Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
for your reading pleasure and pain
Hybrid / Transgenre / Monstrous Scripture
Madison McCartha: Video-Poem from “The Cryptodrone Sequence”
Using technology & borrowed texts, Madison McCartha's new video-poem digitizes excerpts from his long empire-subverting poem, "The Cryptodrone Sequence."
Lauren Russell, excerpt from “Descent”
"Heard a whippoorwill holler this morning for the first time this spring. Heard a whippoorwill holler. All hands choking cotton. Heard a holler, a whimper. Heard a will whip her. Will heard a whip. Whip or will." -- from Lauren Russell's Descent, co-winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Jessica K Baer, excerpts from “Midwestern Infinity Doctrine”
"Behind the supercenter, its immortal gloaming a refinery pumps slowmagma against the purple-contour ripped sky. Outloud, colors I cry My God, My God." -- from Jessica K Baer's Midwestern Infinity Doctrine, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Hybrid / Transgenre / Monstrous Scripture
Madison McCartha: Video-Poem from “The Cryptodrone Sequence”
Using technology & borrowed texts, Madison McCartha's new video-poem digitizes excerpts from his long empire-subverting poem, "The Cryptodrone Sequence."
Lauren Russell, excerpt from “Descent”
"Heard a whippoorwill holler this morning for the first time this spring. Heard a whippoorwill holler. All hands choking cotton. Heard a holler, a whimper. Heard a will whip her. Will heard a whip. Whip or will." -- from Lauren Russell's Descent, co-winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Poetry
Five Poems by Patrick Samuel
"Head never throws-up on purpose because there’d be no one / to hate if I got skinny."
Madison McCartha: Excerpt from “The Cryptodrone Sequence”
"when sharing a host / in the contagion zone / install my blue-threat-checkpoints along the doors & windows"
Olivia Cronk, excerpt from “Womonster”
"You’re dead meat baby. / You’re not gonna kill the Internet, and you already missed your chance to sleaze up your thirties. / I’m sure I don’t know what you mean / but that choke of diamonds / is certainly sweetening the deal." — from Olivia Cronk's Womonster, co-winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Poetry
Five Poems by Patrick Samuel
"Head never throws-up on purpose because there’d be no one / to hate if I got skinny."
Madison McCartha: Excerpt from “The Cryptodrone Sequence”
"when sharing a host / in the contagion zone / install my blue-threat-checkpoints along the doors & windows"
Fiction
“Summer Thighs”: Fiction by Elle Nash
"I wanted to fuck god or I wanted to fuck something else that wanted me on my knees, looking up."
“Conversation of a Girl and Death”: fiction by Emma Claire Foley
"Always on the edge of my mind you’ve been a dog, a dog in the house of love who tries its hardest to negate with its own being."
“A Pinker Pink”: fiction by Shantal Jeewon Kim
"I dreamed the same dream again, my sight blinded with pink, but this time when it covered my sight it started to turn red. And there was the dead flamingo."
Fiction
“Summer Thighs”: Fiction by Elle Nash
"I wanted to fuck god or I wanted to fuck something else that wanted me on my knees, looking up."
“Conversation of a Girl and Death”: fiction by Emma Claire Foley
"Always on the edge of my mind you’ve been a dog, a dog in the house of love who tries its hardest to negate with its own being."
Nonfiction
“Ars Necrotica”: non-fiction by M. Forajter
"Do we need our toxicants spelled out to us? Is that really necessary? It is so clear that an ocean full of plastic is wrong. It’s clear that we’re full of shit. I don’t know. Maybe. Honestly, when you live in a garbage dump, what else is there to do besides make things out of garbage?" -- M. Forajter
“Liminal Spaces”: non-fiction by Kelsey Inouye
"A therapist once suggested you write phrases on an index card, instructing you to read them whenever you start to obsess over food or experience the guilt that often follows a slice of birthday cake." — Kelsey Inouye
“The Straight Story”: non-fiction by Julia Madsen
"Some crimes never resolve themselves but go on for miles before disappearing into the vanishing point" -- Julia Madsen explores her family's legacy and the intersection of true crime, intergenerational trauma, and the Midwestern Gothic.
Nonfiction
“Ars Necrotica”: non-fiction by M. Forajter
"Do we need our toxicants spelled out to us? Is that really necessary? It is so clear that an ocean full of plastic is wrong. It’s clear that we’re full of shit. I don’t know. Maybe. Honestly, when you live in a garbage dump, what else is there to do besides make things out of garbage?" -- M. Forajter
“Liminal Spaces”: non-fiction by Kelsey Inouye
"A therapist once suggested you write phrases on an index card, instructing you to read them whenever you start to obsess over food or experience the guilt that often follows a slice of birthday cake." — Kelsey Inouye
Book Reviews
Stephanie Strickland’s “Ringing the Changes” reviewed by Erica Ammann
"I imagine a visual representation of Strickland’s textual cartography in which the contextualizing axes are nebulous, a mapping in the sense that it directs possible configurations of being while also conjuring an anti-topography that conducts echoes, vibrations, and undulations. " -
Janaka Stucky’s “Ascend, Ascend” reviewed by Chris Muravez
"We thrive on the dead – animal and plant carcasses, fossilized energy, microbial environments in our guts – and in this sin, we are allowed to continue breathing, fucking, shitting, living, becoming." Chris Muravez explores "negative ecstasy, incantations, and ritualistic destruction of the ego" in Janaka Stucky's Ascend, Ascend, from Third Man Books.
