#softskull

[rt-squish]

Thing from @soft5ku11's fic "Irresponsible".

[taylorbyas1]

My debut full-length poetry collection, I DONE CLICKED MY HEELS THREE TIMES, is out today! 🥹💜💛

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Inspired by The Wiz, this debut, full-length poetry collection celebrates South Side Chicago and a Black woman’s quest for self-discovery—one that pulls her away from the safety of home and into her power.

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times takes its inspiration and concept from the cult classic film The Wiz to explore a Black woman’s journey out of the South Side of Chicago and into adulthood. The narrative arc of The Wiz—a tumultuous departure from home, trials designed to reveal new things about the self, and the eventual return home—serves as a loose trajectory for this collection, pulling readers through an abandoned barn, a Wendy’s drive-thru, a Beyoncé video, Grandma’s house, Sunday service, and the corner store. At every stop, the speaker is made to confront her womanhood, her sexuality, the visibility of her body, alcoholism in her family, and various ways in which narratives are imposed on her.

Subverting monolithic ideas about the South Side of Chicago, and re-casting the city as a living, breathing entity, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times spans sestinas, sonnets, free-verse, and erasures, all to reimagine the concept of home. Chicago isn’t just a city, but a teacher, a lingering shadow, a way of seeing the world.

[soft5ku11]

Commission for Anonymous - BIG stretch

[mausarchive]

another crusty fucking dude posting the grossest most degrading anime girl titty/panties upskirt artwork ive ever seen. my block list gains another softskulled entry

[pesterloglog]

Rose Lalonde

Act 4, page 1852

Frigglish bothered his beard, as if unkinking a hitch in a long silk windsock. A more pedestrian audience would parse the exhibit as nervous compulsion. Behavior to petition contempt among the reasonable. He was however not surrounded by the reasonable, but the wise, a distinction in men that would forever be the difference in history's garland of treasured follies. As a matter of fact, his cadre of fellow wizards were all putting similar moves on their beards as well. The practice would evince thoughtfulness - sagacity, even - if they didn't do it all the time. Standing in line at the bank. Shooing squirrels from bird feeders. Few occasions were safe.

Zazzerpan inspected the clue. A single piece of evidence cradled in his coriaceous old man palms. It was a human bone, not striking in the tale it told alone so much as that told by the thousands like it festooning the marshy soil of the mass grave. The grisly expanse bore the texture of a decadent dessert, like one of Smarny's formidable custard trifles wobbled out on wheels for the holidays, to the dismay of a small nation.

"You're certain of this?" asked Frigglish. Despite what he was doing with his beard, he was, in fact, immersed in meaningful contemplation.

"I am afraid I am becoming more so with each terrible tick groused by that gaudy timepiece slung around your neck." In case it wasn't clear, Frigglish wore a clock Zazzerpan didn't care for. It was magic. "The massacre of Syrs Gnelph was not as written."

"What has you convinced it was the hand of our disciples in this blackness?" Executus chimed in.

"I believe... I..." a fat face stammered, eyes darting with the guilt of a thief in the throes of an unraveling alibi. "I can summon a... more pressing line of inquiry..." No, Smarny. Nobody was in the mood for a sticky bundt loaf just now.

Zazzerpan's ears fell insubstantial to any line of inquiry, pastry-oriented or otherwise. His abstruse contour carved a pondering shape in the fog carpeting centuries-dead. His eleven contemporaries too embraced the muted consternation of their great Predicant Scholar. Few wizards kept sharper adumbratives or read them with such lucidity. When Zazzerpan treated men with silence it was seldom unrepaid by the wise and reasonable alike.

It was harrowing to entertain. Zazzerpan the Learned's storied Complacency of Wizards was marked for grander descendence. Disciples hand-picked, vetted by Ockite the Bonafide and tested by Gastrell the Munificent. The twelve sweetest, most studious children a pair of elderly eyes could give their sparkle. Not the ragged guttersnipe so oft-harvested by the common Obscenity, those vituperative little beggars with hearts to corrupt as dropped bananas brown. That these chosen youngsters would turn was not merely unthinkable, but something of a roundhouse to the temporal bones of the Upper Indifference's high chamber of Softskulled Prophets.

His wisdom-savaged brow pruned further with recount of his many lessons to wouldbe successors. Lessons to advance humanity's elucidation and prosperity, an outcome this bleak trail now painfully obviated. There were few puzzles The Learned could not suspend and dissect in the recondite manifold beneath his extremely expensive pointy hat. Daring to pitch his cherished pupils in with the foul melange of history's rogues, the heretofore abstract scourge that built up civilizations with ungodly magic and tore them down with joyful malice, would prove an intellectual trespass to make his calcium-deficient bones quake.

And more daring yet was the only question that now mattered. Could a bunch of bearded, scraggly old men in preposterous outfits hunt them down? He didn't have an answer. Only a simple observation so blunt and uncharacteristically jejune for the lauded sage it was breathtaking in its selfevidency.

"We're going to need more wands." (Wow. Think of something better.)

[lasersquid]

fighting fire with fire? loser move, softskull.

winners fight fire with oxygen plasma.

honestly, some of my finer work

[threeonegrecords]

This thing is back in stock over at www.threeoneg.com | From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry #threeoneg #softskull #readingmaterial #jokes (at San Diego, California)

[primalconcepts]

This is a rants from one of the tiny beautiful snowflakes who was so deeply offended my my bats. The really sad part here is this guy who can't tell the difference between a bat and a nephew-nazi hate crime seems to be a school teacher!!! Smh #snowflake #softskull

[distraughtlesbian]

now that wolf bride is widely available this is just a reminder that the book is full of anti-indigenous racism as well as wildly misogynistic and if any of you clown softskulls defend it to the native people of the choices fandom, kindly instead consider walking into the sea. love and light <3

[jvnla]

We love when our authors come to visit!!! . . . #elizabethcrane #turf #softskull #thehistoryofgreatthings #harpercollins #weonlyknowsomuch #harperperennial #whenthemessangerishot #allthisheavenlyglory #backbaybooks #youmustbethishappytoenter #akashicbooks (at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqsxqS8HzvQ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=r0p5qptsz116

[missfinefeather]

Already spent too much time on this. Don’t expect me to top myself every time!

