Bøger udgivet af CLASH BOOKS

Constructed of words, artwork, photos and personal artifacts, Marginalia is an intimate and unconventional account of what it means to be a hybrid. It seamlessly interweaves experience with elements of sociology and psychology, exploring how one cultivates an identity containing multitudes - queer, trans, mixed-race, other."Morrow''s work speaks to anyone who has felt themselves to be other - which in today''s world, in one form or another, is nearly everyone. A common thread of alienation runs through her various platforms, including her first book, "Marginalia."" wickedlocal.com  "Marginalia may be one person''s search for identity and understanding, but it is applicable to so many people who struggle with figuring out their identity, whether it is as an LGBTQ+ individual, a person of color, or someone who is both. Morrow''s succinct style and creative eye for book design makes it highly recommended for readers of modern queer memoirs." Lambda Literary  "There is a push and pull as Juno searches for the identity that fits both in accordance with herself and the way society perceives her. In the end, she embraces the idea that "we shouldn''t be afraid to claim multitudes." Life is often complex and messy, so why should we be any different? Marginalia is a call to be unafraid of your journey to self-discovery and a powerful first-person account of someone who finds themselves in the margins of our society. These are the stories we need right now, and I hope to see many more, especially from Juno Morrow." The Big Smoke∩╗┐∩╗┐Juno Morrow is a multidisciplinary artist, independent game designer, photographer and educator living in Brooklyn, New York. She is an Assistant Professor of Game Design and Unit Coordinator at the City University of New York''s Eugenio Mar├¡a de Hostos Community College. At Hostos, she has been developing the game design program, the first public degree program of its kind in New York City, since 2015. Prior to that, Morrow earned an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design. As an internationally exhibiting artist and designer, Morrow has presented games and spoken at sites such as SXSW, GDC, MAGFest and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. With over 10 years of experience as an award-winning photographer, she''s had work featured in The Guardian, Dwell magazine and released 3 monographs of urban photography. Her unusual games, often infused with dark humor, feature distinctive aesthetics and novel premises. Examples include Oral Perspectives, a VR game taking place inside the player''s mouth, and Mastering Tedium, an existentialist laundry simulator played inside a text terminal. Recent work includes Pruuds vs. Sloots, a "dumb versus game," and Blood Broker, a consent-based human sacrifice management simulator. junomorrow.com

Sylvia Plath once said, “I want someone to mouth me.” La Belle Ajar is a collection of poems inspired by Plath’s 1963 novel that reimagines the journey of Esther Greenwood within the empowering odyssey of these 20 scintillating cento poems that honor the voice and legacy of America’s most influential modern poet and author: Sylvia Plath.La Belle Ajar was selected in Luna Luna Magazine's ‘Top 5 Books to watch out for in 2020’"La Belle Ajar is a beautiful collaboration between the dead and the living, the muse and the inspired, and a reminder to continue the conversations with the poets who came before us; Cepeda finds the magic of Plath and delicately constructs her enchantment, an enlivening book of poems you will return to reread again and again." —Kelli Russell Agodon, Editor at Two Sylvias Press and author of Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press)"Adrian Ernesto Cepeda’s new book La Belle Ajar opens up Sylvia Plath’s words and gives them new life, Lovers of Plath and those looking for a book to captivate in the thick honey of self-discovery don’t want to miss this release from CLASH Books." —Tianna G. Hansen, Editor-in-Chief of Rhythm & Bones Press"Plath’s eternal essence — her poetry of confessions, rife with details and darknesses — is woven throughout this La Belle Ajar. The drama, the particulars, and an unlimited glimmering of language oozes in each and every poem. The ghost of Plath seems to be conjured, to find reanimation, in Cepeda’s many inspirations. And while Plath is the muse here, of course, the work stands entirely on its own — unexpected, surreal, and alight. A true tribute, emerging into its own new shape." —Lisa Marie Basile, poet, editor of Luna Luna, and author of The Magical Writing Grimoire"Adrian Ernesto Cepeda’s sensual, electric internal rhythms provoke external, communal ones too. And La Belle Ajar is not just an exercise in homage but a choreographed remix, a translation, a correspondence between words and worlds. Cepeda leaves the door open, in pursuit of readerly access and inspiration. This work vibrates." —Chris Campanioni, Editor PANK Magazine and author of The Internet is for Real"Adrian Ernesto Cepeda’s LA BELLE AJAR is delightful, thought-provoking, and compelling. The lines are both conversational and fierce, lulling us into submission, and then chilling us to the bone at the same time: “she burst /out, I never said, I’m not/godlike.” Cepeda takes Plath, and digs in deep to her life, her struggles, her being, while inhabiting the world as it is now, while conveying the very strangeness of being at all: “I looked empty and subdued,/among the Gillett blades/paper scraps it occurred to/me, I must be idly dead.” This book is meant to be read and loved, with all its complexities, much like a human.”" —Joanna C. Valente, author of Marys of the Sea, #Survivor, and editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault 

