If you drive by my swamp at night, I will slow your car down, and it will keep slowing until it stops unless you think pure thoughts and speak these thoughts allowed, like a prayer to me.

I’ve recently been delighted to peek into the mind of the visionary who has informed much of my appreciation for surrealism and experimental art.

I'd like to apologize to the supernatural if I've encountered it and either not noticed or been rude.

Tim Conley's piece "Popular Demand" caught our attention immediately with its comically unreliable narrator but poignant commentary on human empathy. Learn a little more about the author in the interview below.

I hope the work makes viewers want to look closely, to enjoy the detail, the color, and the human origin evident in the technique.

I want to do more in service of cultivating the wonderful art that is actively being suppressed and removed from the world. Weird communities are disappearing, hell, communities are disappearing. Let’s fight back.

Done well, nonsense literature like this thrills my brain. Experimental stuff, rewarding puzzles, and especially humor are all genres I crave. The catch is they have to actually tell a story and make me feel something.

Mistakes are your friend, the portal to discovery, genius makes none of them, etc.

You don’t need “lived experience” to write well. To create believable, complex characters and plots outside your realm of experience requires empathy, curiosity, research skills, imagination, sensitivity, and a solid understanding of nuance. These are all up to you to cultivate.

Learn from others, but do not emulate them.

Douglas Hackle describes his style as "batshit-insane, unhinged, and recklessly silly" crafted with care and discipline.

Located in a salon-style viewing room in the Seattle neighborhood of Madrona, Koplin del Rio gallery is debuting its brand new space with the work of Laurie Hogin, the artist behind the cover of our Summer 2025 Issue.

Know that if you write vampires, you will have to work really hard to move beyond the shortcomings and the shorthand of so many other writers’ vampire interpretations.

Nonsense lit is the only genre that captures that specific flavor of modern absurdity without trying to sand it down into a plot. When Alice meets a caterpillar who demands she recite poetry while high on mushrooms, it's not fantasy, it's Tuesday. Barthelme’s several stories composed entirely of fragmented conversations? That's not experimental fiction. That's my group chat.

My advice is this: you have to show your writing to people.

The writing is concise, the mood is spooky, and I felt a genuine connection to the characters, both human and feline.

I don’t think I’ve learned anything.

With enviable finesse, Chronister spins her tale with prose that feels both natural and highly crafted at once.

None of this matters. Really, it is not that big of a deal.

A weird life to me means experimenting and being authentic, regardless of expectations.

... not everyone will “get” your work, especially if you’re creating from the margins.

I think most writers can benefit from writing less.

Strangeness and playfulness are important and serious too!

There ought to be more work like this, stories that shower the reader with a raw presentation of stuff, and an even more raw perspective on how that stuff makes us feel.