Category: Bad Survivalist

Hybrid Prose Poem: “Midway Down Fairmount” by Rogan Kelly for Bad Survivalist

Later, before we sold it for a loss but after you were gone, I drove up the massive hill in my old pickup with the salt-rusted chassis. The city skyline visible below on a clear day. The whole truck seemed to lurch; the sound of metal screeching against metal. Two lawnmowers tied in the back…
Bad Survivalist: Tam Nguyen’s attempted poem “2020’s Impressions”

Halfway through the year of 2020 1 About the flood season in 1978: My father’s boat was traveling to the drylands in the far South to collect some edible grass for the starving cows at home. The river was narrow enough for the melaleuca arms to remind him of guerrillas’ sneaky talks and gunfire. It…
Bad Survivalist: “Beaver Dams and the Final Beaver Dam,” a flash fiction by Kaj Tanaka

We went down to the river yesterday to watch our beaver do his business. We have a beaver of our own, we said in wonder, here on our own land, just a little walk from our own house. We used to want things, I distinctly remembered we used to want things, but I could hardly remember…
Bad Survivalist Short Story: “Common Tragedy” by Sylvan Lebrun

It wasn’t their fault, the fire. The last time the sheriff’s department spoke to the newspapers, they said the investigation was still ongoing, nothing conclusive. So it could have been anyone or anything—bad weather patterns or a rancher burning their trash. Even if it could be traced it back to Nora and Chloe, they still…
Bad Survivalist Poem: “Let nothing touch the ground” by Sam Rush

The best way to treat bedbugs scream while screaming wait until you die / The best way move drive fast enough to outrun them they can’t fly if you run out of gas scream while you scream wait wait until you die let nothing touch the ground / The best way to treat bedbugs diatomaceous…
“Accepting Your Planethood,” a guide by Carolyn Supinka for Bad Survivalist

1 You have just received your diagnosis. At this stage, we advise you try not to think about it too much. It is no small thing to become a planet. Take three deep breaths. If you are near a window, look outside. Do not look directly at the sun, but think about the sun. Feel…
“‘Survivor Lit vs. Adventurer Lit’: The Varying Aesthetics of Forced Migration vs. Voluntary Travel” by Cristina Deptula for Bad Survivalist

More people are refugees than ever before, and more people are able to publish and read books than ever before. Many other brilliant essayists have looked at how the dislocation of migration has showed up in the form as well as the content of literature. Here, in this piece, through interviews with three emerging authors…
“Targets,” a Bad Survivalist essay by Kay Smith-Blum

Who breaks their arm planting bulbs? Well, technically, I was retrieving bulbs, from a box on the other side of the low-rise-industrial-wire fence they put up around small urban gardens at street level to keep out the dogs that don’t keep out the dogs. Why build a fence just high enough for me to trip…
“‘The Will to Survive Is a Force That Never Discriminates’: Literature and Global Environmental Refugees and Other ‘Forsaken’ Peoples” by Cristina Deptula for Bad Survivalist

More people are refugees than ever before, and more people are able to publish and read books than ever before. Many other brilliant essayists have looked at how the dislocation of migration has showed up in the form as well as the content of literature. How can writers most effectively craft pieces that inspire people…