I recently had the experience of seeing Hilton Als read an essay he wrote about meeting Prince, and it was so moving. There is so much beauty in his loving honesty.
“This was my chance to honor my family, heritage, ancestors, Filipino migrant workers, Filipinx kids of the diaspora, everyone of any diasporic experience. I hope you find somewhere a reflection of your own experience in these stories.” —Angela Dimayuga
Instagram is dead. And amidst the ruins there’s @avocado_ibuprofen’s comic strips that perfectly capture the dread and absurdity of living in today’s dysfunction. Jaakko Pallasvuo is funny and sincere in his musings on the conditions of modern isolation, and the failings of today’s art / market. Buy this for your friend who used to be tumblr famous in 2012!
It's rare to find a poetry collection that is both humorous and disconcerting. This is a pearl of a collection. Michael Earl Craig has a way of illuminating the absurdity that hues the everyday like a magnifying glass focusing the sun.
This anthology of trans poetics is a Must! Have! Highlights include: “Against Queering the Map” by Aeon Ginsberg, “Hey Guys” by Amy Marvin, “feral & not masc enough for a shoulder tattoo” by Faye Chevalier, and works by CAConrad, Evan Kleekamp, Jackie Ess (author of Darryl), Nora Fulton, a speech by Sylvia Rivera, and an excerpt from T Fleischmann’s book Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through! And more!!!
A beautiful monograph of the works of the Dutch artist Jacqueline de Jong. Her early Accidental Paintings are hued with a bright chaos, while her later works confront the violence of the Gulf War, World War I, and the current denial of asylum to refugees. Jacqueline’s paintings are as absurd as they are graceful, beautiful as they are painful.
Like an archaelogist of desire, Annie Ernaux methodicaly excavates her summer of 1958.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
"I'm afraid one day I won't be able to remember her face at all. Or even worse, the face I remember won't be hers."
Following the loss of her father to cancer, Muriel Leung grapples with the labours we inherit, and myths we create. This is a nebulous collection forging the many futures despite the viscosity of grief.
In a sonnet, the 'volta' is the turn of thought or agreement. That is the demand, change is not a singular moment, but a permanent revolution. "I didn't ask for money / I meant to ask for a different / set of relations ....... but I work / I will have to remind them / as if to prove aliveness / to outshine my debt's reputation"
Saturated with references, Mature Themes is a time-capsule of 2014: pre-tumblr's demise and post Huricane Sandy. Reading this text in a voyueristic sense, filled with pop-culture analysis and a creeping pesimism. In doing research on this poet, I found that Frank Ocean apparently contacted Durbin personally after he read Mature Themes in order for him to write a poem for Ocean's 'Boys Don't Cry' publication.
Finally getting around to this collection of short stories that was Kelsey's Staff Pick when I first started here & enjoyed it very much! Yukiko Motoya seamslessly constructs her own waterslide of fiction and laughs while riding down with her inflatable doughnut. These stories are just the right amount of absurdity to provide temporary respite while on the Gold Line.
An layered exploration of the many margins of familial history.
This collection, translated by Anne Boyer and Cassandra Gillig, is a moving introductin to Vestrini's militant resistance. Her poetry is honest and vulnerable, but pointed enough to spark a blaze.
Navigating being a grad student is already so taxing, but with the suicide of a friend, it becomes unimaginable. Anelise Chen's book is a beautifully moving combination of memoir and sports theory. I've never gasped so much while reading a book. I've never been so intrigued by sports.
Kathryn Scanlan's The Dominant Animal is a hushed and beautifully refined collection of short stories. These vignettes, often only two pages long, are simultaneously camling and unsettling.