Scott Walker on PRESS (A) TO START

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Scott Walker – a hell of a writer, a hell of a friend, and someone whose advice has always steered me in a direction I hadn’t considered while keeping my whatever-it-is that makes me me intact – was kind enough to share a few words about the first issue of PRESS (A) TO START:

"Weaver's ability to turn a phrase and zig when you expect him to zag is on full display in the debut issue of PRESS (A): With a confident, unflinching determination, this first installment explores decades of time in a search for closure that can never be but must nevertheless be pursued: Weaver's willingness to unapologetically and poetically chew right down to the bone of the trauma of losing his mother - and the conflicting emotions that loss triggered - has yielded an autobiographical work authentically heartbreaking and surprisingly soul satisfying. Just like the relationship of a mother and a son.

–Scott Walker, author of the LITTLE YOKAI series

PRESS (A) TO START is a twice-a-year, print-only premium (though also imperfect, raw, and free) zine produced exclusively for MacroParentheticals subscribers. The first issue, LAST CHRISTMAS IN JULY – A COWARD’S EXORCISM, is now available. You can sign up here to subscribe.

EJK on PRESS (A) TO START

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Elizabeth Joan Kelly, one of my favorite composers working today - and, in the interest of full disclosure, one of my favorite collaborators - on the first edition of my PRESS (A) TO START series:

“… a beautiful and heartbreaking work: Weaver navigates the complex reality of losing a family member - albeit one who represented significant trauma - through a mixture of self-analysis, memory, narrative, objects, and drafted obituaries. The central tension comes not from a sense of loss, but from the inherent sense of guilt that comes with saying goodbye to a complicated relationship. But despite how devastating it is, LAST CHRISTMAS IN JULY is also breathtaking and, in a way, comforting, because it is evidence that trauma can beget great work, and that is what great art does: it makes us feel and astounds us with what it makes us feel.”

PRESS (A) TO START is a twice-a-year, print-only premium (though decidedly imperfect and raw) zine produced exclusively for MacroParentheticals subscribers. The first issue, LAST CHRISTMAS IN JULY – A COWARD’S EXORCISM, is now available. You can sign up here to subscribe.

coming in july: PRESS (A) TO START

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I'm launching my own semiannual (though *possibly* quarterly – have to see how the first issue goes over the next month) zine, PRESS (A) TO START, which will be the home of all my fully-fleshed writings – essays, Modulae, etc – moving forward.

The why of it all: thanks to recent TSR interviews with both Justin Duke, the creator of Buttondown and MJ Slide, the brain behind their own zine, PRISMATIC SLANT, I realized that I've been making a mistake with my newsletter in that I was asking too much of the form in overwrought attempts to have it function both as my primary communications medium *and* my primary expressive medium. My working theory (which I'm considering truth whether it is or not) is that by splitting comms and expressions into two different entities, I will be able to craft a more rewarding communicative reading experience in the newsletter and, likewise, a more rewarding creative and expressive experience for me in PRESS (A).

(For instance: had I not found my way to PRESS (A), I never would have been able to publish the 7,000 word essay I’ve been cooking up as I deal with the fallout and complexities of my mother’s death at the end of April.)

Newsletter subscribers will receive not only free access to a digital edition of each release but substantial discounts on physical editions; you can sign up here if so inclined.

Looking forward to sharing it with all of you. First issue should arrive sometime next month.