The 8th issue of Sensitive Skin, a journal of post-beat, pre-apocalyptic art, writing, music and whatnot, features a rare interview with William S. Burroughs, by Allen Ginsberg, from the early 90s, with previously unpublished photographs of Burroughs by Ruby Ray, as well as her photos from the original SF punk scene, including shots of X, The Dead Kennedys, and Sid Vicious. We’re also proud to present writing by: • Mike Hudson, founder and lead singer of seminal seventies punk rock band The Pagans;. • James Greer, author of the novels Artificial Light, The Failure and the non-fiction book Guided By Voices: A Brief History, a biography of a band for which he played bass guitar; • Thaddeus Rutkowski, the author of the innovative novels Haywire, Tetched and Roughhouse; • Karen Lillis (aka Karen the Small Press Librarian), author of Watch the Doors as They Close; • Chavisa Woods, whose debut collection of short stories, Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind was a Lambda Literary Award finalist; • Jim Feast, a founding member of the Unbearables writers group; • Rob Hardin, author of Distorture, winner of the Firecracker Award; • and Mark McCawley, editor of the Canadian litzine Urban Graffiti. • Todd Colby, who has published four books of poetry: Ripsnort, Cush, Riot in the Charm Factory: New and Selected Writings, and Tremble & Shine, all by Soft Skull Press. Colby has been broadcast nationally on PBS, MTV and NPR for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. Plus music from: • contemporary jazz combo The New Monsters, featuring Steve Horowitz, Dan Plonsey, Scott Looney, Steve Adams and Jim Bove. And artwork from: • Tom McGlynn, whose work is represented the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. • Justine Frischmann, former front woman and guitarist for iconic ’90s brit-pop band Elastica • James Romberger, artist for the critically acclaimed Seven Miles A Second, in collaboration with David Wojnarowicz. Plus more fiction, poetry, photographs and illustrations from Ray Jicha, Su Byron, Jennifer Adams, David West, Les Bridges, Chris Bava, Jeff Spirer, Charlie Homo, Cédric Monot, Kym Ghee, Ted Barron and Marcin Owczarek. Sensitive Skin magazine began as a print venture from New York’s Lower East Side in the 1990s, and published such literary luminaries as Richard Hell, Jack Micheline, Penny Arcade, Eileen Myles, Lynne Tillman, Patrick McGrath, Bob Holman, Maggie Estep, Emily XYZ, Herbert Huncke and Joel Rose, with art by Andres Serrano, Ari Marcopolis, Andrew Castrucci and James Romberger, to name but a few…. Sensitive Skin was reborn in the summer of 2010, and has already presented work by such esteemed artists as Justine Frischmann (Elastica), Craig Clevenger (The Contortionist’s Handbook), Darius James (Negrophobia), Stewart Home (Pure Mania), Michael A. Gonzales (Vibe magazine regular), Drew Hubner (American By Blood), Jonathan Shaw (Narcissa), Melissa Febos (Whip Smart), Max Blagg (Bald Ego), Patricia Eakins (The Hungry Girls), Díre McCain (publisher, Paraphilia Magazine), Rob Roberge (Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life), Kurt Wolf (Pussy Galore), Erika Schickel (You’re Not the Boss of Me: Adventures of a Modern Mom), John S. Hall (King Missile), Kevin Rafferty (Atomic Café), and downtown NYC avant-garde music legend Elliott Sharp.

Sensitive Skin #8

Literature & Fiction

Woods, Chavisa

Hudson, Mike

Romberger, James

Greer, James

Kold, B.

Feast, Jim

Lessard, William

Bridges, Les

Hardin, Rob

McCawley, Mark

Contemporary

Sensitive Skin Books

Emerging author Chavisa Woods has been noted for capturing a "strange, troubling vision of domestic life in the rural U.S." (Go Magazine). Here she presents a technicolored vision of rural adolescence, the story of a girl with an unpronounceable name—a fiery, unhinged, growling, big-hearted country girl in a dirty black tutu and combat boots who travels along all the bizarre yet familiar byways of human desire from the cornfields of Louisiana and the big brass sound of Mardi Gras to the heights of the Empire State Building. Turning the tradition of the southern gothic novel on its head, Woods presents a new land of contemporary misfits including fire-dancers, pseudo-Nazis who breed albino animals, Catholic workers, horse thieves, and the archangel Gabrielle.

