Volume 1

An AI stroking itself to hipster self-awareness; gentle lullabies for mountains and molehills; paeans for martyrs and casualties of war; beta-testing pre-crime hardware and pre-natal software upgrades; the passion as a drag kindergarten stage play; the domestication of feral street culture; the immortalities of dictators; memetic pandemics; the queer shall inherit the earth; elegies to a scorched planet; the new flora and fauna of flooded streets and coral-grown boulevards; erased futures; toppled towers; the feminists shall inherit the earth; culture collapses into a singularity; disability politics; techbro proprietorship of agriculture; star memories and fish dreams shall inherit the earth.

The inaugural volume of Brave New Words is a collection of creative work focused on imagining tomorrows beyond all of today’s eternal struggle against atrocities and anxieties: wonderland or wasteland? Will the world truly be better off if we were all dead? Whatever will we do for entertainment once we’ve eaten all the CEOs and boardmembers of all multimedia multinational companies? Will we ever have a president from the ranks of the proletariat?

Featuring brave new work by Eric Abalajon, tilde acuña, Ronald Araña Atilano, Michael Balili, Jerwin Bilale, Raiza F. Cabugwang, Gigi Constantino, Jasmine Cruz, Paolo Jose Cruz, Bernardine B. de Belen, Jelo de Guzman-Altea, Redwin Dob, Gilford Doquila, Harold Garcia, Ella Hermonio, Ivan Emil Labayne, Angeli Lacson, Tocz Laurenio, Francesca Mauricio, Catherine Orda, Gwyneth E. Patam, Gibson Perez, Sahara Piang, Athena Ramos, Rudy, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, Karlo Sevilla, Lian Sing, Martin Singh, Benj Gabun Sumabat, Alyza Taguilaso, Normandale Angelo Tioco, and Maria Veloso.

Edited by Adam David

Published by Paper Trail Projects (2024)