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Blunderbuss Magazine
Fiction

In the Opposites’ World

Fiction

The History of Bodies

Fiction

Shots in the Dark

All Posts

  • Comics

    Rascal House Blues, Pt. IV

    The agent of your dreams.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Fiction

    After Homecoming

    “I am not looking. None of my concern, I have to remind myself. A nice, respectable citizen doesn’t care what two cops are doing because he’s done nothing

    By Vytautas Malesh
  • Comics

    Rascal House Blues, Pt. III

    Finding connection in the dank subterranean pathways of Reddit.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Fiction

    Hostel

    “Marie arrived the day of the Eiffel Tower bomb threat. She wore a giant backpack and hiking boots, as if this were the Alps instead of the Latin

    By J.T. Townley
  • Comics

    Rascal House Blues, Pt. II

    Searching for that emotional thread.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Comics

    Rascal House Blues, Pt. I

    The elderly, the internet, and a NSFW mystery.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Fiction

    Three Stories of a Future to Come

    "We worked, and loved, and charted ourselves, wrenching legibility and dignity from the system one Google Maps update at a time."

    By Adam Flynn
  • Essays

    Where You From

    The intersecting lives of immigrants and gentrifiers in Northeast Los Angeles.

    By Cheryl Klein
  • Poems

    Affirmation

    To dream of a single spider / is to know you are safe from self-destruction.

    By Kim Sousa
  • Fiction

    Woman With Phone on Ferry

    "But she knows that she is not Nick Carraway, she is not reliving her beloved story."

    By Regina Tavani
  • Shrapnel

    Breaking Up Hard To Do, But You Could’ve Done Better – Vol. III

    "He told me that he didn't like my hair in a ponytail, and if I wore one again he'd break up with me."

    By Hilary Campbell
  • Essays

    America Needs a Network of Rebel Cities to Stand Up to Trump

    We must look to cities to protect civil liberties and build progressive alternatives from the bottom up.

    By Kate Shea Baird and Steve Hughes
  • Essays

    Foreign and Domestic

    "I told myself that it was important to show that those that served were not props for hate."

    By Drew Pham
  • Shrapnel

    Notes on My Africa

    "The little girl smiled because she thought that he was genuinely interested in her, a white man with fancy gadgets and bright teeth."

    By Isoken Osagie
  • Shrapnel

    Monsters

    Portraits of an empire in decline.

    By Adam Epstein
  • Shrapnel

    Breaking Up Hard To Do, But You Could’ve Done Better – Vol. II

    Are you a muffin person or a sushi person?

    By Hilary Campbell
  • Poems

    Utopia

    all the flags are white, white on white, there aren’t any homelands

    By Peter Leight
  • Art

    Visibility Sustains the Struggle: An Initiative in Support of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Hunger Strike

    As prisoners fight against their inhumane conditions, artists make sure that the world doesn't look away.

    By Decolonize This Place
  • Fiction

    She and Her Kid and Me and Mine

    "To further complicate matters, we are both married to white men."

    By Alejandro Varela
  • Shrapnel

    Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, But You Could’ve Done Better

    Up, please.

    By Hilary Campbell
  • Poems

    Flying United

    The plane ratchets a twinge in my intestines. / I'm reading during takeoff. Why trust the sympathetic?

    By Max Schleicher
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: Sonora

    "That was when I knew, however eerily, I had an obligation to the material."

    By Hannah Lillith Assadi
  • Comics

    A Goofy Theory

    Investigating that most pressing of questions: How does Goofy reproduce?

    By Leon Chang and Yvonne Martinez
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: All Grown Up

    "I felt like my whole career was up in the air and also I seriously did not know what I was going to write next."

    By Jami Attenberg
  • Poems

    Acadia

    You wonder where the soul is, if this is the body. / You want to ask if it’s in the ashes in the bag / or the air

    By Lauren Kayes
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    I know some dudes hate things / But this is just how I am

    By Christopher DeWeese
  • Poems

    Book of Kings XXVI – XXX

    sweat between mine teeth the jaw / unsteady the tongue holding consonants

    By Benjamin Winkler
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Feb. 3 – 9

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    Because when life hands you / a ball peen hammer everyone’s / going to get nailed

    By Michelle Lewis
  • Comics

    Day nine

    "I don't know how to process anything anymore."

    By Hayley Thornton-Kennedy
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Jan. 27 – Feb. 2

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • News

    Call for Submissions: “Rebel Cities”

    Contribute to Blunderbuss!

    By The Editors
  • Essays

    Patriotism: A Schooling (and Unschooling)

    Pledging allegiance, but to what?

    By Jessica Holmes
  • Columns

    Rhyme & Reason: Sign Language’s Anti-Authoritarian Streak

    Some subversive signing to celebrate President Pea-Brain's coronation.

    By Sara Nović
  • Calendar

    Washington, DC Resistance Calendar: Anti-Inaugural Weekend

    Let's raise a little hell.

    By The Editors
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Jan. 20 – 26

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Poems

    from Letter to the Aliens

    because / dear aliens / these are things to be seen

    By Doug Paul Case
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Jan. 13 – 19

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Comics

    I’m 30 & I’m Normcore as Hell

    I guess this is growing up.

    By Kevin Tang
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Jan. 6 – 12

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Poems

    Resolving Host I & II

    an advertisement for a mountain / that says you too could be / the opposite of where you are

    By Robert Balun
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Dec. 30 – Jan. 5

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Dec. 23 – 29

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • News

    Best of Blunderbuss 2016

    The work that helped us get through this nightmare of a year.

    By The Editors
  • Comics

    The Assassin, Pt. II

    The saga concludes...

    By Drew Lerman
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Dec. 16 – 22

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Comics

    The Assassin, Pt. I

    "I need you to kill me."

    By Drew Lerman
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Dec. 9 – 15

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Fiction

    Already dead.

    "One day, I think, I’ll be brave enough to let him bite me."

    By Joe Ponce
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Dec. 2 – 8

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Poems

    Junk: An Excerpt

    facing the possibility of total economic collapse on the back of / war and falling oil prices vs Australia’s avocado shortage

    By Tommy Pico
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Nov. 25 – Dec. 1

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Poems

    they ask me write anything

    will this be on the final? is there a final on the syllabus? no. then no.

    By Christina M. Rau
  • Calendar

    NYC Resistance Calendar, Nov. 18 – 24

    A weekly guide to action.

    By The Editors
  • Fiction

    I am not Edward Snowden

    "NSA whistleblower turned washer of delicates in a tiny sink."

    By Nellie Hermann
  • Essays

    It Happened Here

    But the fight has only just begun.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Shrapnel

    Frat Boy in Chief

    The thin line between White House and Animal House.

    By Clio Chang
  • Comics

    Comics for Democracy

    This election season, we laugh to keep from crying.

    By Benjamin Frisch, Drew Lerman, Jackie Roche, and Ellis Rosen
  • Essays

    For Art, If Not for Democracy

    "Would it be so bad, if art didn’t make us better citizens, and didn’t strengthen our democracy?"

    By Isaac Butler
  • Comics

    Mark Zuckerberg

    "My name is Mark Zuckerberg. I make really good money."

    By Drew Lerman
  • Essays

    The Democratic Party Must Be Destroyed

    The Left's only hope? Hostile takeover.

    By Jamie Peck
  • Fiction

    Fo(u)nd Memories

    Found photographs inspiring flash fiction.

    By Danny Powell
  • Poems

    Rose

    I bit the rose, then there were crushed / petals everywhere. She stuffed them / down my top, then the gin bottle was empty.

    By Roisin Kelly
  • Essays

    Accounting for Home

    "Home isn’t a place, but a method."

