Burning House Press are excited to welcome M. FORAJTER as the second BHP guest editor of our return series of special editions! As of today M. will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the month of JULY.
Submissions are open from today – and will remain open until 25TH JULY.
M.’s theme for the month is as follows
—ART & ANNIHILATION: contemporary gothic writing in the Anthropocene—
ART & ANNIHILATION: contemporary gothic writing in the Anthropocene
“The energy of the poem penetrates and re-penetrates the rotting native land with ghosts, junk, corpses, skin, denigrating terms, and denigrated materials in order to engender a counternativity, an occult rebirth as ghostly reanimation. In this way the poet incestually forces his own rebirth, not as a liberated man but as a kind of infernal, spectral double, a production of the text: “And behold here I am!” -Joyelle McSweeney, The Necropastoral: Poetry, Media, Occults
BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR! + microplastics + dandelion + flawed pearl + fruit punch + The Relic + baroque + “when does a meadow stop being a meadow” + jackalope + bowl of teeth + i am sad, so sad + a ceaseless keening + still skeptical + lilac + Lizzie Borden took an axe + Joan of Arc : : Gilles De Rais + “search at the dump concluded today with” + tiger pelts + je me lance + the biologist + dense + decadent + nonpotable + “ob-scene[…] their filthy beauty” + disposable + “the pastoral, like the occult, has always been a fraud” + heavy water + contamination readouts + bonsai tree + shotgun + “no conclusive evidence of substantial impact on wildlife” + wild boar + many wolves + pine + “life finds a way!” + slight asymmetric measurements + “don’t drink milk or eat tomatoes” + MELODY, GLOUCESTER + sunflower remediation + fortitude + end of the world + gross body + ecological anxiety + HUMANS, HUMANS, HUMANS.
Contemporary ecological concerns are often countered with talk about environmental justice. What does justice mean to a corpse? I’ve read too many books where hapless environmentalist do-gooders try to sell me the silver lining in mass extinction and planetary collapse. Some people are very excited about the possibilities in fungus. Some people are vegetarians. Some people make art. Autoerotic asphyxiation takes many forms.
Send me decadent poetry peddling vegetal, venial filth; fiction that is more sensation than sense; writing with mutated romantic hearts; visual art both florid and tortured. Send me your most purple perfume reviews & pimple pops, your psycho killer love letters, your apocalypse day planner. Tell me what credit cards you ate for lunch yesterday; your most recent sperm count. I want a lush gothic novel written by a half-imploded billionaire at the bottom of the sea; I want Melancholia & Flannery O’Connor & Lara Glenum & Only Lovers Left Alive.
Good luck.
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M. Forajter is the author of Interrogating the Eye (Schism Neurotics, 2022), a poetry-essay on the poetics of looking/the gaze and the ecstasy of art making. Her work focuses on experimental poetics, the gothic, and the effects of the Anthropocene on non-human ecology. She really likes Nirvana, werewolves, and medieval art.
__________
Submission Guidelines
All submissions should be sent as attachments to guesteditorbhp@gmail.com
Please state the theme and form of your submission in the subject of the email. For example: ART & ANNIHILATION/POETRY
Poetry and Fiction
For poetry submissions, submit no more than three of your best poems. Short stories should be limited to 1,500 words or (preferably) less. We encourage flash fiction submissions, no more than three at a time. Send these in as a .doc or .docx file, along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.
Art
Submit hi-res images of your works (drawings, paintings, illustrations, collages, photography, etc) with descriptions of the work (Title, Year, Medium, etc) in the body of the email. Files should be in .JPEG unless they are GIFs or videos, and should not exceed 2MB in size for each work. File names should correspond with the work titles. Video submissions can be uploaded onto Youtube or Vimeo for feature on our website. Send these submissions along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.
Virtual Reality/ 3D Artworks
For VR Submissions, please submit no more than three (3) individual artworks. For Tilt Brush works, please upload your artwork to Google Poly (https://poly.google.com/), and mark it as ‘public’ (‘remixable’ is at your own preference). A VR/3D artwork can also be submitted as a video export navigating through the artwork. If you prefer this method, please upload your finished video file to YouTube or Vimeo and provide a URL. With either format, please provide a 150 word artist’s statement.
