Dear Reader,
It’s our birthday. We’re old and wise at three. We’re throwing ourselves a birthday bash—a fiesta—a riot. We want presents. We want cake. We want there to be fireworks and cowboy hats and someone’s talking parrot swearing from the balcony.
But mostly we want it to be queer, in whatever way it fits you best.
Translation by Jeffrey Angles from the Japanese of Mutsuo Takahashi: “Lovers in the Guise of Wolf-Gods.”
“Tearing, devouring, / The backs of our kissing mouths / Fangs of breath”
Poetry by Ian Hatcher, “Plexus” & “Stop-cock.”
“coloratura / stop-cock / when you blame / you find”
Fiction by Kelly Magee and Carol Guess, “Your Sick.”
“We were one of the first of our kind to divorce: my lips pursed, your fingernails sharp.”
Poetry by Grace Schauer, “Bird Introduces Herself,” “Bird, Age 16, Contemplates God,” & “Paris is Burning.”
“The strangeness was the only part I wanted.”
Fiction by Teresa Carmody, “4 Dedications, By Type and Narrative, as Suggested in the Photographs of Catherine Lord.”
“1. John Cage, To Whom It May Concern, Type: A Dedication to the Reader(s), Narrative: John Cage was really into outlines.”
Translations by Kent Leatham, “Anacreon or Ibycus (from the court of Polycrates of Samos),” “Callimachus [#2],” & “Catullus [#9].”
“They said you kicked, Heraclitus, and I / had to call off at the library to prevent the wreck / of volumes A through L, I cried that much.”
Poetry by S.D. Mullaney, “#Top100Lies #poem” & Drink Me Straight.”
“We’ll have to do this again.”
Fiction by Bernise Carolino, “Mattress Island.”
“It’s so early in the morning and I, Blacky Dano, the self-proclaimed weirdo-writer-woman, am already so terminally hip.”
Poetry by Engram Wilkinson, “Lobster Apologia.”
“I turn to face the young boy, / the sleeping young boy, and in the silence of early morning / I offer him my confessions: I am a nervous person. / I have arthritis. I remember everything.”
Artwork by Lindsey Beal, “Intimate Appliances.”
“Changes in technology create changes in vibrator materials, power-sources and design; vibrators reflect an era’s technology as well as its pop-culture.”
Issue 11 is available as a PDF (suitable for e-readers and iPads) and as an audiobook. The invitation still stands to follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and/or show us something or yours. We’re accepting submissions through March 31.
Hope to see you there,
Sarah Kosch
Publicity Editor
Kelly Magee 