Month: December 2011
In The Museum
by Lori Powell
Quick: (more…)
DAEDAL DOODLE, T
by Victor Stabin
[Editor’s Note: We will be publishing all 26 letters of Victor Stabin’s Daedal Doodle series, one each Wednesday for 26 weeks. Be sure to click on the picture for the FULL VIEW! Victor Stabin’s alphabet book is available here.]
For almost three years, wherever he went, Victor Stabin brought a dictionary along. Combing through over 8,000 pages of a variety of dictionaries, he came up with the alliterations that inhabit this work. Inspired by reading “ABC” books to his three-year-old daughter Skyler, his love of words, and his incessant inability to to stop doodling, he unflinchingly created the improbable alliterative combinations and illustrations that inhabit this work. In his heart he knew he was creating a work that, while using unusually obtuse words, would have broad appeal and challenge the “ABC” status quo. The goal—to create platforms that bridge literate curiosity across multiple generations using mostly common (and sometimes extraordinarily uncommon) imagery in new and inventive ways. Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, presented for your literate and retinal delight… (more…)
Synthetic Smell
by Jeanine Deibel
I thought it was a little girl
who flanked my table
as I read in the public library
like the one I waved to
after we exchanged smiles
but instead I found a woman’s
chiffon skirt that swayed as her legs
sashayed into the mystery aisle
perfume floating in a trail behind
Jeanine Deibel is an MFA Candidate in Poetry at NMSU where she teaches Creative Writing and works as Managing Editor for Puerto del Sol. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Parabola, Calaveras Station and Counterexample Poetics among others. For more information, check out her website.
What first drew you and continues to draw you to writing (particularly) compressed poetry? The allure of compressed poetry, for me, is really about density. I like to optimize the relationship between text and subtext. If an image or scene is conveyed through stark, powerful terms, then there is no waste. In this respect, every element earns its place, creating greater levels of tension and connotation not only between the words, but also between the lines, themselves. Poets who have mastered this technique, such as Emily Dickinson, Robert Creeley and Charles Simic, continue to influence my work in profound ways. As a writer of compressed forms, my goal is to generate abundant meaning through concision of language and space. [Editor’s Note: We will be publishing all 26 letters of Victor Stabin’s Daedal Doodle series, one each Wednesday for 26 weeks. Be sure to click on the picture for the FULL VIEW! Victor Stabin’s alphabet book is available here.] For almost three years, wherever he went, Victor Stabin brought a dictionary along. Combing through over 8,000 pages of a variety of dictionaries, he came up with the alliterations that inhabit this work. Inspired by reading “ABC” books to his three-year-old daughter Skyler, his love of words, and his incessant inability to to stop doodling, he unflinchingly created the improbable alliterative combinations and illustrations that inhabit this work. In his heart he knew he was creating a work that, while using unusually obtuse words, would have broad appeal and challenge the “ABC” status quo. The goal—to create platforms that bridge literate curiosity across multiple generations using mostly common (and sometimes extraordinarily uncommon) imagery in new and inventive ways. Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, presented for your literate and retinal delight… (more…) A girl came up to me at a party. Earlier the same day Hank helped me change the fan belt in my Malibu. It was below zero, sunny in the way winter sun is painful to the eyes, and I wasn’t wearing gloves. (more…) [Editor’s Note: We will be publishing all 26 letters of Victor Stabin’s Daedal Doodle series, one each Wednesday for 26 weeks. Be sure to click on the picture for the FULL VIEW! Victor Stabin’s alphabet book is available here.] For almost three years, wherever he went, Victor Stabin brought a dictionary along. Combing through over 8,000 pages of a variety of dictionaries, he came up with the alliterations that inhabit this work. Inspired by reading “ABC” books to his three-year-old daughter Skyler, his love of words, and his incessant inability to to stop doodling, he unflinchingly created the improbable alliterative combinations and illustrations that inhabit this work. In his heart he knew he was creating a work that, while using unusually obtuse words, would have broad appeal and challenge the “ABC” status quo. The goal—to create platforms that bridge literate curiosity across multiple generations using mostly common (and sometimes extraordinarily uncommon) imagery in new and inventive ways. Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, presented for your literate and retinal delight… (more…) In the interest of full disclosure, this is the bad end of the beach. This house is rotten and crooked under the siding, floorboards so soft you could crumble them like sugar and lick the crumbs off your toes. (more…) [Editor’s Note: We will be publishing all 26 letters of Victor Stabin’s Daedal Doodle series, one each Wednesday for 26 weeks. Be sure to click on the picture for the FULL VIEW! Victor Stabin’s alphabet book is available here.] For almost three years, wherever he went, Victor Stabin brought a dictionary along. Combing through over 8,000 pages of a variety of dictionaries, he came up with the alliterations that inhabit this work. Inspired by reading “ABC” books to his three-year-old daughter Skyler, his love of words, and his incessant inability to to stop doodling, he unflinchingly created the improbable alliterative combinations and illustrations that inhabit this work. In his heart he knew he was creating a work that, while using unusually obtuse words, would have broad appeal and challenge the “ABC” status quo. The goal—to create platforms that bridge literate curiosity across multiple generations using mostly common (and sometimes extraordinarily uncommon) imagery in new and inventive ways. Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, presented for your literate and retinal delight… (more…) by Len Joy Sidney fumbled his way toward Marcia’s makeup table, bifocals pushed to the edge of his receding hairline. He flicked on the light switch to her cosmetics mirror and studied his inflamed left eye. (more…)DAEDAL DOODLE, S
by Victor Stabin
Sandy
by Christopher Kennedy
DAEDAL DOODLE, R
by Victor Stabin
Terms of Lease
by Laura Kochman
DAEDAL DOODLE, Q
by Victor Stabin
The Bump
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again March 15, 2023. Submit here.
Upcoming
09/09 • Rae Gourmand
09/16 • Chiwenite Onyekwelu
09/23 • TBD
09/30 • TBD