When Zazzerpan treated men with silence it was seldom unrepaid by the wise and reasonable alike. 

Though she is quite wordy, she’s really good at building up this character.

The twelve sweetest, most studious children a pair of elderly eyes could give their sparkle. Not the ragged guttersnipe so oft-harvested by the common Obscenity, those vituperative little beggars with hearts to corrupt as dropped bananas brown. That these chosen youngsters would turn was not merely unthinkable, but something of a roundhouse to the temporal bones of the Upper Indifference's high chamber of Softskulled Prophets. 

“Roundhouse to the temporal bones“ xDDD

So it appears a bunch of gifted students turned to evil, and it’s up to these wizards to bring them in line!

Daring to pitch his cherished pupils in with the foul melange of history's rogues, the heretofore abstract scourge that built up civilizations with ungodly magic and tore them down with joyful malice, would prove an intellectual trespass to make his calcium-deficient bones quake. 

I can’t imagine, the people you trusted to eventually take up the mantel betraying you, destroying everything you’ve work so hard to build up.

And more daring yet was the only question that now mattered. Could a bunch of bearded, scraggly old men in preposterous outfits hunt them down? He didn't have an answer.

Grandpas of the magical apocalypse!

"We're going to need more wands." (Wow. Think of something better.)

Pfft, dammit! I should have read through this before doing the header image! A jaws ref would have been WAY easier!

[taylorbyas1]

Cannot describe how cool it is to be in Chicago Mag’s “Best of Chicago” issue 🥹

[soft5ku11]

Doing some YCH commissions! No kids, no extremely complex designs. Contact me via Tumblr DM or Discord if interested or if you want more info! My discord server is in my pinned post. :)

[thebiblio-file-blog-blog]

Andy Hunter on Bookshop.org and how to stick it to Amazon

Andy Hunter is the founder and CEO of Bookshop.org  He's also the publisher at Catapult, at Counterpoint and at Softskull, and, as if this isn't enough, publisher and co-creator at LitHub, and co-founder and chairman at Electric Literature. 

  Despite all of these responsibilities, Andy took the time to talk via Zoom about his latest venture and how to use it to help support indie bookstores, and, at the same time, stick it to Amazon. Bookshop.org is "an online book marketplace designed to support independent bookstores."

  Among other things the two of us discuss how authors, publishers, reviewers, bloggers and others in the book publishing ecosystem can sign up as Bookshop.org affiliates and make 10% of the price of books sold on their sites (as opposed to 4.5% from Amazon); about Bookshop.org's huge selection of books shipping directly from the wholesaler and being delivered in 2-3 days; about physically touching paper pages and petting cats in brick and mortar bookshops; about the smells and sounds and conversations and coffee that can be had in real bookstores; about revitalizing downtowns; about the magic of reading; and about helping to ensure that all of this continues to be a thing.  

Check out this episode!

[artbookdap]

Saturday, January 25 at 3PM, Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles Bookstore and Softskull invite you to celebrate the publication of 'Imaginary Museums.' Author Nicolette Polek will be in conversation with Kathryn Scanlan. Book signing to follow. @artbookhwla @softskullpress @nicolettepolek @land_scan https://www.instagram.com/p/B7tUDDBJ_6d/?igshid=g7e92oda2cz4

[biandlesbianliterature]

LGBT & LGBT-Friendly Publishers

List from Lambda Literary.

LGBT PUBLISHERS

Arktoi Books Beau to Beau Books Belhue Press Bella Books Blind Eye Books Blue Feather Books Bold Strokes Books Bruno Gmuender Bywater Books Chelsea Station Editions Circlet Press Cleis Press Dreamspinner Press Firebrand Gertrude Press Gival Press Go Deeper Press Green Candy Press Harrington Park Press Homofactus Icon Empire Press Interlude Press In Group Press Intaglio Publications Kings Crossing Publishing Less Than Three Press Lethe Press Magnus Books Manic D Press MLR Press New Victoria Purple Books Publishing Riptide Publishing Regal Crest Riverdale Ave Redbone Press Roosterfish Sibling Rivalry Press Seal Press Seventh Window Publications Spinifex Press Spinster’s Ink STARbooks Press Storm Moon Press Supposed Crimes Tiny Satchel Press Transgress Press Topside Press Torquere Press Wilde City Wildcat Press Wilkinson House

LGBT-FRIENDLY PUBLISHERS

Akashic Books Anchor Books Arsenal Pulp Press Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd. Beacon Press Bedazzled Ink Publishing BOA Editions Brain Mill Press CALYX, Inc. Columbia University Press Cormorant Books Inc. Duke University Press The Feminist Press Firbog Publishing Graywolf Press HarperCollins HoughtonMifflin Hyperion Books ITNA Press Kensington Mcsweeny’s NYU Press Orchard House Press Palgrave Macmillan Paris Press Penguin Random House The Permanent Press Pilgrim Press Radial Books Rebel Satori press Scholastic Simon & Schuster Children Softskull Press South End Press St. Martins St. Martins – Minotaur St. Martins – Tor Tranquebar Press Triplicity Publishing University of Chicago Press University of Minnesota Press University of Wisconsin Press