mosh pit daria

"there was an era where nat raum wasn’t allowed to do shit, but their floridian counterpart natalie ann stevens was the toast of baltimore, queen of tequila soda, roused each day at sunset to raise hell"

—nat raum

beestungmag.com/issue23/one-...

love the troublemaking & nostalgia of this
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

Hi, we’re Monarch. Monarch Queer Literary Awards is a new anthology recognizing the best new queer writing and art published by literary magazines and independent presses. We aim to uplift the groundbreaking and often under-celebrated poems, short stories, essays, and artwork that are published in magazines, chapbooks, zines, and other collections.

More about Monarch. We want to celebrate excellence in all regards: great writing and great community stewardship. While submissions from both emerging and established publications will (of course) be given equal consideration, we really hope to see some of our longstanding community members come out and join us in the revelry of it all!

Submit to Monarch. We will accept submissions from September 1 through November 30, 2025. Submissions must come from the editor or editors of the publication. Journals and independent presses are eligible. The work must have been initially published between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, either online or in print.

Hello, friends! We're Monarch Queer Literary Awards, a project of @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social. Monarch is a new anthology recognizing the best new queer writing and art published by literary magazines and independent presses. 🦋

Submissions open September 1. Until then, get to know us: monarch.gay

the fine line nat raum cover: close up photo, freaked like a Polaroid, of the author's face in profile, kissing flesh. text: “the fine line masterfully interrogates the perceived dichotomy between ecstasy and pain.” sal kang

frozen in the fragility of burgeoning sexuality, the erasures and erotic polaroids of the fine line pull text from teen novels, tease out the tension, and hold it in relief.
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

with gasoline nat raum cover: a pink Molotov cocktail on a background of blue text: Defiantly calling to attention ordinary and extraordinary transphobia, this collection bares its teeth at the world and refuses to take “no” for an answer. [raum's] succinct and biting language gives their anger a beautiful clarity that resonates beside their unending resolve for embodying trans joy. Sarah Klein, author of Mast Cell Mathematics: A Chronic Illness Calculus

raum pushes back against the sanitized polite, pliable, and otherwise "perfect" trans ideal deemed acceptable by society—if, and when, they are accepted at all—with poems that highlight the righteous, the cruel, and the ugly; these are the real truths we’re dying to say.
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

Baltimore's own @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social 1st subbed to Stanchion on June 1, 2022. On August 1, 2025, they'll finally make their Stanchion Magazine debut with "self-portriat as baltimore" on pages 13 & 14! Please enjoy the opening salvo of this nat raum poem!

www.stanchionzine.com/product-page...

Punchy, gorgeous little poem up this week that reads best in the summer. Enjoy “pastoral on cymbalta” from @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

Link: dishsoap-quarterly.com/7-22-25/past...

cover: A pink and black molotov cocktail on a background of blue. the title and authors name appear in a sharp peaked gothic font in white and black respectively. text: and at what point do i hold the power to grab the system by its clavicle and rupture back? poem after and undisclosed meme about my pronouns august 19th pre-orders are OPEN kithbooks.com

the following poem appears in a white rectangle on a pink background. ia black handled chef's knife is stabbed through the bottom edge, handle up and point down. text: poem for the cishet woman who says including transmasc people in “women’s” issues isn’t relatable to her personally this is a focus group. focus on identifying five things i can see, four i can touch. focus on the cursor as it slides over the camera button, switches it off. focus on the way she says i hope you don’t take this as offensive, but after i say the menopause website we’re all looking at doesn’t feel trans-friendly. recalibrate; losing focus. don’t focus on the way i feel, the way she doesn’t realize she swatted me down like an attack helicopter would fall if struck by such a blow. don’t focus on all twenty people who said nothing and kept talking about the hot pink web design. focus on the talking-to my boss says is coming for her. focus on the email from my other queer coworker sending love from her gay little corner of the world. focus on quitting this job in a few months, anyway. this is a focus group—focus on collecting my gift card compensation. focus on a future without cis nonsense.

