Marina Benjamin, Jill Kolongowski & Vedran Husic.

Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions.

In the swalow / thomas sayes trauma lit is so hote rite noweįrom “Feeld” by Jos Charles (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018). The downd crop of mare / mye estrogyn / the urinĬoncentrat off pregnynt mares / gendre write then wrot Terrortorialie / but owened / i was hote shitt / anoge gendre / a holie pirsentile / dessicating uprite & Imperialist / wite aesteet inn amonge the crop of nowe Unfoldeing / reckinglie / i was ur perfeckt lil Wharing masckulin economyes / the wite pryeing offĮech berch treee / a tran dubbles inn 2 the hearthe offĪctualie / a kinde off big beef feeld off thynglienesse Or gendre or tellavision or a united stats / u mayeīe manie foldes but not / like the waye an asseīothe is & isnt conected to this chare / fase / laykįeeld / r reckage off treees existing tot & securelie / the Nother folde upon folde upon folde / this is struktur Membraine / 1 folde in yet a nother membraine / aįolde of 1 membraine maye be conected 2 or similre 2 aįolde inn a nother & yet stil smaler membraine / wen aįolde squyshes or colapses a membraine or inhabits a “Some sort of structure that’s not there yet, but it’s been prepared to emerge there.”Ī tran lik all metall is a series of sirface in folde / weeĬall manie of thees foldes identitie / sum spase shuflesīetweene / trauma or hemorage or othere / this is 1 “Someone had to prepare the ground for something to emerge,” she said. Her re-spellings embody this philosophy, challenging readers to explore the open spaces, new meanings and, perhaps, find their place in them. Like the title of the collection, Charles treats language like an open field, a clearing in which something new can be built. Tran entres eather lik a mothe / wile tran preseeds / esenseĬharles sees language as a space where “identity and history” play out in their own world. Materialie / i am speeching abot hereditie / a tranĮntres thru the hole / the hole glomes inn the linden / a

The language of “feeld,” according to Charles, is like an artifact from a different time, a kind of “lost Middle English” that addresses, in Charles’ view, a historical lack of options to describe the trans experience in our language.īieng tran is a unique kimde off organe / i am speeching

She tried finding words that were closer to what she wanted to convey, a way to “create and survive” with what limited vocabulary she had. “When I was young, trying to find the right words was the hardest thing,” Charles said of her conservative, evangelical Christian upbringing. “When I was young, trying to find the right words was the hardest thing.”

Feeld by jos charles