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 March 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
01/13 • Edward Thomas-Herrera
01/20 • Zero Laforga
01/27 • Jack Bedell
02/03 • TBD
02/10 • Gaurav Bhalla
02/17 • Callie Dean
02/24 • TBD