Fence, an independent literary press – Fence is committed to publishing from the outside and the inside of established communities of writing, seeking always to interrogate, collaborate with, and bedevil all the systems that bring new writing to light.

Fence magazine Issue 41 has shipped to active subscribers and is now available at newsstands, bookstores, and sundry other venues.

To get your copy, consider a 2-issue subscription or more. We will promptly take a copy of the issue, slide it into a sturdy envelope, send it to you in the post, and enter you into our database to ensure you receive the next issue. Standalone copies may also be purchased.

In early spring of 2023, the Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) and Fence invited visual and sound artist Spencer Hutchinson and poet and writer Alyssa Perry to participate in the first of an ongoing series of cross-disciplinary exchange and collaboration between our nonprofit arts organizations. ESS and Fence suggested opening their sound and text archives to the two artists, so each might gamely cross over into exploration and encounter with works from the less familiar field.

Here, on fenceportal.org, you can watch and listen to the videos from Alyssa's and Spencer's resulting live performances, which debuted at ESS’s Chicago outdoor performance space on October 22, 2023.

Their corresponding textual creations can be found in Fence issue 41 and right here within the webpages of our online Fence feature collaboration presentation.

UPCOMING EVENTS

AN EVENING OF JUXTAPOSITION: The Poet's Collage

Philadelphia, PA Ξ 7:00 pm February 22, 2025

Partners and Son Δ 618 S 6th St, Philadelphia, PA

Bookstore Events Page

Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Brandon Downing, Laynie Browne, and others will present work image and/or sound with screens and projectors as the Fence 41 Launch Reading Event at Bookstore and Art Gallery Partners and Son in Philadelphia, PA, in early June. Watch this page and the Fence e-newsletter -- sign up below. Visit the Partners and Son Instagram page and website.

PAST EVENTS

NEW YORK CITY Ξ Sunday, April 28, 2024 5:00 pm - 11:30 pm

Torn Page 435 West 22^nd St. Manhattan NY

Fence contributors, editors, and audience gathered at Torn Page in Manhattan’s Chelsea to celebrate the 41st issue of FENCE in the former residence of actors Rip Torn and Geraldine Page. Featuring poetry by Lee Ann Brown, Anton Ivanov, Meghan Maguire Dahn, fiction by Mengyin Lin and International Literary Seminars in Kenya participants Kyra Simone and Radhiyah Ayobami, as well as Garrett Phelps, translator of Osvaldo Lamborghini. Edgar Garcia, Visiting Editor of issues 40 and 41, read his poems and shared some words about the issue along with Editorial Co-Directors of Fence, Emily Wallis Hughes and Jason Zuzga.

BLACKSBURG, VA Φ May 14, 2024 7:00 - 8:30 pm

Blacksburg Books Δ 401 S. Main St. Ste., 106

Bookstore Event Page

Fence contributors and editors provided samples aloud from the latest issue of Fence, featuring poet-contributors: Nathan Dragon, Xander Gershberg, Sophia Terazawa, and Shy Watson. Visit the Blacksburg Books Instagram page and website.

New from Fence BOOKS

Phantom Captain
by Kim Rosenfield

Selected for the 2023 Ottoline Prize

. . . what does it mean that I can't take a lifetime
in this aggravating acceleration
to say what I must

New from Fence BOOKS

Thieves: A Novel
by Valerie Werder

Print, E-Book, and Audiobook Formats

Listen to the author read from the opening pages:

Original, timely content published exclusively at fenceportal.org. For the latest, see below. Click here for access to all Steaming.

Bird Song

Walt John Pearce | November 17, 2024

It’s so nice how you are and how nice it is to be around you and I think you’re amazing. You make this one face that I love so much. Is it this one no not that one. Less scrunched up. Is it this one no it is not that one either. Is it this one no it isn’t that one I have never even seen you make that face before you literally just made that face up right now wait it is that one it is the one you just made that is the face. That wasn’t a face that was just me smiling and laughing. Well that was the face. You smiling is the face and you laughing is the face and that is the face that I love.

Books also recently published by Fence: Mopes: A Book of Poems in Three Acts by Kenneth Reveiz, Sex Axe by Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, The Charm and The Dread by Rodrigo Toscano, and Maafa by Harmony Holiday.

A not-for-profit corporation, Fence is mandated by its board to make decisions in keeping with its mission to maintain this venue, in print, aural, and digital forms, for writing that speaks across genre, socio-cultural niche, and ideological boundary, as accessibly as it can such that Fence publishes largely from its unsolicited submissions and is committed to the literature and art of queer writers and writers of color. Fence encourages collective appreciation of variousness by inhering collectively outside of the constraints of opinion, trend, and market.

welcomes new members. Joining means you receive discounts on books, magazines, a tote, or other mementos. We also welcome your ideas about what you would like to see from Fence