Non-fiction
Non-fiction submissions (essays, reviews, commentary, interviews, etc) should be no more than 1, 500 words and sent as a .doc or .docx file along with your third-person bio/and optional photograph.
Submissions are open until 25th JULY – and will reopen again on 1st AUGUST 2025/for new theme/new editor/s.
BHP online is now in the capable hands of the amazing M. FORAJTER– friends, arsonistas, send our JULY 2025 guest editor your magic!
Dry Chaconne
the air was parched the earth in drought when you left me
thinking of Lorca the desire of the rain remembrance
of the earth the smooth earth when it rains has a scent
as you did when you came to me in splinters
a weight of longing a turning wheel straining the fibres
of your countenance blurred visions flecks of silvering light
the smallest gestures of your eyes arabesque, interlacing
rhythmic in the shimmering air shivers of electric blue
a tapestry of shadow layers of ice melting
the rain falling the desire of the rain a memory
of the earth in Lorca shards falling
splinters of rain the dry earth around me
our ritual gestures fragility of longing the suffering
of the rain in the chasms of your eyes an infinite waiting
for the simplest things infinite light infinite heat
a daze of deep yellow layers of ice melting
a tapestry of shadow the unsparing earth
the rain in Lorca the fibres of your eyes
all the fevers of the seas
as you wish
line bright with horizon
golden residues of day
α hours of the dwindling warmth
β warmth of the dwindling hours
γ dwindling warmth of the hours
dwindling sadness of the river
shoreline bright with stone
glistening time under starry moonlight
now quiet, all is becoming
Delta Oscillations
iterate
calm stream of aporetic present
oblivion of sleep
dreams grow more lively after dawn
close your peepers
reiterate
brief moments of gloss contentment
needs of obsidian
sleep will wash you with slow waves
night will keep us
Burning House Press are excited to welcome JOHN TREFRY as the first BHP guest editor of our return series of special editions! As of today JOHN will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the month of JUNE.
Submissions are open from today – and will remain open until 25TH JUNE.
JOHN’S theme for the month is as follows
—INANIMISM—
Submission Guidelines
All submissions should be sent as attachments to guesteditorbhp@gmail.com
Please state the theme and form of your submission in the subject of the email. For example: INANIMISM/POETRY
Poetry and Fiction
For poetry submissions, submit no more than three of your best poems. Short stories should be limited to 1,500 words or (preferably) less. We encourage flash fiction submissions, no more than three at a time. Send these in as a .doc or .docx file, along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.
Art
Submit hi-res images of your works (drawings, paintings, illustrations, collages, photography, etc) with descriptions of the work (Title, Year, Medium, etc) in the body of the email. Files should be in .JPEG unless they are GIFs or videos, and should not exceed 2MB in size for each work. File names should correspond with the work titles. Video submissions can be uploaded onto Youtube or Vimeo for feature on our website. Send these submissions along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.
Virtual Reality/ 3D Artworks
For VR Submissions, please submit no more than three (3) individual artworks. For Tilt Brush works, please upload your artwork to Google Poly (https://poly.google.com/), and mark it as ‘public’ (‘remixable’ is at your own preference). A VR/3D artwork can also be submitted as a video export navigating through the artwork. If you prefer this method, please upload your finished video file to YouTube or Vimeo and provide a URL. With either format, please provide a 150 word artist’s statement.
Non-fiction
Non-fiction submissions (essays, reviews, commentary, interviews, etc) should be no more than 1, 500 words and sent as a .doc or .docx file along with your third-person bio/and optional photograph.
Submissions are open until 25th JUNE – and will reopen again on 1st JULY2025/for new theme/new editor/s.
BHP online is now in the capable hands of the amazing JOHN TREFRY – friends, arsonistas, send our JUNE 2025 guest editor your magic!
Burning House Press will be re-opening for intermittent guest edited editions in 2025 – this will be a completely speculative operation intended to test waters and take temperatures.