The Elvis Machine is a book of poems inspired by living, loving, and hate-fucking in Memphis, Tennessee—a city still kissed with the 1950s. Forged in a dumpster fire of toxic Elvises, these poems are pornographic bad romances, psychedelic love dirges, and threnodies for sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. They’ll make you laugh off the pain as much as you'll cry, cringe, and feel exposed in this 'No Boys Allowed' clubhouse of feminine rage and healing."Kim Vodicka is the sexier Stephen Wright of poetry, with incisive one-liners so sharp and mind-blowingly funny that you forget how hard you were laughing before you started crying, then started laughing again."–John Skipp, author of The Art of Horrible People“Vodicka’s poetry is a seasick-sweet treasure trove of marvel. Her verses leave you yearning for the kind of love and life you know is bad for you, but you can’t stop reading.”–Elle Nash, author of Animals Eat Each Other“Here is the uncanny valley girl, the B-movie queen, Kim Vodicka, delivering a prize fight of the sexes in poetry where every line is a punch line. This book is the seminal display of misogyny’s trauma, an unflinching exposé of toxic relationships, and an exquisitely honest portrayal of a woman’s most intimate bits. Vodicka peels us to the core. This is what raw feels like.”–Jeanette Powers, author of Dandylion Riot and founder of Stubborn Mule Press“The Elvis Machine is foaming at the mouth all over your pillow. Vodicka takes our balls and wears them like a teething necklace. Her wordplay is as bloody as it is brilliant. This is a love story dissected and displayed of its most vulnerable parts. Once again, she has managed to rock all my sensibilities.”–Kelsey Marie Harris, author of The Jolly Queef 

"The only thing lonelier than being alone is loving the wrong person. Bell’s collection taps into that space, that lack of space, the power of love to spay. When it turns to hate, we might wonder whether or not it was really love in the first place, and we might die wondering. But Regret or Something More Animal gives us hope for the wounded dove, all swan songs aside, and the opportunity to reclaim our hearts and minds. “I am reminded that women writers can eat you alive,” says Bell, and I, too, am reminded."—Kim Vodicka, author of The Elvis Machine"Heather Bell’s Regret or Something More Animal devastates the reader with a field guide to the dissolution of marriage and new life in its shadow. Her poems trace the boundaries of maternal guilt, sexual violence, and love, tenderly exposing their bones in fresh metaphors and bright images. Airy and organic, Bell’s phrases invite the reader into a world haunted by birds, frogs and willows, and punctuated with cigarettes, suicide and real trauma. All the while, Bell sings us through the pain of failure and fear in romance and wings us toward survival’s questions about what it takes to love the shattered self before it is mended."—Daphne Maysonet, Co-Founder of The Corner Club Press"The contemplation of Regret or Something More Animal creates a liminal space, where the speaker becomes more aware of the horror the heart endures, specifically theirs, in an attempt to re-define what love is & re-mend that which has been contorted by years of abuse. The very first line opens the entire premise of this book with, “What’s interesting about the / human heart is the horror of it,” examining the wearing lacerations the heart endures, while preparing us [readers] for a metaphorical surgery that must remove the heart & disembowel it, in order to place the pieces back together. But, no matter what, it will never be the same as it was. Love will never be the same (each time). In Regret or Something More Animal Heather journeys through the heart’s many ventricles, analyzing the architecture of the effects of abusive love & blissful love, & everything in between. The speaker says, “A wound can’t close itself…” & so they attempt to find some suture through experience & re-definition, with the journey itself becoming the true destination."—Courtney Leigh, author of the unrequited <3<3 of red riding hood & her lycan lover (Dancing Girl Press, 2016)“Bell’s poems not only connect they leave teeth marks and you will savor each line that she tattoos around your skin.”—Adrian Ernesto Cepeda,  author, of La Belle Ajar“Heather Bell takes out the wedding dress and feeds it to the wood chipper, with grace and without any traces of mascara running down her face. Bell asks the question we all weep over: how will I ever love again? and then takes us from the breakdown to the breakthrough. “I step back quickly as you do when a caged thing moves,” Bell writes; be ready to stay quick on your feet.”—Jeanette Powers, author of Dandylion Riot

