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Speculate: A Collection of Microlit
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language—a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
"ONE MIGHT DESCRIBE some of these pieces as complex, relentless, but above all, speculating or crossing borders in the fantastic playground of language. We invite you to leap onto the stage of your own imaginings, plunge into what Henry James called the house of fiction. This is how we envision ours:
A single detached house tossed out of Speculate settles across your dreams. Skin, paper-thin, desiccated and scripted like a collage, covers the absence of doors, thresholds, verandas, stairways and footpaths. But there are windows and louvers that look out to rain-licked grasslands. This is a house unsealed, with the sky art and earth art washed or rolled into each other on adjacent floors and walls. The roof, unlettered, is made of two sliding suns of creamed panels, foundation-like. Round the back is a rope ladder that will win you over. Up, up you go. Enter with care as you would any fiction that blurs the boundaries of genre, mode or form, that goes beyond the written and borrows from the unwritten. Together we can interweave art with language and watch it shape itself anew in an endless process of spontaneity and play because we can be here and there and away, all at once."
—Dominique Hecq & Eugen Bacon
"ONE MIGHT DESCRIBE some of these pieces as complex, relentless, but above all, speculating or crossing borders in the fantastic playground of language. We invite you to leap onto the stage of your own imaginings, plunge into what Henry James called the house of fiction. This is how we envision ours:
A single detached house tossed out of Speculate settles across your dreams. Skin, paper-thin, desiccated and scripted like a collage, covers the absence of doors, thresholds, verandas, stairways and footpaths. But there are windows and louvers that look out to rain-licked grasslands. This is a house unsealed, with the sky art and earth art washed or rolled into each other on adjacent floors and walls. The roof, unlettered, is made of two sliding suns of creamed panels, foundation-like. Round the back is a rope ladder that will win you over. Up, up you go. Enter with care as you would any fiction that blurs the boundaries of genre, mode or form, that goes beyond the written and borrows from the unwritten. Together we can interweave art with language and watch it shape itself anew in an endless process of spontaneity and play because we can be here and there and away, all at once."
—Dominique Hecq & Eugen Bacon
136 pages, Paperback
Published January 19, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 5, 2021
Review based on an ARC.
I quite enjoyed this slim volume of speculative microliterture. The shorter than short stories were interesting and varied.
I'll get a print copy for my "coffee table" and will probably gift it to bookish friends throughout the year.
I quite enjoyed this slim volume of speculative microliterture. The shorter than short stories were interesting and varied.
I'll get a print copy for my "coffee table" and will probably gift it to bookish friends throughout the year.
January 18, 2021
“You wish you were a song that is a child so you could climb skipping and whistling into the lanterns and travel all the way to a dance of drowning souls.”
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language—a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq come together in this unique collection of microlit which will keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading. The back and forth between these authors gives the reader a birds eye view on how they feel about what they are surrounded by wether it’s the physical world or the psychological.
I enjoyed this extraordinary collection and would definitely recommend it.
Huge thanks and congrats to @eugenbacon and @meerkatpress on publication and thank you for sending me a copy 🖤
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language—a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq come together in this unique collection of microlit which will keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading. The back and forth between these authors gives the reader a birds eye view on how they feel about what they are surrounded by wether it’s the physical world or the psychological.
I enjoyed this extraordinary collection and would definitely recommend it.
Huge thanks and congrats to @eugenbacon and @meerkatpress on publication and thank you for sending me a copy 🖤
March 14, 2021
This thought-provoking collection of Microlit incorporates prose poetry, speculative flash fiction, and cameo-like word sketches. The book is divided into two sections, with Part 1 featuring Eugen’s writing first, with Dominique’s response to it on the opposite page, then in Part 2 this interaction is reversed as Eugen responds to Dominique’s work. Sometimes the responses continued a theme, sometimes took it in a completely different direction, but they always succeeded in generating a conversation between the two authors … sometimes deeply reflective, sometimes full of teasing repartee, sometimes provocatively challenging. Although some of the pieces are as short as a couple of sentences, and none any longer than a page, the interchanges between the authors added depth and complexity to the ideas being explored. I always found myself wanting to re-read each piece, sometimes several times, not only to reflect on their thought-provoking, insightful ideas and imagery, but to relish their imaginative, expressive use of language.