    By Matt Hartman
  • Fiction

    A Peak You Reach

    The backseat is a tangle of sweat and skin, two parts boy and one part girl. Over the blaring hip-hop Molly can hear hot, heavy breathing and the

    By Robert Haller
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    father once felt he knew what cars explained with honks. even / while asleep, he made notes of their chatter-boxing

    By Albert Thomas
  • Comics

    Conversation in a Deli in North Miami Beach

    "BLACK SHEEP OF THE FAMILY; SPENDS MONEY LIKE HE NEVER HAD IT; MARRIED TO THAT WITCH FROM NEW JERSEY"

    By Steve Hersh and Drew Lerman
  • Essays

    The Music My Mother Brought Home For Me

    "But somehow, she recognized that I would need these songs, that they could give me something that she could not. And she was right."

    By Ilana Manaster
  • Fiction

    Some Other Place

    “Because he said that if he didn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t be here, you now think about that when he is not here.” They say, anyway,

    By Delphine Bedient
  • Essays

    Standing Still and Watching

    Nostalgia, anxiety, and hummingbird pins.

    By Cole Bubenik
  • Comics

    The Purloined Passion

    Despite all their rage...

    By Benjamin Frisch
  • News

    Blunderbuss to Launch Free Print Magazine

    Public literature, art, and criticism for the public sphere.

    By The Editors
  • Fiction

    Saul and the Witch of Endor, or High Hopes for the Nightmare of History

    "Two days later the Philistines enter the city. Saul is at home looking at his oatmeal and white toast when Chief shows up at the door."

    By Pete Segall
  • Poems

    Expecting

    Presbyterian to the point of incomprehensible / after noon.

    By Julia Guez
  • Fiction

    After Action

    "Gunpowder clings to me like perfume... Did I shoot this man? No holes in him but mine."

    By Drew Pham
  • Comics

    The Unblinking Hive

    Blunderbuss Magazine is participating in an ongoing collaboration with Marsam, a comics website run by an international collective of artists and authors who met in the comic mecca

    By Amruta Patil
  • Fiction

    Structural Integrity

    "Jeanette went home and called Social Services, who said there was nothing they could do about it because eccentric behavior was not enough grounds for an evaluation."

    By Marléne Zadig
  • Black Lives Matter Illuminator
    Art

    A Call to Arms from NYC’s Guerilla Superhero

    Mission: To smash the myths of the information industry and shine a light on the urgent issues of our time.

    By The Illuminator
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: Hold Still

    "For me, the hardest part of writing is the work you have to do not-writing."

    By Lynn Steger Strong
  • Comics

    Thirst Is the Worst

    By Drew Lerman
  • Essays

    On the Foreskin Question

    Circumcision present. Circumcision past. Circumcision future?

    By Jordan Osserman
  • Poems

    Centerfold: Best Picture

    You see stars over my nipples—shoot me— / the cover girl, hands reaching

    By Dorothy Chan
  • Essays

    Pastures

    A whole love in half-tones.

    By Sara Elizabeth Grossman
  • Fiction

    Flash Fictions for the Weary Traveler

    "You want the wrong things."

    By Helen McClory
  • Shrapnel

    Famous Bruises

    "Lenny Bruise is not afraid."

    By Jeremy Nguyen
  • Comics

    The Four Children: A Proposed Revision

    By David Ostow
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    You who were baked Alaska melting and no one certain how to salvage the ruin.

    By Jess Feldman
  • Art

    edén

    Searching for paradise through photographs of everything.

    By Bernardita Morello
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Book: How to See the World

    The power of images, from Monet to the moon.

    By Nick Mirzoeff
  • Comics

    “So, I Finally Decided to Quit Facebook”

    Our first collaboration with the Marsam collective.

    By Cynthia Bonacossa
  • Fiction

    Truly

    "You can imagine the look on the poor lawyer’s face who first worked on this with us. Bless you, Jason. You deserved every penny."

    By Meg Charlton
  • Essays

    B-Roll Weekends

    "So rarely do we remember the things that aren’t worth mentioning but that mattered so much."

    By Saxon Baird
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    When I took you / in my hands I tore you up and lost my hope.

    By Meghan Maguire Dahn
  • Comics

    Bushpig, Vol. I

    Agents of G.E.N.T.R.I.F.I.C.A.T.I.O.N.

    By Jeremy Nguyen
  • Essays

    Mini-Europe, Vol. VI

    "A world of laughter, a world of tears / It’s a world of hope and a world of fears"

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Art

    Desiring to be Data for Others

    Finding traces of humanity in abstract data.

    By Amanda Turner Pohan
  • Fiction

    Nadja on Nadja

    "I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail, leaving a trail of the human presence, memory trace

    By Tsipi Keller
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of Poetry: How the End Begins

    Verse, Venice, and Lars von Trier.

    By Cynthia Cruz
  • Comics

    Electric Eel in Tucked In Shirt

    There will be blood.

    By Nate McDonough
  • Fiction

    We All Fall Apart

    "She stood up and left me there, covered in my own gore and staring at what I once considered a very vital piece of human anatomy floating in

    By Corey Skatula
  • Essays

    Sixpoint

    Drunk bartenders, Das Racist, and the creeping gentrification of Kings County.

    By Andrew Schenker
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    i did not do it for the love of a just thunder kingdom.

    By Joey De Jesus
  • Essays

    I SAW SUCH HORRIBLE THINGS

    "The real reason I chose poetry over prose is that prose is too painfully accurate at preserving memories."

    By Max Ritvo
  • Sofía-Córdova
    Art

    Echoes of A Tumbling Throne (Odas Al Fin De Los Tiempos)

    Odes to the end of time: imagining a radical new future.

    By Sofía Córdova
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: What Belongs to You

    On editing, El Greco, and finding the right wrong note.

    By Garth Greenwell
  • Shrapnel

    Famous Last Lines

    Can you match the book title to its famous last lines?

    By Ellis Rosen
  • Essays

    Blue Suicide

    Two clocks, a song, and the unbearable blueness of being.

    By Amelia Rina
  • Essays

    The Lust Peddlers

    "My job entailed selling packets of women's names, addresses, and phone numbers for $25.00 to men who were horny but lazy."

    By Leah Mueller
  • Fiction

    On the Veranda

    "It was the summer of 1937, in the August of my thirteenth year, and two months before I would, because of what happened that day, leave home forever."

    By Jay Neugeboren
  • Comics

    On the Bus

    Dad breath, chicken nipples, and the opportunity to knock some sense into your teenaged self.

    By Elaine Will
  • Fiction

    Sirius Numb

    “Look. When it gets bad for me, I want you to do me just like you did that dog.”

    By Woody Evans
  • Essays

    She

    On motherhood, and inhabiting your body (and your writing) in a new way.

    By Lynn Steger Strong
  • Fiction

    Conjunct

    "She wasn’t one for icebreakers. I didn’t argue because she’d be dead soon besides."

    By Eric Brewster
  • Art

    Tapered Throne

    An intimate portrait of Oakland's barber shops through GIFs and sound.

    By Brandon Tauszik
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: The Suicide of Claire Bishop

    The (literal) pain of revision.

    By Carmiel Banasky
  • Poems

    Just Kiss Him, Bro

    Young men of the age / I’m thinking sit with empty spaces / between them at the movies

    By Andrew McKernan
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XXIV

    It's something unpredictable but in the end is right / Mr. Block hopes you had the time of your life.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Essays

    Mini-Europe, Vol. V

    Two things are certain about the new year: tradition will live, and people will die.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • News

    Best of Blunderbuss 2015

    Our annual, enthusiastic-yet-necessarily-incomplete accounting of some of the best work we've run this year.

    By The Editors
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of Poetry: Love the Stranger

    On Magritte, a woodchuck, and merciless edits.

