CRUEL/CRUEL

𝘊𝘙𝘜𝘌𝘓/𝘊𝘙𝘜𝘌𝘓 is a collection of poems that seeks to radically deconstruct language in order to respond to the unimaginable cruelties of living under the muddied boot of white heteropatriarchy. In the collection, Black musical tradition, queerness and race coalesce to emphasize the archival and documentary as intrinsic to our personal and collective survivals. It was critical for me to craft this collection into a hybrid visual and literary object. The visual is integral in the deconstruction and queer renewal of the, at times, dizzying and mystifying language found on the page. 𝘊𝘙𝘜𝘌𝘓/𝘊𝘙𝘜𝘌𝘓 asks not that you understand it, but feel it-- wholly. Let it sing to you. 

— Dior J. Stephens

Glory Hole

Kim Hyun, 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘦 (Translated from the Korean by Suhyun J. Ahn and Archana Madhavan)

Featuring gay teens, elders, cats, caterpillars, robots, and other unexpected characters, Kim’s fifty-one eccentric poems trace themes of love, sexual desire, abandonment, destitution, and death. In recounting the splendid yet tragic journeys of his speakers, Kim defies meaningful sense-making. His poems are a mishmash of dystopian sci-fi and pornography, storytelling and poetry, fictive references, and real figures. They are not embellished with elegant imagery; in fact, they are antithetical to it, opting instead for incoherent tense, unidiomatic expressions, and never-ending puns. After all, like LGBTQ+ people in many cultures, Korean queers live in this site of violence. Bewilderment, deliberately, is Kim Hyun’s form. All the "notes" are the author's own, even when attributed to others. 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘦 invites readers into a very queer world. 

South Korean author Kim Hyun debuted as a poet in 2009 when his five poems including ‘Blow Job’ were featured in the quarterly 𝘑𝘢𝘬𝘬𝘢 𝘚𝘦𝘨𝘺𝘦. Since then, Kim has published several poetry and essay collections. He has also co-authored a feminist novel collection 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘋𝘢𝘸𝘯, a queer novel collection 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘐𝘴 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨, and the young adult queer anthology, 𝘚𝘰 𝘞𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦. Kim has received the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature and Kim Jun-seong Literary Award.