I loved the sense of fun which emerged from their verbal riffing: interchanges which frequently felt akin to, and just as enjoyable, as listening to one of my favourite jazz groups. As I was reading I found myself wanting to join in, to add my own thoughts, ideas and improvisations. I really enjoyed this interactive element which was, I felt, encouraged by the free-flowing nature of the authors’ exchanges, as well as by their explicit ‘invitation’ in their introduction to their collection.
Although this is a relatively short book, I think it’s not one to read quickly but is best enjoyed in small ‘doses’ in order to enable the magic of it to develop in those spaces which, with the best writing, occur between reading, reflecting and gradually absorbing what you’ve read. I’ve only recently become aware of Microlit but I love how it can encompass a range of ideas and themes in such a succinct, yet powerful, way.
Extra layers of pleasure in reading this book were provided by not only the striking cover, which is eye-catchingly bold and satisfyingly tactile, but also the imaginative interior design. Most pages feature graphics, some of which are simple, others more complex and intriguing and I loved the shaded grey monochromatic background, with the contrasting white typeface, to some of them. All the time I was reading, I felt these designs, the work of Meerkat editor Tricia Reeks, were constantly adding a powerful extra dimension, that they were enhancing the ‘colourful’ prose from both authors.
In many ways this has been a difficult review to write, not because I didn’t enjoy it (by now it will be clear that I did!) but because I know I can’t possibly do justice to the range of feelings, themes, ideas and reflections which the authors explore. All I feel I can do is to encourage anyone who loves playing with language, words and word association, and who relishes being encouraged to ‘think outside the box’, to get hold of a copy of this collection from two remarkable wordsmiths. Their individual styles may be different, but their creative collaboration has resulted in a ‘whole’ which feels so much greater than its constituent parts. It has been a joy to share (and feel part of) their intimate conversations and to gain a sense of the mutual respect which underpins their relationship.
With thanks to Meerkat Press for providing me with my copy in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the sense of fun which emerged from their verbal riffing: interchanges which frequently felt akin to, and just as enjoyable, as listening to one of my favourite jazz groups. As I was reading I found myself wanting to join in, to add my own thoughts, ideas and improvisations. I really enjoyed this interactive element which was, I felt, encouraged by the free-flowing nature of the authors’ exchanges, as well as by their explicit ‘invitation’ in their introduction to their collection.
Although this is a relatively short book, I think it’s not one to read quickly but is best enjoyed in small ‘doses’ in order to enable the magic of it to develop in those spaces which, with the best writing, occur between reading, reflecting and gradually absorbing what you’ve read. I’ve only recently become aware of Microlit but I love how it can encompass a range of ideas and themes in such a succinct, yet powerful, way.
Extra layers of pleasure in reading this book were provided by not only the striking cover, which is eye-catchingly bold and satisfyingly tactile, but also the imaginative interior design. Most pages feature graphics, some of which are simple, others more complex and intriguing and I loved the shaded grey monochromatic background, with the contrasting white typeface, to some of them. All the time I was reading, I felt these designs, the work of Meerkat editor Tricia Reeks, were constantly adding a powerful extra dimension, that they were enhancing the ‘colourful’ prose from both authors.
In many ways this has been a difficult review to write, not because I didn’t enjoy it (by now it will be clear that I did!) but because I know I can’t possibly do justice to the range of feelings, themes, ideas and reflections which the authors explore. All I feel I can do is to encourage anyone who loves playing with language, words and word association, and who relishes being encouraged to ‘think outside the box’, to get hold of a copy of this collection from two remarkable wordsmiths. Their individual styles may be different, but their creative collaboration has resulted in a ‘whole’ which feels so much greater than its constituent parts. It has been a joy to share (and feel part of) their intimate conversations and to gain a sense of the mutual respect which underpins their relationship.
