Periods Without Pain
by Avra Margariti
[Editor’s Note: Click on the image below to view it at full size.]
Avra Margariti is a Social Work undergrad from Greece. She enjoys storytelling in all its forms and writes about diverse identities and experiences. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Daily Science Fiction, The Forge Literary, Argot Magazine, The Arcanist, and other venues.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Periods Without Pain”? I’ve always wanted to experiment with blackout poetry, but I could never find the right text until I went thrift-shopping in downtown Athens. A battered book—a guide to handling menstrual pain written in the 1960s—immediately grabbed my attention. I kept the original title (“Periods Without Pain”) since “period” could also refer to a length of time. Then I started crossing off words, paring the page down to its pink, raw essence.
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
05/04 • Leath Tonino
05/11 • Chris Pellizzari
05/18 • Chris Clemens
05/25 • Clayton Eccard
06/01 • TBD
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