Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
for your reading pleasure and pain
Hybrid / Transgenre / Monstrous Scripture
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.
Jordan Chesnut, “How Gross, My Seances”
"In 2015, the body of my former partner was found in the wastewater treatment facility of our college town. I wrote this play-in-verse in an attempt to uncover the reason or path of his departure...." Jordan Chesnut's How Gross, My Seances, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Hybrid / Transgenre / Monstrous Scripture
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.
Poetry
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.
Chris Muravez, excerpts from “The Body Full of Hell”
"This garden is withering. I am on the edge of the sublime and the sun is melting my skullskin. The sun is afraid of its maternal power. The galaxy is the mother of the sun, galaxies are mothers of the universe. The sun is filthy for trying to fuck its mother galaxy. " — from Chris Muravez's The Body Full of Hell, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Madison McCartha, excerpt from “Freakophone World”
"A series of occult recordings, hauntings, and invocations performing new black diasporic identities in an increasingly imperiled and globalized society." -- Madison McCartha on Freakophone World, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Poetry
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.
Chris Muravez, excerpts from “The Body Full of Hell”
"This garden is withering. I am on the edge of the sublime and the sun is melting my skullskin. The sun is afraid of its maternal power. The galaxy is the mother of the sun, galaxies are mothers of the universe. The sun is filthy for trying to fuck its mother galaxy. " — from Chris Muravez's The Body Full of Hell, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Fiction
Julia Brennan, excerpt from “Hunting Season”
"He was my teacher. He was teaching me how to be explicit in my work, and in his bed, we were doing very explicit things. Secretly, he and I slept in a sunroom in the back of his house, and I called him mother and he called me child. It was an incest game we played." — from Julia Brennan's Hunting Season, co-winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Kate Durbin, excerpt from “Hoarders”
"My name is Linda, and I love cooking rotting food" -- an excerpt from Kate Durbin's Hoarders, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Vincent James, excerpt from “Doomsday”
"We’d never been kept out past dusk. Never bottomed out to transcendent panorama. Never thrived in the unholy glower of the mountain-perched bighorns." — from Vincent James' Doomsday, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Fiction
Julia Brennan, excerpt from “Hunting Season”
"He was my teacher. He was teaching me how to be explicit in my work, and in his bed, we were doing very explicit things. Secretly, he and I slept in a sunroom in the back of his house, and I called him mother and he called me child. It was an incest game we played." — from Julia Brennan's Hunting Season, co-winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Kate Durbin, excerpt from “Hoarders”
"My name is Linda, and I love cooking rotting food" -- an excerpt from Kate Durbin's Hoarders, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Nonfiction
Mariko Nagai, excerpt from “Body of Empire”
"As soon as surviving women and children are ushered into civilian camps like scared sheep, trading of flesh starts: an extra bowl of food for a fuck..." -- from Mariko Nagai's Body of Empire, co-winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Yanara Friedland, excerpts from “Groundswell”
"I come from the border, Grenze, Grenzstreifen, nation, wall, barbed wire, west that is east that is a city and also a consciousness of rivers. I come from the swell, a city built on swamp. Whatever ground it is that grew me, the lines run firmly through it" — from Yanara Friendland's Groundswell, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Steffan Triplett, excerpt from “Inclement”
"A storm came through Joplin and left all these broken trees, and homes, and bodies. It left all these dreams. People let go of their kids. Their parents. Their love. On the twenty-second day of May, we handed over gifts to the gray arm of the sky." Steffan Triplett's Inclement is shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Nonfiction
Mariko Nagai, excerpt from “Body of Empire”
"As soon as surviving women and children are ushered into civilian camps like scared sheep, trading of flesh starts: an extra bowl of food for a fuck..." -- from Mariko Nagai's Body of Empire, co-winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Yanara Friedland, excerpts from “Groundswell”
"I come from the border, Grenze, Grenzstreifen, nation, wall, barbed wire, west that is east that is a city and also a consciousness of rivers. I come from the swell, a city built on swamp. Whatever ground it is that grew me, the lines run firmly through it" — from Yanara Friendland's Groundswell, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Book Reviews
Jordan Davis’ “Shell Game” and Drew Gardner’s “Defender” reviewed by Tyrone Williams
Davis's Shell Game and Gardner's Defender "demonstrate the discursive poles of naïveté and cynicism underpinning avant-garde practices." -- Tyrone Williams
Stephanie Strickland’s “The Universe Is Made: Poems New and Selected,” reviewed by Terese Svoboda
Always, a darting sharp intelligence dares the reader to follow, impatient with empathy, refusing prompting, overlaid with a grave concern for women in a catastrophic world." -- Terese Svoboda on Stephanie Strickland's How the Universe is Made: New and Selected Poems
Nicholas Gulig’s “Orient” reviewed by Marlie McGovern
"To listen is to inhabit a liminal space — to vibrate in the synaptic hum between neural firings" -- Marlie McGovern on Nicholas Gulig's Orient.
