[SQUELCH PROCEDURES]

[SQUELCH PROCEDURES] by MLA Chernoff

In [SQUELCH PROCEDURES], MLA Chernoff contemplates the ways that trauma, poverty, and strict gender norms rupture the concept of childhood. The tension of multiple meanings in the word “squelch” acts as a guide to Chernoff’s unique voice, which uses language to swaddle intrusive thoughts and mimic defense mechanisms such as avoidance, depersonalization, and derealization. [SQUELCH PROCEDURES] is an ambitious attempt to show how healing and regression are often indistinguishable, while the past is always predisposed to happen more than once: first as tragedy, then as farce.

"The MLAlien mode is potent, balloon at brink of burst, a little helium backwash leak squeak to its timbre. MLA’s work is like licking a battery that puts language into question and tailspin (every freshly flatfooted step asquelching audibly), a ludic brain-barrier breach for readers to help us kill our inner-cops, our shame." – Benjamin C. Dugdale for The Puritan

"The strength of Chernoff’s poetic is the ability to move in so many directions while holding to a singular purpose, writing against impossibility into a language of complex thought." – rob mclennan on rob mclennan's blog

“squelch is wun uv th best books evr in unusual fasten n fashyun it squelches evreething n evn th squelch is up 4 squelching as in heidegger go eeek sew manee konstrukts sew onanistic in theyr self referenshul aliteez is nothing cred sew manee genres tropes jestyurs apokriphyl mountains uv marshmallows all that sum beautifull konkreet vizual pomes heer n th enquiree in2 th rabbit hole uv meening is in sum uv th best hands n minds evr” — bill bissett, author of breth

"This work is sheer genius. Whatever you do, don’t miss out on reading [Squelch Procedures]. It’s a wildly original, completely absorbing, fabulous collection." – "Lisa de Nikolits for The Minerva Reader