SURFACE STUDIES but these girls know how

but these girls know how to plot the coordinates of their finite struggles and watch over one another with a sagacity that's as intimate and precise as the hand-drawn grid of a note passed secretly at the back of a crowded classroom

The term essay itself was coined by Michel de Montaigne in the 1500s — it comes from the French word essai

From the press: Cover image is a photo of an embroidery made by Karah Kemmerly

a format that exposes a multiplicity of narratives

and drawings of his work in a non-linear

SURFACE STUDIES but these girls know howLiterary Criticism. Action Books, 2024. Paperback, 46 pages. 7"x7"x0. 25" From the press: The text is not a passive object. And the reader is not a passive observer. In reading a text, we mutate it with our gaze, however briefly, in however isolated a setting. In less conventional works, the reader is often asked to search investigate, map out the potentially chaotic or uncharted interiors of the work. In Surface Studies, Mike Corrao takes close