A parasite from Proto Space, summoning memory eaters, funeral machines eating teenagers, space rides to Pleroma, and a frog baby that transcends time and space. These are just some of the stories that will warp your sense of reality until you''re living in Brett Petersen''s mind and you won''t want to leave. PRAISE FOR PARASITE FROM PROTO SPACE "A Confusion Wave beaming in from the farthest-out Far Out, scrambling up to unscramble our partially-scrambled minds." -Ben Loory, author of Tales of Falling and Flying "If George Bataille and Ray Bradbury had a baby, and that baby was GG Allin, and that GG Allin baby read Ursula Le Guin and Charles Bukowski in equal measure, and that now grown-up baby watched Beavis and Butt-Head reruns on summer afternoons, then we might approach describing the phantasmagoric mise-en-sc├¿nes Brett Peterson has put together here in this collection. The contact high one gets is contagious." -Daniel Nester, author of How to Be Inappropriate  "Petersen''s stories are an acid-drenched, kaleidoscopic blend of genres reminiscent of Dick and Burroughs, but with their own unique breed of genius. The experience of reading The Parasite from Proto-Space and Other Stories is not unlike ingesting a powerful psychedelic-one that will leave a lasting impression of your psyche." -Brendan Vidito, author of Nightmares in Ecstasy "Reading The Parasite from Proto Space feels like you''re on a footchase pursued by Mad Mr. Petersen himself. He''s got a messenger bag full of creatures he spliced together in his basement workshop, and every time you think you''re getting ahead, you turn around to check if he''s still behind you and get smacked in the face by a 50-pound alien memory worm that needs you to validate its childhood trauma." -Charlene Elsby, author of Hexis 

A Darkly Humorous Collection of Cartoons Rejected by The New YorkerIt’s become a thing on my bucket list to have one of my cartoons in The New Yorker before I die.Now I have to admit that so far death is winning, but I’m going to keep trying. 

Consisting of fifty barn poems, 50 Barn Poems is an evocative yet accessible sketch of that old barn that haunts the back of your brain. Vague memories of road trips, skateboarding, the ocean, and ping-pong are all reconstructed in the shape of a barn and set on fire. We're not even sure they're poems. Maybe they are just: BARN. Go ahead, take off your shoes and drive off a cliff. The barn awaits.