    By Jay Deshpande
  • Tchenkov-crop
    Art

    The Anvil Hits Back: Sariev-Contemporary in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

    A look at the dark humor and bright young things of Bulgaria's art scene.

    By Amelia Rina
  • Comics

    The City, Vol. V

    "Herr Direktor, Please..."

    By Stephen Crowe and Melanie Amaral
  • Essays

    A Deportation

    When activism means that you can't go home again.

    By Amin Husain with Susu
  • Fiction

    Camp Calpurnia

    "Since when was my sister suicidal?"

    By Erin Moon White
  • Shrapnel

    Gif Reviews, Vols. XII & XIII

    Keep rollin, rollin, rollin, rollin (What?)

    By Alex Howe
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XXIII

    You can't eat bourgeois platitudes.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Fiction

    The Wasp

    "When Luis moved back it felt like time travel."

    By Elle Nash
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of Short Stories: Upright Beasts

    "Stories thrive, I think, on chaos."

    By Lincoln Michel
  • Art

    Google Pairs

    A photographer collaborates with Google Image Search to question creative agency.

    By Alexis Vasilikos
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    Years ago, / I killed a lonely man, and after that, it was // still hard to say I didn't want him.

    By Michelle Lin
  • Essays

    Mini-Europe, Vol. IV: Mini-Mascot

    It's turtles all the way down.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Art

    Excerpts from “Hermit”

    Surrealist squiggles come to life to explore the contemporary void.

    By David Bayus
  • Fiction

    The Air Where I Belong

    "It wants me. It does not seize me, but it is persuasive. Another mouthful of water."

    By TJ Heffers
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: The Hopeful

    Soft pants, sweet pups, and the making of a hypnotic debut.

    By Tracy O'Neill
  • Essays

    The Work of Drag in the Age of Digital Reproduction

    Has drag moved from the performance of gender to the constant, never-ending, technoculture-defining performance of information?

    By Matthew Schwager
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XXII

    A century of obsequious fawning over the First Lady's fashion choices.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    Janelle thought meat would be big soon and we couldn’t wait. We wanted the next decade in our throats.

    By Karen Skolfield
  • Comics

    The City, Vol. IV

    "To a peasant, factory work is like Karnevál."

    By Stephen Crowe and Melanie Amaral
  • Fiction

    Beach Bumster

    "In the village, ancient baobabs grow pregnant with the bones of holy men and papered prayers, and in the city, small boys beg, tin cans to their elbow."

    By Ah-reum Han
  • Essays

    Do’s Final Exit

    Cult leader or genial, self-deprecating, gentle old man?

    By Isaac Butler
  • Julie Henson
    Art

    Parallel Horizons

    All the media's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

    By Julie Henson
  • Poems

    Blue Heart Baby

    I think I am weak & without purpose, // your father texts you from the kitchen, sauced up, / after he rolls his heavy body over the loaded

    By Joy Priest
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: Among the Ten Thousand Things

    The secret to a stunning debut novel? Glue-sticking till the break of dawn.

    By Julia Pierpont
  • Comics

    Last Night in Miami

    A group of stragglers takes shelter as Miami braces itself for one final hurricane.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Fiction

    The Warmest Color

    "Her: Mona, the girl with pointy front teeth that bore an eerie resemblance to fangs: an artist; an aspiring mortician; an ongoing problem."

    By Sam Eichner
  • Shrapnel

    What happened, Fu Manchu?

    "No, these beautiful white men will write poetry about my hu-ma-ni-ty."

    By Sophia E. Terazawa
  • Poems

    NOFILTER

    i'm sorry, we don't have to talk about this girl, not at this party, not at your party, let's play never have i ever given up control

    By Tyler Morse
  • Art

    VIRUS IN PARADISE

    In the cracks between terror and optimism, pixels blossom.

    By alex cruse
  • Essays

    Cyphers

    A teacher reflects on race, discipline, and the unwritten codes of the American education system.

    By Caitlyn Luce Christensen
  • Shrapnel

    Gif Reviews, Vol. XI

    Waking life.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    Head of a Snowman

    "Didn’t people know by now that nobody was better at punishing Ellis than Ellis?"

    By Kevin Magruder
  • Essays

    Mini-Europe, Vol. III

    When you set out to prune an artificial flower and end up giving a fuzzy mane to Jesus Christ.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

    Eggo waffles, Pac-Man, and other fuel for literature.

    By Alexandra Kleeman
  • Shrapnel

    dance me to the end of night

    A memory of youth on the cusp of AIDS.

    By Norman Belanger
  • Fiction

    Tanuki

    "He saw his reflection in Tre’s shades--aviators, white mask--they looked as though they were about to rob a bank."

    By Jeff Chon
  • Comics

    The City, Vol. III

    "Trashism, Trunkism, Tryism, uh... Turnipism."

    By Stephen Crowe and Melanie Amaral
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    In exchange for three boys they offered three boys / Or maybe it was us who offered

    By Molly Rose Quinn
  • Art

    How’s Everything Going? Not Good

    Nihilism with a smile.

    By Jon-Michael Frank
  • Fiction

    The Man from Yorba Linda

    “The President of the United States is calling–will you accept the charges?”

    By Sarah Marshall
  • Essays

    Mini-Europe, Vol. II: Mini-War

    "Are there more war reenactments than wars? Are there more plastic soldiers than soldiers?"

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XXI

    In which our hero sells out his comrades.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Comics

    Milk Debt

    Debt-swapping monsters have already laid waste to Wall Street. Next stop: the playground.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Fiction

    Bloodline

    “Like my mother before me, and her mother before her, I have loved my share of men who are not named Joseph.”

    By Kerry Cullen
  • Essays

    givesafe

    "What if our mothers told us it was up to us to decide when, and if, we felt like women."

    By Zinn Adeline
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    Say that I am the cassette tape Whose hair unwound, underwater— Whose hair, you swim through.

    By Christopher Soto
  • Comics

    Bunnyman, Vol. VII

    Last time around, our hero shattered the comic-panel continuum. Will he ever be able to put it back together?

    By Ellis Rosen and Sam Marlow
  • Fiction

    Remains

    “Dear Usurper, You will find a dozen letters in this house. Each letter, each comma, each sentence, each period on the page is a curse.”

    By Alexandra Ford
  • Comics

    The City, Vol. II

    "The 20th century is a POWDER KEG and ART will light the FUSE!"

    By Stephen Crowe and Melanie Amaral
  • Poems

    Four Poems

    “Each one of my breasts,” she cried, “is 3lbs / of pure gold / & if you don’t believe me, tough!”

    By Katie Condon
  • Essays

    Mini-Europe, Vol. I

    "The large assaults the eye. It obstructs, resists a frame. The small invites noticing. Utopia through shrinkage."

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Fiction

    Another Name for Stargazing

    "The first time her father came back from the psych ward, he was given tasks to occupy his eyes."

    By Kristen Arnett
  • Essays

    #BlackAndBullied

    Bullied by black kids for acting white. Bullied by white kids for being black.

    By Kasai Rex
  • Shrapnel

    Who is Michael Jackson

    Can a collage of memories decode the King of Pop?

    By Karen Marron
  • Poems

    At your bedside

    Asleep in this bleached place, a separate world

    By Mary Catherine Kinniburgh
  • Shrapnel

    Your Mom is Literally Overweight

    An old joke with new nuance.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    The Blue Tiger

    "She guessed that’s what love was--making each other feel bad on purpose and then being sorry about it."

    By Rhianna Reinmuth
  • Essays

    The Berlin Blues

    A dead friend. An orphaned novel. An escape to the playground on the Spree.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Poems

    Four Poems

    We felt dangerous // like cowboys trying to swagger with legs / wrapped up in garbage bags and electrical tape / to keep out the ice-melt. The road

    By Hilary Vaughn Dobel
  • Comics

    The City, Vol. I

    Three comics take us to a Lost City on the banks of one of the grander and filthier tributaries of the River Danube.

