Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016) and the editor of A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017). Joanna received a MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, a managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and CCM, as well as an instructor at Brooklyn Poets. Some of their writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Brooklyn Magazine, Prelude, Apogee, Spork, The Feminist Wire, BUST, and elsewhere.
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via Dark Skin Women
Poetry by Jasmine L. Combs
Cause Black girl wouldn't need to be magical anymore
and finally Black girl can just be Black girl
and call herself enough.
August 2017 Poetry Contest Winner: Cornelia Barber
Landscape: the disseminating body between my toes the rip tide swollen ankles vacuumed out towards loss the whitestone bridge at dusk caught in the crablegs of this inner knowledge
i’ve awakened the house in my gut and into time the cartilage like the horseshoe crab seeps blueish the counter argument to change out sky for water or to sip the sky without judgement if i could still touch you i would the ash now resin the sudden shoal turned upwards how to hide the beach in my ribcage compact the yellow ornament and sand
black cancer woven into nightmare and sunset woven into the bits of tree i remember from childhood swing toilet room that you left without whispers the groans the owls come for you spitting magma and white shell into my hands the groans remain in transformation the in between sounds of form shock the rage out the salt the canker sore blood rushed from face to bone scattered among the angels
Cornelia Barber is a New York writer. In her duel writing and healing work she investigates lineage, intimacy, race and the psychic and physical ecologies of people, plants, places and animals. Her work can be found in Prelude, The Felt, Berfrois, Fanzine, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Entropy,Weird Sister and more. Her manuscript "Of Mouth And River" was nominated as a Tarpaulin Sky book award Semi-Finalist. She is an editor at Queen Mobs Teahouse. You can read her blog Poetry Rituals: here https://poetry-rituals.tumblr.com/
August 2017 Poetry Contest Winner: Freke Räihä
p. 76;
LANGUAGE. Over the telephone. You lost your language, your weight, that last seriousness you still. I was not going to cry at your funeral, but I cried nonetheless; this bird's flight… etcetera. It was worse than silence. That presence as an entire room incarnate, that cliché of an invisible shadow; there – no, there. Like an old, unmarked, postcard out of a drawer. Like going to the market and coming back with just that carton of cow's milk. Absent like something in flight, to say something; to miss someone else's flight, to lose your clothing. Finally we were that same age. I sat on the back row hating you. Today you are there like any other emptiness.
Freke Räihä, born 1978, is a poet and sometimes everything else in publishing. List of publications include Red Ochre, OEI, Ygdrasil, Truck, Lyrikvännen, Slagtryk, Serum and Ord&Bild and a whole lot more – most recently poems from Nomos was included in Paris Lit-Up 4. Nomos was Räihä’s 2012 BA in Creative Writing from Lund University. The MFA will be final in 2018. Other relevant education might be Skurups Folkhögskolas Skrivarlinje (writing) and Skurups Folkhögskolas Skrivarpedagoglinje (teaching CW) besides the other BA in publishing studies, some comparative literature, bakery, parenting and graphic design. In 2017 book number 14 and 15 will see the the light of night. Three books are available in English from Corrupt Press and Moria Books.
August 2017 Poetry Contest Winner: Erin Marie Hall
Erin Marie Hall is a poet and visual artist from South Bend, IN. Her work, which explores nostalgia, poetics, the body, and the apocalyptic, appears in Rust + Moth, After the Pause, Rogue Agent, and your nightmares. Find her on Twitter @erinmariehall.
Original art image found here.
August 2017 Poetry Contest Winners: Barber, Räihä, Hall
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
“Today you are there like any other emptiness. — Freke Räihä”
Introducing Luna Luna's three August 2017 flash poetry contest winners, Freke Räihä, Cornelia Barber and Erin Marie Hall.
I loved their poems because they all approached the idea of death from unique standpoints—their language was crisp, and surprising, and heartbreaking. I could feel the grief. I am so grateful to be publishing this work.
I took each of the images from sacred places, places where I had meditated on life and death, places that are of significance in my own life. With a topic such as death, and with work so vulnerable, I thought it was important to make sure the presentation came, all around, from a place of intent.
Please share the images and talk about the poems.
15 Presses & Journals That Will Make You Weep With Pleasure
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
I'm sure plenty of you know a few of these, but allow me, for those who might not, to introduce and love on the presses that are currently sending me into literary-body-psychic overdrive. What does this actually mean? It means I've been devouring their books for some time or that I've discovered their new work, or am re-reading their older work and losing my mind over it again and again. I believe that these presses and journals are doing beautiful, unique things, and I love the voices and work they're putting out there. To blood and beauty!
