Quaint Magazine Issue 1

By Quaint Books

Quaint Magazine is a literary quarterly devoted to creepy, kooky, strange, and bizarre writing by traditionally marginalized writers (trans* and cis women, gender non-binary folk, writers of color, and LGBTQ writers), with a focus on subverting the feminine aesthetic. Issue 1 features a poisoning at sea, masturbation in an airplane bathroom, a condemning resignation letter to an ill-informed 1%er, and plenty of other disquieting, beautiful, strange, and, at times, uncomfortable work by poets, essayists, and fiction writers from around the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quaint Books
• Release date: Jul 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310804748

Quaint Books

Quaint Magazine is strongly committed to publishing work from traditionally marginalized writers, and in exploring identity performance, particularly as it pertains to subverting the cultural cliche of femininity. Our aesthetic can best be described as politically aware subversive horror candy-coated and wrapped up in a ribbon. We like the visceral and the disturbing, particularly when its married to the cute and innocent. We love Arielle Greenberg & Lara Glenum’s concept of the Gurlesque . Some of the staff’s favorite writers are, in no particular order, Angela Carter, Shirley Jackson, Kathy Acker, Margaret Atwood, Kate Durbin, Lara Glenum, Joyelle McSweeney, Roxane Gay and Dorothea Lasky.

Book preview

Quaint Issue 1

Edited By Kia Groom, Soleil Ho, Rachael Peralez

Copyright 2013 Quaint Books, First Electronic Rights reserved

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of our writers and editors.

Quaint Magazine

Issue 1 November 2013

Quaint Magazine is a literary quarterly that publishes dynamic, arresting poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and other prose by female-identified writers. We are committed to diversity in publication, as well as giving voice to the strange, the grotesque, and the unusual.

Founder & Poetry Editor

Kia Groom

Non-Fiction Editor

Soleil Ho

Fiction Editor

Rachael Peralez

Art Director

Alicia Thompson

Online Editorial Assistant

Stephanie Doyle

Intern

Nicole McCauley

Readers

Maya Lowy, Jen Hanks, Roxy Seay, Alexandra Reisner, Kami Ownbey

Media and Design

Gonzo Media

Cover Image: Sawyers Valley by Marijke Loosjes

Formatted for E-Book by Kia Groom

Table of Contents

Poetry

Creative Non-Fiction

Flash-Fiction

Fiction

Thanks

Connect With Quaint

Poetry

Sensibility // Vanessa Borjon

The Last Gas Station on 57 // Portia Elan

I Give Myself Pep Talks as Katie Oh // Kat Finch

A Lack of an Apologia // Kat Finch

Daddy Longlegs of the Evening - Hope! // Kelly Jones

Pull the Blinds // Kelly Jones

Ex-Wife as Hunting Cabin // Karen Skolfield

Ex-Wife as Farmer’s Market // Karen Skolfield

Confessing to Red Bird // M.E. Riley

Sensibility

Vanessa Borjon

1.

Dear brother I crawl

into bed and think of you behind the bannister

of when I found the imprint of your shoe in the mud and I watched you fold the arms of a dead squirrel

in a very polite way before you buried it in the yard. Young boys are just like this. I am told not to expect anything less of you.

It’s so hard living around other people.

2.

On my lunch break the smell of the Puerto Rican deli next-door wafts in through the window and out of the corner

of my eye, a young man chews licorice his throat bobbing

his Adam’s apple soft and fragile like a tumor wrapped in silk I want to tell him, We don’t have to know each other it’s better this way,

I take a picture of Mariano Park.

3.

I dream my mouth is a meat grinder.

While you were out having blasts I counted each stretch-mark on my thigh and wondered how they got there. I am told

young girls are just like this.

In my sleep, I bone the dreamer.

Vanessa Borjon is a 21 year old Poetry student in Chicago. In her spare time, she likes to look at the moon, eat fruit, kiss, and daydream about being a Sailor Scout. Besides being printed in her own self-published zines that are currently floating all around the city, her work has also been published in The Untitled Mag, N/A Literary Magazine, Columbia Poetry Review and The Corazonland Review. Her favorite color is green, her favorite vegetable is the cucumber and her favorite word is bliss. She wants to be a jazz singer when she grows up. She also wants a small house with a big garden and lots of windows. You