    By Stephen Crowe and Melanie Amaral
  • Fiction

    Technology

    "Without the benefit of the diagram, you might just start clapping, creating tiny explosions that spread myriad pustules of anti-bacterial hand soap all over..."

    By Doug Weaver
  • Shrapnel

    A History of Yawp

    When Whitman sold you Levi's.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Poems

    Three Miley Cyrus Poems

    Throw a ring, win a fish. I have so much to say / about wild animals.

    By Talin Tahajian
  • Essays

    Filching Christopher Robin in the Shadow of Mount Rushmore

    A Confession of Theft on Stolen Land

    By Ian MacDougall
  • Fiction

    In Flagrante Delicto

    "What would it be like to fuck a man who finds such horrors beautiful?"

    By Jonathan Papernick
  • Shrapnel

    Topography of a Novel: Girl at War

    The story behind the story.

    By Sara Nović
  • Shrapnel

    Sodium

    It’s like your room but here at a bar. It’s you but also us. Them. It’s new but it’s familiar. It’s legible but glamorous.

    By Max Steele
  • Poems

    The Cake

    and your mother comes to visit / and she says honey you look so / thin you thin thing / you thin wet thing

    By Krystin Gollihue
  • Essays

    Pulp Nonfiction: Death (and Life) on Reality TV

    When murder reenactments remind you how to live.

    By Sally Howe
  • Fiction

    How to Clean a Dollhouse

    "The child-sized foundation will shudder at the feel of your fingertips on its spine."

    By Betty Capot
  • Shrapnel

    The Last Folk Song Ever Written

    "The last folk song ever written will nearly die of loneliness."

    By M.E. Lerman
  • Comics

    Hope

    Words have failed him. Now what to do with this free-floating passion?

    By Drew Lerman
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    it’s almost too late / I keep thinking but / for what I’m not sure / having woken repeatedly / in the night with / the pitiful coughing

    By MRB Chelko
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XX

    Listen all y'all, it's a sabotage

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Fiction

    Where Things Are Made

    "Hopefully, his new girlfriend’s towels were cheap and smelled of mildew."

    By Tera Joy Cole
  • Comics

    Ad Hoc, Vol. II

    "Don't give a cent to Big Cardboard."

    By Ellis Rosen and Sam Marlow
  • Poems

    Five Poems

    On the seat behind her an old woman tells the story of her long affair with a man named Vidic. He’s dead now. The man from somewhere else.

    By Elizabeth Clark Wessel
  • Shrapnel

    Beat Poem

    A rhythm. A generation. A showdown in the streets.

    By Leslie Maxwell
  • Fiction

    Beating

    "Betty worried what type of conversations and memories might have bubbled to the surface in a bar in the hands of her stoic husband."

    By Joe Ponce
  • Essays

    Piano Man

    On forcing 738 high school seniors to share a drink they call loneliness.

    By Lindsay Zoladz
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    It was a surprise to discover my body, collapsed like a bridge, / but still beautiful, still wet with snow.

    By Catherine Pond
  • Essays

    Testosterone Cypionate

    "There was, for me (and perhaps most transgender guys), an unspoken need for hormones to be a kind of miracle cure."

    By John Chapman
  • Comics

    Caterpillars

    On happiness.

    By Hallie Bateman
  • Fiction

    Postal Worker and Housewife

    “She bends to pick up the envelope, and something about the elongation of her right thigh makes Sarah Wheeler pause."

    By Nellie Hermann
  • Comics

    Bunnyman, Vol. VI

    The bell tolls for Bunnyman.

    By Ellis Rosen
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    Winter siphons this cigarette out / an attic window, and heat I don’t pay for follows / almost as an afterthought — sorry.

    By Andrew Dally
  • Shrapnel

    Unfinished Business: Aborted Books and Failed Secessions

    Reflections on things left undone.

    By Justin Taylor
  • Fiction

    Skies

    "They tell me that I waited in another room with the babysitter until my father made it home to the body."

    By Laura Herbek
  • Comics

    rearrangements

    Painting toward a convergence of heart and theory.

    By Heather Simon
  • Poems

    In the memory of photos

    thn i remmbrd… i can nt remmber

    By Seldon Yuan
  • Shrapnel

    Definitions Without Words

    The dark matter of language.

    By Daniel Schwartz
  • Fiction

    The Discarded

    "These Silicon Valley firms sometimes self-destruct, I am discovering, much like supernovae."

    By Linda Boroff
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XIX

    Won't somebody think of the children?

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Forest fire, supper time

    igniting // tinder in the ditch / you call worship

    By K.T. Billey
  • Essays

    Nameless in Their Own Land

    "It took me two to three years to say that I was aboriginal. But before then, I felt something akin to closeted."

    By Zong-ru Pan
  • Fiction

    Tea

    "Feeling sorry's an ugly color no matter who's wearing it."

    By Scott Marengo
  • Shrapnel

    Gif Reviews, Vols. VII – X

    Short takes on the shortest of films.

    By Alex Howe
  • Poems

    Invocation

    The rental gear's here suss it / All out snare crack bass thunk / Pick squeal how does it feel / To be so far from home each

    By Harold Whit Williams
  • Shrapnel

    Dear Emma Goldman

    "You could read Kropotkin out loud to the children before bed."

    By Anna Lea Jancewicz
  • Fiction

    Hummers

    "That beak dips down onto my shirtsleeve, once, twice, three times. He’s drinking my shirt."

    By Amy Gottfried
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    A spider dangles from under the airless, / rusted green radiator. / When I swing my hand across it, its string // sticks to my skin. It looks at

    By Daniel Kraines
  • Essays

    Fragments of Charlie

    I am not Charlie Hebdo. I am with Charlie Hebdo.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XVIII

    Have block. Will travel.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Fiction

    Ida Abandons Ship

    "Sometimes, the nice young man from that other TV show on the same cable network comes by."

    By Clara Chow
  • Fiction

    Op. 49

    "Koji’s mohawk, Dim felt, was misleading."

    By Matthew Baker
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XVII

    Capitalism ruined Christmas.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Step 9

    Even the men in the bar at TGI Fridays knew what foxes do to toddlers.

    By Nicole Callihan
  • News

    Best of Blunderbuss 2014

    An incomplete accounting of some of the best work we've run this year.

    By The Editors
  • Comics

    Ad Hoc, Vol. I

    If you khan't beat 'em, pillage 'em.

    By Ellis Rosen and Sam Marlow
  • Fiction

    One-Hundred Percent Risk

    "Isadora’s father had been an acting teacher, so at first it had been hard to distinguish his changes from performance."

    By Cheryl Klein
  • Shrapnel

    Your Holiday Think Piece

    A surreal journey into the internet's jabbering maw.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Poems

    Improvisatory Jazz on the Sound System, Weekend C-Span on TV, People Inclined to Be Listening, Some Kind of Time Rounding the Clock

    A state senator from somewhere declares, None of these liberties mean much after you’re dead, though who knows what he said before

    By James Grabill
  • Poems

    Blackness as a Compound of If Statements

    And if your parents decided to split, say I am a // statistics major. And if you had trouble making white friends stay that way, say /

    By Cortney Charleston
  • Fiction

    Britney

    "Stood there in the broken glass, head shaved, teeth set, great blazing spear poised in her hands, she sort of realized she was dancing, even then."

    By Derrick Martin-Campbell
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XVI

    A block in the gears.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    The colossal sun in the rearview was a heartthrob

    By E.C. Belli
  • Shrapnel

    Gif Reviews, Vols. V & VI

    Learning to love the loop.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    Girlhood: Flash Fictions

    Flashes of girlhood in two new short works by Danny Powell.