We're Not Doomed Yet...Laughter of a ScoundrelThis book is that laughter. You, dear reader are to be that scoundrel. Howling mercilessly at a culture that has lost itself to grift, hysteria and charlatanry; it is a humble, yet crumbling hope to call for, if nothing else, a pause and moment to breathe. In a world demanding and insisting that all within it move mindlessly at light speed, it requires a scoundrel of mirth and merit to simply say "no.""Nicholas Goroff's writing is not a breath of fresh air so much as it is a sharp whiff of smelling salts for the apathetic and cynical political attitudes present in 21st Century America, or a slap across the face from a good friend who only has your best interests at heart. It doesn't matter how many "breaths of fresh air" one takes in if those gulps of oxygen are in the middle of an episode of hyperventilation, taken deep from within a coma of disassociation from one's society, or inhaled through gritted teeth bringing droplets of angry spittle along for the ride inside of the windpipe."-Justin Little, author of The Misadventures of a Jilted Journalist

Nostalgia can be severely corrosive. This is what thirty-six-year old Josh will come to find out as he wakes up in his childhood bedroom with no recollection of how he got there. As he ventures out into the world, he's dumbfounded to discover that he is ensconced in a city of memory with people from his past: teachers, camp counselors, beloved sitcom stars, and they relish Josh's presence, celebrating everything he does. He is in a personalized paradise.In reality, Josh is in a coma. Intercut between his story, Steph, his younger sister, quarrels with their parents in a hospital room over what is to be done with her vegetative brother. Their various conversations manifest physically in his coma. The longer Josh is submerged, the more peril his brain is in as neurons die off. The familiar faces that once brought comfort will be replaced with ghoulish masks. He'll learn this place has malevolent intentions as it threatens to devour his soul.PRAISE FOR COMAVILLE"After reading Comaville I am now Kevin Bigley's biggest fan. This debut novel is the type of thing all of us writers hope to accomplish. Something full of feeling and relatability that even the author couldn't have foreseen at the time of writing it. Come for irony, stay for the hopefulness that lies ahead..." Mallory Smart, Maudlin House"Nostalgia, in this book, is a literal nightmare - and a potentially lethal one. Bigley accomplishes the difficult task of balancing the unreal and the mundane, and taking his characters to extraordinary circumstances in worlds both realistic and strange. It's an impressive and ambitious debut." Tobias Carroll, Vol. 1 Brooklyn "Comaville is the debut novel of TV, film, and voice actor Kevin Bigley and it's a strong one...Bigley keeps the story moving at an engrossing pace." Cultured Vultures

I'm not relentless. "Relentless" makes it sound like there's something called "relent" and that I'm lacking it. In that sense, I'm not relentless, but perhaps I'm unrelenting. I could relent if I wanted to. But he always has to die. I mean "always" in two senses: at all times and all of the time. I can't kill him all of the time. That would take too long. But all of the times I did, I did. I'd do it again. I could relent if I wanted to, but instead I'd do it again. If he's different, then he's the same and if he's the same, he's got to go. If he were different and not the same, then there would be two things and I'd only have to kill one of them. If only I only had to kill one of him. What a life I would live, if only I only had to kill him the one time. But death doesn't always do him in."Elsby is attuned-one might say obsessively attuned-to the ways in which women's lives are composed of violences both major and minor, crystal-clear and oblique. Watch as she reveals instance after instance of such violence in tones that could be mistaken for casual or even dismissive, if the book weren't deadly serious about the reality and ubiquity of such violence. … However, the fact that Hexis operates in at least one register as a revenge fantasy makes facing such violences something more important than easy: exhilarating and terrifying."Lindsay Lerman, Entropy Magazine"Hexis is not an easy read, but it's an insanely effective one. It puts the reader in the mind of a very troubled and complex character and asks you to go along with each act of violence she commits. While it may frustrate some with its lack of clarity or detail, it does ruminate on a lot of subjects like revenge, violence, sexual abuse, and more in a way that demystifies and removes the glamour from revenge fantasies. It's an intense read, but one that can be needed in order to make one rethink the appeal of revenge narratives and think more about the long term effects of abuse."Alex Carrigan, Quail Bell Magazine"Her obsessive, detailed analysis of each killing, explaining how and why reminds me of Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine, in its first person narrative with extreme attention to detail… Charlene Elsby's writing is bold and poetic, drawing the reader into a dreamscape that is equal parts nightmare and dark comedy… I highly recommend Hexis. If I were doing a Best Books list, this book would be up at the top."Jessica Drake-Thomas, This Week I Read

