In Utero

EXCERPTS FROM THE LONGLISTS & SHORTLISTS
FOR THE TARPAULIN SKY BOOK AWARDS

IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM

In Utero

EXCERPTS FROM THE LONGLISTS & SHORTLISTS FOR THE TARPAULIN SKY BOOK AWARDS

IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM

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.

Cat Ingrid Leeches, excerpt from “I wander the earth, hungry for semen”

"The only remarkable thing about me is that I have lots of lovers. / And when these men first enter my home / their worms are glistening & smug. They say things to me like: / 'Your lovely rapids will be crammed with my corpses.' / 'I will tread you down to dust.'" -- from Cat Ingrid Leeches' I wander the earth, hungry for semen, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.

maia vlcek, “(in a gas station when the desert was raining)”

"+ in situ MISS knoxville, tn: 1-minute miss for $3 best fried chicken drive-thru i’ve ever had miss drove thru too afraid to get out looking half a boy" -- poems from maia vlcek's (in a gas station when the desert was raining), shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.

Ryan Kaveh Sheldon, poems from “mechanical turk”

"My face aches / from shouting / I don’t ask / what the God is here, / the geopolitical / reticulations / that make it permissible / for someone to talk / about sword and book / without regard for currency / and its schematizing evils" — from Ryan Kaveh Sheldon's mechanical turk, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 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.

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.

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.

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