Book Reviews
Jordan Davis’ “Shell Game” and Drew Gardner’s “Defender” reviewed by Tyrone Williams
Davis's Shell Game and Gardner's Defender "demonstrate the discursive poles of naïveté and cynicism underpinning avant-garde practices." -- Tyrone Williams
Stephanie Strickland’s “The Universe Is Made: Poems New and Selected,” reviewed by Terese Svoboda
Always, a darting sharp intelligence dares the reader to follow, impatient with empathy, refusing prompting, overlaid with a grave concern for women in a catastrophic world." -- Terese Svoboda on Stephanie Strickland's How the Universe is Made: New and Selected Poems
Reading Guides
What I’m Reading Now… by Katie Jean Shinkle
Katie Jean Shinkle discusses an anthology edited by Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, along with books by Sade LaNay, Steven Dunn, Juliet Escoria, and Ria Brodell.
What I’m Reading Now… by Jennifer Firestone
Jennifer Firestone discusses books by Jill Magi, Okwui Okpokwasili, Asiya Wadud, Etel Adnan, Trace Peterson, and Edwin Torres.
What I’m Reading Now… by Amie Zimmerman
Amie Zimmerman discusses books by Ashley Toliver, Khaty Xiong, Graham Foust, Joseph Donahue, and Wendy Xu.
What We’re Reading Now ….
What I’m Reading Now… by Katie Jean Shinkle
Katie Jean Shinkle discusses an anthology edited by Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, along with books by Sade LaNay, Steven Dunn, Juliet Escoria, and Ria Brodell.
What I’m Reading Now… by Jennifer Firestone
Jennifer Firestone discusses books by Jill Magi, Okwui Okpokwasili, Asiya Wadud, Etel Adnan, Trace Peterson, and Edwin Torres.
Music(k)
Holistic Method Musick Exercises (part 1)
Including "Space Chord" (Sun Ra); "The 'This is the greatest album ever made' exercise" (Royal Trux); and "The Slow Dwell" (Y Road).
Reiki Holograms
TS Music(k) Editor 5-Track discusses Reiki in general, and more specifically the books Psychic Reiki, by Brett Bevell, and Essential Reiki by Diane Stein.
Party For Your Right To Fight: Michael Hughes’ “Magic For The Resistance”
"Everything’s here, from clear & concise technical instruction, to tales of occult anti-Nazi ww2 actions, to self-care ... to recipes for spells ... for hexing the NRA, for justice for victims of police violence, for healing the Earth, for reproductive rights."
Musick
Holistic Method Musick Exercises (part 1)
Including "Space Chord" (Sun Ra); "The 'This is the greatest album ever made' exercise" (Royal Trux); and "The Slow Dwell" (Y Road).
Reiki Holograms
TS Music(k) Editor 5-Track discusses Reiki in general, and more specifically the books Psychic Reiki, by Brett Bevell, and Essential Reiki by Diane Stein.
Occult Works
Madison McCartha, excerpt from “Freakophone World”
"A series of occult recordings, hauntings, and invocations performing new black diasporic identities in an increasingly imperiled and globalized society." -- Madison McCartha on Freakophone World, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Candice Wuehle, poems from “Death Industrial Complex”
"for our initiation we prayed to a sponge; we looked real close at our tan lines to try and decide where the darkness started and stopped; we knew we were living when our voices came out like theremin, when we could sense the fault lines moving under our feet." — from Candice Wuehle's Death Industrial Complex, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Brad Baumgartner, poems from “Stylinaut”
"The love-f(l)ur(r)y of a thousand suns auto-germinating abreast the st(a)rnum and the pollinating of the pleasures of the sol-ar plexus." -- from Brad Baumgartner's Stylinaut, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Occult Works
Madison McCartha, excerpt from “Freakophone World”
"A series of occult recordings, hauntings, and invocations performing new black diasporic identities in an increasingly imperiled and globalized society." -- Madison McCartha on Freakophone World, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Candice Wuehle, poems from “Death Industrial Complex”
"for our initiation we prayed to a sponge; we looked real close at our tan lines to try and decide where the darkness started and stopped; we knew we were living when our voices came out like theremin, when we could sense the fault lines moving under our feet." — from Candice Wuehle's Death Industrial Complex, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.