Introducing LISTEN — A POETIC CREATURE by Griffin Rockwell
All this happened,
more or less
Now, listen to me
- / — / — / — / — / -
I have, doubtless,
excited your curiosity
Shall I make my report?
Interstellar Flight Press is delighted to announce our newest poetry book by Griffin Rockwell!
listen — a poetic creature is a book-length cento that stretches the boundaries of speculative poetry. Griffin Rockwell asks the reader to see the alien(ated) “creature” in a new light, stitching language out of the words of science fiction’s greats. At the heart of these lines, a being yearning for answers finds transformation and revelation.
About the AuthorGriffin Rockwell is a queer poet who can frequently be found writing about gender, science, space, and unusual connections. Xe is the author of the Elgin Award-nominated chapbooks body in motion (perhappened press) and Lexicon of Future Selves (VA Press), as well as two microchapbooks; their work has appeared in AGNI, Cotton Xenomorph, Whale Road Review, Palette Poetry, and elsewhere. Find xer website and socials at https://linktr.ee/griffinrockwell.
About the Cover Artistm. mick powell is a queer Black Cape Verdean femme, an artist, an Aries, and author of the chapbook threesome in the last Toyota Celica (Host Publications, 2023) and DEAD GIRL CAMEO (One World Books, Summer 2025). www.mickpowellpoet.com
Advance Praise“Griffin Rockwell’s listen — is further proof that the poet is a student of language, how it moves, and how its movement shifts meaning as a result. A book-long epic cento of lines pulled from science fiction novels, Rockwell’s chapbook is a poetic Frankenstein of its own right, in which the old classics come together to create something wholly new and unique. Though the history of classic sci-fi texts haunt the work, the voice that emerges is cohesive, contemplative, curious, and startlingly open about the complexities of identity, feeling, and being. And Rockwell’s speaker,in their brilliant and sly way, reveals what it means to create a new self from the shards of useless rules and societal standards, what it means when the ‘truth, [flashes] out from an // accidental piecing together // of separated things.’”—Taylor Byas, author of I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times
“Like a call to adventure from a Legend of Zelda fairy, listen — a poetic creature grabbed my attention from word one. It is a formally playful read, flashing images of Frankenstein, Lovecraft, and Slaughterhouse-Five just long enough to display beneath a familiar quest of personal transformation. Despite the span of its source material, it maintains an authentic, consistent voice pulled forward by its creative layout and line breaks. As a trans text, listen — moves towards self-acceptance beyond binaries without tidy answers and blurs the bias within sci-fi canon with confidence and care. It shined a warm light on the messy, poetic creature in me. I’m sure it will do the same for you.” — Warren Longmire, author of Bird/Diz: An Erased History of Bebop
“listen — feels at once like a work of epic poetry and something altogether new and form-breaking. If you’ve ever felt sympathy for a monster, then this is the book for you. Beautiful, often heartbreaking and, despite the ‘creature’ at its heart, it’s wonderfully human.” — Chloe N. Clark, author of Collective Gravities
Join us for the book launch online via Zoom on October 6th, 6pm CST[image error]Introducing LISTEN — A POETIC CREATURE by Griffin Rockwell was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
