Poet and performer Valerie Hsiung is the author of three full-length poetry collections: e f g: a trilogy (Action Books, 2016), incantation inarticulate (O Balthazar Press, 2013), and under your face (O Balthazar Press, 2013). Her poetry and interviews can be found or is forthcoming in an array of places, including American Letters & Commentary, Apiary, Black Nerd Problems, Cloud Rodeo, Cosmonauts Avenue, Bone Bouquet, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Diode Poetry Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Mad Hatters’ Review, Moonshot, New Delta Review, PEN Poetry Series, Prelude, RealPoetik, Tammy, and VOLT. She has performed at Casa Libre en la Solana, Common Area Maintenance, Leon Gallery, Poetic Research Bureau, Rhizome, Shapeshifter Lab, and Treefort Music Festival, among elsewhere. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hsiung studied literary translation at Brown University and is currently based out of Brooklyn, New York, where she works as a modern-day matchmaker. She serves as an editor for Poor Claudia.
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Poetry by Stephanie Valente
THE HIGH PRIESTESS
i am a diamond thief waiting for the end of the world
what will i love when there is just dust?
a door opens to an empty house, forgotten
family photos w/ smiling teeth & in
that house, the stairway leads to a bedroom
& the house has grown into a stranger
& i might just caress the jewelry meant for a neck
or a wrist, a glimmering asteroid lost in my pocket.
THE EMPEROR
i’m forever:
shelling quarters
under my tongue
never early, but
never quite on time.
THE LOVERS
Q. what if the world ends?
A. we’ll still keep our tattoos & branch crowns — magic,
at short notice. but baby, we’ll need our parlor tricks.
Q. do you believe in ghosts?
A. i talked to a spirit once — a voice full of mother.
got me the hell out.
Stephanie Valente lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is a Young Adult novelist, short fiction writer, poet, editor, content & social media strategist. In short, she wears many hats. Especially if they have feathers. She is the Fashion Editor at Greenpointers, Associate Editor at Yes, Poetry, and Style Blogger at Kitschy. Some of her writing has appeared in Bust Magazine, Electric Cereal, Prick of the Spindle, The 22 Magazine, Danse Macabre, Uphook Press, Literary Orphans, Nano Fiction, and more.
Via Historic Fresno
How I Ritual With My Writer Friends
I have learned to write and submit with more confidence...
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Depeche Mode Gets Political
Depeche Mode really get it. With their latest, and 14th studio album Spirit, they go back to their goth punk roots and get political. This comes at a time where we need to be political, both with what we say and definitely with how we act. The album is a clear reaction to Trump and Brexit, especially with their song "Where's the Revolution?"
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Poetry by Monica Rico
Monica Rico is a second generation Mexican American feminist who writes at www.slowdownandeat.com. Her chapbook “Twisted Mouth of the Tulip” is available from Red Paint Hill Publishing.
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'Salem' Is the Bad Netflix Show You Need to Watch
A lot of people don't like to admit the "bad" art or music or movies or TV shows they enjoy. I personally don't care (because entertainment is entertainment and we all need to take a break sometimes). One of mine is the Netflix show "Salem," a show that was cancelled after three seasons, airing its last episode in January 2017 after starting in 2014.
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Via here.
Is It OK To Make Fun Of Instagram Poets?
"Here ye, here ye, we, the EXPERTS of poetry, therefore judge you cliche and hackneyed."
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A Daughter of Hemingway
My mother once told me that young girls who live without their fathers always seek a father. First we seek our real father, sometimes we seek our spiritual father second, but always we search for a father. I have learned that you cannot pin the word father to a man’s jacket and expect him to remember to answer to the title or even to wear the jacket. Uncles and grandfathers have stood in line for me to pin a title to and all have failed. So why not pin the title to a man I never met? One I’ll never meet.
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5 Poets Whose Performances Will Make Your Bones Shiver
Button Poetry is one of the best and most innovative presses and organizations around right now. They run a video/reading series of poets performing their work, and it's so amazing.
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Pan’s Labyrinth (2006
8 International Films About the Terrifying Magic of Girlhood You Must Watch
Thus, these films below present young women creating an alternative reality to the limited structures or paths enforced upon them. These protagonists often find themselves willingly entering a rabbit hole, so to speak, to freely explore the nuances of their selves. Through magics within the self, these protagonists return to the familiar world ready to assert their narrative.
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Via Pure Film Creative
Creeper Crate: Campy Fun Box for Horror Babes
...fun and camp and glamour and a whole lot of anticipation.
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Poetry by Kai Coggin
Kai Coggin is a queer Filipino-American poet living in the valley of a small mountain in Hot Springs National Park, AR.
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5 Love Witch Inspired Items to Help You Wait Patiently for Anna Biller's next Release
So, basically, she had me at "Bluebeard." But since films, especially those created with the deliberate artistic and critical intent that Biller is known for, can take lots of time, here’s a list of items to tide you over until the big release.
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Natalia Drepina
Collaborative Poem by Alexis Bates & Logan February
pomegranate
with a neck bent / like prayer
I clung to the fruit as though I was
a part of it / a seed needing to be cut
away / I stared at food the way
murderers look / at their victims
the way God looks upon his creations
a single pomegranate
holds hundreds of decisions inside
its skin & eating was always
the wrong one / but it was sacred
sliding pulped flesh past my lips
spitting out seeds / just like it is
holy / to claim the self:
sickness / success /
I am hundreds of little / red decisions
scattered on the kitchen floor
& so what / if they don’t all taste good
I stare in the mirror / take a knife
to these delicate ideals
split them open wider
& wider / avoid the body
grip the fruit tight
it does not taste killer
I do not feel victimized
this is still progress
Alexis Bates is a poet and writer that uses words to become intimate with an audience. You can read her words in Luna Luna Magazine, Five:2:One, Vagabond City Lit, and elsewhere. Her micro-chap, When Cars Touch, is forthcoming from Ghost City Press.
Logan February is a happy-ish Nigerian owl who likes pizza & typewriters. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in (b)OINK, Wildness, Vagabond City, and more. His chapbooks, Painted Blue with Saltwater (Indolent Books) and How to Cook a Ghost (Glass Poetry Press) are forthcoming. Say hello on Instagram & Twitter @loganfebruary.
In Order To Write Poetry, Don't Treat It Like Poetry
Poetry isn’t a grand mystery. It can be, and there are certainly moments where you want ambiguity, but it doesn’t have to be confusing, for either the writer or reader. Writing poetry, like fiction (and really, making any kind of art), is about utilizing all aspects of your brain, your body, your craft. I regularly teach poetry workshops (and I used to be a high school English teacher), so I'm constantly thinking of new ways to challenge myself and others—and finding ways to keep pushing myself to explore the nuances of poetry.
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