oh, abyss, how you have grown. this book has looked all kinds of ways since its inception and i am honestly here for it? we love a book that subverts all your expectations.
i talk about this a little bit in my kith books interview, but abyss was originally two projects: i hate this place was a stream of consciousness prose chapbook exploring life after breakups, and don’t text or the abyss is staring back was a concept for a hybrid book about mental health. i don’t remember when i had the idea to just take my favorite entries from ihtp and add them to abyss, but it made sense at the time, since ultimately, both manuscripts were dealing with stasis. the final product is a hybrid exploration of the stasis that follows a mental health crisis, along with threads of the disabled queer experience throughout.
press
praise
“in their exemplary confessional style, nat raum consults the void in ‘the abyss is staring back.’ this collection is an invitation into raum’s personal gravity—a space exploring monotony, queerness, and disability with a stream-of-consciousness type spirit. however, raum is also just as gifted with precision. the result: words that are as raw and real as they are beautiful, and writing that is truly for anybody…even a black hole.”
—arden will, eic of the winnow and author of acts of performative newness
“In ‘the abyss is staring back,’ nat raum unabashedly explores what it means to be housed in a body that at once doesn’t feel like home yet is the only home known. is a home somewhere you go only go because there is no where else? how do you ever feel whole in a body? can you ever? raum’s brutally frank expressions of depression, chronic illness, and transness explore the complexities of living in a body that is not the most welcoming home. Startling in its clarity, this collection navigates the human search for wholeness with an ardent and sincere voice.”
- dre levant, author of icarus rising (kith books ’23)
“nat raum's ‘the abyss is staring back’ is a symphony; a video game soundtrack, equal parts comforting & existential. Commenting on the ubiquity of the internet and the rise of the digital age, & how that affects our communication & sense of identity, raum's words speak to alienation, confusion through an illumined blue screen, & of course it is like the flakes of skin on your lips as you chew them or the master sword in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—a chimera at the end of a long labyrinthine exploration of love, queerness, & identity. This collection is a broken wristbone, a phone screen at 3am; it is equal parts dysphoric and euphoric; it is a bleeding thing. I am truly stunned.”
—Noah David Roberts, author of STRIPS
selected works
“in which dread pools and begins to percolate” in the cool rock repository kettle expo
“self portrait as a food blogger” and “episodic memory” in en*gendered lit
“in which i kind of want to live in schitt's creek” in Dollar Store Magazine, Issue 4: Pop Culture, But Make It Pedantic
“failed self portrait as link from the legend of zelda: breath of the wild” in Sage Cigarettes
“voidspeak (skinned)” and “we have been trying to reach you about your body’s extended warranty” in Black Stone / White Stone’s Making the Machines That Destroy Us zine
“scorpius” in celestite poetry, Issue 5
“hot sugar crush” in eggplant tears, issue 1: soft-boiled
“in which i perforate” in Hooligan Magazine: Spilled Ink
“who has a gps map of hell i can borrow?” and “searching” in the winnow magazine, Digital Wastelands Issue
“the fine line between self-loving and self-loathing” in the unstamatic Unconditional Acceptance Issue
“rot around the edges” and “you may find yourself” in the winnow magazine, Home/Liminal Spaces Issue
“the duality of void” in Delicate Friend, Issue 9: Static
“voidspeak (shattered)” in Best Served Cold, Issue 1: Criminally Queer
“a haibun of indifference to my body” in The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Volume 14 Issue 1
“free & for sale (iso wholeness),” “free & for sale (selling shame),” and “free & for sale (yard sard)” in Bullshit Lit
“personal evolution as alchemy” in the lickety-split
“i have a lot of questions” on Substack
the abyss is staring back is available from Querencia Press at your favorite online bookseller (mine’s Bookshop).