, and microchips for millions (Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc. 2016). She is a VONA/Voices Fellow and was awarded a Manuel G. Flores Prize, PAWA Scholarship to the Kundiman Poetry Retreat. For more info, please visit: janicewrites.com

Photograph by Mary Ann ThomasDescription: On one flight in the spring, I visited Denver for only a few days. — Photograph by Mary Ann Thomas
Description: On one flight in the spring, I visited Denver for only a few days.

Non Fiction By Mary Ann Thomas: Today, I Fly

August 8, 2017

I started to hate flying. It took me a few years to say those words out loud, but when I did, I started to believe them. I hate flying, I thought, and I became someone who hated flying. The girl in me who always took the window seat and who gazed outwards at cloud textures and Lego cities, who loved the pull of her body against the seat back on take-off, and who always talked to the stranger next to her, was gone. In her place was a woman who said, I hate flying, and couldn’t explain why.

Girlhood Ramblings

August 7, 2017

The way the last words spoken at a sleepover hang in the darkness. How it feels to wake up first. How your sleeping bag feels itchy-hot in the morning. How your insides feels itchy-hot, too. How your friends breathe in their sleep. Their messy hair. How the morning light is so orange-pretty you could cry.

If Eartha Kitt Isn't Your Goddess & Idol, She Should Be

August 4, 2017

BY JOANNA C. VALENTE

Here's some appreciation to a strong, fierce powerful woman who wasn't afraid to be herself:

Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016) and the editor of A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017). Joanna received a MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, a managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and CCM, as well as an instructor at Brooklyn Poets. Some of their writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Brooklyn Magazine, Prelude, Apogee, Spork, The Feminist Wire, BUST, and elsewhere.