If you could press your hand against my chest, you would feel my heart fluttering. Wakefield Press is one of my new favorites, and it should be yours, too. Devoted to 'overlooked gems' in translation, literary oddities, and elegant packaging (oh god they are so good to us), this press is bringing immense beauty to the literary landscape.
I just got my hands on:
Spells by Michel de Ghelderode
Murder Most Serene by Gabrielle Wittkop
The Cathedral of Mist by Paul Willems
2. Siren Songs
Joanna C. Valente, managing editor here at Luna Luna, runs an imprint on Civil Coping Mechanisms—and they're publishing Devin Kelly, Cooper Wilhelm, Jayy Dodd, and Omatara James. Literally am waiting on the edge of my fucking seat. The press seeks work by queer, trans, nonbinary, women and people of color.
OK. So Inside the Castle runs a residency in October called Castle Freak. Do you feel that? That's me having an orgasm. This press is deliciously dark and strange, and everyone should check out their dedication to literature that does more. They publish 'difficult poetry and prose poetry.' Wouldst thou pick me up from the floor?
I just discovered this gem—they publish women artists and writers, and the magazine itself is filled with unique, beautiful work. It feels like you're flipping pages as you move through the beautiful site.
Full disclosure: I'm in a full-on romantic relationship with this press and journal. They might not know it, but I do. They've always been my go-to for good reading, they publish superb books, and they even chose my manuscript Nympholepsy as a finalist in their 2017 book awards. Their work is tight, well-crafted, and aesthetically inclined.
6. Occulum
Just click click click and indulge in the beauty. Their about page says, "Unreliable sources have claimed that OCCULUM is David Lynch’s favorite lit journal. This in turn, is also unreliable." Which, yes, please. They're ok with 'semi-normies' (lol no one here) but they publish speculative fiction and 'species' of poetry. Their peculiarities are why I dearly love them.
7. Monstering
As someone with a chronic illness, I love the fact that Monstering Mag makes a space for discussions around the body, disabled experiences, nombinary voices, and illness. Their work is vulnerable, necessary, and thoughtful.
RELATED: 6 Online Lit Mags For Ladies Who Love Creepy Poems
8. Spork Press
Run by Richard Siken (I know he's your favorite, too), this lit journal and press puts out some fantastic work. Each issue is like a mini car crash you can't look away from. The work is always tight as fuck.
9. Paragraphiti
Just discovered their 'Romanian poet' issue, and I'm in love. It's so important that we are treated to translated work, and I'm so glad to see journals like this one do the heavy lifting.
10. Action Books
One of my favorite all-time presses, Action Books makes books that make me weep and then go write books that make other people weep. And repeat. There isn't a single solitary book in their catalogue that won't break your heart and threaten your ideas of the literary status quo. You will realize what you've been missing. You will drown in it. The work is transcendent of what we know and understand and accept.
With their focus on the radical and mystical, this queer collective produces books that are loud and heavy in your hands. And always beautiful. Also, they've got a "west coast lean," which, to a New Yorker, means there's a hazy intoxicating palm tree ocean spray magic to it all. Their books also LOOK delicious. And, they focus on giving a voice to identities often excluded from the conversation.
12. Grimoire
Grimoire, like Luna Luna, makes a space for the occult alongside their literary selections. The work is stellar, and their little spell-treats and seances are especially to die for. I love this journal and can't wait to keep reading each new issue.
13. Dreginald
So apparently I was late to the party with Dreginald. Just discovered how awesome they are, and I am blown away. Their selections are carefully crafted, insanely unique, and they prick at you—leaving you feeling the wound long after you've left the site. Also, DREGINALD. Just say it.
Bonus Round: new journals
14. Bad Pony
This magazine is brandy-new, insanely beautiful, and not yet live. Their mission says, "We are a very bad pony. Maybe we have always been that way. Maybe we had a particularly bad childhood where instead of hay or grass, we were fed a large amount of Starburst," which has done me in. I am ready for this bad bad pony.
Our very own Nadia is launching her own literary magazine this Friday—and we can't wait. Nadia's eye for beautiful, audacious work helps shape Luna Luna, so I can't wait for her dreamy creation.