I'm From Nowhere follows Claire as she mourns the sudden death of her husband. She has no child, no job, no agency. She confronts a dying planet and an emerging sense of self. She puts herself in the hands of men-some of her oldest friends-who may have come to save her, a contemporary Penelope with a raft of suitors and unspent erotic capital. Is it possible for a woman to reclaim her life and set its terms without succumbing to suicide or submission?At once intimate and sprawling, this book is an examination of the stories we are told-and the stories we tell ourselves-about identity, permanence, and meaning in our beautiful, hostile world."A beautiful treatise on grief and everything that comes after-the uncertain friendships, the numbness, the regret, and, eventually, the newer, different life. For everyone that's ever grappled with an ending, only to discover something new and beautiful about themselves, this is a touching debut that evokes elements of both Leonard Cohen's The Favorite Game and Max Porter's Grief is the Thing with Feathers."Jennifer McCartney, New York Times bestselling author of AFLOAT"Lindsay Lerman's "I'm From Nowhere" rages with the quiet intensity of a lake concealing an inferno. I can't help but feel this book took a piece of me with it. Insinuated itself into me, and lingered like an echo in an empty space."Autumn Christian, author of GIRL LIKE A BOMB"Devastating insight into feminine consciousness unbound."Charlene Elsby, author of HEXIS

Arsenal/Sin Documentos is a documentary poetics project that examines the criminalization of Latin American bodies through U.S. policy. It consists of a series of linked documentary poems composed of appropriated language from U.S. government documents, such as: the Immigration and Nationality Act; the U.S. patent for Taser hand-held stun guns; materials from the Office of English Language Programs designed to instruct immigrants on assimilation into U.S. culture; and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Use of Force Policy, Guidelines and Procedures Handbook.

Sightseeing is a tale of lust and art set in Paris, France. Intrigue haunts the prose where hilarity and evil arise in a twist of collaboration. Minus any personal background, a woman and a man explore one another while regarding masterpieces of fine art and the historic sites of Paris.Sightseeing, stealthily and meticulously explores Paris and art in a tale that delves into questions of personal choice and identity with a knowing immediacy that has us questioning our own perceptions and views of art and storytelling.Ed Meek, author of Luck, What We Love and Spy Pond A mystery woman lures a willing stranger into a fantasy world where time is fluid, and art informs life. With its noir intrigue reminiscent of French new age cinema and its masterful prose, this remarkable novella will keep you guessing.Alexis Rhome Fancher, author of Enter Here and Junkie WifeOnofrey's prose has a mannered veneer that is made strange, made fascinating by how exacting and mysterious it is. Fans of Kazuo Ishiguro, or Dead Ringers-era David Cronenberg, here's a book for you.Alex Higley, author of Old Open

Set between Kwafindoda, where the nature is alive and ghosts exist even before someone is dead, and South Africa's gritty urban townships, Jah Hills explores the conflict between life and death, folklore and philosophy, the extraordinary and everyday so as to write the Unlanguaged World of today. A breathless journey, at once fevered, visionary and breathtakingly alive, it invites the reader to find wilderness and brutality in the banal, the beautiful in the bizarre and to seek answers, not in the sum, but in the derangement of its many seething parts.

