“Ashley Yang-Thompson writes with a rare freedom and wildness of thought. Part manifesto, part confession, part satire, part religious text, ruthlessly honest and original, Still Worm is a must-read for any artist or writer seeking to make sense out of this strange thing that we do.”
—Mikko Harvey, author of Let the World Have You
—Mikko Harvey, author of Let the World Have You
“The ultimate romantic gesture is to touch something living more than you touch your phone,” writes Ashley Yang-Thompson in her winning debut collection Still Worm. Melding poetry, essay, cultural criticism, and barbaric yawp-filled artistic exhortation, Yang-Thompson’s book refuses definition, in the service of being supremely readable and, in its own idiosyncratic way, revelatory. If you let it, this book will change you.”
—Jeff Alessandrelli, director of Fonograf Editions
“I’ve been reveling in Ashley Yang-Thompson’s graphic-as-excrement work since 2018 (all hail the glory of Sky Mall, the little chapbook that could devour late-stage neoliberal capitalism and regurgitate a prose poem for the ages.) While it feels like the world has only gotten shittier since then, Yang-Thompson says otherwise. Incontinent or constipated as you may be: pay attention. Read Still Worm and you might just “experience cow-like bliss” or even more remarkably “learn to poop without your phone.” I can’t say I achieved either, but I was reminded that the world doesn’t need my achievements, “what it needs is to be loved better.” The flesh walrus will show you how.“
—Kiera O’Brien
“This tender, obscene treatise is a linguistic evisceration. Yang-Thompson undoubtedly belongs in a canon that needs no blurb.”
—Adrian Ruth Williams, author of Batsong, rehearsals for an audioplay