Reality Detonates is an exciting project in which we challenged ourselves—and you—to write poetry which uses the exact phrase “reality detonates” in some place other than the title. Although submissions are closed, we encourage you to write that poem.

Reality Detonates has seen great setbacks in the process of its creation (mainly health problems for more than one person). It is coming out soon, I promise, but I don’t yet have a date. If you are a writer on this project, you should be receiving a proof soon. And if you have questions, please email me at johanna@cicadasongpress.com.

As a teaser, we are putting some of the images to be used in the book below. They are taken from an 1869 book by Edward J Woolsey, Specimens of Fancy Turning. We guarantee both that this image is AI-free and that it was made long before the Spirograph was invented.

Image are sourced from the Public Domain Image Archive / Philadelphia Museum of Art