Reading of Boy Apparition by mk zariel

There are two transmasculine genders: the butch anarchist, and the tiny atemporal gremlin who really needs a hug. In BOY APPARITION, mk zariel tackles both. This chapbook is full of love letters to the BashBack tendency, chronicles of insurgent trans boyhood and its ties to lesbian culture, unhinged teenage rants, and the kind of love poems you’d write in lipstick on the mirror of the gender-neutral bathroom. Through it all, one question is central: what it means to be transmasculine beyond hegemonic manhood, beyond hierarchy, beyond linear time itself.

mk zariel {it/its + masc terms} is a transmasculine neuroqueer theater artist, Best Of The Net nominated poet, movement journalist, and BashBack aligned anarchist translocally rooted in the Great Lakes region. the author of VOIDGAZING (2026, Whittle Micropress) and BOY APPARITION (2025, Vinegar Press), it creates conflictual spaces for trans survival and queer desire—spaces of insurgent genders, mutual aid beyond the nonprofit gaze, and the kind of care that negates (and negation that provides care). BashBack! remains close to its heart, as do anarchonihilism/egoism, experimental theater, and the defiant tenderness of queer collectivity. mk’s organizing is often underground, but its poetics and podcast crackle with the same unruly energy: community as generative+atemporal destruction, poetry as direct action. Oh, and according to anarchistnews.org—"zariel quotes the Principia Discordia, which is kind of funny" and "what is explicitly said about chaos is...fine?".

Its writing has appeared in Querencia Press, Akpata, J Journal, Witches Magazine, Fifth Estate, ANMLY, OurLives Wisconsin, Library Of Eris, Oyster River Pages, and Seattle Journal of Social Justice, among many others. It contributes columns to Asymptote and the Anarchist Review of Books, its mixed media work is featured through Open Sorcery, and it authors the advice column DEBATE ME BRO and hosts the podcast THE CHILD AND ITS ENEMIES. it is the Alternate for the City of Madison’s youth poet laureate position (2025–26). mk is the author of eleven self-published zine projects, and performs regularly at anarchist gatherings, zine fests, and queer liberation events. You can find its offerings, commissions, and chaotic love letters to the world at mkzariel.carrd.co.