literary journals

Ten pieces of asemic vispo published in Otoliths

The Southern Winter edition of Australian based online lit mag Otoliths, Issue #62, was released today. Every issue of Otoliths functions as an index or encyclopedia of the current streams and practitioners of the literary avant garde, and this one is no exception. As editor Mark Young writes: “It’s another lively issue with a mix of short story, review, photography, poetry, painting, & collage in a variety of styles, by an outstanding list of contributors, often in collaboration, from around the globe.”

I’m pleased to be represented in the mix with ten pieces of asemic visuals created last summer using a stash of junk I found on the street over the previous couple decades. You can check them out here.

“Milking an Elephant for Toothpaste in the Jungle” and one other poem published in Datura

A bilingual literary journal (texts in French or English) with outsider leanings, Datura just released its 12th issue today featuring poetry, rants, a book review, and interesting collages by Claudio Parentela. In France it’s available in print, online for rest of the world. The issue also includes two of my poems: “Milking an Elephant for Toothpaste in the Jungle” and “Sucking Soap on a Rope.” You can read them here.

Ten visual poems published in Utsanga

The June 2021 issue of online Italian literary journal Utsanga (#28) was released yesterday. As always, it presents a broad range of text and visual works from the international avant garde literary scene, encompassing asemic scripts, visual poems, video works, art installations, criticism, and extended literary modes. I’m pleased to be represented with another installment of my “Xtro diary” series, featuring tape sampled images and asemic writing. You can check it out here.

Nine pieces of visual poetry published in Otoliths

Otoliths #61, the southern autumn 2021 issue, was released today. It’s jam packed as always with great text, visuals and hybrid works from writers and artists from around the world, reflecting the broad range of literary experimentation in the current era. I’m pleased to be included with nine pieces of visual poetry with asemic elements from a series that seems like diary excerpts from an extraterrestrial colony world. You can check them out here.

“The Joys of Serf Culture” published in Mad Swirl

Mad Swirl is an online poetry and art journal based in Dallas, TX, showcasing lots of fun and funky writing and imagery. I’m pleased to be included again with my poem “The Joys of Serf Culture,” which was just released today. You can check it out here.

I’m also a contributing poet on the Mad Swirl site; you can find my page and the other poems they’ve published here.

“Asemic Epitaph” and three other poems published in Datura

Datura is a print and online literary journal “of deviant and defiant work” published in French and English. Datura issue 11, dated March 2021, was just released. Full contents below:

• Docteur Burz: editorial
• Jeff Bagato: Asemic Epitaph, March of the Antelops, Toothpast Comes to Town, and Lullaby for Ouija (poetry)
• Alain Lasverne: Adoption en cours (récit)
• John Tustin: Another Box, Dying in a Place, I Ease into my Seat, There will Never Be Peace upon the Streets of my Heart, and Wings Clipped (poetry)
• Stéphane Casenobe: CE QUI PERDURE POUR NOUS PERDRE, LA FACE INCONNAISSABLE DU JOUR, ET DEVIER LA MAIN QUI ECRIT !, SIGNE DE MAIN ET DEPART ?, TOUT M’EST DÛ CAR JE SUIS PAUVRE ! et DE LÁ J’HESITE ? (poésie)
• Christopher Barnes : What the Street Remembers 11 to 15 (poetry)
• Léonel Houssam: extrait de Notre République (roman)

I’m pleased to be represented with four poems: “Asemic Epitaph,” “March of the Antelopes,” “Toothpaste Comes to Town,” and “Lullabye for Ouija.” You can read them on Issu here.

Floral Float Flume excerpt published in Var(2x)

Var (2x) is an online literary journal by the makers of X-Peri reserved for the most extreme literary experiments. I’m pleased to have (finally) made the cut with an excerpt from Floral Float Flume: Flue Flit Flip, a novel about AI units engaged in a series of marketplace transactions. This selection comprises about 18 pages, or the first four episodes out of ten. The whole story runs 70 manuscript pages.

The vocabulary of the piece is severely limited to words beginning with “fl-“. What you see is not a random selection of words but a precise narrative with specific meaning and syntax. Four letter words are operations; five letter words are objects. To start with, “Floral Float Flume” is the name of one of the transactional AI units, and “flue flit flip” translates as “enter offer profit,” a kind of “vini vidi vici” for transactional AIs.

If you dare, you can read the selection here.

3 trash vispo with critical response published in Swifts and Slows

Swifts and Slows is a quarterly online publication of Arteidolia literary journal which focuses exclusively on collaborations between artists. Issue 10 was just published for March, featuring a wide variety of multidisciplinary interactions including music, video, art and text. I’m pleased to be included with a rather unusual collaboration: three of my trash vispo works were published alongside notes and critical commentary by Daniel Barbiero. I usually work in isolation, so it’s a rare privilege to get a look at how someone perceives the results of my experiments. In a way, this project is a three way collaboration, as the vispo were composed using trash gathered and mailed to me by my friend David Craig. You can check it out here.