Sabne Raznik's poetry has been translated into Chinese for the first time.
Her long poem "Valhalla: blue" was translated into Chinese by Yongbo Ma and published in a journal today. The goal is to eventually publish a collection of these translations.
This first translation can be read here.
It’s here! The “Come Hell and High Water: Helene” Special Is(sue) is live! You can view it here:https://www.avantappalachia.com/special-issues.html. This is(sue) will remain readable on the website as long as the website exists under the Special Is(sues) tab on the menu. Thank you all for your heartfelt responses and tributes to this momentous event. Ironically, I am writing you this on the day that Central Appalachia is experiencing its annual Spring floods, except this year they are exceptionally fierce. Somehow, it feels appropriate.
Submissions are still open for our regular Is(sue) 17. The deadline for that is April 30, 2025. Send us your weirdest, most fun creations! Art, poetry, and short fiction. Please, follow the guidelines as we do reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines.
We wish everyone all good things and see you in April! Thank you for being wonderful, witty, experimental, and fabulous!
Sincerely,
Sabne Raznik
Poetry/Art Ed(itor)
A collection of poems written as if in the voice of some of the "fallers" on 9/11/2001, not from a political view, but as a way to process the collective trauma of that day and as a tribute to those lives lost.
Faller is another profound collection by Sabne Raznik. intense, emotional and surreal. "The world is beautiful/At velocity." is only the first line out of all these poems that caught my eye. it makes me stumble. the beauty of this image at the emotional terror that proceeds. moving back and forth from mundane tasks and thinking of children, to the thoughts and questions of falling. it touts your mind. it pulls you in many directions. and then the beautiful love sadness of:
I was afraid to jump alone.
The jacket of my waiter’s uniform felt
Claustrophobic
So I threw it out first.
Then a woman from Table 3
Took my hand and we jumped together
Wordlessly.
so i threw it out first. that line echos in my head. the way the jacket becomes a bird. an image of acceptance, before the calm. - john compton, my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store
In Faller, a collection of poems, Sabne Raznik makes you really feel for the people who fell from the Twin Towers on 9/11. These poems, written in the voices of those who fell, are heart-wrenching. They make you think about what you would do if faced with certain death. If you were judgemental of the people who fell, you won't be after reading these evocative poems. The voices in these poems are so realistic, it's like it actually happened to the author. She puts you in these people's shoes. I've complained about things like a fax machine on the job before, so lines like: "The coworker who complains/about the copier was/standing on her desk/ because the floor burned/through her shoes" really strike a chord in me, make me realize how miniscule and petty my office complaints are in the light of a building burning so fiercely that you have to escape, even if it means certain death. When you read these poems, there is no way you can possibly think of these fallers as suicidal. These poems have eye-opening lines: "The world is beautiful at velocity. Just colour./Like an abstract painting." You really feel the tragic quality of the situation when you experience these voices: "I quit yesterday./I'm just here to get my things." You will come away with a new perspective on having to face death after reading these sad but beautiful, evocative poems. - Lori Lasseter Hamilton, limo casketAvailable for free on Sabne Raznik's official website.
The deadline for Is(sue) 16 is closed so, if you sent in
submissions for that, you should hear back from us in the next couple months on
those. And Is(sue) 16 should go live on December 15, 2024.
Therefore, it is time for us to announce the “Come Hell
and High Water: Helene” Special Is(sue)! This is our tribute to the
before-and-after geological and emotional event that Helene proved to be for
our beloved Appalachia. It is your opportunity as our Kinfolk to express your
emotions around this traumatic time, and for our mountains and people, as they recover.
Unlike the regular is(sues), special is(sues) live on the website for as long
as the website exists, under the “Special Is(sues)” page tab on the menu. Special
is(sues) have the same sub(mission) guidelines as the regular is(sues), with
the exception that you must put “HELENE” in the subject line to differentiate
submissions for this special is(sue) from those meant for a regular is(sue). That
is vital. For this special is(sue), sub(missions) will open on Wednesday,
November 6, 2024, and the deadline will be January 15, 2025.
The Is(sue) will go live on February 15, 2025. We hope that this
will provide a cathartic and healing space for us all.
So, by all means, send us your poetry, art, and short
stories expressing yourselves experimentally and therapeutically about Helene.
We’re here for you.
Sincerely,
Sabne Raznik
Poetry/Art Ed(itor)
Dear Kinfolk,
The guidelines for Short Stories have changed, so be sure to check those out. And pop on over to the Arch(ive) to see which pieces from Is(sue) 12 were chosen for posterity.
