The Fissured Tongue Series
the landscape of waffle house
E.A. Midnight
E.A. Midnight
a flooding road — Warren Wilson Road — the road that enters the campus, Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC, by E.A. Midnight, photograph, 2004
a smeared vision of the Waffle House off Tunnel Road, Asheville, NC, by E.A. Midnight, photograph, 2005
blurry lights, uncertain of where specifically, NC, by E.A. Midnight, digital photograph, 2005
About the Author
E.A. Midnight is a neurodivergent artist specializing in multi-modal, cross-genre hybridities. She is a strong advocate for challenging the boxes creative bodies are put in. In 2017, she was the recipient of the PEN North American / Goddard Scholarship Award and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. A full list of her published work can be found on her website, www.eamidnight.com. E.A. Midnight resides in the Colorado wilds.
About the Work
“the landscape of waffle house” is a three-part piece that performs as poetry while retaining the narrative space of a memoir essay. The narrator relives for the reader (or herself) three memories, three competing moments, at the iconic, southern, fast-food restaurant, Waffle House. This piece plays with the idea of safety and the violence we enact upon ourselves by simply being. The images embedded in, and in some cases mashed into, the text serve as the placemat from which the reader ingests the words, and maybe has something to take home.
About the Author's Process
"I have these ghosts of myself always speaking. I love the communion, but as a neurodivergent person, it is hard to be in service to the safety of oneself and be a writer. Writing asks you to go deeper into your catacombs and sometimes that is also where all the dangerous parts of yourself live."
E.A. Midnight is a neurodivergent artist specializing in multi-modal, cross-genre hybridities. She is a strong advocate for challenging the boxes creative bodies are put in. In 2017, she was the recipient of the PEN North American / Goddard Scholarship Award and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. A full list of her published work can be found on her website, www.eamidnight.com. E.A. Midnight resides in the Colorado wilds.
About the Work
“the landscape of waffle house” is a three-part piece that performs as poetry while retaining the narrative space of a memoir essay. The narrator relives for the reader (or herself) three memories, three competing moments, at the iconic, southern, fast-food restaurant, Waffle House. This piece plays with the idea of safety and the violence we enact upon ourselves by simply being. The images embedded in, and in some cases mashed into, the text serve as the placemat from which the reader ingests the words, and maybe has something to take home.
About the Author's Process
"I have these ghosts of myself always speaking. I love the communion, but as a neurodivergent person, it is hard to be in service to the safety of oneself and be a writer. Writing asks you to go deeper into your catacombs and sometimes that is also where all the dangerous parts of yourself live."