With thanks to Meerkat Press for providing me with my copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 28, 2021
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Speculate Blog Tour
I haven’t read many books with prose poetry. It was an illuminating and exhilarating experience. It was as if I had to use every cell in my body in order to understand what was being written in these short one-page prose. This book is art. It takes time and effort to understand.
The book, itself is not that long, but it took me quite some time to read it. I had to pause, and at times, re-read the passage in order to absorb it.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Title: Speculate: A collection of Microlit
Author: Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq
Paperback Pages: 136 Pages
Publishing Company: Meerkat Press
Publishing Date: January 19, 2021
Genre: Collection, Prose – poetry, Speculative Fiction
Book Page: https://meerkatpress.com/books/specul...
Synopsis:
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language—a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
Plot:
As this is a collection of prose poetry, there was not plot. Each one of these segments was unique and sharp. One author would write a prose poem and the other would respond. It was interesting to see how the authors reacted to each other’s writing. It was like reading bits of conversations but without a context to them.
Excerpt:
Neither a kitchen nor a sky
Her heart is a room full of photographs and pillows wafting around rehearsing melancholy and reinstating torment. But there is still no word, just somber silence in the floating photographs and neglected pillows cartwheeling like burnt toast past the IKEA blender and microwave in a fairy tale of space that does not involve breathing.
***
His heart smells of burnt toast. If you look closely, you will see a paisley design—the sort found as all-over design for an IKEA bedspread. The main motif and the background of ferns are done with pure (that is unmixed) colors: just red (turkey) and black (jet) to conjure up the marriage of blood and vegemite, the staples of his diet, as well as his sign in the Chinese horoscope. Yes: he is a tiger. Enter the chambers of his heart at your peril. Don’t say you were not warned. He grinds his teeth.
Writing Style:
This book was written using prose poetry. I have to admit I didn’t know what exactly that was. I had to do a little bit of research, here’s what I learned:
1. A prose poem is basically a poem written as a sentence. Therefore, is a block of text without line breaks.
2. It is able to maintain the power of poetry to be lyrical but look like prose.
This book was quite difficult for me to get it to. Each prose poem was short and distinct. I don’t read much poetry, and usually I read long form literature, which is why I think this was a little difficult. But once I understood what was happening, I was able to get into a rhythm of reading them.
I had so many lines that resonated with me, on a deep level.
Here are two:
1. Lies we tell until we hear gods laughing so hard the universe splits its sides and music falls from the stars.
2. We learn the taste of blood and tears in the womb.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I had difficulty reading this book. But I think that was the purpose of this book. It was to make the reader think about the physical world around them as well the philosophical one. I was not able to connect the words as a whole, but I was able to enjoy the vivid imagery that was present.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to try prose poetry and expand their reading.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
*Disclaimer: This is not sponsored blog post. Thank you, Meerkat Press for sending an electronic copy of book.
*The opinions expressed in this post are my own.
*Spoiler-free Review
https://thesuganyamohankumar.wordpres...
Speculate Blog Tour
I haven’t read many books with prose poetry. It was an illuminating and exhilarating experience. It was as if I had to use every cell in my body in order to understand what was being written in these short one-page prose. This book is art. It takes time and effort to understand.
The book, itself is not that long, but it took me quite some time to read it. I had to pause, and at times, re-read the passage in order to absorb it.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Title: Speculate: A collection of Microlit
Author: Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq
Paperback Pages: 136 Pages
Publishing Company: Meerkat Press
Publishing Date: January 19, 2021
Genre: Collection, Prose – poetry, Speculative Fiction
Book Page: https://meerkatpress.com/books/specul...
Synopsis:
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language—a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
Plot:
As this is a collection of prose poetry, there was not plot. Each one of these segments was unique and sharp. One author would write a prose poem and the other would respond. It was interesting to see how the authors reacted to each other’s writing. It was like reading bits of conversations but without a context to them.