    By Danny Powell
  • Poems

    Four Poems

    When the grass is still matted down / from a body, you comb it over each day / so it will stay in shape; you mold to it,

    By Ryann Stevenson
  • Art

    Shit Anti-Corruption Comedians Say: An Interview with Ryan & Sean Kleier

    How two brothers from Kentucky are helping take down big-money politics.

    By Lauren E. Wool
  • Essays

    The Blues

    Shades of love. Shades of heartbreak.

    By Sara Elizabeth Grossman
  • Fiction

    Backtrack to ’97

    "You are on the cusp of something sublime, awesome the way awesome was in the seventeenth century."

    By Chris Campanioni
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XV

    Gentrification, block by block.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    Your blessed to be even to be / shoulder talk to me, even your prove it blame and bless.

    By Jay Deshpande
  • Comics

    Bunnyman, Vol. V

    Unmask the meta.

    By Ellis Rosen
  • Fiction

    Hugo

    "He has definitely eaten unwary campers before. But that hasn't happened in a while."

    By Spencer Fleury
  • Comics

    Process Comics

    From words to watercolors.

    By Heather Simon
  • Poems

    Retired Architecture

    father / dreams of / the fountain / he visits / he stays / he looks into its center / thinks he sees a world

    By Zuzanna Juszkiewicz
  • Art

    “A Funeral For My Selves”: An Interview with Carla Perez-Gallardo

    For this artist, self-improvement is a kind of death.

    By Yvonne Martinez
  • Fiction

    Bad Sex: Microfictions

    "The hooker said her name was Solace, which was exactly what he needed after the heartwreck of the last six months."

    By Jonathan Papernick
  • Shrapnel

    Thirteen Ways of (Not) Looking at a Crime Scene

    Celebrity nudes. Decapitated journalists. Beatings on elevators. When should we look, and when should we avert our eyes?

    By Travis Mushett
  • Poems

    Rappelling

    My mother finds out about the child I did not have from Facebook. This is how regret arrives: in the arms of machines.

    By Emily O'Neill
  • Essays

    Blue Rats

    The fire of youth. The wreckage of addiction. The thunder of punk. The ravages of disease. The remainder: friendship.

    By Kat Moore
  • Fiction

    Formerly Burma

    "Where’s a worse location for a problem than one’s own head?"

    By Tom Molanphy
  • Poems

    The Topography of

    The you in a stranger’s bed, / closing your eyes once / thinking only ocean.

    By Keegan Lester
  • Comics

    Bunnyman, Vol. IV

    Bunnyman's not selling out. He's buying in.

    By Ellis Rosen
  • Fiction

    On the Terror Traditionally Associated with Developing Real Property

    He’d planted his daughters there, but they’d borne no fruit. He called it a farm though that was the exact thing is wasn’t.

    By David Connerly Nahm
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XIV

    Brick on Block.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    A woman plants / my name in her bone / but will not tell me / when rain is coming

    By Hafizah Geter
  • Essays

    From Burning Man to Bellevue: A Hero’s Journey

    In the Nevada desert and the psych wards of New York City, a man tries to live with his madness rather than have it bludgeoned out of him.

    By Jeffrey Goines
  • Poems

    IRL: A Third Excerpt

    One night she steals / an onion from one / of the nuns tells me it’s / the sweetest thing she ever / tasted.

    By Tommy Pico
  • Fiction

    Pastrami

    "She touched a kneecap, that foreign object. Yes, she said, remembering. You."

    By Madeline Stevens
  • Poems

    IRL: A Second Excerpt

    feasting on boys ideas / and language and chips / of technology. Sometimes / real food.

    By Tommy Pico
  • Essays

    Brown Pills

    "The cap’s all smudged with dusty fingerprints; it’s a dirty looking thing. It’s just like they said it would be in DARE."

    By Annie Gebler
  • Poems

    Owl Contemplating a Frisbee

    if you journey home by nightlight consider / how much the beak’s wielded innocence can rend and tear

    By Rich Ives
  • Essays

    Revolutionary Twee?

    A new book claims that twee culture is politicizing the youth and changing the world for the better, but can sweaters & sweetness really fix what ails us?

    By Travis Mushett
  • Poems

    IRL: An Excerpt

    Who deserves yr story? / Not all stories. Not my story / my lol truth not life of live-/ lihood or food.

    By Tommy Pico
  • Fiction

    Lament

    Neither man screams. The only sound is the sound of a body breaking. These two have been playing this game for centuries.

    By Kate Brittain
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XIII

    The only prescription is more solidarity.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    at dawn demons pour into / storm drains as bitter wine

    By Morgan Parker
  • Essays

    On the Ghost Ship: Real Love and “The Bachelor”

    True romance in a mediated age.

    By Sam Eichner
  • Fiction

    Rrrramona

    "Two days after she split with her boyfriend and moved in with three potential Craigslist killers, Ramona was invited to her boss’s house for dinner."

    By Emma Harper
  • Comics

    Bunnyman, Vol. III

    Crazy like a Russian nesting doll.

    By Ellis Rosen
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    What might Job have thought of the many doctors who, / when commanded by Franco’s men, took hundreds / of newborn babies from their mothers as they trembled

    By Joanne Diaz
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XII

    The lumberjacks' chopping block.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Fiction

    Purification

    "They are beautiful, but she doesn’t touch them. She does not know if this is allowed."

    By Yardenne Greenspan
  • Essays

    The Well-Tuned Moment

    A summer's night, a bottle of wine, and five hours of avant-garde minimalist music.

    By Joe Miller
  • Comics

    Bunnyman, Vol. II

    In which our hero learns the meaning of eternal return.

    By Ellis Rosen
  • Poems

    Three Gunpoems

    (meanwhile) (my idol suggested we go someplace) / (so I cd show him my stretch-marks) (what did u call them) (the lion's miss-timed / leap

    By Montana Ray
  • Shrapnel

    The Skeksis

    "There was definitely something wrong with this guy; besides the fact that he was an 8-foot-tall pterodactyl with a mischievous look and torn Victorian robes."

    By Vivian and Yvonne Martinez
  • Comics

    Bunnyman, Vol. I

    Bunnyman vs. the Human Condition

    By Ellis Rosen
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    The umbilical cord becomes a tender red S hanging out of the belly, / an incompleted television cable curling from your eaves.

    By Megan Savage
  • Comics

    E. and H. at Home

    GLUG GLUG GLUG

    By Drew Lerman
  • Fiction

    Birdspeak

    My mother once said you never have to lose if you choose your battles correctly. This was, of course, before she died and came to me in dreams.

    By A. Wolfe
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. XI

    A scabbing he will go...

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    assimilation

    the last flower i saw in south suicide / queens was on a little girl’s tee, a trio / of violets banged up with giddiness—

    By Amber Atiya
  • Shrapnel

    Choice Excerpts from the 1935 Writers’ and Artists’ Year Book

    Spoiler: Poets didn't make any money then either.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    A camera seals the riverboat Emeline into this very afternoon. / Small white triangles all over the Hudson.

    By MC Hyland
  • Comics

    Friends

    In the latest from Drew Lerman's Schweef Comics, two friends spar over definitions.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Essays

    Seven Days After Father

    "Compared to the esoteric medical treatments you endured for the past six days, this final procedure is sensibly named: The Last Breath."

    By Essay Liu
  • Fiction

    Requiem

    "When Nelson got arrested it was sad because he got the look. Nobody thought he'd get it either."

    By Doug Weaver
  • Events

    Join Us For Blunderbuss’ First Birthday Party!

