Excoriation
by Ashley Hutson
Ashley Hutson is an emerging writer living in Sharpsburg, MD. Her work appears or is forthcoming in SmokeLong Quarterly, Calliope, The Lascaux Review, The Heavy Contortionists, DOGZPLOT, Pantheon, and elsewhere. In 2014, she was named the short fiction finalist for the Orlando Prize. Find her on the web at www.aahutson.com.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Excoriation”? I wrote the poem portion because I became fixated on repeating hard consonants. The idea started from the word pluck, which is very onomatopoeic to me. But the poem alone seemed unfinished. The triptych format provided another level of obsession—the poem picks at itself. After I added the “wings” on either side, the piece felt complete. As for the content of the poem, I wanted to explore something beyond the freak show impression society tends to have of people dealing with compulsive behaviors, especially behaviors that manifest in a very physical way. There is a lot more to these disorders than missing hair and skin.
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 September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
12/15 • Isabelle Ness
12/22 • Catherine Bai
12/29 • Stephan Viau
01/05 • Allison Blevins
01/12 • Justin Ocelot
01/19 • Yejun Chun
01/26 • Mathieu Parsy
02/02 • Robert McBrearty
02/09 • Sarah Daly
02/16 • Wayne Lee
02/23 • Terena Elizabeth Bell
03/02 • Michael Mirolla
03/09 • Nicholas Claro
03/16 • TBD
03/23 • TBD
03/30 • TBD