I would like to remind everybody that there have always been restrictions on impolite language, gratuitious sex, political pieces, and anything holiday-themed. This absolutely applies to underage characters. I have let some impolite language slide in the past (though I have edited it), but you are encouraged to think seriously about whether certain words or actions are necessary for the story (like in “To Kill A Mockingbird”) or whether you’re merely scratching a personal itch to get more readers. Because if you’re scratching an itch, scratch it somewhere else. Thank you.
Also, remember that our focus is on avant-garde, experimental pieces. We are not meant for your run-of-the-mill, workshop-approved pages. Push the boundaries of what language can do, of what constitutes literature. Have fun. Surprise us.
The submission period for Is(sue) 14 is open! Deadline is November 30, 2023. Happy writing!
https://www.avantappalachia.
Sincerely,
Sabne Raznik
Poetry/Art Ed(itor)
Released yesterday and available via Amazon! "Fingers/Dedos" Selected Poems, bilingual (English/Spanish), $10.00 USD.
Sabne Raznik’s latest collection of poetry Fingers, Selected Poems / Dedos, Poemas Seleccionados contains four powerfully emotive poems (“The Bearded Prophet,” “Poetry,” “Through Our Skin,” and “Fingers”). The English original of each poem is followed by an illustration and then by a Spanish translation by María Del Castillo Sucerquia. It concludes with a photo of the author followed by a one-paragraph biography in English and then its Spanish translation. The four poems are extremely different thematically and make use of different poetic languages. The common denominator between them is an underlying existential anxiety resulting from the inability of human beings collectively to understand each other and set aside greed and self-interest, and individually, in the case of the poet, to find consummation in love, and to discover the language in words and images to capture and communicate the essence of her experience. The poet notes in “Bearded Prophet,” she finds herself in “the era of pain -stampeding pain,” one which paradoxically leads her to identify with the “dumb hillbilly,” the bearded prophet who wears a sign that says “The End of the World Is Near.” Impending doom is suggested by images of the destruction of the environment, the open gashes of Appalachian strip mines, trees stripped bear of life to a height of eight feet by herbicide, and the violent midwestern storms intensified by climate change. “Poetry,” the most abstract of the four poems, prescribes in the form of a series of commands (“arm yourself, “leave the figure,” “Virgin love grow bold” which do not lead to consummation; they prove impotent. “Through the Skin” evokes the locus of creativity, where books, and papers, paint and turpentine are present on a table along with cup and saucer, the place where the written word and the painted image are crafted. The poem leaves the reader with a sense of a purpose shared by the “us” of the poem: “to sketch an idea to live by.” The last poem “Fingers” evokes images of a painful, repeated sexual encounter described as a violation, “like cactus thorns raking down my shapeless lines,” but the violation seems not to result from the violent impulse of the other, rather from the inability of the speaking subject to make good on the promise to the self with the words “Never again, never again.” The four poems are satisfying both as individual compositions and as panels of a multi-media whole. – Yndiana Montes Fogelquist and Jim Fogelquist, Appalachian Latinidad
Fingers/Dedos is a powerful chapbook with 4 elaborate poems in English, with the same poems being translated into Spanish. The poetry captures strong images and emotions: "You sat cross-legged in the grass/And the earth framed your face." I was pulled into these poems and transformed into a cocoon waiting to be released into something with such fingers that would "Feel the bone crack,/Grind against my teeth/As I scream [...]" and become new in the aftermath. – John Compton, the castration of a minor god and how we liberated what secrets we modified
Also, feel free to leave a review and/or stars on Amazon and Goodreads! Thank you! And enjoy!
Is(sue) 11 went live around 10 pm EDT on June 15, 2022. With this Is(sue), AvantAppal(achia) entered year 6. Thank you all very much!
This is(sue) features 3 countries and 12 states. Almost all of Appalachia is represented and a number of other places as well, along with Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. You will also find chapter 4 of Jim Meirose’s mind-bending Beckettian novel that flips the concepts of death and resurrection on their head.
The submission period for Is(sue) 12 is now open. The deadline for that is November 30, 2022. We need your weird, fun, experimental poetry, art, and short stories. Please read Guidelines and follow them because the reading period is only 2 weeks, so we will now have to automatically reject any submission which does not follow the instructions.
Also, stay tuned for an announcement from our sister endeavor North/South Appalachia, which should be dropping into your email or on social media channels in a couple of days. Exciting, I know!
Until we meet again!
https://www.avantappalachia.
Sincerely,
Sabne Raznik
Poetry/Art Ed(itor)