    Blunderbuss has weathered its first year on earth! We are hardened, wizened, and still hanging on. So we cordially invite you to come celebrate our continued existence with

    By The Editors
  • Essays

    Time Will Tell

    What does The Americans have to do with time travel, Felicity, and political imagination? More than you think.

    By Sam Ross
  • Poems

    Three Poems

    We are under an upturned boat a keel of stars / just us and the other leaf eaters

    By Allan Peterson
  • Shrapnel

    Selected Yelp Reviews of New York City Psychics

    How many stars does your prophet deserve?

    By Kevin Tang
  • Fiction

    Young Chul Kim

    "The Walrus asked if this missing person had Down syndrome and was I his caretaker?"

    By Eliza Kostelanetz Schrader
  • Essays

    Ableism Hurts

    While the country prides itself on its increasing acceptance of traditionally marginalized populations, disabled people continue to be stripped of their voices, and it’s hurting everyone.

    By Sara Nović
  • Poems

    Departures

    your childhood by the river, / in the dirt, lacking words

    By Flávia Rocha
  • Essays

    Coping with Chaos: Unreadable Avant-Garde Fiction and the Art of Political Conversation

    How do we talk about Tristano when every copy is different? The same way we talk about the world.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Fiction

    Trouble

    "Ouch. That word, neglected, keeps popping up."

    By Hope Ewing
  • Essays

    Kunkel’s “Utopia or Bust”: A Review

    Ben Kunkel is bringing sexy Marx back. It's an imperfect but important start.

    By Niral Shah
  • Fiction

    How Not to Play Pool

    "My pedagogical disagreements with bartenders are a source of never-ending grief for me."

    By Hilary Gan
  • Essays

    A Roomful of Shooters and Nothing to Shoot

    Inside the Dallas Safari Club’s Annual Hunting Convention.

    By Joshua Williams
  • Poems

    Combing the Long Branch Beach, I Lose My Life in the Debris

    I feel trapped in my old life / Like a hermit crab that won’t abandon its shell

    By Gregg G. Brown
  • Fiction

    Dogwood

    "Drill sergeant never told us how much louder guns are when they’re shooting at you."

    By Andrew Slater
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. X

    When "strong union men" start scabbing on each other, Mr. Block gets caught in the crossfire.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    Book Burning

    So much in a face: / the upholstery of / being human.

    By Richard Fox
  • Shrapnel

    Another Think Piece on Actor/Poet Kristen Stewart

    K-Stew, Kerouac, and the poetic identities of 23 year olds.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Rust Cohle Revisited

    Philip Larkin keeps it real.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    Plans for Dealing with the Public

    "My upstairs neighbor is converting his toilet into a public toilet."

    By Perry Genovesi
  • Essays

    For Children and Sensitive Readers

    Stalinist Russia was a tough place for an absurdist poet, but Daniil Kharms knew you can't kill a pseudonym.

    By Alex Kalamaroff
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: A Story Slowly

    Frank Stanford for president.

    By Alex Howe
  • Comics

    The Spring Collection

    A stint in China. A year without new underwear. A truer lingerie.

    By Sharon Salt
  • Poems

    NIGHT STORY

    She thinks about swans, the woman reading, / and a tall girl with tangled hair...

    By Katharyn Howd Machan
  • Essays

    Let’s Stop Mansplaining Eastern Europe

    Despite what the Western media says, the uprisings in Bosnia and Ukraine are more than a "collective nervous breakdown."

    By Sara Nović
  • Shrapnel

    The Lost Guest Appearances of Frank Underwood

    A single TV show can't hold his ambition.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Line-Babble Expressed

    James Franco: more than a pretty face.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    Emails From My Dead Mother

    Do they have Gmail in the afterlife?

    By Jonathan Papernick
  • Essays

    MFA vs. NYC vs. n+1?

    n+1's new book surveys the landscapes of NYC and MFA, but what of the independent magazine culture beyond them?

    By Travis Mushett
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Comparing Notes on Being Ourselves

    Are you guys hanging out? I mean, we're talking. Mike Young read your GChats.

    By Alex Howe
  • Essays

    Against Orientation

    If the debate about human sexuality is going to get anywhere, we need to stop talking about "orientation."

    By Caspar
  • Shrapnel

    Drinking / Praying / Eating / Drinking

    "I’m sorry that I told you I was Drew Barrymore’s sister. I’m not."

    By Emily McCrary
  • Shrapnel

    A Review of Valentine’s Day

    Watching Ashton while dreaming of Barthes.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Self vs. Self

    Melissa Broder is working on herself right now, you know?

    By Alex Howe
  • Poems

    Two Poems

    Pitiful humans compelled / by some wrinkled force / to figure who they might be...

    By Eric Helms
  • Essays

    The Tell-Tale Heart of Chemical Valley

    In the wake of Elk River, a West Virginia native outlines the seven phases of Appalachian industrial disaster.

    By Cheyenna Layne Weber
  • Poems

    Marshall Berman, 1940-2013

    A poem to remember one of Marxist humanism's most brilliant voices.

    By Todd Gitlin
  • Comics

    Awvenchura Girl #5

    Why did you do it, Ruthie? Why did you send the porno?

    By Drew Lerman
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Ch-Ch-Changes

    Adam Fitzgerald suggests another look.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    What a Waste

    Is longevity an accomplishment, or does sticking around for the marathon mean a deal with the devil?

    By Barry W. North
  • Essays

    Being With Grace

    “I feel so sorry for people not living in Detroit.” Despite her city's troubles, a 98-year-old activist sees hope.

    By Nick Mirzoeff
  • Essays

    LiveJournaling the Revolution: Dispatches from Kiev

    Street fighting. Molotov cocktails. Gunfire. LiveJournal? A blogger writes from inside the Ukrainian uprising.

    By Ilya Varlamov
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Skinny Dipping

    Anne Marie Rooney, unromantic.

    By Alex Howe
  • Shrapnel

    The Craven

    Who somehow swept the rap categories at Sunday's Grammys? "Quoth the white man, ‘Macklemore.’"

    By Leon Chang
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. IX

    Decades before anyone coined the term "champagne socialist," Mr. Block found himself seduced by a "gentleman comrade."

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Joy Runneth Over

    Kenneth Koch, overgrown kid.

    By Alex Howe
  • Lorde
    Essays

    In Praise of Problematic Art

    You don't have to choose an orthodoxy to make pop political.

    By Toren Hardee
  • Poems

    Poem

    “what are you doing?”

    By Nicole Hospital-Medina
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Aiming High

    Jennifer L. Knox blazes through the culture.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    Cosi Fan Tutte

    Sordid sex. Hard drugs. Human connection? A new short story from Doug Weaver.

    By Doug Weaver
  • Shrapnel

    A Review of The Epic Split

    Suspended between two Volvo trucks, a wrinkled, fissured Jean-Claude Van Damme races the twilight backwards.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Being [Your Name]

    John Koethe wants to know what it's like.

    By Alex Howe
  • Fiction

    Shit Diamonds

    In a short story not for the weak of stomach, one woman gropes for a "glimmer among feces."

    By Adam Berg
  • numbers
    Audio & Video

    The Incompletists, Ep. 1: What’s in a List?

    How do "best of" lists shape our engagement with culture? A new podcast investigates.

    By Toren Hardee
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: No Resolutions, No Narratives

    Kim Addonizio keeps it real for New Year's.

    By Alex Howe
  • by Bonifazio Veronese
    Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Post-Christmas Misery

    T.S. Eliot has an unmerry Christmas.

    By Alex Howe
  • Columns

    Why Republican Billionaires Are Gay Rights Advocates

    By pretending to be populist, the corporatized gay movement reaffirms the dangerous lie that American democracy isn't imperiled.

