June Reading + Excerpt - "Things Unsaid" (Patreon)

Hey everyone,

The more chronological amongst you may have noted that it is quite late in June for reading lists or any such updates.

Full transparency: it's been an unexpected and difficult few weeks, personally, so I'm taking a slow month on these reading lists and highlights to recover. In the coming months, I've got a lot that I'm excited to read with all of you, and updates on a big public art project I'm excited to be stepping into this summer.

However, for now, so as not to leave the page barren - I thought I'd share a few pieces of writing I've found in my search for Telelibrary selections that I love but cannot excerpt, because it doesn't work when read aloud.

Under The Tuscan Sun (2003): A Romance I̶n̶t̶e̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶e̶d̶ By Edil Hassan

This is a great example of a convention I love by have no idea how to read aloud. On Poets.org they simply have the poet read it twice, each way (though they don't annotate it correctly). But the pleasure is all in reading it both ways, at the same time—slipping between the different interpretations, feeling them jostle and blend.



WHO REAL؟ By Marwa Helal 

"This poem is best viewed on desktop" reads a footnote on the page linked - which is a hell of an understatement. The full truth is that Marwa Helal is doing incredible things through and beyond the deceptively simple and powerfully transformative ask of demanding that we read from right to left, as the original Arabic would be read. 

Swan and Shadow BY JOHN HOLLANDER 

Look, I happen to love a bit of fancy formatting. Works like this are so lovely and elegant, and the longer you look, the better they get.

~

That's all for now. See you good people next month — which is to say, quite soon.

Thanks for everything - and patience especially.

- Yannick