The Albino Album: A Novel

Dramas & Plays

Seven Stories Press

Nominated for the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction "Darkly funny and brilliantly human, urgently fantastical and implacably realistic. This is one of the best short story collections I've read in years. It should be required reading for anyone who's trying to understand America in 2017." —Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean The eight stories in Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country paint a vivid image of people living on the fringes in America, people who don't do what you might expect them to. Not stories of triumph over adversity, but something completely other. Described in language that is brilliantly sardonic, Woods's characters return repeatedly to places where they don't belong—often the places where they were born. In "Zombie," a coming-of-age story like no other, two young girls find friendship with a mysterious woman in the local cemetery. "Take the Way Home That Leads Back to Sullivan Street" describes a lesbian couple trying to repair their relationship by dropping acid at a Mensa party. In "A New Mohawk," a man in romantic pursuit of a female political activist becomes inadvertently much more familiar with the Palestine/Israel conflict than anyone would have thought possible. And in the title story, Woods brings us into the mind of a queer goth teenager who faces ostracism from her small-town evangelical church. In the background are the endless American wars and occupations and too many early deaths of friends and family. This is fiction that is fresh and of the moment, even as it is timeless.

Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country: and Other Stories

United States

Shirley Jackson Award-winning author and three-time Lambda Finalist, Chavisa Woods presents one hundred personal stories of sexism, harassment, discrimination, and assault. Recounting her experiences with sexist discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence—beginning in childhood, through the present—Woods lays out clear and unflinching personal vignettes that build in intensity as the number of times grows. Individually, and especially taken as a whole, these stories amount to powerful proof that sexual violence and discrimination are never just one-time occurrences, but part of a constant battle all women face every day. In these extraordinary pages, sexual violence and sexist discrimination occur regardless of age, in all spheres of society, in rural and urban areas alike, in the US and abroad, from Woods' youth through adulthood. Demonstrating how often people are conditioned to endure sexism and harassment, and how thoroughly men feel entitled to women’s spaces and bodies, 100 Times forces the reader to witness the myriad ways in which sexism and misogyny continuously shape women’s lives, and are built-in facets of our society.

100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country

Shirley Jackson Award-winning author and three-time Lambda Finalist, Chavisa Woods presents 100 personal stories of sexism, harassment, discrimination, and assault. Recounting her experiences with sexist discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence - beginning in childhood, through the present - Woods lays out clear and unflinching personal vignettes that build in intensity as the number of times grows. Individually, and especially taken as a whole, these stories amount to powerful proof that sexual violence and discrimination are never just one-time occurrences, but part of a constant battle all women face every day. In this extraordinary audio, sexual violence and sexist discrimination occur regardless of age, in all spheres of society, in rural and urban areas alike, in the US and abroad, from Woods' youth through adulthood. Demonstrating how often people are conditioned to endure sexism and harassment, and how thoroughly men feel entitled to women's spaces and bodies, 100 Times forces the listener to witness the myriad ways in which sexism and misogyny continuously shape women's lives, and are built-in facets of our society.

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio

Fiction. Women's Studies. Chavisa Woods' LOVE DOES NOT MAKE ME GENTLE OR KIND is a collection of fiction focusing on the formative and tumultuous moments in the lives of two women as children and adults, whose relationship to one another is cast in an ambiguous light, and whose characters are abstracted within the context of each story. Primarily set in rural America and other transient realms, this book combines realism with elements of meta-fiction, magnifying the extraordinary interpersonal worlds created by the circumstances of their outer reality. "Woods writes about love with a calloused hand, filling the spaces left by others. Her words etch a dotted line across your heart, instructing it precisely in where to break" -Sabrina Chapadjiev.

Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind

Literary

Fly-by-Night Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Woods, Chavisa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Woods, Chavisa