    By Caspar
  • Shrapnel

    An Advent Calendar of Millennial Ennui

    25 days of generational malaise.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Pretty Bomb Poem

    Richard Wilbur raises the alarm.

    By Alex Howe
  • Comics

    Awvenchura Girl #4

    "Does she eat a bagel?" "Does she-? What-? It's a bagel!!"

    By Drew Lerman
  • Poems

    the chinese are trying to reach me

    a small watercolor paints itself on the lowest point of my coffee spoon...

    By Nicole Basta
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: City High

    Terrance Hayes' love letter to New York.

    By Alex Howe
  • Shrapnel

    Three Scenes from a Better Universe

    A much-anticipated delivery. An unholy dance move. A Hollywood legend. Three darkly hilarious scenes from one glorious universe.

    By Parke Cooper
  • Essays

    On “On Smarm”

    Gawker spent 9,000 words trying to justify its snarkiness. It failed.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Let’s Not Understand

    Mary Ruefle's joyous nonsense.

    By Alex Howe
  • Comics

    Anxious

    In this 10-page comic, Hayley Thornton-Kennedy gets inside your head. Like way inside your head.

    By Hayley Thornton-Kennedy
  • Columns

    When Coming Out Doesn’t Work

    Coming out makes life easier for The Straights, but not always for us.

    By Caspar
  • Columns

    Street Writer: Berlin Digressions

    Berlin isn't the only city with a wall.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Before and After Love

    Love and darkness with Louise Glück.

    By Alex Howe
  • Comics

    Aquafair #2

    "It's a sickness! They sacrifice their humanity. And why?"

    By Drew Lerman
  • Audio & Video

    Measure of a Life

    In this short documentary, a pair of filmmakers trace the aftermath of deadly drone strike in Pakistan.

    By Madiha Tahir
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Love, Theoretically

    Finding affection in intellectualism.

    By Alex Howe
  • Essays

    Detroit State of Mind

    As Detroit faces bankruptcy, its people are responding with a revolution of everyday life.

    By Nick Mirzoeff
  • Comics

    9 True Scientific Facts About Haters

    In case you needed an empirical basis to hate the haters.

    By Kevin Tang
  • Columns

    I’m Queer & So Are You: Against Being Born This Way

    The common defense undermines our fight for liberation and is a symptom of rape culture.

    By Caspar
  • Columns

    Street Writer: Morningside Drive

    Writing is misery. Thank god for the egotism and obsession that make it possible.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Comics

    Aquafair #1

    This week, Schweef Comics takes us to Galilee Gardens. Who will choose Christ and who will choose reason?

    By Drew Lerman
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Girl, Problematized

    Alex Howe annotates a poem about wandering eyes.

    By Alex Howe
  • Columns

    I’m Queer & So Are You: Why We Don’t Talk About Butt Sex

    Taking the sex out of sexuality has handed the gay movement to rich white men.

    By Caspar
  • Columns

    Street Writer: Orchard Street

    The Lower East Side begs you to take its authenticity seriously, but does the authentic need to beg?

    By Travis Mushett
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Maps

    A funny poem about a cold state; the rare poem with a great ending.

    By Alex Howe
  • Columns

    I’m Queer & So Are You: “Power” Bottom

    When someone gets his dick out and rubs it against your lower back, you’re not really making choices anymore.

    By Caspar
  • Columns

    Street Writer: 26th Street

    Bellevue, communism, forgotten poets, and zero calorie organic vegan whiskey. Travis digs up the secrets of 26th Street.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Comics

    Awvenchura Girl #3

    In the latest comic from Drew Lerman, a salacious email means a visit with the grandparents.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Dogs, Whiskey

    Alex Howe selects a weeping-free poem by Stephen Dunn.

    By Alex Howe
  • Columns

    Otherwise Known: Blue is the Most Controversial Color

    "Blue is the Warmest Color" generated plenty of controversy after its Palme d'Or. Meredith has words for the haters.

    By Meredith Fraser
  • Columns

    I’m Queer & So Are You: The Sentimental Movement

    The mainstream gay rights movement wants to make queers look like straights. We're not.

    By Caspar
  • Art

    Archipelagic Shift—A Conversation with Mariano Henestrosa

    "Once that seat’s starting to take the shape of your butt, it’s time find another chair.”

    By Lauren E. Wool
  • Columns

    Street Writer: MacDougal Street

    Travis sets out to write a street-by-street psychogeography of Manhattan. First up, Greenwich Village's MacDougal St.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Columns

    You, Too, Dislike It: Poems for Non-Poets

    Think you're not a "poetry person"? Alex Howe begs to differ.

    By Alex Howe
  • Essays

    Marginal Futility: Don’t Cry for the Artists

    David Byrne laments that artists have been pushed out of neighborhoods like NYC's East Village. Niral asks, so what?

    By Niral Shah
  • Columns

    Otherwise Known: Masters of Sex & Hollywood’s Anatomy Problem

    Is an antiquated rating system to blame for the TV's nudity double standard?

    By Meredith Fraser
  • Columns

    I’m Queer & So Are You

    Get Married! Get equal! But equal to what?"

    By Caspar
  • Essays

    It’s Friday

    From Occupy Wall Street to occupied Palestine, our economic problem is our war problem.

    By Anna Lekas Miller
  • Events

    Blunderbuss Occupies KGB Bar on Tuesday 10/8

    With readings from Mark Bray, Molly Crabapple, Michael Gould-Wartofsky, Anna Lekas Miller, and Nathan Schneider.

    By The Editors
  • Essays

    A Note to the Hegemony: How to Respond to a Protest

    A provocative protest at Middlebury College has us asking all the wrong questions.

    By Zach Howe
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. VIII

    In this 1912 comic, Ernest Riebe looks unflinchingly at how management uses racism to keep workers from uniting.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Poems

    We Won’t Be Blue Always

    I want to tell you natural facts. Sister / Rosetta, full-throated / at Wilbraham Road.

    By Sam Ross
  • Poems

    Chapter 3: Vespers Sung Quietly, With Mossy Tongue

    The body can process and possess the dark

    By Joshua Daniel Edwin
  • Shrapnel

    The Best of Blunderbuss Search Terms

    "best internal swallow ever." "porta reican girls wereing swimsuit." The roads that brought you to Blunderbuss are strange indeed.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Essays

    In Defense of Skyler White

    Haters of Breaking Bad's Skyler White are gonna hate, and their hate is misogynistic, plain and simple. SPOILERS AHEAD!

    By Meredith Fraser
  • Fiction

    Clark Gable

    A mother, a son, a boob job, a knife. Drew's fiction is as weird and wonderful as his comics.

    By Drew Lerman
  • TXCEX
    Shrapnel

    GIF Reviews, Vols. III & IV

    The Pauline Kael of GIFs is back! This week, Alex explores canine car racing and the metaphysics of plant growth.

    By Alex Howe
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. VII

    In this seventh comic from 1912 Spokane Industrial Worker, Mr. Block finds himself the recipient of some most uncharitable charity.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Comics

    Awvenchura Girl #2

    In this collaboration with Drew Lerman's Schweef Comics, a salacious email sends the aged from the internet to the telephone.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Poems

    Butcher Boy

    Beside the other blighted / gods in the waiting room, / pale and creaturely, / I anticipate.

    By Sam Ross
  • Shrapnel

    A Review of Yeezus

    Kanye West's Yeezus isn't just any old album, so Patrick Gaughan gives it something more than just any old review.

    By Patrick Gaughan
  • Poems

    Elegy in Which The War Is Not Much With Us

    I don’t think much / about the war, / been so busy, you know, / reading and writing, / tasting all these new / kinds of beer.

    By Joshua Daniel Edwin
  • Fiction

    Colic

    A horse's life isn't all that's hanging in the balance in this short story. A marriage faces tests, as well.

