Nearly nine months after Gunk had its UK release, I had the chance to chat with Saba Sams over zoom. Gunk is as much a book about labor and the transactional nature of relationships under capitalism as it is a subtle exploration of what we ask from the people we love in the messiness (gunkiness) of life.

There’s a lot of stories I’ve told myself, stories I’ve told others, stories that I’ve tucked away and kept at bay. Reading Jen Percy’s Girls Play Dead, I saw my own reality and unreality weaving in with others.

The pressure was on, what with my ex-girlfriend texting me, curious what I would ask Chloé Caldwell. My friend, who gave me their copy of Women just before the reprint, said, “Please tell her I love her.”

As a spiritual writer that turns to Melissa Febos’s work for clarity and revelation, our conversation was nothing short of a miracle. Writing within the mystic tradition, Febos’s The Dry Season is a stunning translation of her faith in art and in the self.

From the perspective of a twelve-year-old, Wetherall bears witness to the magic and mystery of girlhood. With all of the tension of a story written on the brink of transformation, Amphibian finds agency in becoming.