Excerpt:
Neither a kitchen nor a sky
Her heart is a room full of photographs and pillows wafting around rehearsing melancholy and reinstating torment. But there is still no word, just somber silence in the floating photographs and neglected pillows cartwheeling like burnt toast past the IKEA blender and microwave in a fairy tale of space that does not involve breathing.
***
His heart smells of burnt toast. If you look closely, you will see a paisley design—the sort found as all-over design for an IKEA bedspread. The main motif and the background of ferns are done with pure (that is unmixed) colors: just red (turkey) and black (jet) to conjure up the marriage of blood and vegemite, the staples of his diet, as well as his sign in the Chinese horoscope. Yes: he is a tiger. Enter the chambers of his heart at your peril. Don’t say you were not warned. He grinds his teeth.
Writing Style:
This book was written using prose poetry. I have to admit I didn’t know what exactly that was. I had to do a little bit of research, here’s what I learned:
1. A prose poem is basically a poem written as a sentence. Therefore, is a block of text without line breaks.
2. It is able to maintain the power of poetry to be lyrical but look like prose.
This book was quite difficult for me to get it to. Each prose poem was short and distinct. I don’t read much poetry, and usually I read long form literature, which is why I think this was a little difficult. But once I understood what was happening, I was able to get into a rhythm of reading them.
I had so many lines that resonated with me, on a deep level.
Here are two:
1. Lies we tell until we hear gods laughing so hard the universe splits its sides and music falls from the stars.
2. We learn the taste of blood and tears in the womb.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I had difficulty reading this book. But I think that was the purpose of this book. It was to make the reader think about the physical world around them as well the philosophical one. I was not able to connect the words as a whole, but I was able to enjoy the vivid imagery that was present.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to try prose poetry and expand their reading.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
*Disclaimer: This is not sponsored blog post. Thank you, Meerkat Press for sending an electronic copy of book.
*The opinions expressed in this post are my own.
*Spoiler-free Review
January 7, 2021
i feel like i had to gather and stimulate every single one of my brain cells in order to read this. i am not very familiar with speculative fiction or flash fiction or prose poetry, so i was extremely uncertain with what to expect and how to take/read it. but i liked this a lot more than i anticipated. at times i was lost beyond belief, unable to grasp at anything; sometimes, it felt like a lot of words thrown at me that i just couldn't comprehend. you know how when you learn a foreign language and you get to that stage where you know a decent amount of vocab and grammar but not enough to really be fluent. and then you read some sentences that are like grade 12 reading level and you recognize most of the words separately, but not put together?? that's how some of this felt. which is not necessarily a bad thing. it was a fun experience, albeit a bit headache-inducing, and you were never able to read a passage once. you had to read everything at least twice, three times. this was only 136 pages but felt much longer.
bacon and hecq have very different voices and i loved the way their passages interacted with each other. it was less of a call-and-response and more of a "here's idea and words. use them how you know best." it was entertaining and enjoyable, and the passages that i WAS able to take meaning from were magnificent. here i go with comparisons again, but this felt like impressionist paintings. how does writing feel like impressionist paintings? i'm not sure, but it did. these prose poems were impressions of ideas themselves, but they also left impressions on me. earlier, i said that some of them felt like many words being thrown at you. yes, there were many words that maybe didn't make sense to me in the context they were in, but these words still held meaning. it was as if bacon and hecq were challenging the meaning of words, not dictionary definitions but their connotations. every single one of us has different connotations to different words. memories, histories, stories are attached to every single word we say and each of us interprets them differently. it seemed to me that bacon and hecq threw words at you said, "what is it you see? what does this word mean to you? does it fit with these words? how about these words?" and honestly what an experience. it's like looking up close at individual strokes in impressionist paintings. you are a bit disoriented and have nothing to grasp at so you are forced to reckon with the individual occurrences that make up the larger picture that aligns with your understanding. this was a time that i didn't not regret having.
