Review from Anne: Absent Cause

ABSENT CAUSE #3 (Oct 2009)-"death, dying, undeath"
By redguard
half-size, 72 pp with color cover  and 60 pg supplement/ $4 US $4 Can/Mex
$5 world trades OK
PO Box 1658
New York, NY 10276
redguard@gmail.com, redguard.etsy.com

I really enjoyed reading ABSENT CAUSE #3; the zine's billed as being about
"underground cultures, hidden histories, feminist and queer sexualities,
body image, chosen families and radical politics; vampirism, the gothic,
horror and the macabre; surviving abuse, coping with mental
illness/dangerous gifts, self-harm and suicide." (And sometimes all in one
issue!). I think I saw an early issue of this zine back in 2008 that felt
kind of like first issues do: interesting, a little messy, still finding
its way.  #3's an impressive way from that; in three issues, it seems like
its really found some footing.

Absent Cause remains an anthology with a wide range of contributors. #3 is
organized around the theme "death, dying, undeath" and  explains pretty
nicely why there's a literary supplement: When the call for submissions
went out, a great deal of poetry and fiction pieces were submitted.
"Absent Cause isn't a lit zine, and I have no desire to make it one"
writes redguard in the introduction. So instead of simply abandoning the
work, the literary supplement was published.

It leads to an interesting division. As you might expect with poetry and
fiction about death, plus a few full-color pictures (one of which is super
-NSFW), the literary supplement is kind of dark and some of it is sort of
disturbing, and you might want to approach with caution if you have
particular triggers. AC #3, however, didn't seem to have that same
sensibility or feel to it, even though a fair piece of it has to do with
corporeality and illness, featuring striking interviews with Leslie
Feinberg (who I knew) and Pussy Power (who I didn't and was really excited
to read about!), along with very good, compelling poetry and prose by a
variety of authors.