Dear Reader,
Welcome to Issue Forty-Eight of The Collagist: This month, we're excited to present a special feature titled "Monsters and Modernism: Reclaiming Creation Myths, in Text, Image, Sound," curated by Virginia Konchan, who invited all of this section's contributors to be a part of the project. In her introduction to the section, Konchan offers a few questions the project means to address, including:
What would the Eve/Pygmalion/Daisy Miller creation myth of women (from "dust," or via class ascension) look like told from a women's perspective? How can women, or other minorities, continue to work outside of dominant discourses or aesthetic frames without having to choose between "becoming minor" or the other absolutism—bent on making a minority point of view, through resignification (or, conversely, a refusal to name) universal?
The responses here come from the following artists, poets, writers, and composers: Elena Tomorowitz, Kathleen Rooney, Elisa Gabbert, Brooke Wonders, Bridget Lowe, Traci Brimhall, Lucy Biederman, Kate Durbin, Amaranth Borsuk, Elliot Cole, and Natalie Shapero. We couldn't be more excited to have their varied and interesting work in The Collagist, and I'm grateful to Konchan for her work bringing it together.
In addition, we have new fiction from Nate Liederbach, Amanda Marbais, Tobias Carroll, and Kristen Gleason, as well as excerpts from Alissa Nutting's Tampa, out now from Ecco, and Jeff Jackson's Mira Corpora, forthcoming from Two Dollar Radio. Our poetry this month comes from Thea Brown, Brendan Grady, Jory Mickelson, and returning contributor Jamaal May.
Our book review section contains coverage of A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims (reviewed by Michael Jauchen), Throne of Blood by Cassandra Troyan (reviewed by Christopher Higgs), Nine Months by Paula Bomer (reviewed by Tom Williams), and At the Autopsy of Vaslav Nijinsky by Bridget Lowe (reviewed by Virginia Konchan).
As always, thanks to all of the above contributors for being a part of this issue, and thanks to you and all the rest of our readers for visiting us this month.
Sincerely,
Matt Bell
Editor
The Collagist