John Madera
@johnmadera.bsky.social
Author of 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024). Editor of @BigOtherMag.bsky.social. Find more at http://johnmadera.com.
“Respond to every call that excites your spirit. Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back toward disease and death.”
—Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
(Image: Alex Grey's WONDER (1996))
—Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
(Image: Alex Grey's WONDER (1996))
December 3, 2025 at 5:29 PM
“Respond to every call that excites your spirit. Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back toward disease and death.”
—Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
(Image: Alex Grey's WONDER (1996))
—Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
(Image: Alex Grey's WONDER (1996))
"Who once was inattentive but now is not illumines the world, like the moon set free from a cloud."
—Dhammapada, 172
(Image: Willem de Kooning's Interchanged (1955))
—Dhammapada, 172
(Image: Willem de Kooning's Interchanged (1955))
December 1, 2025 at 7:45 PM
"Who once was inattentive but now is not illumines the world, like the moon set free from a cloud."
—Dhammapada, 172
(Image: Willem de Kooning's Interchanged (1955))
—Dhammapada, 172
(Image: Willem de Kooning's Interchanged (1955))
Here's my five-word manifesto: Make art, no matter what.
(Image: Julie Mehretu's Renegade Delirium, 2002)
(Image: Julie Mehretu's Renegade Delirium, 2002)
November 30, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Here's my five-word manifesto: Make art, no matter what.
(Image: Julie Mehretu's Renegade Delirium, 2002)
(Image: Julie Mehretu's Renegade Delirium, 2002)
"You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven."
—Jimi Hendrix
—Jimi Hendrix
November 27, 2025 at 3:15 PM
"You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven."
—Jimi Hendrix
—Jimi Hendrix
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
—Oscar Wilde
—Oscar Wilde
November 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
—Oscar Wilde
—Oscar Wilde
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Image: Philippe Halsman's Dalí Atomicus, 1948)
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Image: Philippe Halsman's Dalí Atomicus, 1948)
November 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Image: Philippe Halsman's Dalí Atomicus, 1948)
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Image: Philippe Halsman's Dalí Atomicus, 1948)
“Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be.'”
―Henry David Thoreau
(Image: Barbara Morgan's Martha Graham, Lamentation (1935))
―Henry David Thoreau
(Image: Barbara Morgan's Martha Graham, Lamentation (1935))
November 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be.'”
―Henry David Thoreau
(Image: Barbara Morgan's Martha Graham, Lamentation (1935))
―Henry David Thoreau
(Image: Barbara Morgan's Martha Graham, Lamentation (1935))
"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
―Dr. Seuss
―Dr. Seuss
November 24, 2025 at 6:15 PM
"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
―Dr. Seuss
―Dr. Seuss
Paging through my Guy Davenport firsts today, his birthday! (None of them are signed, alas...)
November 23, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Paging through my Guy Davenport firsts today, his birthday! (None of them are signed, alas...)
Received today: an inscribed copy of marvelous poet Elizabeth Robinson's VULNERABILITY INDEX (Curbstone Press)!
November 21, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Received today: an inscribed copy of marvelous poet Elizabeth Robinson's VULNERABILITY INDEX (Curbstone Press)!
“We do not lack communication; on the contrary, we have too much of it. We lack creation. We lack resistance to the present.”
―Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
(Image: Antonio Casanova y Estorach's AMUSING GOSSIP (1890))
―Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
(Image: Antonio Casanova y Estorach's AMUSING GOSSIP (1890))
November 13, 2025 at 6:49 PM
“We do not lack communication; on the contrary, we have too much of it. We lack creation. We lack resistance to the present.”
―Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
(Image: Antonio Casanova y Estorach's AMUSING GOSSIP (1890))
―Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
(Image: Antonio Casanova y Estorach's AMUSING GOSSIP (1890))
"There is only one way left to escape the alienation of present day society: to retreat ahead of it..."
—Roland Barthes, THE PLEASURE OF THE TEXT
—Roland Barthes, THE PLEASURE OF THE TEXT
November 13, 2025 at 4:09 AM
"There is only one way left to escape the alienation of present day society: to retreat ahead of it..."
—Roland Barthes, THE PLEASURE OF THE TEXT
—Roland Barthes, THE PLEASURE OF THE TEXT
Recently acquired: Current U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze's INTO THE HUSH (Copper Canyon Press), Sze's most recent poetry collection, which includes "Scintillant," which I published in BIG OTHER in 2021!
Cc: @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Recently acquired: Current U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze's INTO THE HUSH (Copper Canyon Press), Sze's most recent poetry collection, which includes "Scintillant," which I published in BIG OTHER in 2021!
Cc: @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social
A luta continua!
(Image: Joan Mitchell's Ode to Joy (A Poem by Frank O’Hara) (1970–71))
(Image: Joan Mitchell's Ode to Joy (A Poem by Frank O’Hara) (1970–71))
November 9, 2025 at 3:34 PM
A luta continua!