    By Whitney Ray
  • Art

    Beautiful Mechanisms—A Conversation with Benjamin Edwards

    Digital meets the physical in one artist's notion of utopias: lands both beholden to and acutely critical of technological potential.

    By Lauren E. Wool
  • Poems

    The Moth: an Alter-Dream-Ego

    I made a Mt. out of milkweed. // I drink virgin Cranberry Redbull / on the rocks.

    By Gabriel Kruis
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. VI

    In this sixth comic from 1912 Spokane Industrial Worker, the Salvation Army sees the devil in Mr. Block's alleged drunkenness.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Essays

    Blinking Red Lights and the Souls of Our Friends

    An activist writes on inner strength and squat life in this excerpt from the memoir "Maps to the Other Side."

    By Sascha Altman DuBrul
  • Poems

    Ten Poems

    YOU WANT ME TO SKULL FUCK YOUR INTERFACE // YOU’RE NOT INSANE YOU’RE JUST BORED // WORK HARD PLAY GOD // PLAY GOD PLAY DEAD // POEMS AND

    By Matthew Ritger
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. V

    In this fifth comic from 1912 Spokane Industrial Worker, Mr. Block tests his salesmanship while stubbornly avoiding the radical Wobblies.

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Fiction

    Rush Hour 3

    As devotees know, the theatrical release of Rush Hour 3 is non-canon. Blunderbuss makes its first foray into fan fiction.

    By Leon Chang
  • Shrapnel

    The Great “Nordic” Novel: A Children’s Treasury of Uncomfortable Gatsbyisms

    Nick Carraway wants it both ways. Rich WASPs are repugnant, and the only folks who matter. Travis catalogs his hypocrisies.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Comics

    Wolfsheim in Sheep’s Clothing

    Four cartoons for the price of one! Watch as Schweef Comics and Meyer Wolfsheim venture into the WASP nest of West Egg.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Essays

    In Defense of Nick Carraway

    The narrator of The Great Gatsby is a textbook unreliable narrator, but maybe the kind we ought to rely on.

    By Zach Howe
  • Essays

    Impossible Objects—In Defense of Truthiness in Creative Nonfiction

    We give movies "based on a true story" the space for artistic interpretation. Why aren't memoirs given the same latitude?

    By Sara Nović
  • Comics

    Crawdads Welcome

    In this new strip from comic artist Ezra Butt, Teamsquad Manatee heard something about cake. There is cake here, right?

    By Ezra Butt
  • Fiction

    Sisters

    Through reworked photographs & letters, we see the hidden branches of Valerie Marie Arvidson's family tree blossom into vibrant color.

    By Valerie Marie Arvidson
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. IV

    "Mr. Block is legion. He owns nothing, yet he speaks from the standpoint of the millionaire. He's patriotic without patrimony."

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Essays

    Get Rude: In Praise of Obnoxious and Annoying Activism

    As student protesters up at Dartmouth College are proving, sometimes you need to get impolite to provoke an adult conversation.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Comics

    A Walk Thru Park Slope

    In the second installment of a collaboration between Blunderbuss and Schweef Comics, Drew sweeps an elderly Brooklynite off her feet.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Essays

    When Youth and Pretense Meet a Shiny Trophy

    In an island that has only known financial security in the past 25 years, there is still no charted template for any musician opting out of lifetime industrial

    By Zac Chang
  • Shrapnel

    in case you are swallowed by a wolf

    When you are in a house that is swallowed by a wolf the best thing to do is to wrap yourself in a blanket of water and set

    By Sasha Fletcher
  • Comics

    Reminders

    You may know this already, but in case you've forgotten, Portland-based comic artist Sam Alden is here to remind you.

    By Sam Alden
  • Poems

    Aubade: Delivery

    During pregnancy, cells cross / through the flat disk of placenta / in both directions—mother // gives the fetus her body / and takes it back. They aren't one.

    By Alex Fabrizio
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. III

    "Mr. Block is legion. He owns nothing, yet he speaks from the standpoint of the millionaire. He's patriotic without patrimony."

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Events

    Everyone’s Invited to the Blunderbuss Magazine Launch Party – UPDATED: Thanks for coming!

    Readings, beer, and fraternity among comrades--come join the Blunderbuss team this Sunday 4/14 at KGB Bar in Manhattan's East Village.

    By The Editors
  • Comics

    Awvenchura Girl #1

    The aged meet the internet in this first installment of a collaboration between Blunderbuss Magazine and Drew Lerman's Schweef Comics.

    By Drew Lerman
  • Poems

    The Revelation on TV

    No more looking outside for good / this time. The resurrected dead can scratch / their hands to mash, puke against / the doors, rag their faded clothes stupid // but the

    By Gabriella R. Tallmadge
  • Shrapnel

    A Pair of Unstageable Dialogues

    Brian May writes for the stage. This is what happens when he forgets that the theater has rules & conventions.

    By Brian May
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. II

    "Mr. Block is legion. He owns nothing, yet he speaks from the standpoint of the millionaire. He's patriotic without patrimony."

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Art

    Anthropocene

    Geologists can't agree if humanity has pushed the earth into a new geologic era. A photographer goes searching for evidence.

    By Lauren E. Wool
  • Fiction

    The Book of Consolation

    Not every casualty of war dies on the battlefield. When the fight comes home, how can a mother move on?

    By Catherine Tudish
  • Art

    Islands Apart: An Interview with Artist Jessica Feldman

    Manhattan has pushed its undesirables to the tiny islands that surround it. Last fall, Jessica Feldman brought them back home.

    By Travis Mushett
  • Essays

    The Ballad of Puerto Rican Rick

    A journalist investigating a suspicious death near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation finds that his questions are more than just questions.

    By Ian MacDougall
  • Comics

    Crawdads Welcome

    A lesson on the gossamer silk of alpacas, Peruvian and otherwise.

    By Ezra Butt
  • Poems

    Why You Couldn’t Live Here

    Poolside, an ocean’s distance from the coast / and village where I met you, learned the weight / of bagged cement, the reek of palm oil stirred / by children sweating

    By Matt Sumpter
  • Poems

    Viscera

    Liver, conch shell / of slick meat. // Colon, Siamese / boa constrictor.

    By Regina DiPerna
  • Monkey Hug
    Shrapnel

    GIF Reviews, Vols. I & II

    A Blunderbuss editor plumbs the spiritual and intellectual depths of two animated GIFs. The first installment in a groundbreaking series.

    By Alex Howe
  • Comics

    Mr. Block, Vol. I

    "Mr. Block is legion. He owns nothing, yet he speaks from the standpoint of the millionaire. He's patriotic without patrimony."

    By Ernest Riebe
  • Essays

    Our Manifesto

    Who we are, what we stand for, and why visceral humanism will save your life and redeem art & politics.

    By The Editors

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ABOUT

We are Blunderbuss Magazine, a web magazine of arts, culture, and politics, an ordnance of fire and improvisation. What ties together these essays, stories, poems, photographs, comics, and other bits of aesthetic shrapnel is a common attitude of visceral humanism. We aim for earnest noise. We want to splash in the mud of lived experience, to battle for a radical empathy, and to provide a megaphone to howling assertions of human subjectivity.

MASTHEAD

  • Editor-in-Chief – Travis American
  • Managing – Niral Shah
  • Fiction – Sara Nović
  • Art Director – Yvonne Martinez
  • Poetry – Sam Ross
  • Art – Terence Trouillot
  • Comics – Ellis Rosen
  • Senior – Alex Howe
  • At Large – Kevin T.S. Tang
  • Pictures – Lauren E. Wool
  • Contributing – Meredith Fraser
  • Web – Hayley Thornton-Kennedy

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