i actually had quite a few favorite prose poems from this collection, but i will try to narrow them down to the top ones to avoid an endless list: "Outward declarations of inner decisions", "The traveler", "What the window saw", "A fair treatment", "Dark energy", "Waterlogged", "Blood and tears (if not too contentious)", and "Endgame without ending."
bacon and hecq have very different voices and i loved the way their passages interacted with each other. it was less of a call-and-response and more of a "here's idea and words. use them how you know best." it was entertaining and enjoyable, and the passages that i WAS able to take meaning from were magnificent. here i go with comparisons again, but this felt like impressionist paintings. how does writing feel like impressionist paintings? i'm not sure, but it did. these prose poems were impressions of ideas themselves, but they also left impressions on me. earlier, i said that some of them felt like many words being thrown at you. yes, there were many words that maybe didn't make sense to me in the context they were in, but these words still held meaning. it was as if bacon and hecq were challenging the meaning of words, not dictionary definitions but their connotations. every single one of us has different connotations to different words. memories, histories, stories are attached to every single word we say and each of us interprets them differently. it seemed to me that bacon and hecq threw words at you said, "what is it you see? what does this word mean to you? does it fit with these words? how about these words?" and honestly what an experience. it's like looking up close at individual strokes in impressionist paintings. you are a bit disoriented and have nothing to grasp at so you are forced to reckon with the individual occurrences that make up the larger picture that aligns with your understanding. this was a time that i didn't not regret having.
i actually had quite a few favorite prose poems from this collection, but i will try to narrow them down to the top ones to avoid an endless list: "Outward declarations of inner decisions", "The traveler", "What the window saw", "A fair treatment", "Dark energy", "Waterlogged", "Blood and tears (if not too contentious)", and "Endgame without ending."
January 1, 2021
Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq generate a dialog as they explore the prose poem between their writing, which takes the form of speculative poetry and flash fiction in Speculate: A Collection of Microlit.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Each piece within this intriguing collection is, by nature, brief, but there’s interesting detail provided in the prose that helps to shape these snippets of these hybrid fiction and poetry texts. Part one of the collection is Bacon’s writing and Hecq’s response and part two is the reverse; their replies to one another were engaging as there were words, phrases, and/or images that were repeated, helping to create a relationship between them yet they are able to remain rather distinct at times. This collection does possess a feeling of being slightly disjointed and nebulous; the responses tend to resonate more than the “prompt,” but perhaps that’s a result of getting immersed more with the premise initially presented by the time you read the response to it, which may foster your own reaction to and understanding of it. These styles of writing are not my preferred or typical reading type, so this was more of an effort to read, make sense of, and enjoy what was offered as I endeavor to expand my reading palate; due to the short nature of the text, it was easy to rather mindlessly tear through the pages, but reading these at a rapid speed doesn’t benefit your comprehension of the material – go slow and more will likely sink in and stick with you.
Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Each piece within this intriguing collection is, by nature, brief, but there’s interesting detail provided in the prose that helps to shape these snippets of these hybrid fiction and poetry texts. Part one of the collection is Bacon’s writing and Hecq’s response and part two is the reverse; their replies to one another were engaging as there were words, phrases, and/or images that were repeated, helping to create a relationship between them yet they are able to remain rather distinct at times. This collection does possess a feeling of being slightly disjointed and nebulous; the responses tend to resonate more than the “prompt,” but perhaps that’s a result of getting immersed more with the premise initially presented by the time you read the response to it, which may foster your own reaction to and understanding of it. These styles of writing are not my preferred or typical reading type, so this was more of an effort to read, make sense of, and enjoy what was offered as I endeavor to expand my reading palate; due to the short nature of the text, it was easy to rather mindlessly tear through the pages, but reading these at a rapid speed doesn’t benefit your comprehension of the material – go slow and more will likely sink in and stick with you.
Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
January 25, 2021
Words jumped out at me immediately. Mask, hoax, facts, all words that are being slung around today during our world events and human situations. This style of poetry can be confusing and I was perplexed. However, isn’t that the whole point of this style of writing? It was absolutely great! I love it!
It felt like to me a reality check of how life goes and then maybe our part in all of it. Where ever the reader stands in their position of life, there will be a good chance these mind blowing conversations will feel close.
Sharp hits at who we think we are and what the view to that might actually look like. There are bits and twists probably to remind us not to take ourselves so seriously. It is, those very ‘bits and twists’ that shatters the despair of the situation.
My favorites were ‘the bird woman’ and ‘call me scar’. I read them over and over. Both pieces were a tad disturbing, hauntingly real and intensely thought provoking..
It felt like to me a reality check of how life goes and then maybe our part in all of it. Where ever the reader stands in their position of life, there will be a good chance these mind blowing conversations will feel close.
Sharp hits at who we think we are and what the view to that might actually look like. There are bits and twists probably to remind us not to take ourselves so seriously. It is, those very ‘bits and twists’ that shatters the despair of the situation.
My favorites were ‘the bird woman’ and ‘call me scar’. I read them over and over. Both pieces were a tad disturbing, hauntingly real and intensely thought provoking..
February 15, 2021
Speculate is a collection that is hard to define, but intriguing to read. It's microlit, it's poetry, it's a back and forth that breaks many boundaries of the ordinary literary work. On top of that, it has a layer of speculative fiction that gets you out of your comfort zone and lets your imagination take a completely different direction.
This is the kind of collection that you can easily read on piece each day and let it sink in. You wouldn't want to rush it because it is so full of imagery and a back and forth between the two authors that make you want to think about what's going on in the piece. I like that the authors also switch places halfway through the book to get a different perspective on who creates the image and who reacts to it. I would recommend this collection for anyone who wants something a little different or anyone who likes to read short pieces.
*Book provided by NetGalley
This is the kind of collection that you can easily read on piece each day and let it sink in. You wouldn't want to rush it because it is so full of imagery and a back and forth between the two authors that make you want to think about what's going on in the piece. I like that the authors also switch places halfway through the book to get a different perspective on who creates the image and who reacts to it. I would recommend this collection for anyone who wants something a little different or anyone who likes to read short pieces.
*Book provided by NetGalley
January 9, 2021
'Speculate' can be described as a collection of stories, essays, thoughts, opinions, rants or ramblings, prose and poetry, flash fiction and speculative narratives - a hybrid genre that has everything and nothing, a compilation of shapeshifters. The book at its core is a conversation between the pair. Divided into two parts, the first segment begins with Bacon's writings while Hecq responds, and the roles get reversed in the second section with Hecq leading and Bacon following her cues. One author's text echoes a response from the other, which stirs an element in the first writer, that in turn diverges into the thoughts of the second, and so on.
The conversational tone moves beyond the actual reading, and is resonant with life in general - the people we agree with, the ones whose views differ from our own, similar thoughts represented in differing words and actions, varied viewpoints causing the same result. Every chapter is conflicted with the writing styles of its authors - they might interpret a story in the exact same way, or proffer starkly different versions of the same events. And that's the beauty of Speculate, reading one book by two writers and understanding both the similarities and differences.
A donut that doesn't want to be eaten, a wedding, bookworm conundrums, author recommendations, relationships, beatitudes, a window's observations, nature, science fiction - anything and everything goes in this volleyball of words in a playground of language. A book that needs to be savored and absorbed, Speculate is art in itself and embodies the magic that can be conjured up with language, as you pause and ponder and re-read and highlight the majesty of writing before you. An interesting and varied collection, a gem for readers looking to expand their reading choices.
The conversational tone moves beyond the actual reading, and is resonant with life in general - the people we agree with, the ones whose views differ from our own, similar thoughts represented in differing words and actions, varied viewpoints causing the same result. Every chapter is conflicted with the writing styles of its authors - they might interpret a story in the exact same way, or proffer starkly different versions of the same events. And that's the beauty of Speculate, reading one book by two writers and understanding both the similarities and differences.
