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Hello! On this website, you’ll find a list of my published works, as well as some reviews of my writing.
Hello! On this website, you’ll find a list of my published works, as well as some reviews of my writing.
Ennis Rook Bashe is a disabled queer badass from the New York area, whose writing centers around themes of hope and community. Tumblr: kayla-bird.tumblr.com Twitter: @EnnisRookBashe Newsletter: Enter your email address powered by TinyLetter
Do you want to contact me? Awesome, especially if you want to reprint one of my works. đ
Poetry: http://fembotmag.com/our-zine-cyberrriot/fall-2016/ http://www.lavrev.net/2015/12/kayla-bashe.html https://slinkchunkpress.com/tag/kayla-bashe/ http://www.phantomkangaroo.com/issue-no-23/ http://www.ourmurmurs.com/poetry/2016/10/23/not-forgotten https://issuu.com/octoberrebel/docs/flying_clubhouse_magazine_final https://www.etsy.com/listing/481350884/ghosts-in-our-bones-zine-including http://www.blurb.com/b/7494668-felan-issue-8-envy http://www.marissalorusso.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/U-G-L-Y.pdf http://www.liminalitypoetry.com/issue-6-winter-20152016/changeling-manifesto/ http://strangehorizons.com/poetry/we-have-slain-the-savage-martians-but-their-princess-escaped/ https://hypnopompblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/entrance-kayla-bashe-poetry/ Horror Game Dad in âWhen I am Dead, My Dearestâ https://issuu.com/jamiezine/docs/halloween_zine__ https://lazarusjournal.wordpress.com/2017/10/28/kayla-bashe-that-boy/ âDead Girlâ in Roseblood Mag https://cabinetofheed.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/two-poems-for-wizards-kayla-bashe/ âThe Witchâs New Familiarâ in Lame Kid Zineâs Halloween issue âFor Ivieâ in Grrldot Zine âWhy All Your Friends Are Dyingâ in Spill Yr… Continue reading My Writing
“Antimatter pigeons are trying to hold the Empire State Building hostage. Rosita needs backup!”
Imagine a friendship turned romance between young superheroes, one of whom has power over light, while the other commands shadows and darkness.
Imagine the miles-deep yet frightened connection between two people horribly hurt by rejection, one by her white parents when the Korean baby theyâd adopted wouldnât become the musical prodigy they wanted and then denied her ADD treatment, the other from the gawking tourists who paid money to see a caged-up child at the circus.
To Stand in the Light by Kayla Bashe will introduce you to Shadow, a scarred, half-demon nearly seven feet tall, and Bean, an enthusiastic waif who loves glitter and bright colors. Both of them are absolutely terrified that theyâre a burden on the other, and a lot of us can relate to that. âThinking about those bad times, when she felt like apologizing to the fluorescent lights for having to shine down on her[âŚ]â
Thatâs not Basheâs only evocative phrase: Beanâs stomach began to feel like a cheap blender trying to grind up knives ⢠âIâd swallow a cactus if it would mean I could get my GED already.â ⢠She fell in awe of New York the way one would adore the stars, if stars could be petted and tenderly kissed. ⢠âLetâs be messed up together, instead of arguing over who deserves who.â
Thereâs a plot element I remember from animated Batmanâif superheroes have failsafes in case one of them goes bad, what if one of the baddies gets control of the failsafe? Bashe took it in a new direction that was interesting to watch unfold.
Both Shadow and Bean have to heal and accept medical help so that they can be the best for the superhero team and for each other. Naturally, this being a Kayla Bashe book, we get plenty of healing and positivity. Also, this being a Kayla Bashe book, Shadow is âtheyâ and nonbinary transfeminine (and both leads are bi), and the writing incorporates that identity seamlessly into the text.
One note that the beginning of this book was difficult for me because it opens with a lead character discovering the remains of their foster parents (eaten by alien lions or something.) Iâve lost a parent and stepparent so if youâre vulnerable to those memories, yes, this book will take you back there. But it will take you back accurately, and then leave the pain behind to do some storytelling, so donât let that scare you away. âI promise you wonât have to miss them alone,â says Shadow, since they and Bean shared those foster parents who got eaten by aliens, and I know what that feels like. Itâs little details like that which matter.
“Youâve got an extra villain to kick the butt of every day before you can even get out of bed, and youâve been fighting alone â without any powers or weapons or anything â and still you manage to defeat it often enough to live your life. That makes you the bravest person I know.”
Shira Glassman
This chapbook includes some outstanding science fiction poems. “Armor” describes the seduction of a literally-armored regime supporter by a rebel. It uses first and second person in original ways, and the lines are delicious. “I come well-supplied with contraband kisses and black-market depravity.” “We Have Slain the Savage Martians, But Their Princess Escaped,” first printed in Strange Horizons, is a fierce monologue transplanting anti-colonial struggles to a science-fictional setting and inverting the “Martian Princess” trope. “Apocalyptic Coffin-Bird” explores survival and legacy. “The Incubator Bides Her Time” is less successful, perhaps too long and dispersed, despite powerful imagery. “the first thing: his chest ripped like canvas, modern art. ”
Of the fantasy poems, my favorite was “Girl Extinguished,” a plea for complexity in heroines and an ode to the ferocious. A non-genre, allegorical poem that had a lot to say was “Firewater II,” which I think is about the pathologies of even righteous rage. “you, too, says fire, must be burning with rage, or else you are useless coals”