a vivid dreaming, by Mal Virich

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features. In 21 poems of varying form and length, a vivid dreaming explores sleep and meta-poetry, in a melatonin-fueled journey through the unconscious. Such questions as: What does it mean to fall asleep? Who are you in your dreams? Are we, as a collective, worthy of love? are not so much thoroughly answered as pondered, deeply and abstractly. At times existential and at other times humorous, a vivid dreaming builds on the poetic tradition of extremely conventional writers like Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg of the Netflix original series Bojack Horseman. Whether “filthy” or “falling asleep,” poetry readers might find something to describe their state of being, somewhere between the abyss and the sunrise. Mal Virich is a queer, non-binary, autistic, and disabled poet who tends to ruminate on self-identity, trauma, and the profound impacts of interpersonal relationships. Their first published poem was featured in July 2024’s THE FEAST by The Word’s Faire. They are currently in their fourth year of their undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, expecting to graduate in Spring 2025. Alongside studying English creative writing, Spanish, and Chican@/Latin@ studies, they also work on campus as a peer advisor and read poetry submissions for The Madison Review. After undergrad, they’d like to either pursue an MFA program or take a nice, long nap.