Blog — Half Mystic

“Hope, no matter how unlikely, is still worth singing for. There has to be magic in that.” (Maggie Warren on Presto)

For me, these realities of nature reveal a sense of presto: an inherent poetry to this life, a chance to find meaning and magic in a world we share with such strange creatures.

Literature, Music, Personal Essay, PoliticsGuestJuly 7, 2024Maggie Warren

From the Editor: The Presto Issue

I’m inclined to think life or thoughts or ideas aren’t a blur of movement so much as a collage of image and voice: layered, constant, revved, and singing.

The Presto Letters

In an older sense of the word, to understand means “to stand among.” When I need to understand anything, I often stand among songs.

Songs for the Presto Issue (A Selection)

An ineffable, blink-quick mix of songs chosen by our team & contributors to evoke the flirtation of silk & song woven through the presto issue.

"A ringing clarity, followed by smoke. Deliberate naughtiness." ([sarah] Cavar on Presto)

What would my craft be, we and I, if not for the lovers I share us with?

Literature, Music, Personal Essay, PoliticsGuestMay 28, 2024[sarah] Cavar, Leila Chatti, Mary Oliver, Chen Chen, nat raum

Preorders Are Open for Opus II, Issue I: Presto

Issue XI lives on the currency of old speed & new dreams, & right at the moment when you think you’ve learned its dance, it dares you to circle back & look again.

From the Editor: Adrienne Novy's Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition

May this book teach you, when the ache looms loud & large in your peripheral vision, to invite it inside & ask for its forgiveness.

From the Editor, Music, Announcements, LiteratureTopaz WintersDecember 18, 2023Adrienne Novy

“My poems couldn’t save me from wanting to die.” (An Interview With Adrienne Novy)

I don’t know if I’m reaching backward in the anniversary edition so much as listening to my younger self reach forward.

“There exists a joy and hunger for more in that younger self.” (Adrienne Novy on Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition)

That intensity is impossible to replicate as an adult, I think, because it reverts to nostalgia for us.

Music, Literature, Personal EssayGuestDecember 9, 2023Adrienne Novy, Hanif Abdurraqib

Introducing Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition

This book is for you, yes—but more importantly, it’s for the things that tried to destroy you & failed. It’s for the past selves that live in you, still breathing, still breathing.

Announcements, Literature, MusicTopaz WintersOctober 18, 2023Adrienne Novy, Hanif Abdurraqib