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// playlist
sped was officially born today! Cue the celebratory music. One day I’d like to write more about the why—or at least the how come—of these songs. For now, with school in session and a birthday to celebrate, I’ll start with this playlist from the book, mostly from the last section, “Programs for Exceptional.” Tune in…
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// in memory
When I flew to Seattle for my father’s memorial service, my mother and I—and sometimes the people who streamed through my parents’ house for the days and weeks to come—sat on the back patio and stared out at Puget Sound. My mom smoked a steady chain of cigarettes. I folded, chest into thighs. We laughed with…
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// interview & awp
Hot off the binary presses, How to Greet Strangers author Joyce Thompson interviews me about sped: process, concept, real life. And, sped pre-releases at AWP! Swing by the Sidebrow/Les Figues table at the bookfair in Boston to check it out. I’ll be reading with a host of talented writers at the Distillery Gallery, 7–10…
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// the real cover & artistic autopsy
At the dinner table he dissected the banana, examined it under a magnifying glass, weighed it/ Prelude to the massacre, to the years of rain/ —“Forever No Lo” Where is their hive and why did you settle for mechanized translation as intentional language// —“The Apiary” Think of it as a Rubik’s cube/ not a…
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// straight girls
// what does a lesbian bring to a second date—with a man? swept up and the close bodies chanting/ She told me not to fuck with straight girls/ She told me not to take pills// Eugene deciduous/ that miniskirt again// What about letting him make you a straight girl// — “Programs for Exceptional,”…
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// t.g.s.
// the geographic solution I believe them when they say In a beautiful place out in the country —“Forever No Lo,” first section of sped My mother says my dad’s dad believed in the geographic solution to unhappiness. My grandfather was career military, and as soon as he felt a twinge of…
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// this is not the real cover, and other stories
My father used to line up water bottles of diluted Tang and Country Time lemonade, pile up bagels on a sawhorse in the garage, turn on a VHS of the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia recorded from TV, and ride his bike on rollers. Rollers are different from a stationary stand; they consist…
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// blissful (un)democracy
My last semester at Mills, I sent my MFA thesis to O Books out of a combination of Why not? and Just maybe… I was fortunate enough to receive a detailed response with feedback from the late Leslie Scalapino. I’d included a standard cover letter with some throwaway description of the general theme. One sentence…
Teresa K. Miller, poet and essayist 