Misanthropocene, by Olivia Sawatzki

Prose, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Hell is the boss who fired you, but died before you could carry out your revenge. Hell is Instagram, is early-twenties roommate dynamics, is a panic attack on the beach, is your ex's collection of ceramic clowns—Hell is relentlessly grasping for control and coming up empty- handed, forgotten, misunderstood, anonymous everywhere but your own mind. Heaven is in the crumbs. Misanthropocene is Olivia Sawatzki's debut chapbook of short fiction and creative nonfiction essays, which ruminate on the pain of carrying one's inner life into the oppressive monotony of polite society. Would-be heroes, philosophers, and romantics brutally collide with reality, and encounter combinations of ambivalence, cruelty, and occasional divine beauty. Olivia Sawatzki is an Ohio-born, Los Angeles-based author and playwright. Her fiction and essays have been published in Bending Genres, Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, L'Esprit Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her plays have been produced in Ohio and California. She lives in Echo Park with her partner Will, and their two cats, Cooper and Sam's Club.