Meep Matsushima, poet
Meep Matsushima, poetpublications
2024
- dislocation in Blood Orange (January 2024)
"for a city where I can't survive"
(read about dislocation's publication journey)
2023
- haunted house in Disabled Tales (October 2023)
we miss/ our bodies in the city
("haunted house" originally appeared in you are here (2021).)
Changeling Child, Or: The Oak King's Champion Rescues a Baby from a Hot Car in Not One Of Us (October 2023)
Everyone knows what it means/ when a mortal mother leaves her child alone/ with an oak leaf in his left hand.
Down by the River, Dreaming in Disabled Tales (September 2023)
our tails split into two/ unsteady legs;/ dislocated, we crawled onto the rocky shore.
~if the sky can crack~ in Archive of the Odd (July 2023)
I know you're not supposed to eat faerie food so I packed protien bars and a water bottle.
2022
- Annotated Bibliography of a Haunting in Voidspace (July 2022)
"I am telling you a story./ I am telling you the truth."
("Annotated Bibliography of a Haunting" is an updated version of "I don't want to write poetry…" (2018).)
2021
- Shabbos Girlfriend in Strange Fire: Jewish Voices from the Pandemic (June 2021)
"my Shabbos girlfriend arrives/ … crowned in the last raws of sunset gold/ and the light of the first stars"
haunted house in You Are Here: Bodies & Politics (June 2021)
"this ghost and me,/ we're both mourning the same thing"
Janet's Song in Corvid Queen (April 2021)
"I am no beauty/ but I can hold on to what I want with both hands."
Summer Court Love Story in Liminality (March 2021)
"I want the flavor of ice cream/ that tastes like his kiss."
東京百景: One Hundred Views of Tokyo in Second Chance Lit (January 2021)
"It’s hard to find empty space in a city... but the streets unfolded for me."
(content notes: parental death)
"One Hundred Views of Tokyo" is a 2022 Best of the Net finalist.
2020
- The Believers in Strange Horizons (December 2020)
"When the lights first appeared in the sky/ we called them angels."
"The Believers" is a 2021 Rhysling Award nominee.
Kings & Queens of Narnia in Microverses (September 2020)
"it doesn’t take much/ to make yourself disappear through a magic door."
"Kings & Queens of Narnia" is a 2021 Rhysling Award nominee.
Edith in Microverses (September 2020)
"let me be salt"
2019 & earlier
- "I don't want to write poetry..." (March 2018)
"I don’t want to write poetry/ about girls turning into birds/ or boys disappearing through magic doors."
(content notes: gaslighting, emotional abuse, self-injury, disordered eating)
Civilian Casualties for The Real LJ Idol (May 2013)
"You never forget your first civilian casualty."
(content notes: fantasy violence, death, moral injury/PTSD)
about
- Meep Matsushima (松島美色布) used to be a portal fantasy protagonist but now is a school librarian. is a disabled1 genderqueer lesbian. Originally from New England, Meep got name in Tokyo, where she lives with her black cat familiar.
1several acronyms: hEDS, ME/CFS, ADHD, OCD, PMDD, &c.
In 2011, Meep graduated summa cum laude from Simmons
Meep's poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award (2021) and Best of the Net (2022). middle grade novel-in-progress, Alternate Universe was a Walter Grant finalist in 2020. In 2024, Meep (as Annie James Rollins) was chosen as Joëlle Retener's PB Rising Stars runner-up for picture book manuscript, The Remembering Blanket.
Meep can be reached via email (meepmatsushima@gmail.com).
If an honorific is required, please use Ms. or Mx. Matsushima.
Meep's pronouns are she/her & æ/ær.
(Refresh the page and pronouns will change.)
contact
- email: meepmatsushima@gmail.com
newsletter: meep.substack.com
colophon
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