Lisa Marie Basile is an editor, writer and poet living in NYC. She is the founding editor-in-chief of Luna Luna Magazine and the author of APOCRYPHAL (Noctuary Press, 2014), as well as a few chapbooks: Andalucia (Poetry Society of New York), War/Lock (Hyacinth Girl Press), and Triste (Dancing Girl Press). Her bookNYMPHOLEPSY (co-authored with poet Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein), was a finalist in the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards. She is working on her first poetic fiction novella, to be released by Clash Books/Clash Media.
Daniel Vazquez
Second Goodbye, Non Fiction by Ron Gibson, Jr.
With other emergency room patients watching, I retched, filling and overfilling the tray. A janitor was sent for to mop up around my feet. The nurse brought over two trays this time, but it was the same story: I retched, filled, then overfilled them. The nurse and the janitor's body language seemed to indicate (at least to me) they were growing increasingly alarmed at the volume I was spewing.
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Do We Really Need Graphic Depictions of Death by Suicide?
Lior Zaltzman is a person-thing of shape and color. Her pictures and words have been published on the Forward, JTA and Haaretz, among others.
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Natasha Carlos
Self Portrait: Natasha Carlos
My body is present in my landscapes, because I want to reflect my immersive, exploratory relationship with nature. There are countless landscapes in art history that feature women as beautiful props in the foreground with nature serving as a mere backdrop. There is no real dialogue with the environment. Artists like Ana Mendieta and Judy Dater challenged that norm and prompt me to think of the role my own body plays in the landscape.
For Babes Who Kiss Wet On First Meeting Especially Liana
BY LAURA MARIE MARCIANO
A persistent dry spell
no wet
for two months mollycoddle
He was like a musician and all like had a music video
Orange leaves on window or asking
Will you meet me in the park
and wake with grass stains on lips
He texts and I texted
something about legs being fine as hell
The prophet suggested that bee saving was better than dick picks
sent me enough so many - enough to fill a whole room
traveling in my pocket for three weeks like a dead ass prayer
And this empty prescription bottle like a fish that saved me
in empty empty water
I met you in the park first fucked on knees from behind
told to be quieter when I screamed through green
and grey light
ambient city nature buzz and cool spit off small but plump mouth watched your pleasure twisted face below me
It was the best sex I had in three years Or some shit
but then you came
got up and asked me if I always kissed men that passionately when
I first met them when i first allowed them to stretch my adidas track pants off in the summer suss garden
shame or
near home
Said if you knew I had a car you would have made me drive you
I don't know what a prayer is but Mary I do know how to bend on my knees for 15 hot minutes and repent
I asked all my girlfriends to text bomb you when you ghosted
I asked Solange to stop letting you perform in her show
I asked the whatever to tell your girlfriend about your habits
I just wish for the culture
sunflower seed stuck in teeth pretending not to weep into brown
leather seats
I just wish
This could be different or
I asked for Ana that we all know she was an actual victim of hot dead boys
#alreadydead
What did I expect - perpetuating rape culture with my wet pussy in your fuckboi hands way after bedtime for
girls who don't kiss as passionately when they first meet anyway
ever
they never Quazz
your name? is that your name I swear those other girls
they never do that
Laura Marie Marciano is a poet, performer, educator and media artist. She is the founder of gemstone readings and the author of Mall Brat ( CCM 2016). She received her MFA from Brooklyn College and is a PhD candidate at URI. She works as the managing editor of Barrow Street Press. She lives on the Internet.
Matthieu Bourel
How to Be a Duplicitous Woman
Wake up one morning and see yourself, really see yourself in a mirror, in a window, in the blackened television screen.
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Self Portrait: Lindsay Wheeler
This picture makes me both a "threat" and deeply human at the same time. It displays a face of what the media calls "mentally unsound," because God forbid we ever give anything less than our best smiles. And so, we exploit our every ability to emotionally vacate; to put on a happy face when all is broken inside. We deserve more self-compassion. Is a picture "worth a thousand words" when it's only an illusion? This picture is worth a thousand more.
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Why Do People Keep Humanizing The Racists When There's Real Work to be Done?
They're not broken boys. They're racists.
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Penguis by Sebastiᾶo Salgado
Description: This photo provokes an image in my mind of the passing of millenia and the relentlessness of the cycles of life.
On Black & White Photography & a Memory
I have always been drawn to black and white photos more so than color. I know the basics of color theory: black is the reflection of no color and white is the reflection of all colors and the colors we perceive are a matter of how much of the color present in light is reflected versus how much is absorbed. But theory does not help me answer these aesthetic questions: What is the appeal of black and white photography? How do photos, whether in black and white or color, relate to the stories we tell ourselves about the world?
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