“I Cannot Resist the Terror”: Essay by Olivia Cronk
"Dizzy time-travel alienation self/ selves sadnessexhilaration. To walk 'the edge of the abyss.'” Olivia Cronk examines multiple selves, Scenes from a Marriage, The Double Life of Véronique, and books by Dionne Brand, Amanda Goldblatt, and Maria Negroni.
Book Reviews
Stephanie Strickland’s “Ringing the Changes” reviewed by Erica Ammann
"I imagine a visual representation of Strickland’s textual cartography in which the contextualizing axes are nebulous, a mapping in the sense that it directs possible configurations of being while also conjuring an anti-topography that conducts echoes, vibrations, and undulations. " -
Janaka Stucky’s “Ascend, Ascend” reviewed by Chris Muravez
"We thrive on the dead – animal and plant carcasses, fossilized energy, microbial environments in our guts – and in this sin, we are allowed to continue breathing, fucking, shitting, living, becoming." Chris Muravez explores "negative ecstasy, incantations, and ritualistic destruction of the ego" in Janaka Stucky's Ascend, Ascend, from Third Man Books.
Reading Guides
What I’m Reading Now… by William Lessard
William Lessard discusses books by Tarpaulin Sky author Steven Dunn, as well as authors Hillary Leftwich, Rae Armantrout, and Joe Pan.
What I’m Reading Now… by Dana Teen Lomax
Dana Teen Lomax discusses books by Ta-nehisi Coates, Franz Fanon, Laura Hershey, Raina Telgemeier, and Magdalena Zurawski.
What I’m Reading Now… by Hélène Cardona
Hélène Cardona discusses books by Laura Braverman, Anne Fitzgerald, John FitzGerald, Elizabeth Cohen, and Blas Falconer.
What We’re Reading Now ….
What I’m Reading Now… by William Lessard
William Lessard discusses books by Tarpaulin Sky author Steven Dunn, as well as authors Hillary Leftwich, Rae Armantrout, and Joe Pan.
What I’m Reading Now… by Dana Teen Lomax
Dana Teen Lomax discusses books by Ta-nehisi Coates, Franz Fanon, Laura Hershey, Raina Telgemeier, and Magdalena Zurawski.
Columns
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: On Fractals, Part 1
"I am fascinated by the rendering of geometric constructions in language, the Euclidean inquiry into what is a line and how can I both draw and describe it, and with what tools… How this writing is similar to and different from poetry, for example. How the directions above make something by doing the same thing over and over." --- Kelly Krumrie
James Pate’s Evening Signals: Maria Negroni’s “The Annunciation”
"[U]nlike a more mainstream novel, this isn’t a novel of hard-won wisdom and gentle epiphany, but a work of mirrors and lists and fever dreams and manic monologues, with no sense of closure in sight." - James Pate
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: Thoughts on Image Scales of the Planet
"A couple pulls over at sunset and takes a picture in front of a reservoir (bright sky, bright lake): in fact a place for particles to settle, the colors chemical. No fish. It’s pieces of the mountain" — Kelly Krumrie, Image Scales of the Planet
Columns
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: On Fractals, Part 1
"I am fascinated by the rendering of geometric constructions in language, the Euclidean inquiry into what is a line and how can I both draw and describe it, and with what tools… How this writing is similar to and different from poetry, for example. How the directions above make something by doing the same thing over and over." --- Kelly Krumrie
James Pate’s Evening Signals: Maria Negroni’s “The Annunciation”
"[U]nlike a more mainstream novel, this isn’t a novel of hard-won wisdom and gentle epiphany, but a work of mirrors and lists and fever dreams and manic monologues, with no sense of closure in sight." - James Pate
Occult Studies
Guitar Astrology For Greta Thunberg
5-Track performs and discusses guitar interpretations of both Greta Thunberg’s astrology chart and the position of the stars at the time that he composed this essay: September 11, 2019.
James Pate’s Evening Signals: Reflections on Olivia Cronk
James Pate examines Olivia Cronk's Skin Horse (Action Books) and Louise and Louise and Louise (The Lettered Streets Press): "the theatrical, the occult and the unnerving..."
Janaka Stucky’s “Ascend, Ascend” reviewed by Chris Muravez
"We thrive on the dead – animal and plant carcasses, fossilized energy, microbial environments in our guts – and in this sin, we are allowed to continue breathing, fucking, shitting, living, becoming." Chris Muravez explores "negative ecstasy, incantations, and ritualistic destruction of the ego" in Janaka Stucky's Ascend, Ascend, from Third Man Books.
Occult Studies
Guitar Astrology For Greta Thunberg
5-Track performs and discusses guitar interpretations of both Greta Thunberg’s astrology chart and the position of the stars at the time that he composed this essay: September 11, 2019.
James Pate’s Evening Signals: Reflections on Olivia Cronk
James Pate examines Olivia Cronk's Skin Horse (Action Books) and Louise and Louise and Louise (The Lettered Streets Press): "the theatrical, the occult and the unnerving..."