the following poem appears in a white rectangle on a blue background. breaking up through the bottom edge of the image is the top half of a pink and black molotov cocktail poem from my deathbed i wish i had kicked. i wish i had screamed. i wish i had yelled the words fuck off far more, for so many more people deserved them. i wish i had carved they into my right breast, them into my left, and worn my deepest v-neck. i wish i had found a vessel for all this wrath before i came to lie here, listing it all off like this is confession and anyone who will listen is an eager- eared soothsayer on the other side of a partition. i wish being trans didn’t come with a side of people so uncomfortable with themselves, they have to project it onto others. i wish i didn’t have to shut up about it to maintain any modicum of respect the average cis person has for me. i wish i didn’t have to say i use any pronouns to dull the sting of a misplaced she. i wish anyone in office gave a damn, but they don’t. i wish the words enshrined protections extended to me, to us. i wish the fact weren’t, but it is.

a black handled, white bladed chef's knife, lies blade up on a pink background above the following text. text: A vibrant trans celebration, with gasoline is a Molotov thrown at heteropatriachy that ignites a vicious fire. Defiantly calling to attention ordinary and extraordinary transphobia, this collection bares its teeth at the world and refuses to take “no” for an answer. The author's succinct and biting language gives their anger a beautiful clarity that resonates beside their unending resolve for embodying trans joy. If apathy and despair are getting the better of you in these times, with gasoline is the fuel you need to rebirth your phoenix. Sarah Klein, author of Mast Cell Mathematics: A Chronic Illness Calculus with gasoline offers an explosive bouquet of occasional poems for uncommon times, whether after cruel executive orders, during frustrating focus group conversations, or perilous moments that demand one's survival instincts. Their poems’ propulsive engine is fueled by righteous anger, moral clarity, and political courage. raum takes aim at transphobes, billionaires, bootlickers, boomers, and milquetoast liberals alike—in other words becoming “your worst fucking nightmare”—to help us envision instead a future of trans liberation. Evelyn Berry, author of Grief Slut and T4T

nat raum pushes back against the sanitized polite, pliable, & otherwise "perfect" trans ideal deemed acceptable by society—if, and when, they are accepted at all—with poems that highlight the righteous, the cruel, and the ugly of existing in a cis het patriarchal world
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

kith in print with gasoline defiantly carves out space for trans anger in an increasingly hostile world that demands trans people conform to gendered, cis het patriarchal expectations. raum pushes back against the sanitized polite, pliable, and otherwise "perfect" trans ideal deemed acceptable by societ

"and at what point
do i hold the power to grab the system
by its clavicle and rupture back?"
- nat raum, poem after and undisclosed meme about my pronouns
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

kithbooks.com/shop/p/withgasoline

this is a @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social fan account

"acquiescence is for pizza toppings
and petty fights, not the way I am
treated or, I don't know, my fucking
freedoms"
- nat raum, poem for agreeing to disagree
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

sharing this again because i am sending out the first mailing at the end of the month 👀

this is a focus group. focus on identifying five things i can see, four i can touch. focus on the cursor as it slides over the camera button, switches it off. focus on the way she says i hope you don’t take this as offensive, but after i say the menopause website we’re all looking at doesn’t feel trans-friendly. recalibrate; losing focus. don’t focus on the way i feel, the way she doesn’t realize she swatted me down like an attack helicopter would fall if struck by such a blow. don’t focus on all twenty people who said nothing and kept talking about the hot pink web design. focus on the talking-to your boss says is coming for her. focus on the email from your other queer coworker sending love from her gay little corner of the world. focus on quitting this job in a few months, anyway. this is a focus group—focus on collecting my gift card compensation. focus on a future without cis nonsense. nat raum, poem for the cishet woman who says including transmasc people in “women’s” issues isn’t relatable to her personally engenderedlitmag.com

Happy Monday!

"focus on quitting this job..."
- nat raum, poem for the woman who says including transmasc people in "women's" issues isn't relatable to her personally
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025

if you like this one, @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social & I are about to have excellent news 👀

sharing this again because i am sending out the first mailing at the end of the month 👀

Join nat raum's Membership buy nat raum a breakfast burrito!

want to get a quarterly envelope full of mini zines from me? join my zine club!

ko-fi.com/natraum/tiers

A photo of the earth with the right side engulfed in flame.

