Saint 1001

by Daphne Gottlieb

For more than 30 years, S corresponds with her first love, J. There is one story she does not tell: one about three men and an alley. She learns a new story: one in which she is unable to leave the two blocks surrounding her houses, and unable to tell J exactly what happened to her. Isolated by trauma and depression, S finds a way back into her skin through the strangers she meets online for sex. The retellings of her adventures titillate J, who urges her on to more encounters. As in the 1001 nights, this is a story made of stories: S’s own stories are interrupted and overwritten by similar, culturally reified stories. S’s life becomes scenes from everything from The Graduate and The Story of O to the words of Charles Manson and the Bible. What emerges in words, invocations and collage is a grasping at presence and absence in the age of the internet: to be read in real time is life, and the blank screen is death.

247 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Daphne Gottlieb is a San Francisco-based Performance Poet.

Gottlieb has served as the poetry editor of the online queer literary magazine Lodestar Quarterly and was a co-organizer of ForWord Girls, a first spoken word festival for anyone who is, has been or will be a girl, which was held in September 2002.

She has taught at New College of California, and has also performed and taught creative writing workshops around the country, from high schools and colleges to community centers. She received her MFA from Mills College.

Photo by Marlo Gayle

Reviews

[Jessie McMains · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever, no lie. Full review to come.

[Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughts to come....wow