“He picked up The New Yorker, saw his work being praised, and tossed it. He tossed the rest of them. They made his ideas mean something, and he hated those filthy animals for it. Before, his ideas were nothing, and he did not have to think for an idea like he had to think for an idea now. He just acted from his subconscious and, bam, it was art. His last idea had given him too much notoriety. Now, there was an expectation to his work, and Joe felt it.”
–From Joe Newman by Sean Everington
“Here we are at a delicious restaurant! We sit outside, close to the beach, as the warm air wraps around our white bodies.
Here is my family, and here am I—I am the outsider.
When their conversations started, I clocked out. I could care less about everything that came out of their mouths—comfortable consumers.
Conversations concerned: money, food, Jake’s college”
–From The Cayman Islands by Alexa Seiler
“Lenox Avenue is always full of sunlight, the kind that makes you want to permanently shield your eyes, as if this would protect you from things you do not need to see. I walk beside you silently. You walk beside me. You don’t speak, but words spew from every crevice of your mouth. These things you say create a ripple effect of twitching nerves down to the third layer of my skin.”
–From The Storm in the Dream by Latroya Lovell
“Tell me all the ways a bass note riles your jimmies and coats your eyes. Show me the way your feet move to avoid a door. I only hope that my true facets come out with age and with remedy and with mesmerizing dreams. My dear, if you’re all alone, bring over your sweaters, bring over your lies—bring your hands always over to me.”
–From Oranges by Hannah Witner
“Language feels very physical, we try to pretend like we trap it on the page with text, so we try to pretend it’s only text. It’s not like there’s the word of text that’s in some ink, that’s not what language is. We’re sitting here talking, and so many muscles of my body are working— and there’s air, and I’m pushing, I’m building, and I’m pressurizing and I’m pushing it. And you can’t even see it. I fling it out into the air, and then you take it into your ear, and it’s this kind of vibration like I’m actually moving atoms.”
–From the Interview with Natalie Diaz by Charlotte Slivka
“‘Would you stop taking pictures already?’
‘I can’t. I’ll need them to remember.'”
–From Johnny by Ken Goshen
