Author Archives: Okla Elliott

About Okla Elliott

Okla Elliott is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois, where he works in the fields of comparative literature and trauma studies. He also holds an MFA in creative writing from Ohio State University. His non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and translations have appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Indiana Review, The Literary Review, The Los Angeles Review, New Letters, A Public Space, and The Southeast Review, among many others. He is the author of a full-length collection of short fiction, From the Crooked Timber, and three poetry chapbooks—The Mutable Wheel; Lucid Bodies and Other Poems; and A Vulgar Geography. His po-mo/sci-fi novel The Doors You Mark Are Your Own, co-written with Raul Clement, is forthcoming in 2014.

Sestina for the Swede-Nevadan

Sestina for the Swede-Nevadan by Okla Elliott —for Emilia Snyder Sometimes this place makes a girl feel plain icky, no other word for it, sitting at the bar with a purple martini. Makes her wish there was some ointment to … Continue reading

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Tilting Toward Winter

Tilting Toward Winter by Okla Elliott The air is gray and quiet as the sea’s wet-dying warmth. A blackbird screams out from memory and, pleased with its sour chirping, keeps at it undeterred by the browning season. I have everything … Continue reading

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I Want to Be a Buddhist (Or: Reading Martin Heidegger Mildly Hung-over)

I Want to Be a Buddhist (Or: Reading Martin Heidegger Mildly Hung-over) by Okla Elliott The silver is responsible for the chalice is responsible for the sacrificial vessel. There is a wheel. There are two wheels— the small wheel and … Continue reading

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Wolf-Sense Sonnet

Wolf-Sense Sonnet by Okla Elliott   I will walk you through the desert, all wolf- wolf and blood-sandy paws. O smooth rapture of elegant neck—O underwear hanging on comic cactus—water-plant, prick-plant of need. I will lead you through strange danger, … Continue reading

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Agnosticism and Atheism: Five Misconceptions, Five Quotes, and One Video

Agnosticism and Atheism: Five Misconceptions, Five Quotes, and One Video by Okla Elliott [The following clarifications of popular misconceptions do not by any means exhaust the number of spurious claims made on the subject, but I hope they will help … Continue reading

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Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre loom over twentieth-century thought. It is hard to imagine feminism, leftist politics, literature, philosophy, or queer studies in the twentieth century without these two giants. Their work has been the topic for hundreds of … Continue reading

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The Possible Is Monstrous: A Book Review

The Possible Is Monstrous: A Book Review by Okla Elliott [The following review originally appeared in The Southeast Review.] The Possible Is Monstrous by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (translated by Daniele Pantano) Black Lawrence Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9826228-1-0 $17.00 Swiss author Friedrich … Continue reading

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What I Have Lived For

[The following is the prologue to Bertrand Russell's autobiography, which I recommend very highly to any lover of philosophy, twentieth century history, and lively characters. Russell was one of the greatest minds the human species has produced, and he has … Continue reading

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Existential Echoes: Toward a Genealogy of Ideas in Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus”

Existential Echoes: Toward a Genealogy of Ideas in Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus” by Okla Elliott In the decades since their deaths, much has been made about the rivalry between Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, but it would be … Continue reading

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My Presidential Endorsement Strategy: Barack Obama, Ron Paul, and the Green Party

My Presidential Endorsement Strategy by Okla Elliott I have an odd dual endorsement this year for President. I am endorsing both Barack Obama and Ron Paul. Wait a minute, you might be saying, how can you endorse two candidates for … Continue reading

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