Big thanks to Mallory Smart for giving me another chance to be on her rad Textual Healing podcast!
In this new segment of her podcast called Off the Record, writers read a segment of their work w/ a suggested song pairing!
My choice: Algorithms Suck (Finding Dora Maar), a poem from my latest chapbook Ghosts, Trolls, and Other Things on the Internet from Bottlecap Press, paired w/ one of my favourite songs: Making Art by JD Samson and Men!
Listen now:
Have you ever had a crush on a cam girl?
Would you dedicate a poem to Taylor Swift?
What would you do if you were the last millennial with a flip phone?
GHOSTS, TROLLS, AND OTHER THINGS ON THE INTERNET is the second poetry chapbook from C. E. Hoffman, now out from Bottlecap Press!
Satirical, sad, and sweet, Hoffman observes the misinformation age as a technological outcast, making pop culture poetic, and poetry pop culture.
Buy it here, babes! đź’•đź’•
Stay Creative!
C
Happy happy sunstroke
high on sunlight brain explodes
Happy happy drunk poet
I’ll be famous when you’re all dead!!!!!!
(flashes,
my sweet head.)
-Liquid Moments Pt. 1 from Blood, Booze and Other Things in Nature (Buy it now!)
So, I have mood swings.
Mood cycles, more accurately, which I experience as altered states. There are extreme highs and bitter lows, changes in energy level, cognitive function, lucidity and irritability, which, though often helpful to my creativity, are also detrimental to my enjoyment of and participation with life.
I crave consistency. Steady income, permanent address, a relationship I know will last. Perhaps I strive for such an even keel because I lack one internally. I am learning to ride my waves, but that doesn’t make them less exhausting.
I’ve had mental health struggles for most of my life. As early as six I was plagued with extreme anxiety and bouts of insomnia. At thirteen I was compulsively self-harming, struggling with an eating disorder, and tried to end my life, resulting in psychiatric hospitalization.
Currently, the closest I have to a diagnosis is an assessment of probable Bipolar-2 with C-PTSD and BPD tendencies. (Quite a mouthful of alphabet soup.) It would take years working with a psychiatrist to be properly diagnosed. For now, I have to cope.
Art is my antidote.
Jonathan Larson once said something like,
“It’s not that I don’t share my emotions. I just tell them through songs.”
My internal world often feels too intense to share with a family member, partner, or friend one-on-one.
Within Art, I feel safe to be myself.
Everywhere else, I turn my volume low.
Nobody wants a roller coaster in their living room.
I did my best to compress my moods in a 30-second reel. You could almost call it a book trailer for Blood, Booze, and Other Things in Nature, which explores highs, lows, sexual misadventures, drunken escapades, and above all, my determination to act better than what I feel.
Doctors used to tell me, “Make it to twenty-one, and you’ll be okay.”
I’m almost thirty.
It hasn’t gone away.
And I’m done hoping that it will.
I will not let it stop me from doing all I’m meant to do. I truly believe our curses can become superpowers, and if you’re struggling too, please know that I believe in you.
There’s a reason we’re still here.
Maybe I can’t get off this roller coaster. Maybe the peaks and valleys will never level out. Whether they do or not, I am already coping so much better than I ever thought I could. And, if you think about it, I bet you are too.
Stay Creative.
It’ll safe your life.
C
PS Buy Blood, Booze, and Other Things in Nature here.
What’s it like being the only guy in your pre-natal yoga class?
What do you do when your wedding toast becomes spoken word?
Which alcohol mixes best with C-PTSD?
Now, you can find out.
Buy from Amazon here.
(Available from Lulu soon!)
And, in case you missed it, check out the cover reveal:
Stay Creative!
Cđź’•
It’s here!
Been waiting to find out what the new cover looks like?
Wait no longer!
Watch below.
And remember to Subscribe!
Keep an eye out for Blood, Booze, and Other Things in Nature May 15!
Stay Creative!
Cđź’•
Had an AMAZING time sitting down with Kyler Bingham again, and we were thrilled to have Winston Rowntree join us. Winston and I discussed our collaborative process in creating GTFO, and all the love and gratitude that goes into art.
“Make what you need. Maybe someone else will need it too.”-Winston
Listen to the full podcast here or below, and Subscribe to Salt Lake Dirt on Twitter!
Stay Creative!
Thanks so much to Alana M Kelley at Maudlin House Magazine for an exceptional review!
“Sex and the City meets an episode of Black Mirror.”
“Hoffman… leaves us with pockets of hope.”
“Hoffman presents their audience with a refreshing compilation of self-doubt, resiliency, and growth.”
Read the full review here.
Remember to follow Maudlin House and their editor Mallory Smart on Twitter!
Stay Creative!
Cđź’•
It’s here!!!
Winston Rowntree, the brilliant creator behind the Subnormality webcomic and the People Watching animated series, teamed up with me and other amazing creatives to adapt one of Sluts and Whores’ short stories into an animated short film!
Watch now, and spread the word!
Film credits:
Writer/Producer/Director- C E Hoffman
Animator/Illustrator/Video Editor- Winston Rowntree
Sound Editor- TC Folkpunk
Danton Lamar as The Narrator
Rachanee Lumayno as Lolita
C E Hoffman as Eden
featuring music by Borscht.
This project was backed by Kickstarter. Thanks to everyone for your support!
Stay Creative!
Cđź’•
Had an amazing chat with Tete and Fortunus Games on this latest podcast episode.
Have a listen, and remember to Subscribe to their channel!
Buy Sluts and Whores here.
đź’• C
I want to thank the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for their Literary Individual Project Funding Grant!
Thanks to them, I can continue to grow and learn as a writer- and above all, a person.
I so appreciate this encouragement, validation, and acceptance.
We all deserve abundance. We’re here to follow our dreams, and create a better reality- not only for us, but everyone.
I am so grateful to share more of my words with the world.
Thank you: to the Foundation, my family, friends, my partner, and of course, the universe. I’m so thankful for every damn minute within this exceptional, insane subjectivity.
Above all, thank YOU! (For being here.)
Buy Sluts and Whores here.
Stay Creative!
đź’• C
C E Hoffman 