Hello & Welcome to COUNTERCLOCK.

Hello there. WELCOME TO COUNTERCLOCK.

Graphic artwork by Lorette C. Luzajic.

Cover art by Natalie Christensen.

August 2022 | Featuring a blue-eyed hag + the monarch butterfly + broken piano strings + releases & returns + the film-poems of PATCHWORK: Film x Poetry.

Read Issue 14

Click to read Issue 8. Artwork by Agata Stepien.

Welcome to COUNTERCLOCK. We’re a literary arts journal that hopes to destigmatize and empower the most authentic narratives sent our way through writing – and highlighting the intersection of language with art, music, and film, through our programs and initiatives. Submit to our fourteenth issue by May 1, 2022.

In writing, as Toni Morrison stated, we ask the center to look towards the margins. We believe in the beauty and flexibility of stories to shed light on the unsaid.

Submissions to COUNTERCLOCK Journal currently closed.

New to COUNTERCLOCK? Start here.

Watch the film-poems of PATCHWORK: film x poetry

Trending on our blog, Counterpoint

Sissy Hypno

For the "Self-Care in a Global Pandemic" blog series, Woody Woodger analyzes sissy hypno, "a form of therapeutic self-care" that "some trans women ... can only accomplish their transition through repeated forms of digital self-abuse."

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Childhood Ruined: Revisiting Hyper-masculinity in Johnny Bravo

As part of the Childhood Ruined blog series—which critiques the popular cartoons we consumed during the formative years of our childhood—Ashira Shirali revisits the titular character in Johnny Bravo and confronts white masculinity.

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7 Poems for Grief, Reevaluation, & Healing

For her biweekly column, "Pre-Op Thots", self-described as “Last-Week-Tonight-but-make-it-discount-Contrapoints," Woody Woodger shares poems that helped her reevaluate her own grief.

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On "The Depressed Person," David Foster Wallace, and the Art of Awful People

One David Foster Wallace story that struck close to home motivated a younger Ashira Shirali to Google one of the most famous canonical lit bros—and confront his abusive past.

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More recently on Counterpoint

Have a cup of tea with Noreen Ocampo, Woody Woodger, Ashira Shirali, & other contributing writers by clicking on their articles below.

Blog

Book Review

“Since the U.S. fails to live up to its ideals as described in songs — the land of the free, a country that welcomes all and celebrates diversity — Lima writes her own poems into song.” On the blog, Esther Sun reviews Ananda Lima’s Mother/land (Black Lawrence Press, 2021).

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Book Review

“Marlowe Granados uses the city of New York as a sewing needle; through the eye of the neo-flapper of the 21st century, she pulls a thread of interesting and wide selection of characters and quietly sews them in and out of the story, embroidering a mirrored painting of the hollow and deceitful society of New York.” On the blog, Zeynep Bashak reviews Marlowe Granados’ Happy Hour (Verso Books, 2021).

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Sticky Notes

“But as I stand on the curb, watching the blue and white shuttle wheeze into the fog, I know that she’s not really leaving and will never be gone from my life in the way that I tend to fear.” A collection of stories about friends and driving.

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APA Writer Series | Chen Chen

“Poetry becomes a means to use English in ways that maybe were never intended for someone in my body, with my history, with my family being an immigrant family coming into the United States."

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In 2020, we invited poets from around the world to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Guest-edited by Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, this folio includes 12 poets and their work addressing the unprecedented global epidemic that has seized our present and rerouted our future. Read our 2021 sequel here.

Catch up with past issues of COUNTERCLOCK Journal here – always available online, for free.

Enjoying COUNTERCLOCK? Please consider making a contribution to COUNTERCLOCK today.

Our mission has always been to empower and to heal through the arts through an accessible, free medium. Our staff is not paid; all financial contributions will be go toward paying honorariums to guest lecturers, supporting emerging creatives, and assisting fellows from our interdisciplinary programs. We also hope to one day pay contributors.

Click here to check out various ways you can support us or directly support us today on Patreon! Your support goes a long way toward sustaining and maintaining our free, accessible journal.