Like a lot of the world at that time, BHP were forced to abruptly cease operations during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 – factors including the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional onslaught of that time.
When BHP began in 2016 there had seemed to be a definitive place for a non-ego centred, community approach to literature and publishing – it is to be discovered whether the climate for BHP to exist within still remains.
Therefore – the reigniting of guest editor-led editions is contingent on these external factors and also the physical health of BHP.
We hope that you welcome this news – and will support the effort to return by publicising BHP news and sharing your creative works with upcoming guest edited editions – as we are rebuilding from a starter position at this time.
BHP have deleted all meta social accounts – and operations will be conducted via published content here – and publicised to the community only on Bluesky.
Please follow BHP on Bluesky here to keep in touch with our progress and be part of rebuilding the BHP community.
In the meantime – while your guest editors are assembling and mining the vein of the hour for the themes of each edition – BHP will be celebrating and reposting work from the previous series of guest-edited editions – look out for those posts on Bluesky.
Yours In Service Of Creativity…
Burning House Press
January 30th, 2021
And Thou Shalt Judge The Expiring Soccer Mom
after Servant, Season Two, Episode Three, Pizza
Surveil from silk sheets your mortal estate.
On suburban streets, death, afterlife vie
behind grandiose gates. Above play dates,
teammates, cheese pizza parties, skeletonize
with the greatest of ease. Caretakers doze
in proximate chairs. Delicate wraith
tiptoes upstairs in prim servant’s clothes
with bowls of puréed sustenance. Your faith
remakes a cadaverous countenance,
nasal cannula dispensable soon.
Expiring soccer mom circumstances
avoidable if you only commune
with a macilent maiden magistrate.
Worthiness for rebirth, she calculates.
January 9th, 2021
Madonna & Manchild
Bury bereavement in cellar below
with buttercup onesie, Château Pétrus
Merlot — a godless sacrament you know
is mortal sin. Silicon reproduced
to simulate skin so your spouse can
begin, maternal virgin, again. Sleep
walk through mutual grief she countermands,
rationing love, plastic in pale hands. Keep
cries deep in your throat until she’s asleep.
A baby monitor projects its first
weep — graveled, full grown. The hell two have reaped,
one remembers alone. Insatiable thirst
nursed by propped-up bottles inside brownstone,
She suckles a doll while you drink alone.
Pretty Maids All In A Row
after Servant
Rambles past ringlets, ruffles, rouge to you,
end of the queue, interviewed for the show,
television lady forgets your debut —
segment you are someone she chose to know.
Her fascinations are fleeting and slight,
provincially dressed princess one night. Lives
she catalogues on oak shelves in plain sight.
Decades of ingenues in her archives,
December 27th, 2020
You’re At The Grownup Table Now
after Servant
In vermillion lipstick, a Dorothy
blue dress, borrowed ruby, ring finger, beaus
to impress, submit to a coy lady’s
request for your red shoes before she goes
another night to Oz, woos a tasteless
Lothario. Leave you with a boy, shrewd
serpent in a kitchen sink. First, you finesse,
send for something red to drink. Latter, you
will batter until still quivering, peel.
Boy who prepares, serves eel on a plate rues
the bell which summoned him, the man of steel
who waits to throw him out; you must stroke his rage.
At the grownup table, you will come of age.
December 19th, 2020
Atheist Barbie
is unavailable in stores. Believes
in Christmas trees, Taylor Swift Evermore
with little distinction between the motifs —
cute aesthetics without fealty sworn.
Like dollhouses dissected their families, some
pink plastic posed preternaturally
replacing puritans overcome
with prayers, prurience, pageantry,
incest upstairs. A ripped Sunday school dress,
nothing beneath, long hair dyed forever noir,
fresh balsam wreath. Believer in kindness
and twinkling lights, blessings in boudoirs,
tempestuous nights. deprived of her breath.
Nothing is deeper than sex, not even death.
