COLLECTED VOICES IN THE EXPANDED FIELD This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, except for the inclu- sion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the author or publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to [email protected], or mailed to 11:11 Press LLC, 4757 15th Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55407. Each author reserves the rights to their own work. COLLECTED VOICES IN THE EXPANDED FIELD is typeset primarily in Palatino Linotype, with brief stints of Albertus, Bahnschrift, Fournier, Arial, Courier New, Century Schoolbook, Consolas, Garamond, Segoe UI, and Fang Song. Edited by Mike Corrao and Andrew J Wilt Covert Art by Mike Corrao Page & Cover Design: Mike Corrao Paperback: 978-1-948687-24-9 Printed in the United States of America FIRST AMERICAN EDITION 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 COLLECTED VOICES IN THE EXPANDED FIELD FEATURING THE WORK OF 34 INNOVATIVE AUTHORS COLLECTED VOICES VOICES COLLECTED IN THE EXPANDED EXPANDED THE IN FIELD FEATURING THE WORK OF OF WORK THE FEATURING 34 INNOVATIVE AUTHORS INNOVATIVE 34 Before bands could upload their songs to Myspace, the cheap- est way for fans to hear new music that wasn’t allowed radio airtime was to purchase compilation albums put out by smaller record labels. These cost a few dollars at most, just enough to cover production costs, because it was also the cheapest way for independent labels to find new fans. Fast-forward to 2020, and Myspace has been replaced by countless free web-based plat- forms for writers/musicians/artists to host their work. There is so much new media, it’s hard to discover new art from all the noise that is uploaded and shared across a growing number of media platforms. We hope this novel breaks through the noise and highlights the incredible work being made in our unique artistic space. This book is more than a sampler or an anthology because Col- lected Voices in the Expanded Field (CVITEF) is not limited to au- thors who have been published by 11:11 Press. It is a shared work, created by many of the authors and publishers who make our weird/small press scene vibrant and supportive. Each con- tributor begins with the same eleven words: You see a watering hole. Reprieve from the old dusty path. — and, branching outwards, works in unison with the chapters around them to generate something wholly unique. If you enjoy reading an author’s chapter, please consider pur- chasing one of their books. All of the authors in CVITEF have published books, and they would be delighted if you read more of their work. Many thanks to Mike Corrao for his work (the cover, the layout, the coordination), to Sam Moss who copyedited each chapter, and to the many authors who participated in this experiment. And thank you, readers, for supporting small presses and this weird writing scene that we are all a part of. <3 Andrew Publisher & Co-Founder 11:11 Press TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Mike Corrao 11 Chapter Two: Grant Maierhofer 25 Chapter Three: B.R. Yeager 31 Chapter Four: Elisa Taber 41 Chapter Five: Garett Strickland 47 Chapter Six: Mónica Belevan 61 Chapter Seven: Germán Sierra 65 Chapter Eight: Judson Hamilton 77 Chapter Nine: Rosie Šnajdr 89 Chapter Ten: Tatiana Ryckman 95 Chapter Eleven: Joshua Rothes 103 Chapter Twelve: Ryan Napier 107 Chapter Thirteen: Joshua Young 121 Chapter Fourteen: Benjamin DeVos 141 Chapter Fifteen: A.S. Coomer 149 Chapter Sixteen: Nathan Dragon 159 Chapter Seventeen: James Tadd Adcox 163 Chapter Eighteen: Sean Kilpatrick 175 Chapter Nineteen: Garret Dennert 179 Chapter Twenty: James Nulick 191 Chapter Twenty-One: Christina Tudor-Sideri 215 Chapter Twenty-Two: Ali Raz 223 Chapter Twenty-Three: Vincent James Perrone 229 Chapter Twenty-Four: Evan Isoline 257 Chapter Twenty-Five: David Leo Rice 267 Chapter Twenty-Six: Kenny Mooney 289 Chapter Twenty-Seven: Tyler Crumrine 297 Chapter Twenty-Eight: Arielle Tipa 307 Chapter Twenty-Nine: Gary J Shipley 311 Chapter Thirty: Adam Tedesco 317 Chapter Thirty-One: Mike Kleine 329 Chapter Thirty-Two: Jake Reber 355 Chapter Thirty-Three: Candice Wuehle 369 Chapter Thirty-Four: Andrew Wilt 389 CHAPTER ONE 10 You see a watering hole. Reprieve from the old dusty path. Carrion birds circling in the air above. You fanta- size your ascent into their ranks. Feet lifting from the dunes, sifting sand through your toes. Levitating over the arid landscape with our body hanging delicately between specks of dust… Don’t you want to perform the witch’s flight?... 