Great American BBQ
Rhyme-schemes in contemporary poetry and old school Victorian era bullshit alike always fell flat on me. Rappers do it better and I’m not sorry to say that. However, my main man GP DeSalvo incorporates a fun back and forth between straight prose and rhymes in this narrative style poem about, you guessed it, in a way that makes you bob your head along with it. An artist, writer, and overall good dude who I am proud can call Soft Cartel a regular resident. Check out his work.
“Saga of Weird Fruit”
Saga Of Weird Fruit
Alec Fugate is one of those people who submits to your magazine, venue, newspaper; whatever you want to call it, and you think: “wow, thanks man.” This piece in “OCCULUM” (go check them out too, Arielle Tipa (editor) is the Patron Saint of Dark Indie Love, showcases his abstract and wild from that readers of Cartel might recall was prominent in his “PHOTOGRAPHS OF MADNESS: INSIDE OUT” residency. I loved Alec’s work so much it motivated me to found Soft Cartel Press, so, this spooky season keep your eyes out for something nice. ‘Til then, read more here.
FIREBIRD
2019 has proven itself the most productive year I have ever witnessed (out of a whole staggering three years I’ve “been on the scene”) in terms of community. Jared exemplifies this in his positive and outgoing personality. However, his writing doesn’t often reflect his demeanor, as seen in this piece. Jared jots emotions into your brain and his style is incredibly varied. A writer I expect great things from that has blessed us with some strange and beautiful moments.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This man turned me into a dirty, filthy poetry reader. Seriously. His work is so concrete and wonderfully narrative that somehow my prose oriented brain was tricked into loving it. Now, this
is not to take away from his clearly poetic style and form, which certainly dominant, but rather to emphasize the content he chooses to write about. I will say no more. Read him.
UN-MOUSE
This is it folks. A dirty bathroom, a weird thing, and a sense of humanity that rings so loudly you can’t help but remember your mortal condition. I have previously described this piece as the Soft Cartel “staple of weird fiction” for the themes, tone, and overall sense of absurdity. Beautiful. How beautiful.
About Mixtapes
These mixtapes are a way for the Neutral Spaces community to read and share each others writing.
The idea is to go through the site and select 5 pieces from 5 authors.
For Neutral Spaces authors, these get collected and you are given a space to write about your mini-collection.
On the page, the curator and the 5 selected authors have their website linked, together with the 5 external links for the chosen work.
If you run a journal, I would love to spotlight your site with 5 pieces, you can use the introduction to let people know what you're trying to do with your site.
If you want to put together a mixtape, e-mail me.