A donut that doesn't want to be eaten, a wedding, bookworm conundrums, author recommendations, relationships, beatitudes, a window's observations, nature, science fiction - anything and everything goes in this volleyball of words in a playground of language. A book that needs to be savored and absorbed, Speculate is art in itself and embodies the magic that can be conjured up with language, as you pause and ponder and re-read and highlight the majesty of writing before you. An interesting and varied collection, a gem for readers looking to expand their reading choices.
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March 29, 2025Prose poetry is new to me. I think I like the idea more than the reality. Or maybe a whole book of it is just too much, even if I broke it into snippets and read it over weeks. I liked some of these call-and-response pairings more than others, and I just didn't get quite a lot of them. All in all, I'm glad to have tried something new. But it's no new favorite or anything.
January 27, 2021
I have a weird relationship with short fiction. I used to be die-hard against it, preferring the longest and most involved fiction possible for the immersive experience it offered. As I've gotten older, I'm finding the appeal of shorter pieces. Time is harder to come by. Life is immersive enough, thank you very much. And my attention span is not what it once was... I still occasionally struggle with short pieces when I don't feel connected to the characters (character development is EVERYTHING to me), but I've learned that 150,000 words are not the only way an author connects character and reader.
Microlit, like flash fiction, is a newer format for me. As you can imagine, from my explanation above, it's been an adjustment. If I find short stories occasionally too surface-level or brief in explanation, you can imagine how I find ultra-shorts... I do best when the collection is thematic or developmental, with similar characters and worlds populating all/the majority of the pieces. It gives me the depth I crave in the shorter bursts that allow for enhanced creativity in a multiplicity of directions.
This collection is designed to achieve that, although I must confess that I did not always see the connections that were alluded to... Bacon and Hecq may consider their back-and-forth a dialogue; I had a harder time viewing it as such. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it - I did, generally. But I don't know that I found the connectivity (both in their call-and-response format OR in the book taken as a whole) that other readers have - or that the authors intended. This may be due to my own perceptual issues with such short pieces. Or with the spec fic nature of their writing. Or with my recent headspace which is, admittedly, a bit all over the place...
Regardless, I struggled with the themes throughout much of this, even while enjoying the lyricism of the language. The two authors have very different styles and voices. I enjoyed the interplay between them in that regard. Dissonance is interesting to me, and seeing how two different individuals perceive the same themes/topics is always fascinating to watch.
Thanks to the authors and the wonderful folks at Meerkat Press for providing me with an obligation-free review copy. It was an experiential book, and while I don't always "get" them, I do enjoy the ride!
Microlit, like flash fiction, is a newer format for me. As you can imagine, from my explanation above, it's been an adjustment. If I find short stories occasionally too surface-level or brief in explanation, you can imagine how I find ultra-shorts... I do best when the collection is thematic or developmental, with similar characters and worlds populating all/the majority of the pieces. It gives me the depth I crave in the shorter bursts that allow for enhanced creativity in a multiplicity of directions.
This collection is designed to achieve that, although I must confess that I did not always see the connections that were alluded to... Bacon and Hecq may consider their back-and-forth a dialogue; I had a harder time viewing it as such. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it - I did, generally. But I don't know that I found the connectivity (both in their call-and-response format OR in the book taken as a whole) that other readers have - or that the authors intended. This may be due to my own perceptual issues with such short pieces. Or with the spec fic nature of their writing. Or with my recent headspace which is, admittedly, a bit all over the place...
Regardless, I struggled with the themes throughout much of this, even while enjoying the lyricism of the language. The two authors have very different styles and voices. I enjoyed the interplay between them in that regard. Dissonance is interesting to me, and seeing how two different individuals perceive the same themes/topics is always fascinating to watch.
Thanks to the authors and the wonderful folks at Meerkat Press for providing me with an obligation-free review copy. It was an experiential book, and while I don't always "get" them, I do enjoy the ride!