11 YOU LET THE SUN COAT YOUR SKIN IN BLISTERING FILM— YOU LET THE SUN SWALLOW YOU WHOLE— YOU LET THE SUN BURN YOU INTO NOTHING— YOU LET THE SUN PROVE THAT YOU DO NOT NEED SOME- THING TO CONTAIN YOUR SELF— 12 (But now we are here again. In the back of someone else’s car with a duffel bag of VHS tapes that you plan on bringing up to your apartment. Dragging a tremen- dous weight over each step of the staircase. Opening the door / opening the lips of the VCR / inserting the tape. I don’t know what is playing on the television. I can’t quite make it out. Through the static and flowing mer- cury.) (You think to yourself, this must be the nectar of life, and run your fingers along the surface of the monitor. You feel its attraction. The way that it seems to lure your body closer. Clinging to your skin, pulling blood and fat to the surface. Stewing under thin sheets. You take the tape out and swap it for another one from the duffel bag. The same attraction lures you in. You flatten your face against the monitor. Slowly pressing through the threshold, crossing into a new realm.) 13 There is the fear that these memories are not completely your own, or that each is another reality you exist with- in simultaneously. You suffer an amnesia that does not shroud your previ- ous personas, but that instead annihilates any pre-exist- ing ontologies. You cannot remember the act of existence. You feel as if you are for the first-time approaching life. You have exited the void in media res. 14 The ecologies of this desert bend to your whim. You drag your finger through the sand, collecting parti- cles of dust / dew. A hexagon forms on the ground and you attempt to bend that to your will as well. You ask it to summon every anatomical system you can remember. 15 LIMBIC SYSTEM— MUSCULOSKELE- TAL SYSTEM— NERVOUS SYS- TEM— INTEGUMENTARY SYSTEM— REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM— 16 But nothing comes of this. You are still no more familiar with this body than you were before. It is not pleasant to be confined to one structure. Exam- ining the fractalized innards of a soft and fragile ma- chine. Pre-anatomy body-mush. The state of this frame is dis- graceful. You pretend to understand what metaplastici- ty is. Assuming that it is simple as saying, I do not have to be human if I do not want to, that you can just shed this con- tainer and return to the abyssopelagic. This is an opportunity to be something else. Text crawls along the inside of your skull. Infecting ev- ery surface. You no longer have to be a person. You can reshape yourself as an entirely new organism. One that is not burdened by the insecurities of bodily function. This is an opportunity to create a radically unstable anatomy (becoming-organism). Where your essence is not anchored to any single vessel or persona. Returning to the nothingness and emerging again as you please. 17 (Your flesh melds with the television and you sink into the abyssopelagic zone hidden behind its delicate fa- cade. The duffel bag of VHS tapes vibrate. They hum to the sound of your passage. You rest when your neck has completely crossed the threshold and the deafening blackness has swallowed your vision.) 18 YOUR ANCIENT REPTIL- IAN BRAIN BECKONS YOU ONCE AGAIN— THE NOTHINGNESS / SWEET NOTHINGNESS— THE VOID SUFFERS A YOU-SHAPED HOLE WHERE SOMETHING NOW EXISTS— IT IS OKAY TO DESIRE YOUR OWN UNSEW- ING— THIS IS NOT MY VISAGE IT IS OURS— 19 (This is not a place for bodies. You clasp your hands around the edges of the monitor and drag your head out of the liquid screen. The apartment is luminous with the blue light of the television static. Behind you, the duffel bag calms its previous vibrations. This is only a moment. You remove the tape and label it.) 20 The mediation of a fabricated landscape: Everything outside of the threshold begins to feel like a stage play. Every conversation is shallow and melodramatic. Someone says something about mise-en-scene and you feel the urge to vomit. (But you do not vomit because this is not something you have yet discovered how to activate.) Just because you are incapable of summoning autono- my over this body does not mean that you cannot utilize what is at your disposal. You feed on the body’s saliva and contort yourself to fit into one of the desert’s many alcoves. Watching as the sun sets unto night. The sky hums blue like television static. Your eyes are glazed with its luminous glow. Let the radiation nourish your skin… 21 (You fear that the duffel bag will grow into an unfath- omable creature.