"Masks are made of different kinds of material: cardboard, velvet, flesh, the Word. The carnal mask and the verbal mask are worn in all seasons." — Claude Cahun
Issue 6 of Exist Otherwise Literary & Art Journal is live and available for your immediate viewing pleasure. You can read everything online and/or download a PDF to add to your reading collection.
This issue is dominated by poetry (17), and includes photography (5), one hybrid photography/visual poetry, one script, one short fiction, and three hard to categorize written works.
Six out of twenty-one contributors to this issue have been published in earlier issues and fifteen are new to us.
Show Some Love
Our website allows comments to be added to all content. It is absoluetly fine and much appreciated to simply say, "good work," or the equivalent. But you are also encouraged to engage. Ask questions, describe your emotional response, highlight a phrase or image that struck you, or even tell us what confused or irked you. Art is communication and a creation isn't complete until it has been encountered.
Theme & Prompt Archive
There are two pages on our website to find themes and prompts for upcoming issues. The current theme/prompt (meaning for the next sequential issue) is announced on the Current Theme & Prompt page, and future themes/prompts are found on the Theme & Prompt Archive page. The themes for Issues 7 and 8 are posted and the theme for Issue 9 willl be posted soon.
About Issue 9
I need a couple days to catch my breath and tend to some neglected housekeeping before I share the details but the plan for Issue 9 is to have a guest editor or editors for a special theme related to certain current events in the US. In short, I want Issue 9 to present works exclusively by trans, non-binary or otherwise gender-non-conforming artists. As a cis-hetero person, I recognize that I am not the person to edit such an issue. I'll say more soon.
Thanks for your continuing attention and support,
Eric