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
Maya Weeks: Excerpt from “Myth of the Garbage Patch”
"i’m going to have a heart attack if i drive like my grandpa so i am / stealing sunflowers, all i want to do is steal sunflowers, burn / the house down, trip the circuit breaker" - Maya Weeks
Lara Glenum: Poems from “White Trashed: A Snow White Story”
"In the poison lodge / My spine / begins fusing together I see animals / strung up in trees In psychomotor groves / Grief / is walking about on tornadic legs / & I loose all my eyes I’m spilling across floors" - Lara Glenum
Five Poems by Patrick Samuel
"Head never throws-up on purpose because there’d be no one / to hate if I got skinny."
Poetry
Maya Weeks: Excerpt from “Myth of the Garbage Patch”
"i’m going to have a heart attack if i drive like my grandpa so i am / stealing sunflowers, all i want to do is steal sunflowers, burn / the house down, trip the circuit breaker" - Maya Weeks
Lara Glenum: Poems from “White Trashed: A Snow White Story”
"In the poison lodge / My spine / begins fusing together I see animals / strung up in trees In psychomotor groves / Grief / is walking about on tornadic legs / & I loose all my eyes I’m spilling across floors" - Lara Glenum
Fiction
Ron L. Estrada: Excerpt from “The Wind, Then Turn From It”
"bring me up where my breath will pass in a rapid staccato like it does when first walking out into the freshness of a cold morning, nearly a gasp, then skybound, where my breathing will rhythmically slow and I’ll be light and curled." - Ron Estrada
“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."
Fiction
Ron L. Estrada: Excerpt from “The Wind, Then Turn From It”
"bring me up where my breath will pass in a rapid staccato like it does when first walking out into the freshness of a cold morning, nearly a gasp, then skybound, where my breathing will rhythmically slow and I’ll be light and curled." - Ron Estrada
“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."
Nonfiction
“Dear Manchester Chinatown”: Non-fiction by S. J. Kim
"I think of the very famous white male professor’s speech and recall, too, the way the letters DMZ felt cutting on the page; I think of the country I was born in and the DMZ that further wounds the first land I called home, and I remember that I am a daughter of a neo-colony." — from "Dear Manchester Chinatown" by S. J. Kim
“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
“Dear Manchester Chinatown”: Non-fiction by S. J. Kim
"I think of the very famous white male professor’s speech and recall, too, the way the letters DMZ felt cutting on the page; I think of the country I was born in and the DMZ that further wounds the first land I called home, and I remember that I am a daughter of a neo-colony." — from "Dear Manchester Chinatown" by S. J. Kim
“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
Emily Carr’s “name your bird without a gun” reviewed by M. Forajter
"This doubling imbues a deeper mysticism in the poems themselves, each one lending themselves as a new portrait of the tarot. You could create a new deck from Carr’s words." - M. Forajter
Miggy Angel’s “Boy, Bestiary” reviewed by Samuel Strathman
"Angel is a precise surgeon taking a scalpel to language with his brilliant scapular word-play" - Samuel Strathman
Kim Vodicka’s “The Elvis Machine” reviewed by Charlene Elsby
"A poetry collection like none I’ve ever read, Kim Vodicka’s The Elvis Machine has a powerful emotive force. It has a rhythm that make you want to read out loud. It’s a poetry collection to dance to. But what sticks with me, most of all, is its demand." - Charlene Elsby
Book Reviews
Emily Carr’s “name your bird without a gun” reviewed by M. Forajter
"This doubling imbues a deeper mysticism in the poems themselves, each one lending themselves as a new portrait of the tarot. You could create a new deck from Carr’s words." - M. Forajter
Miggy Angel’s “Boy, Bestiary” reviewed by Samuel Strathman
"Angel is a precise surgeon taking a scalpel to language with his brilliant scapular word-play" - Samuel Strathman
Reading Guides
What I’m Reading Now… by Michele Battiste
Michele Battiste discusses books from Barbara Ungar, Khadijah Queen, Erin Morgenstern, Marcela Sulak, and Srikanth Reddy.
What I’m Reading Now… by Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer discusses books by Kenkō, Halldór Laxness, Robert Glick, Natalie Moore, and Nancy Wayson Dinan.
What I’m Reading Now… by Jessica Q. Stark
Jessica Q. Stark discusses books by Lauren Groff, Dorothy Chan, Jameson Fitzpatrick, Leila Chatti, and Jihyun Yun.
What We’re Reading Now ….
What I’m Reading Now… by Michele Battiste
Michele Battiste discusses books from Barbara Ungar, Khadijah Queen, Erin Morgenstern, Marcela Sulak, and Srikanth Reddy.
What I’m Reading Now… by Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer discusses books by Kenkō, Halldór Laxness, Robert Glick, Natalie Moore, and Nancy Wayson Dinan.
Columns
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: Review of Willy Smart’s “Switch Wish”
"I’ve been excited about a lot of books lately, but few have made me annotate, text photos of pages to folks, flip back and forth, make little ooo ahhh sounds as much as Willy Smart’s Switch Wish." - Kelly Krumrie
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: Five Small Rocks
"I joked that I was like a child filling my pockets with small things. I said something like, Think how strange it would be to be a rock, how long you’d be one, how compact." - Kelly Krumrie
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: a Geometric Meditation on Renee Gladman’s “One Long Black Sentence.”
Figuring is a monthly column that puzzles over (to figure) and gives shape to (a figure) writing, art, and environments that integrate or concern mathematics and the sciences. This month's column is a geometric meditation on Renee Gladman’s One Long Black Sentence.
Columns
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: Review of Willy Smart’s “Switch Wish”
"I’ve been excited about a lot of books lately, but few have made me annotate, text photos of pages to folks, flip back and forth, make little ooo ahhh sounds as much as Willy Smart’s Switch Wish." - Kelly Krumrie
Kelly Krumrie’s “figuring”: Five Small Rocks
"I joked that I was like a child filling my pockets with small things. I said something like, Think how strange it would be to be a rock, how long you’d be one, how compact." - Kelly Krumrie
Occult Studies
Holistic Method Musick Exercises (part 2)
Three more ways to fine-tune your magickal musicianship: "Transliterization"; "The Julian Cope 'Stone Circles N You' exercise ('channeling')"; and "Neo-Trux-ian Post-Waits-ian acoustical campfire composition."
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..."
Occult Studies
Holistic Method Musick Exercises (part 2)
Three more ways to fine-tune your magickal musicianship: "Transliterization"; "The Julian Cope 'Stone Circles N You' exercise ('channeling')"; and "Neo-Trux-ian Post-Waits-ian acoustical campfire composition."
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.