Mark Waldron Surreal-Absurd Sampler
“It’s not surrealism but realism that’s the absurdity. It’s a simplistic fantasy of order; a rigid framework pressed onto a surreal universe, so that we might navigate it, and safely get to Tesco and back.”
Happy New Year Mr President Episode II: Operation Exodus
As two former partners attempt to unravel the mystery of what happened in Barcelona seven years ago, they seem able only to add to the confusion… Mercurius is very pleased to present this absurd epic of the human spirit.
Mollspeak
Mollspeak is a new sound work, written and directed by artist Maria Fusco, with an original score by Olivier Pasquet and voiced by actor Maxine Peake. Presented here for a limited time only, the piece, experimental in form, explores and embodies working-class voices of eighteenth century servants in England. The work’s title, Mollspeak, is taken from a phrase used by employers to denigrate or belittle their servants’ way of speaking. Its negative connotation is subverted by headlining a work that illuminates the importance of working class narratives. Servants were not allowed keys to the houses they tended, Mollspeak kicks down these doors.
Ben Niespodziany Surreal-Absurd Sampler
I'm often either bored or overwhelmed with reality. Too much stressful hustle and bustle, or too much mundane routine. To disrupt this norm, whenever I seek media, I always look for the strange…
Sophie Cabot Black: “Begin the story as if you knew the horse”
Sophie Cabot Black caught my attention some time ago. There is an unknown world in her verses, an immense and itinerant doubt.
Poster Poems
Two Poster Poems by Rus Khomutoff
![Extract from Adamo[1], a novel in progress](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec6bd9a2948e50763ff3ab9/1639340898152-QWLJ5OVVYCIDD44MQ7QC/Baker+Miller+Pink.png)
Extract from Adamo[1], a novel in progress
An extract from a novel-in-progress by Aoife Casby: The house needs her. As if the rooms want her help. Her presence makes their purpose but there is something about the way the rooms are that make you feel as if they know this. Peculiar. How can the spaces know her. Or maybe they don’t. That the place needs her help to be, to remember its function as kitchen, as hallway, as threshold, as a necessity between rooms, just is.
Somniloquy
This selection of poems deals with dream/nightmare sequences I experienced a couple of years ago. I felt the need to write down what happened in my sleep due to the strange nights happening so often. Sometimes, reality finds itself in a blur.
Caroline Bird Surreal-Absurd Sampler
“Sometimes I think trying to write a poem, especially about something that is currently happening, is like standing on burning hot sand. You have to dance from foot to foot, or else you literally cannot stay in that place.”
Water Fight
Bruce Louis Dobson’s collages portray the bizarre events occurring in a world beyond reality. Dreamlike images with vivid color and exciting emotion.
The Seam and The Drop
The Seam and The Drop is a new story by sally O’Reilly: Lying on her back in the grassy, dandelion-clocked clearing, the cool albumen oozed on to her pale torso and the yolk thudded lightly on her sternum. She smeared the glossy, fishy viscosity over her belly and breasts, careful not to break the yolk at her centre like the sun.
Highlights from the 2021 Miami Book Fair
Some fine contemporary poets reading their work: Devon Walker-Figueroa, Amanda Moore, Teresa K. Miller, Trevor Ketner, W. J. Herbert, Forrest Gander, Kwame Dawes, Shara MacCallum, Carol Muske-Dukes, Jill Bialosky, Achy Obejas, and Sally Keith. Enjoy!
David Spittle Surreal-Absurd Sampler
Surrealism is a gateway, or permission, through which we can better understand our own ways of understanding and how often they are stifled or politely domesticated in learnt behaviours – ideologically exiled into the hidden, sublimated or repressed…
Laguna de Don Pedro and other poems
A selection of mystical poems by Rowena Hill, a Venezuela-based poet, translator and researcher.
The Stranded Sugar Dispenser
The Stranded Sugar Dispenser is a new story by Imogen Reid: her left arm rests on the smooth formica surface, and her cheek is pressed against the knitted sweater that extends the entire length of her arm. the woolen cuff is stretched tightly over her knuckles before she begins to force her index finger through a small hole situated just above the vertical ladder that has recently started to form there. once the feat is accomplished, she proceeds to grip the under edge of the cuff with her fingers so that her hand forms a small fist
Lila Matsumoto Surreal-Absurd Sampler
I love writing that may be called absurd or surreal, but which presents the world within their text as absolutely logical. This logic might be manifested through po-faced intonation, curlicued yet grammatically correct syntax, lush landscapes described in a pointillist fashion…
Extract from West
An exclusive extract from the beginning of Megan Bradbury’s novel-in-progress, West: Rae starts dating a Mormon. They roam the city. They never go up the towers. Rae doesn’t want to see anything from up high. The Mormon is an artist and activist. His causes are the same as her mother’s were. After protesting in Battery Park, he’ll be moving west. That’s where the greatest battles are. The Mormon has Clint Eastwood posters on his bedroom wall. Clint Eastwood wants to be seen to look after women in stories, but the women themselves aren’t free. He always looks after the Wild West towns.
i.e. crazy
“i.e. crazy” and “Of Others” were made using acrylics, an old copy of J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, the June 18 2021 issue of The Times Literary Supplement, and cartridge paper.
James Roome Surreal-Absurd Sampler
“I see the surreality and absurdity of my writing as both a disruption and a form of entertainment. The world can sometimes seem overwhelmingly serious; absurdity undermines this.”
A conversation near a window
A conversation near a window is a new story by Ben Pester: We sat with his walnutting for a moment. He touched his face, gasping a little as he explored the new contours he had. His eyes, on rigid stalks, were layered with a kind of papery rind: his new eyelids. They made a hushing sound as he blinked.
The never-ending quest…
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