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
Five Poems by Patrick Samuel
"Head never throws-up on purpose because there’d be no one / to hate if I got skinny." -- Patrick Samuel.
Madison McCartha: Excerpt from “The Cryptodrone Sequence”
"when sharing a host / in the contagion zone / install my blue-threat-checkpoints along the doors & windows" — Madison McCartha
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." -- Patrick Samuel.
Madison McCartha: Excerpt from “The Cryptodrone Sequence”
"when sharing a host / in the contagion zone / install my blue-threat-checkpoints along the doors & windows" — Madison McCartha
Fiction
“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" -- Emma Claire Foley, "Conversation of a Girl and Death"
“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." —Shantal Jeewon Kim, "A Pinker Pink"
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.
Fiction
“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" -- Emma Claire Foley, "Conversation of a Girl and Death"
“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." —Shantal Jeewon Kim, "A Pinker Pink"
Nonfiction
“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.
“Nine Nevada Depressions”: Non-Fiction by Kelly Krumrie
"The road extends westward like a ray, and from far away, from miles, a bright light: fine, white-yellow, on the side of the highway. The light grows: an orb in the distance, a star, a UFO, a small sun." — Kelly Krumrie
“[Dragging the real],” non-fiction by AM Ringwalt
"Memoirs are performances of memory. To choreograph memory, you have to be lucid enough to move with it, to bend to it, to place yourself before it and know there’s always more to learn."
Nonfiction
“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.
“Nine Nevada Depressions”: Non-Fiction by Kelly Krumrie
"The road extends westward like a ray, and from far away, from miles, a bright light: fine, white-yellow, on the side of the highway. The light grows: an orb in the distance, a star, a UFO, a small sun." — Kelly Krumrie
Book Reviews
James Pate’s Evening Signals: Mariana Enriquez’s “Things We Lost in the Fire”
James Pate examines Mariana Enriquez's Things We Lost in the Fire (Penguin Random House): ."the literal and symbolic collapse into one another..."
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.
Book Reviews
James Pate’s Evening Signals: Mariana Enriquez’s “Things We Lost in the Fire”
James Pate examines Mariana Enriquez's Things We Lost in the Fire (Penguin Random House): ."the literal and symbolic collapse into one another..."
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..."
Reading Guides
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 I’m Reading Now… by Aaron Coleman
Aaron Coleman discusses books by Terrance Hayes, Harris Feinsod, Emilio Jorge Rodríguez, and Lorna Goodison.
What I’m Reading Now… by Michelle Bitting
"Inside the frame of a given piece, more angles of perception, more layers of apprehension—psychological, intellectual, corporeal opportunely open up..." Michelle Bitting discusses books by Jesse Lee Kercheval, Carl Phillips, and Natalie Scenters-Zapico.
What We’re Reading Now ….
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 I’m Reading Now… by Aaron Coleman
Aaron Coleman discusses books by Terrance Hayes, Harris Feinsod, Emilio Jorge Rodríguez, and Lorna Goodison.
Music(k)
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.
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”: Essay by 5-Track
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.
Musick
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.
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).
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..."