Nonfiction | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
Nonfiction | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
THINGS THAT ARE NOT FICTION | IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM
M. NourbeSe Philip on the 2016 US Election
Post election essay by M. NourbeSe Philip: "Trump has won the hearts and minds of the American public that is the raw underbelly of a bloated, imperialist state. He has given new meaning to the expression: Anybody can become president of the United States—anybody as in serial harasser and predator of women; as in known racist supported by the KKK; as in a shady dealer, snake oil salesman; as in confirmed liar. Anybody! But a competent, experienced, intelligent woman."
Jan Clausen, Election Journal
Post-election essay by Jan Clausen: "It's not that she didn't win. Regardless of what you think about the dangers of a Clinton presidency, there's this: how is it possible that I live in a country where so many millions of people voted for that man?"
Essay by Katrina Otuonye: “Our Waning Sense of Goodwill”
Katrina Otuonye on the US Election: "Will you speak up and protect a transgender person from harm? Will you walk Muslim students to their cars, the same way you would with a woman walking at night? Will you stand up for Latino kids who are having 'build that wall' chanted in their faces? Will you escort women into Planned Parenthood? Will you wait with me the next time I’m stopped by the police? Will you speak up?"
Essay by Anne Gorrick: “Taking Text Outside = Interstitial Acts”
"Let’s think a bit about textual art that is ephemeral, outside, fugitive; text that isn’t carved into a building or a street or a stone or a wall. Let’s note the diminutive textual adventure. The infinitesimal moment. I want to think about earth texts beyond shelter. Going outside brings the death in a little, releases the work into the air. Poem as prayer flag. Poem as act against the immaculate. Text as emphatic and intimate protest."
J’Lyn Chapman, Our Last Days
"I want to help you understand what it is to kill something you have watched, but more so, what it is to kill something you have found beautiful." Excerpts from J'Lyn Chapman’s cross-genre manuscript, Our Last Days, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
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.
Jody Servon and Lorene Delany-Ullman, excerpts from “Saved: Objects of the Dead”
"30,000 people in a cow pasture, the Rosary prayed in four languages, “live” Stations of the Cross, and Polaroids of the sun at noon." -- from Saved: Objects of the Dead, by Jody Servon and Lorene Delany-Ullman, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
A Symphony Of The Mind
"We are all in transition, at every moment. Part of the artist-'shaman'-musician’s job is to help us through this endless series of transformations. To use our non-binary mindsets to help our materialist friends acclimate to the idea that 'the journey is home'."
Mark Baumer & Claire Donato: “Siblings Not Siblings”
"Our ultimate goal was to write a book. What crystallized instead is this email thread, composed less than a month before Mark left for his second cross-country walk...."