In the novel-in-fragments, BURN FORTUNE, 16-year-old June is a corn-detasseling flag twirler who lives in a small conservative town in the early 90s Midwest. Her family is dysfunctional but her boyfriend-known only as "My Boyfriend"-has a family who is emotionally and physically abusive. Looking for alternatives to the lives of the women who surround her, June becomes obsessed with the actress Jean Seberg (best known for her starring role in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless) as well as Joan of Arc. After being raped by an acquaintance, June withdraws and begins to live mostly through Seberg's films. Offered these lives as alternatives to her own, June is left to wonder: Can anyone truly transcend their circumstances, or does having a dream mean death-literally and metaphorically?PRAISE FOR BURN FORTUNE"A scorching anthem of what it means to be a young girl in a small town-the dreams that save us and the realities that pull us under. Alive with longing and the desire to break free. -Mona Awad, Author of Bunny (Viking) and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl (Penguin) I'm in awe of how Brandi Homan's Burn Fortune embodies the Midwest's unfurled earth and stretched skies. There's a recurring image of detasseling corn, which is what the book does: everything connected by silky strands unraveling until we get to the core, a new image of grit and possibility. And Homan gracefully gives us the space to participate in the making of that new image. Thank you for the grit, the hope. -Steven Dunn, Author of Potted Meat and water & power (Tarpaulin Sky)

"Trash Panda is probably the least pretentious poetry book I've ever read. I think it should be taught in prestigious universities and that everyone should wear a panda head while reading it. This book is a self-aware disaster. 5/5 stars."B. Diehl, author of Zeller's Alley & Ballpoint Penitentiary"Leza Cantoral's Trash Panda is the literary equivalent of a clove cigarette being stubbed out on the arm of a sad-angry goth girl who is listening to Depeche Mode on a Sony Discman while waiting for her way-older nu-metal boyfriend (or girlfriend) to come pick her up from the mall. It spits in my mouth, smears blood all over my naked chest, and then caves my skull in with its combat boots. Trash Panda basically makes me feel right at fucking home. A broken home, sure. But home, nonetheless."Brian Alan Ellis, author of Sad Laughter"Leza Cantoral is the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe, sitting on a tree in Barcelona, consorting with it. Trash Panda manages to break the hearts of its readers while also making them laugh. With witty modern quips like, 'FB is my tarot deck' and 'youtube ads are speaking to me,' we are eased into the text before lines like 'When your life falls apart, you see what you're made of' tear us apart. When you settle in to read Trash Panda, have a blanket or teddy bear with you. Maybe a sheet of acid, too."Shy Watson, author of Cheap Yellow

As much an art book as a poetry book, Joel Amat Güell's artwork and haikus come together in a beautiful and inventive haiku art book.  Joel Amat Güellhas haikus and lots of artin this pretty book

Author and host of Secular by Nature, Andrew J. Rausch, interviews the who's who of atheist voices. This electric mix of conversations includes scientists, wrestlers, ex-evangelical authors, academics, sex advice columnists, life in prison inmates, ex-Christian rock musicians, Black Panthers, poets, and publishers. These are the stories of people from all walks of life who became Godless Heathens and found truth in atheism.Interviews include: Seth Andrews, Autumn Christian, Jim Cornette, Matt Dillahunty, Keith Lowell Jensen, Joe Lansdale, Caseyrenée Lopez, Shannon Low, Dave Mckean, PZ Myers, Pete O'Neal, Jen Peeples, George Perdikis, Aron Ra, Jozef K. Richards, Chris Roy, Dan Savage, Greydon Square, AT Taylor, and Mandisa Thomas

Over the last ten years, Australian artist Matthew Revert has gained a cult fanbase in various artistic fields including graphic design, writing, & music. Try Not to Think Bad Thoughts collects over 150 pieces of absurdist collage, watercolor, and ink, imbued with humor, horror, sex, heart, and surreal love.

Reporters and sociologists occasionally make headlines by going "undercover" in the working class economy, taking low-paying jobs and "trying to survive." The results are almost always (unintentionally) laughable. Kaleita doesn't need to go undercover to report from the front lines, though. She's been living there her entire life. There's a raw authenticity to her voice. Her writing is unpretentious yet inventive, riddled with a healthy dose of black humor...If I were her manager, I would fire her on the spot after reading this book. Not because she's a lawsuit waiting to happen-she might be-but because This Book Is Brought To You By My Student Loans makes it clear the job she's most qualified for is being a writer. - Andrew Shaffer, author of Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery

In the woods behind their Delaware suburb, Bennet, Toshi, and Jay decide to build a sex fort as a lure for girls. This summer, before they start tenth grade, they'll lose their virginities. But things go awry, and Jay's anger, fueled by his involvement with a white supremacist group, throws the friends into turmoil. When Bennet and Jay take desperate measures to escape their problems, they encounter unhappily divorced men, Florida swamp monsters, and bizarre strangers, until all their worst decisions begin to implode the world around them.

