Fortune Teller of Non/Belonging
by Rayya Liebich
[Editor’s Note: Click on the image below to view it at full size.]
Rayya Liebich (she/her) is a writer and educator of Lebanese and Polish descent. She is the author of the award-winning chapbook Tell Me Everything (Beret Day Press) and the debut full-length poetry collection Min Hayati (Inanna Publications). A finalist for seven Creative Nonfiction contests in 2022 including The CBC Nonfiction Prize, The International Amy Award for Memoir, Event Magazine Creative Nonfiction Contest and The Fiddlehead CNF Contest, her work has appeared in Poetry Pause (League of Canadian Poets),WordWorks Magazine (Federation of BC Writers), Atticus Review and elsewhere. Obsessed with non-linear forms of CNF, she is completing a hybrid memoir entitled “Milk Teeth” on her simultaneous experience of motherhood and mother-loss. She lives in Nelson BC where she finds joy in teaching creative writing to youth and adults.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Fortune Teller of Non/Belonging”? I discovered the hidden power of the de-centered hermit crab essay in a class developed by Nicole Breit (www.nicolebreit.com) and delivered by Rowan McCandless. Exploring my nebulous and fraught relationship with my identity and lineage I tried to find a visual container that could simplify the deep questions I was asking myself about my place of belonging. Somewhere down my rabbit hole I came across Michel Foucault’s term Heteropia (spaces that are other) and the term Outopia, meaning no place, which I had never hear of before. Combinatory play must have been involved because soon I was constructing a playground game “Cootie Catcher” to host my deep philosophical and racial questions. For me, the most fascinating thing about writing is always the discovery. I am in love with CNF because the possibility to bend forms leads me to strange and sometimes magical leaps in my creativity and understanding of myself.
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.
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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
11/17 • Alison Colwell
11/24 • Lucy Zhang
12/01 • Salvatore Difalco
12/08 • Rowan Tate
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 • TBD
02/09 • TBD
02/16 • TBD
02/23 • TBD