Oh The Places You’ll Work Bitch
And Not Be Free
for Britney
For Disney, Pepsi, Bela Karolyi
(who USA gymnastics cut ties with
in pedophile controversy at the
remote training space, national forest
woods), Star Search, Broadway, Rolling Stone
(at seventeen in push-up bra, baby
blue velveteen rabbit inside her own
small town bedroom.), the 24, maybe
more, varietals of perfume; Sbarro,
Nabisco, HBO (Emmy wins for
concert docu shows), and their fathers, though,
even if estranged, legalities restore
a golden gosling to its violent cage
without telephone, medicated rage.
Continue reading “Womannotated – Oh The Places You Will Work Bitch And Not Be Free”
December 6th, 2020
Hirsute
In middle school, bullied for body hair.
Matched hair, eyes, contrasted fair skin, a shroud
I wear everywhere. Was so scared
to shave above the knee. Was told no one
should look there anyway. Was whispered of
so many days in locker rooms by some
with blonde peach fuzz which was what love
looked like, at this time, to me, Florida
yellow/tan uniformity. Was called
a fiend, witch from another place, not of
the beach I breach, a plaited pouting pall
their boyfriends chased, animal they want to taste,
shadow to hide inside this golden place.
November 29th, 2020
The Dirty Truth About Butterflies
It’s easy for a religiously bred
(misled) girl to make an Eden of
a garden, angels of winged soon dead,
repopulating in three weeks. But love’s
amino acids butterflies won’t find
in agapanthus nectar, waterfalls —
Continue reading “Womannotated – The Dirty Truth About Butterflies”
November 21st, 2020
Radiant Heat
This is the time of day sunbeams cross my
mattress, imprison flesh atop its breadth.
Each breath, bee balm, bids eyelash butterflies
vibrate; no body lies in wait bereft
its pleasures just because it is alone
but moans all illuminations shone through nude
windows. Your radiant heat upon bones,
Continue reading “Womannotated – Radiant Heat”
November 14th, 2020
Macabre Burlesque
I live in a genre the aged read.
Decrepit men tell their mendacities
before a final tomcatnap beneath
cracked granite mausoleum roof. This squeezed
social register, not quite weatherproof,
trickles on nipples; a drooping sundress
exposes flesh, rose, only ghosts reprove
or molest, witness this macabre burlesque.
October 7, 2020
Holding Pond
Kristin Garth
Gills desiccating, you glide through his house,
hair towel dried, Oxford shirt, slouched, secured
with belt made oversized dress — yours doused
in his tank, under duress. Damp, demure
while you saunter down bifurcated stairs,
some guests the servants were unaware, out
his front door then driveway, street. Unprepared —
November 1, 2020
Texting Shakespeare
On the side of a road atop a stump
you seem cinched in by sunshine while you are
slumped over a cellphone screen, bare goosebumped
décolleté. You ignore the people, cars.
You have something to say. Instrumental
Continue reading “Womannotated – Texting Shakespeare”
Costumed In Resistance
How do you tell it is Halloween when
everyone wears a mask everyday,
would be kings orange aerosol sprays then
locks children in cages, parents sent away?
Continue reading “Womannotated – Vote, America”
October 17th
Keith Raniere and Allison Mack poetry by Kristin Garth and Marisa Silva Dunbar
Kult Ken
by Kristin Garth
divides women and the men, considers
mind control at ten when he learns listen
is not the same as care. Schoolgirl Skippers
are chatty, everywhere, dripping poison
from lonely little tongues. Learns to use it against
them young. Can do it with a dad bod, sweat-
band, night volleyball game with lessons condensed —
marketing, pain. Boss Barbie in hand,
he will walk home tonight. Tomorrow she will
ask him before she takes a bite, now hungry
only for what she deserves. Holes he fills
before the next underhand serve where she
waits on bleachers for it to happen again —
molded obedient female companion.
The Introduction: November 14, 2006
by Marisa Silva Dunbar
We are now witnesses to the origin
—here is where he ensnares you.
You are mesmerized—girlish—giggly,
and desperate for your worth to be seen
by this man in a sweatband and kneepads.
We know it’s just a seedy facade. Some
of us have at one point, wanted to be
loved by a mediocre man
BURNING HOUSE PRESS 