There’s a book full of plans 
at the feet of poor Atlas 
titled For Man, 
but the architects only drew blanks… 

Dessa, ‘Poor Atlas’

Let’s open with the obvious, the one thing that all fans of Voltron: Legendary Defender can agree on: 

Takashi Shirogane has been through a big damn lot, my friends. 

The one where we may immediately differ, however, is whether the show knows it, but it’s still true. Shiro has been under a lot of pressure, even for the show’s standards. The challenge, however, is that Legendary Defender struggles for the most part to find ways to navigate those pressures, for a lot of the cast. This is, in a lot of ways, the result of both strictures of time and navigating the boundaries of heterosexual boys’-club television, but I don’t say that to make any excuses for it. Things have gotten in the way of making the – at least – least unpalatable thing. This is where we are.

We can talk, then, about where here is, how we landed, and whether it is hostile territory. But we can also perhaps afford some patience to who was piloting when we crashed while also taking a serious look at the poor landing itself. 

Hey there! I may not have a lot to show for how busy I’ve been in the past few days–lots of performance preparations and private writing sprints to make some short things longer. But here are some things you can look out for in the future: 

• I’m one of the commissioned poets for Year Five of Uncanny Magazine! Uncanny is one of my favourite genre outlets, and I’m really glad that they would have me on board. The Kickstarter for Year Five is still on–you can check it out here! If you’re into it, at one of the pledge levels I’ll give you a poetry manuscript critique! (Also, psst, they’re open for subs, but I’mma just tell you that window closes quick so get on it!)
• I’ve also already contributed to some other Kickstarter campaigns! I have an essay and some poetry coming up in The Outliers, the companion zine to the splitbook for Avery Alder’s Dream Askew and Benjamin Rosenbaum’s Dream Apart. I can’t wait for you to see the zine, and the book itself! Both games are radical in every sense of the word. 
• I’m also presently cooking up poetry for the launch of John Silence, a weird-fiction RPG about psychic detectives of colour warding off interdimensional beings as nonviolently as possible. I’m having a lot of fun thinking deeply about this, and taking my time, but I think you’ll like what comes of it. 
• Also, expect some more of Ben Paragraph choosing his words wisely in the next installment of How to Unmake It in Anglia, coming soon. If you want a sense of what this serial novel is all about, I did an interview with the publisher, Scott Gable of Broken Eye Books, that you can read here.
• In the meantime, I have a poem in the July-September issue of CULTUREGO Magazine. It’s called ‘Gretels’, and it’s about how unsuspecting the fearsome things are. If you wish, you can read it from the site demo for free, but the entire magazine is definitely worth a read.

There are other things that are yet unknown, but I am sure you’ll like… some of them? In the meantime, let me just point you to a project by my friend and comrade-in-the-word, Shivanee Ramlochan.

Other Kinds of Men is a speculative poetry reader she’s undertaking on her blog, where each day in August she endeavours to read, discuss, and share a speculative poem by another poet. As a speculative poet myself, I’m always eager to see my favourite genre verse shared with others, but I’m also so absolutely pleased by her selections, especially the ones that I hadn’t read before. Shivanee is one of the deepest readers I have ever had the luxury of knowing, and I hope especially that those of you who may not know what speculative poetry is or what it can do will peruse this list–I can guarantee you that you will find something you love so much that you will hold it close against you as it opens a gate to another world.

And it should also go without saying that if you haven’t read Shivanee’s debut collection, Everyone Knows I Am A Haunting, then you should fix this severe self-injustice as immediately as you can. It’s an absolutely arresting little volume, one of which I insist everyone should have a copy, worn at the outer corners by rereading. 

So that’s all I have to say tonight, I think–wait! Also, if you’re into talking about your favourite fandom things with nice, respectful, considerate nerd strangers, I have a Discord server that I’m slowly populating! Join it and talk me in/out of hosting a large rewatch of Voltron: Legendary Defender as I fight the urge to write an entire treatise on Takashi Shirogane!

Don’t mind me – I’m just tidying up this place so you can come visit soon!