Misplacement was originally planned as a gothic sister publication of Placeholder, dedicated to the weird and the eerie, but changes in circumstances made it challenging to run as a separate entity. What was intended to be the first in a series of anthologies we now consider a special issue, one which showcases 14 amazing artists and writers across 80 liquorice pages.
This issue contains fairy tales, bloody knees, forgotten words, transformations, sex, ghosts, astrology, peeling skin, Totally Normal Work Emails About Milk and so much more.
In our first online release, Placeholder Press asked contributors to explore their experience of the last ten years – January 2010 to December 2019 – through personal essay, poetry, prose and art.
The work below addresses gentrification, displacement, neurodivergence, loss, abuse, excitement, and in spite of it all, love. We hope reminiscing will help us celebrate our joys and keep our sorrows in mind, to learn from our past and move into 2020 beautifully.
It’s been a lot. It’s been hard. We’re both still here. I love you.
A note to self became a manifesto which became a call for submissions. With no pre-planning, we wrote an accidental essay in one sitting on a Sunday night, posted it Monday morning, and opened a one week window encouraging other people to get unstuck from perfectionism, start making something scrappy that exact moment, and send it to us as soon as possible.
Playing by the same rules, the editors had one week from the submissions window closing to publish everything recieved online and as a zine - available as a pdf for people to print at home, to continue the celebration of urgent and imperfect energy with as few barriers and gatekeepers as possible.
Born from a selective nostalgia for the ‘alt lit 1.0’ online literature scene that initially inspired Casey Garfield to get into poetry and publishing, I MISS FLARF is an imprint of Placeholder Press for bad internet poetry, image macros, autofiction, ‘weird facebook’ vibes, oversharing straight from your notes app, a certain type of tumblr and blogspot literature, and of course, flarf.