"The curves of everything feel weighty upon you. You are hyper-aware of their vivid shapes, their colorful intentions. You have not slept for nights, because you are becoming a book. You were told by the old scarved woman in the alley that's what it takes. One page for every day you don't sleep. You break each day into moments: some are paragraphs; some are commas; some are quotations in italics."
From Alley Time by Tantra Bensko in issue 2.3 of Stone Highway Review
"The curves of everything feel weighty upon you. You are hyper-aware of their vivid shapes, their colorful intentions. You have not slept for nights, because you are becoming a book. You were told by the old scarved woman in the alley that's what it takes. One page for every day you don't sleep. You break each day into moments: some are paragraphs; some are commas; some are quotations in italics." Redacted Stories is an anthology of literature, much of it experimental, based on the concept of conspiracy. It's free right now, hoping to get some word of mouth, some reviews, some excitement generated. I have two stories in it.
LucidPlay Publishing put out a chapbook anthology online called The Glass Eye Chandelier.
Authors include Molly Gaudry, Mia Avramut, Yarrow Paisley, Zoltán Komor, Clive Gresswell, Peter Schwartz, Barry Friesen, V. V. Saichek, Tiffany Rocs, Stephen Ramey, Nicolette Wong, and J.A. Tyler. Art by Amir Catic, Doming, Laura Tringali Holmes. Cover art and video by Tantra Bensko. LucidPlay Publishing put out a chapbook by Alex S. Johnson, called The Matador of Mirrors. Cover art by Dariusz Klimczak.
My story in Literary Orphans begins:
Late Rabbits Dr. Howard pulled pieces out of Mary Toft's vagina and reported to his learned peers that she had given birth to a rabbit. Oh Rabbit-Mother of the deep womb, the cutting laugh, the random jump and skip. Here's the beginning of my story in Cease, Cows
In the Hall of the Mountain Stunt Double Pierre wanted to go to Jack and Naomi’s wedding but because of his new job as Jack’s stunt double, he wasn’t allowed to go. Someone might see you, the producer said. They’d start thinking. Is thinking so bad? Bad for his reputation. No one is supposed to look as good as him. Especially to his wife. And if they think about how he didn’t actually do all those things in the movies, well. OK, then, what about the Oscars? My story Birdie in Birkensnake begins----
Oh, no. Not again, says the little girl, swirling around inside her mother’s coffee cup. It must be morning. The fidgets come like birds. The rust colored curtains decorated with images of giant fingered citrines, on the closed windows, bluster. She looks at the mysteriously moving curtains out of the corner of her eye, never certain what she’s seen. She’s been catching them at it for years, and doesn’t ask anyone. Because maybe it’s her eyes, or worse, her brain. Maybe it’s her mother’s hatred of her, because she’s so pretty, that gets in the curtains. Even though she tries to be her mother as much as possible. Maybe it’s herself that gets in the curtains. Or maybe, somewhere, wind comes in from some neighbor’s air conditioning … The End Begins Now
The river flows backwards between my legs. My legs remember my uncle, how he brought me vines of peanuts, put them on my porch in the woods, before I woke up, how I would walk out into them barefoot, as if into dreams not yet risen into Alabama mists of summer heat. Thus begins my story in Blue Fifth Review. I haven't posted for 4 months here, so I'll try to catch up a bit getting the word out as I should about some of my work being put out by fine publishers in intriguing projects. One of my stories, "Nude Snow Ballet," is in this, put out by Sundress Publications:
Pre-orders Available for Not Somewhere Else But Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women & Place Not Somewhere Else But Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women & Place Edited by Erin Elizabeth Smith, T.A. Noonan, Rhonda Lott, and Beth Couture In this 300+ page eclectic and engaging multi-genre anthology of contemporary women writers, you will find literature that transports readers across the entirety of the globe. Writers in Not Somewhere Else But Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women & Place, include Marjoie Maddox, Wendy Call, Barbara Crocker, Marthe Reed, Karyna McGlynn, Rosebud Ben-Obi, Dianne Seuss, Sarah Sloat, and many, many more! "Miniature celebrations of place, the writings in Not Somewhere Else But Here deftly maneuver through imagined spaces and bustling Manhattan streets, the impossible page and the architecture of Japanese homes. Here, place is questioned and subdued: it is the hot gloss of sun on concrete." -Lily Hoang, author of The Evolutionary Revolution and Changing Not Somewhere Else But Here will be re-released in February, 2014. Pre-order your copy today for only $16 and FREE shipping! |
Tantra Bensko
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