A book is a performance

the reader

makes

Amaranth Borsuk | @amaranthborsuk

MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics, University of Washington, Bothell

The book is a time travel device—allowing us to slip into the imagination

of a future mind.

—Indira Allegra

A book is a hairy, heavy thing that used to be made of skin. It doesn’t move when you press it. But everything falls away if you dip your head in.

—Mairéad Byrne

The book is body and matter; and bodies (of every color, size and form) matter.

—Alex Saum

A book is the flesh between flesh, a hard text sculpture from soft text immensities, the staged performance of time, a tangible glance of minds, the desire to speak other.

—Lisa Samuels

—ronaldo v. wilson

The book is an event.

A momentary stay of the transience of time.

A tree interleaved with other trees in a forest of dreams.

—Roxi Power

OR as Robert Frost might put it, a book is "dead leaves stuck together"—leaves that steps have trodden black.

—Allison Parrish

Placed one over the other, the silence between the leaves becomes a portal among the pages, leading the eyes to burrow through the opening.

—samuel Ace

trees + river + trees + River

—TERRI WITEK

The book, for a very short time, stabilizes what flows through it, with the proviso that some works do not flow, just as some bodies do not progress from one time to the next in fluid or malleable ways.

—Bhanu Kapil

Something must turn for the book to be experienced: pages, leaves, a word, a worm, your head, the room.

—Genevieve Kaplan

a slow rue. a mess of beans, of categories, of spilt personalities & pretty ribbon. an equation. a village of fractals.

—latasha n. nevada diggs

The book, then, is the physical manifestation of a relationship between a writer and a reader.

—Janice Lee

A book is both the documentation and act of empathetic communication.

—Colleen Louise Barry

A book is an object that vibrates upon contact.

—Danielle Vogel

It’s a space

that makes a space—the book opens

to vastness.

—Jen Bervin

In the best sense of the word connection, paper and puddles reflect the entire sky.

—CA Conrad

What is a book? It stinks. B.O...O.K. Like a drunk. L'IVRE. Each one is a long island, brother. L.I. BRO. A kit full of As and Bs. KITĀB.

—Urayoán Noel

t-h-e-b-o-o-k.com

appendage

mask

voice

body

song

"A book is real—it is here in your hands. It is an extension—prosthesis—of your body and your body is prosthesis to it. With a book, the effect is that of a phantom whose presence is felt internally."

—tate shaw, Blurred library

Between Page & Screen

Siglio Press 2012, SpringGun Press 2016

WHISPERING GALLERIES

ABRA: A living text

A book is a performance

the reader

makes

The book is a time travel device—allowing us to slip into the imagination

of a future mind.

—Indira Allegra

A book is a hairy, heavy thing that used to be made of skin. It doesn’t move when you press it. But everything falls away if you dip your head in.

—Mairéad Byrne

The book is body and matter; and bodies (of every color, size and form) matter.

—Alex Saum

A book is the flesh between flesh, a hard text sculpture from soft text immensities, the staged performance of time, a tangible glance of minds, the desire to speak other.

—Lisa Samuels

—ronaldo v. wilson

The book is an event.

A momentary stay of the transience of time.

A tree interleaved with other trees in a forest of dreams.

—Roxi Power

OR as Robert Frost might put it, a book is "dead leaves stuck together"—leaves that steps have trodden black.

—Allison Parrish

Placed one over the other, the silence between the leaves becomes a portal among the pages, leading the eyes to burrow through the opening.

—samuel Ace

trees + river + trees + River

—TERRI WITEK

The book, for a very short time, stabilizes what flows through it, with the proviso that some works do not flow, just as some bodies do not progress from one time to the next in fluid or malleable ways.

—Bhanu Kapil

Something must turn for the book to be experienced: pages, leaves, a word, a worm, your head, the room.

—Genevieve Kaplan

a slow rue. a mess of beans, of categories, of spilt personalities & pretty ribbon. an equation. a village of fractals.

—latasha n. nevada diggs

The book, then, is the physical manifestation of a relationship between a writer and a reader.

—Janice Lee

A book is both the documentation and act of empathetic communication.

—Colleen Louise Barry

A book is an object that vibrates upon contact.

—Danielle Vogel

It’s a space

that makes a space—the book opens

to vastness.

—Jen Bervin

In the best sense of the word connection, paper and puddles reflect the entire sky.

—CA Conrad

What is a book? It stinks. B.O...O.K. Like a drunk. L'IVRE. Each one is a long island, brother. L.I. BRO. A kit full of As and Bs. KITĀB.

—Urayoán Noel

t-h-e-b-o-o-k.com

appendage

mask

voice

body

song

"A book is real—it is here in your hands. It is an extension—prosthesis—of your body and your body is prosthesis to it. With a book, the effect is that of a phantom whose presence is felt internally."

—tate shaw, Blurred library

Between Page & Screen

WHISPERING GALLERIES

ABRA: A living text

Appendage, Mask, Voice, Body, Song

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