January 20, 2021
Meerkat Press sent me a pdf version of Speculate to read and review. Thank you for allowing me to read this arc! I wasn't very familiar with speculative fiction before reading this, but I have written flash fiction before. At times I was uncertain what the poems were trying to say, but most of the book was interesting to read. The two authors interacted with each other well. It was a nice short read. 3 out of 5 stars.
April 9, 2021
This is the second time I've read this book. The first was in order to provide a quote for the inside cover. I wasn't given a great deal of time to do so, so I admit I had to skim read the concept rather than read it in depth. Even then, the prose style(s) immersed me and I was looking forward to this second - deeper - read, which hasn't disappointed. I'm not an expert on poetry, but I like poetic prose, and I'm generally not a fan of flash fiction as it tends to read similar to a joke with a punchline attached, however these 'micro-fictions' work differently here because they don't intend to tell stories (even though stories might be found within), and the cumulative effect is similar to being a shore on which waves constantly crash. There is the breaking of the wave with the first piece and then the corresponding pull of the undertow in its counterpart. The effect is a rhythmic back and forth, an approach which works exceptionally well as both writers feel and feed off the other. The interplay of texts resonates on a literary level - not always with understanding (although this is a big plus for me) - and it's a book which will reward re-readings.
Here's what I said for that quote (something which I stand by after my 'deeper' read): "Bacon and Hecq's call and response collaborative approach creates prose poems that echo and inform, entwine and correlate. Speculate is a pervasive pattern of democratic participation." Recommended.
Here's what I said for that quote (something which I stand by after my 'deeper' read): "Bacon and Hecq's call and response collaborative approach creates prose poems that echo and inform, entwine and correlate. Speculate is a pervasive pattern of democratic participation." Recommended.
January 16, 2021
This is language unfettered by story. Language bonded by emotion and sound rather than plot. It really didn't speak to me, but was an interesting experiment all the same.
I received an eARC through Meerkat Press.
I received an eARC through Meerkat Press.
January 10, 2021
A series of dream-like pieces of writing. Do they make sense? Perhaps not if you try to analyse them, but the flow has sense beyond normal reckoning. These evoke pictures and feelings that will change with each reader. These are a beautiful experiment. Abstract art in prose.
December 22, 2024
1 star because I think the idea of two writers bouncing off each other is genuinely pretty cool and creative.
1 star because there were maybe three pieces in here I actually liked.
But all up, just kind of pretentious and pointless more than anything else. This one's going to the community library to get swapped out.
1 star because there were maybe three pieces in here I actually liked.
But all up, just kind of pretentious and pointless more than anything else. This one's going to the community library to get swapped out.
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December 8, 2025Poetry can easily get me so caught up in the tum-te-tum rhythms that I quite lose concentration on the content; many prose forms fixate so easily on secondary features like character and plot that they allow them entirely to obscure the moods and concepts which are the bits I really love. So it's no surprise if I'm a big fan of prose poems. This selection comes with the added wrinkle that they're delivered in a sort of call and response style, one of the writers setting out a passage to which the other offers a continuation or rejoinder. And yet for all that reading it was always a perfectly pleasant experience, and despite how good prose poems can often be for lodging an image or sensation in my mind, I realised early on that I couldn't remember anything but the vaguest flashes of colour from a single piece in here. So I'm chalking it up as the equivalent of watching a lava lamp, but with words – which isn't necessarily a complaint.
May 6, 2021
Prose poetry is a genre where every word counts.
This little collection of micro-stories, embracing a to-and-fro between two talented and adventurous writers, makes every word sing.
A very rewarding read, and a book to keep. It's beautifully presented and a joy to hold. Enjoy!
This little collection of micro-stories, embracing a to-and-fro between two talented and adventurous writers, makes every word sing.
A very rewarding read, and a book to keep. It's beautifully presented and a joy to hold. Enjoy!
April 4, 2022
I loved this. Courageous in its echo and rich in an otherwise dull Australian microlit scene
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