“...& maybe there is a world that doesn’t rotate at the pace of mass death…”

“fire” by @lowermelody.bsky.social @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social is a poem that burns.

Check it out, page 7: www.s2fjournal.com/assets/Issue...

#writingcommunity

Happy It’s-Still-and-Always-Pride! Link to my 3 Pride contributions to Boudin/McNeese Review.

w/ @megpokrass.bsky.social @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social @littlemissbleah.bsky.social @dustinbrookshire.bsky.social @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social & many more talented writers

www.mcneese.edu/thereview/20...

june '25 sometimes, all i think about is you

natraum.substack.com/p/june-25

I am grateful to my collaborators for the poems we made in this issue of @s2fjournal.bsky.social: "Pour one out for my unreliable narrator," with Angela Gonzalez, and "fire," from a series with @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social. Both texts combine prose blocks with verse fragments

More praise for My Hurt Shall Devour You from @gr8earlofhell!! ““Fueled by endless need,” Sadee Bee’s collection My Hurt Shall Devour You delves into the abyss of what it means to be consumed by love. Anyone who has ever been called “too sensitive,” rejoice—Bee has you covered with a devotion, an obsession, an incantation so powerful, it would knock the average reader on their ass. Steep in their hurt, and let it devour you. — nat raum, author of this book will not save you and camera indomita”

More praise for My Hurt Shall Devour You from @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social!

Preorder today from @dogleechbooks.bsky.social!

moth-eaten-mag.square.site/product/my-h...

#poetry #books #indielit

my gender is jaywalking in stilettos — SillyGoosePress on mobile? turn phone sideways!

🪿POETRY 🪿

I love a poem where the form IS the punctuation! A great one today from nat 👠👠

my gender is jaywalking in stilettos by @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

“what i mean is i don’t think i know how to be a woman i only know how to be chaotic…”

sillygoosepress.com/pride-unedit...

thank god the drip they gave me that one spring night (you know the one)

ATIVAN HALEN (AFTER FALL OUT BOY)
prose poem by @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

Spark to Flame Issue Five cover art by Maria Taibo showing a forest with warm browns and greens.

We are excited to publish S2F’s Issue Five: www.s2fjournal.com/assets/Issue...

In this issue, we have one co-authored poem and nine poems created through our “spark-to-flame” process.

#WritingCommunity #poetry 📝

i wish i had kicked. i wish i had screamed. i wish i had yelled the words fuck off far more, for so many more people deserved them. i wish i had carved they into my right breast, them into my left, and worn my deepest v-neck. i wish i had found a vessel for all this wrath before i came to lie here, listing it all off like this is confession and anyone who will listen is an eager- eared soothsayer on the other side of a partition. i wish being trans didn’t come with a side of people so uncomfortable with themselves, they have to project it onto others. i wish i didn’t have to shut up about it to maintain any modicum of respect the average cis person has for me. i wish i didn’t have to say i use any pronouns to dull the sting of a misplaced she. i wish anyone in office gave a damn, but they don’t. i wish the words enshrined protections extended to me, to us. i wish the fact weren’t, but it is. nat raum, poem from my deathbed

"i wish i had found
a vessel for all this wrath before i came to
lie here, listing it all off like this is confession
and anyone who will listen"
- nat raum, poem from my deathbed

@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social
engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025

sillygoosepress.com/pride-unedited

Coalesce — Icebreakers Lit Poetry & Art by nat raum & erika gill

New collab out with @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social! A photo collage and a poem in @icebreakerslit.bsky.social!

www.icebreakerslit.com/read/coalesce

this is my stop by nat raum nat raum (they/them, b. 1996) is a queer disabled artist and writer based on unceded Piscataway and Susquehannock land in Baltimore, MD. They graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with ...

psssssst, yesterday i dropped a 'Daria' microchap with Maverick Duck Press!

payhip.com/b/eiUr1

new new in @y2kq.com 😎 it's about rugrats

www.y2kq.com/works/the-ba...

may '25 no, you may not

it's that time again
natraum.substack.com/p/may-25