Kim Rashidi

In a world of hidden meanings and yearnful glances, she fatefully runs into him one summer. But all she wants to know is what his bathroom tiles look like… Mila is in her late 20s and she’s made it this far in life without really being alive. She is constantly thinking about herself from the outside in. All of that changes when she tries to find herself within two men who are so different yet so alike. One has a knowing smile, the other wears an enchanting grin. Both offer her moments so ripe they may as well be juicy nectarines for her to devour—but if it’s love or devotion, she can’t figure out. Working in an antique shop with a portal into endless possibilities, Mila interacts with the many faces of her being. She catapults her self-actualization when she confronts the watchful eye that lives within her. Sundays are—finally—made holy when she starts worshiping herself. Written using tarot cards, Only Alive on Sundays blurs the line between the magical and the mundane. Rashidi weaves the narrative of each Major Arcana card into an electric tale exploring the romance of pursuing selfhood, painting an image of what it would look like to be caught in the midst of The Lovers, The Tower, The Moon…

Dante's Inferno, but for the girls. I open my mouth, swallow myself whole / I am inside the beast, the machine of a girl A ritualized traverse into the underworld, GIRL MESS is a way back into the body. The feeling, pulsing, tragicomic body. This atmospheric story, guided by a whimsical psychopomp, follows a girl’s peculiarities as she navigates uncanny rooms with strange creatures and even stranger memories. Loosely following the stages of spiritual alchemy from calcination to coagulation, the girl evolves past the nightmares of ageing and comes to understand what it means to live a wondrous life. GIRL MESS is a cabinet of curiosities, a kaleidoscopic experience, and a decadent feat of imagination. Conceptually playing with the notorious demonization of girls' interests, this novel in verse is a lyrical exploration of the human condition through the trials and trepidations of girlhood. Poetically bold and idiomatically subversive, the pages of this book journey into a celestial realm of introspection to form a connection with the psyche. Pulling on occult threads and alchemical traditions, these poems take inspiration from Rashidi’s dreams and mediations and are aided by Jungian analysis.

Based on the rider-waite-smith tarot cards, this book dives into the world of tarot through delicate and illuminating poetry that stirs the soul. Inside this book, you will find 78 poems, one for each card in the Major and Minor Arcana—all a poetic interpretation by the author. An index is included at the back to help readers navigate the poems as primarily this book is intended to be used for “readings,” with blank pages beside each poem for the reader to use however they wish, in essence becoming the co-author of their own copy.