Lune's mother cannot stop crying after all the hospitals shut down. She cries and cries and finally she is exiled to the cenote, where her tears endlessly fill the giant sink hole. She becomes a big tourist attraction. People come from miles to see Marcrina cry into the cenote? part prisoner, part carnival attraction, part saint, Marcrina's story is one of heartbreak, love, and endurance. This is the story of Lune, of Marcrina, of Lune's son Nico, and of a strange place called Cenote City, where the world of magic and the dead entwines with daily life in enchanting and unsettling ways.

Nightmares in Ecstasy is a collection of thirteen stories of surreal body horror. Within its pages, the line between eroticism and terror, desire and death, is blurred. Damaged souls hurtle, as if in a dream, toward mutilation, transformation and fates worse than death. It is literary hardcore fiction for fans of David Cronenberg, Junji Ito, and Clive Barker.“Surreal, grotesque, erotic. Brendan Vidito is a unique and disturbing new voice.”-Wrath James White, author of If You Died Tomorrow I Would Eat Your Corpse "Brendan Vidito is the bastard son of Clive Barker and his fresh take on body horror will f**k you up."-Jack Bantry, creator of Splatterpunk Zine & author of The Lucky Ones Died First "Vidito's words squirt shocking psychosexual bug juice into your brain's most private parts."-John Skipp, author of The Light at the End

From the creator of Carnivàle and writer/executive producer of Blacklist, comes a poetry collection from a cult icon. Daniel Knauf brings the darkness and surrealism fans have grown to love, but brings a vulnerability and intimacy that makes each poem memorable and enjoyable. It is noir with heart and a coda for the soul. Darkness and light vying for dominance in poems that go from personal and confessional to rambunctiously fantastical. A heady dive into the abyss of love and other monsters. Daniel Knauf is a true storyteller. “Written as a soul song for longing, Knauf’s collection is both a dream and an awakening.”-Stephanie M. Wytovich, Bram Stoker award-winning author of Brothel. “In Daniel Knauf’s two-part composition of poetry, the first passage is a kaleidoscope of the landlocked in endless roles, trying to believe in true love/magic while submerged in self-destruction & redemption. The coda is more than curious, it’s an adrenaline rush, a noir dance of the impossible, delivered straight-up in a splintered glass.”—Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of “How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend” and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Knauf’s poetry is cinematic, creating vast landscapes and scenes, on bridges, between land and sky. The multitude of characters create a rich, nonlinear story that mimics our memories, and our moments, and intertwines various worlds and moods, from all-consuming love, loneliness, superheroes, mythology, texting, technology, and Dante. Knauf is both direct and strangely surreal.”-Joanna C. Valente, author of Marys of the Sea, Sexting Ghosts, and the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault

Creator of the YouTube channel and persona—Vernaculis—Justin Little has brought his acerbic wit and engaging storytelling to print. His collection of journalism, literary and cultural criticism, and opinion pieces show why he has emerged as an original new voice of New Journalism for the modern indefinable age. Author, Autumn Christian, says it best in her intro:“Justin Little is like an electric knife of light that cuts smoothly through the darkness. A journalist who, like many who search for truth, has been jilted by those who have stakes in ideologies that regard them as irrelevant. A writer who has tasked himself with diving into the depths of inconsistencies, half-truths, snarling partisanship, and corporate distractions, to try to find the gleaming center of reality. Not only because he recognizes how vitally important finding the truth is to the continued survival of our civilization, but because he’s the kind of person who probably wakes up in the middle of the night with his brain burning, unable to rest until he’s found it.”