Send your questions for Q+A pod
+why you should buy Soft Union
We’re doing another Q+A pod. Send us your questions via chat, IG DM, or email (stephenadubato AT gmail DOT com) by 10/31 and we’ll answer. Also let us know how you’d like us to refer to you when reading your question on the pod.
Also, you should certainly pick up a copy of the new edition of Soft Union, one of the coolest literary magazines on the scene right now (order here). They interviewed us about cracks in pomo, and published a very silly short story by Stephen.
Check out excerpts below:
My Morning Story
After coming to terms with the fact that this was not going to be a productive day, I figured I’d have to find some way to make use of this day. Today would probably be my only chance to pretend I was that nameless protagonist in My Year of Rest and Relaxation. When else was I going to wake up on the Upper West Side with (technically) nothing to do (she was on the East Side but who in their right mind would want to wake up there)? I grabbed my friend’s key, deciding I would saunter down to Magnolia’s to indulge myself in an iced latte a la Moshfegh and a luxurious fresh cupcake—breaking both my intermittent fast and my commitment to frugality. When in Rome, I thought. When LARPing as the main character in a novel about decadent nepobabies.
2 carefree preteen white girls ran across the sidewalk with Unicorn Frappuccinos in hand, shouting some non-sense in their white girl language. I muttered something resentful loudly enough that some middle aged woman wearing Lulu Lemon yoga pants and walking her toy dog turned around to look at me with concern. I continued commenting to myself on the wildlife as I made my way three blocks down to Mag’s, noticing a rainbow flag modified with an arrow layered in black, brown, magenta, blue, and yellow stripes topped with a black circle, reminding me that Black Trans Gay Non-Binary Aromantic Asexual lives indeed matter. I momentarily pondered the Freudian implications of identifying as aromantic, and was interrupted by the smell of butter and brown sugar wafting from out of the doors of Magnolia. The aroma wrapped its arms around my zombie-like body as I entered the store.
Though I had in mind to purchase a vanilla cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting, I—always a sucker for catchy marketing—was enticed by the novelty of their limited edition strawberry sour cream shortcake. I started practicing a variety of voices in which I would order my snacky, code switching from fake-nice white girl, to generic bro, to prissy queen, to Brooklyn guido, to Italian immigrant, settling for my normal aspergian monotone, which best complemented my 2-hours-of-sleep zombie aesthetic.
Stephen G. Adubato in conversation with Lincoln Bailiff
LB How did Cracks in Postmodernity come to be?
SGA I’ve always been obsessed with hunting for cultural and ideological paradoxes. I find them alluring. Studying the history of ideas gave me a language to better make sense of these paradoxes and how they came to be. As a contrarian, I feel a strong sense of mission to point out these paradoxes that transcend conventional ideological tropes. Highlighting these points of truth, meaning, and beauty have a unifying effect on our divided social landscape.
LB I’m in New Jersey with six hours to kill. Where should I go?
SGA Go to Newark. Visit the Cathedral and St. Lucy’s. Ride a scooter through Branch Brook Park. Then head down to the Ironbound section (aka the East Ward aka Down Neck) and gorge on Portuguese food. Chop it up with the locals who are drinking their galãos, chomping on pasteis de nata, and blasting cigs outside of the numerous cafes. Check out one of the nine ethnic Catholic churches. Go kick around a soccer ball at Riverfront Park as you watch the sunset. Then go listen to live Samba and Forronejo at a Brazilian bar. Don’t worry, you won’t get shot.