Ami (they/them) is an experimental, Indian-American author and multimedia artist with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the California Institute of the Arts. They are the author of a couple of books, including In Residuum (kith books), x( )-id</3 (Trickhouse Press), and DreamRot {FORSAKEN} (Querencia Press), with Experiments in Quietus forthcoming from Gameover Books. Other work of theirs can be found in numerous places, including outer space, Fence, Peach Magazine, So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, and Inverted Syntax. When they aren’t writing Alien Chatter or indulging in Wraith Studies, Ami can be found ordering groceries from the Sprouts app, ranting about Fast & Furious to their cats, developing the lore of their Sad, Lonely Alien, reading banned books, and studying their inherited sciences of Ashtanga and Ayurveda.
꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂
Why not wraiths? Life and language are, in themselves, wraith studies.
The immaterial, the unliving, the undying, the subliminal, & the realms these concepts occupy exist at the heart of all my work. What are wraiths? Where are wraiths? Why are wraiths? How are wraiths? When are wraiths? Who are wraiths?
For each question, there are countless answers, all of which lead to even more questions.
Due to the specific requirements for tangibility and therefore, respective confines, there are some things society refrains from exploring: for example, the infamous “wraith” (alternatively: “phantom”).
How strange. The aliens were just asking me the same thing about humans.
essentially, this is how i’ve chosen to express two (2) contradicting aspects of myself. the short summary is that this is an alter ego thing.
more specifically?
❤︎ alien chatter ❤︎ — “alien” is code for the version of me that cuts loose. in turn, “alien chatter” serves as a way to free myself from genre suffocation and other obligatory rules, expectations, and categorizations that would otherwise limit my authenticity as an author, artist, and more generally, sentient being. it’s all glitter and vibes. ~~~ this is where i make space for the version of me that parties, goofs off, tries to operate on a single brain cell, and finds excuses to invoke Vin Diesel in my work.
❤︎ wraith studies ❤︎ — the “wraith” embodiment was my default state until my late-20s. i was always a gothy, creepy little thing obsessed with darkness, death, and decay. “wraith studies” is a term that reflects this as it applies to my work, as well as addresses my perpetual academic yearnings. this is all gloom, doom, demons, and scholarship. the “wraith” is the one who obsesses over blood, skulls, ink, and of course, super old literature. moreover, it enmeshes those passions with my creative practice.
