“Dystopian Dreamscapes” published by Hidden Peak Press!

Hidden Peak Press is one of those very fine magazine and book publishers, producing consistently high quality poetry and fiction regardless of who or what, et cetera. Which is why I feel especially privileged when they choose to publish something of mine, in this case a fairly new poem titled “DYSTOPIAN DREAMSCAPES” that is part of the look and feel of a couple of new experimental, largely dystopian, surrealist, dadaist movements taking different forms and expressions in my work but gradually taking things further out from much of my longtime narrative/confessional work and I’ve been enjoying it. The response has been really supportive and enthusiastic and if you’ve been seeing some of my various publication announcements this year, you may have noted many are in experimental, surrealist, absurdist publications and formats and while I continue to write micros, stories and poems (as well as essays and creative nonfiction) that are like my more traditional work, if I only had more time and energy to write dadaist, surrealist, absurdist, often simply dark shit, I’d still never be able to keep up with opportunities.

2024-2025 confirmed several things about my writing in this day and age for me, and that’s been good, although sometimes frustrating and humbling at the same time. While I’ve had my fair share of publications in literary reviews and publications, I’ve always enjoyed more success within the small press and alternative press camps, as well as a number of genres often looked down upon by the literary status quo, including the horror, sci fi, crime, experimental, Beat, music, erotica (porn?), philosophy, sports, culture and art fields, and more.

So among my recent discoveries have been my longer fiction (short stories up to about 3,000 words) has been far more successful than my micro and flash fictions, on the whole. Additionally, my poems are in more demand than ever, but NOT my “literary” or more mainstream efforts. Instead, poems with a focus on speculative fiction, horror, crime, surrealism/dadaism, raunch, noir, dirty realism, dreams and nightmares, etc., are generally finding homes quickly and with magazines I tend to really like, which is good. My time for writing is really limited by circumstances these days so I’ve been doing more work in these last areas and less in some of the previous. It’s now just easier for me to write a 2,000-word short story than a 200-word micro. Sounds weird, but there it is.

One additional variable is so fucking many litmags declare their need and even mission is to create a “safe space” for writers, editors and readers alike. While I think that’s not a bad general objective, when it’s practically an industry-wide stipulation, I call bullshit on it! Life isn’t safe, my life has never been safe, my world has never been safe, what I read and write isn’t and won’t be safe, and if you want safe, stick with your vanilla nature lit crap, or better yet announce you’re a political publication with an emphasis on fantasy, on creating and dictating a world you think you want but can’t have no matter how hard you try. With publishers and editors like this, we’d never read Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Bukowski, Kathy Acker, Exene Cervenka, James Joyce, Poppy Z Brite, Todd Moore, William Burroughs, etc. If you can’t take chances in your writing, even if making others uncomfortable, maybe it’d be better for all of us to write greeting card verse because I don’t know what else to think or say about that socio-lit movement. I do believe Lit is not its emphasis and these mission statements bear that out relentlessly. So every time I write something new, or read something I can connect with, I silently thank the editors, publisher and writers still working in wide open areas with the beauty AND ugliness and violence of life whirring past, knowing that while craft matters, breaking rules of craft sometimes matters more. Refer to Bukowski or Burroughs for more on that, eh? And just my thoughts, I speak for no one else…

Finally, now that I’m done with that unplanned tangent, let me again thank the editors at Hidden Peak Press for publishing “DYSTOPIAN DREAMSCAPES.” Hidden Peak Press doesn’t stick to any one particular genre, look or feel. They live by their dictum, “Bear in mind the only steadfast rule here at Hidden Peak Press: Do not bore us.“ Very cool.

— Scott Holstad

Some Recent Publications