(Image: Joan Mitchell's Ode to Joy (A Poem by Frank O’Hara) (1970–71))
(Image: Joan Mitchell's Ode to Joy (A Poem by Frank O’Hara) (1970–71))
"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence; it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
—Audre Lorde
(Image: Naudline Pierre's TAKE GREAT CARE, 2019)
—Audre Lorde
(Image: Naudline Pierre's TAKE GREAT CARE, 2019)
November 9, 2025 at 3:32 PM
"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence; it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
—Audre Lorde
(Image: Naudline Pierre's TAKE GREAT CARE, 2019)
—Audre Lorde
(Image: Naudline Pierre's TAKE GREAT CARE, 2019)
Received today: Stephen Paul Miller's BEAUTIFUL SNACKS, which is forthcoming from Marsh Hawk Press; and about which Marjorie Perloff writes: "BEAUTIFUL SNACKS is a delightful book, full of what Wallace Stevens called 'the pleasures of merely circulating.'"
(Message me for a review copy, etc.)
(Message me for a review copy, etc.)
November 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Received today: Stephen Paul Miller's BEAUTIFUL SNACKS, which is forthcoming from Marsh Hawk Press; and about which Marjorie Perloff writes: "BEAUTIFUL SNACKS is a delightful book, full of what Wallace Stevens called 'the pleasures of merely circulating.'"
(Message me for a review copy, etc.)
(Message me for a review copy, etc.)
My manifesto, in seven words:
Study. Practice. Experiment. Share. Acknowledge. Celebrate. Repeat.
(Image: Alex Grey's Seraphic Transport Docking on the Third Eye)
Study. Practice. Experiment. Share. Acknowledge. Celebrate. Repeat.
(Image: Alex Grey's Seraphic Transport Docking on the Third Eye)
October 10, 2025 at 5:54 PM
My manifesto, in seven words:
Study. Practice. Experiment. Share. Acknowledge. Celebrate. Repeat.
(Image: Alex Grey's Seraphic Transport Docking on the Third Eye)
Study. Practice. Experiment. Share. Acknowledge. Celebrate. Repeat.
(Image: Alex Grey's Seraphic Transport Docking on the Third Eye)
Received today: inscribed copies of Heller Levinson's CROSSFALL (Black Widow Press), which includes five Levinson poems I published in Big Other in 2024; and TOWARD A REDUCED PHILANTHROPY (Bodily Press)!
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Received today: inscribed copies of Heller Levinson's CROSSFALL (Black Widow Press), which includes five Levinson poems I published in Big Other in 2024; and TOWARD A REDUCED PHILANTHROPY (Bodily Press)!
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Here I am in 2016 with this year's Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, László Krasznahorkai! Celebrating today, I made a pile of some of his books, which includes inscribed copies of THE MELANCHOLY OF RESISTANCE, SATANTANGO, and SEIBO THERE BELOW, all superb works of literary art, to say the least.
October 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Here I am in 2016 with this year's Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, László Krasznahorkai! Celebrating today, I made a pile of some of his books, which includes inscribed copies of THE MELANCHOLY OF RESISTANCE, SATANTANGO, and SEIBO THERE BELOW, all superb works of literary art, to say the least.
R.I.P., Dan Wickett, small press hero and literary citizen extraordinaire. Founder of the Emerging Writers Network, co-founder of the Dzanc Books, strong supporter of BIG OTHER, Dan supported many artists in innumerable ways. Big thanks to Dan. I will miss him.
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
September 16, 2025 at 6:11 PM
R.I.P., Dan Wickett, small press hero and literary citizen extraordinaire. Founder of the Emerging Writers Network, co-founder of the Dzanc Books, strong supporter of BIG OTHER, Dan supported many artists in innumerable ways. Big thanks to Dan. I will miss him.
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Acquired today: Michael Martone's TABLE TALK & SECOND THOUGHTS (Cornerstone Press), which features five sections I previously published in BIG OTHER!
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Acquired today: Michael Martone's TABLE TALK & SECOND THOUGHTS (Cornerstone Press), which features five sections I previously published in BIG OTHER!
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @bigothermag.bsky.social
"They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
―Charlie Parker
(Image: René Magritte's Le plagiat (1940))
―Charlie Parker
(Image: René Magritte's Le plagiat (1940))
August 29, 2025 at 3:35 PM
"They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
―Charlie Parker
(Image: René Magritte's Le plagiat (1940))
―Charlie Parker
(Image: René Magritte's Le plagiat (1940))
Recently received: DEAD CODE AND OTHER DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENTS (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2025), which includes Andrew Joron and Andrew C. Wenaus's "An Aerobatic Alogue: Andrew ± Joron ± Wenaus on the Novum," which I originally published in BIG OTHER in 2023! Thanks, Andrew Joron!
July 16, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Recently received: DEAD CODE AND OTHER DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENTS (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2025), which includes Andrew Joron and Andrew C. Wenaus's "An Aerobatic Alogue: Andrew ± Joron ± Wenaus on the Novum," which I originally published in BIG OTHER in 2023! Thanks, Andrew Joron!
Received today: an inscribed copy of Kim Chinquee's CONTACT WITH THE WILD (Madhat Press), which includes several pieces I originally published in BIG OTHER! Kudos and thanks, Kim!
Cc: @kimchinquee.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @kimchinquee.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social
June 24, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Received today: an inscribed copy of Kim Chinquee's CONTACT WITH THE WILD (Madhat Press), which includes several pieces I originally published in BIG OTHER! Kudos and thanks, Kim!
Cc: @kimchinquee.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social
Cc: @kimchinquee.bsky.social and @bigothermag.bsky.social