Description

Why do some sentences seem impossible to speak aloud? Trapped inside us, how is it possible they have such an impact on our identities and relationships? Do our unsaid sentences sentence us to loneliness? In Freak Lip, these sentences often relate to firsts: first period, first serious medical diagnosis, first time having sex, the first time falling in love. Cohen explores the often-isolating divide between what we can easily express to ourselves internally and what's unbearable to articulate to another person. Folding the essay's form with everyday accumulations--communications with women writers, break-up emails, AirBnB reviews, and text-message threads--Freak Lip investigates how to separate secrecy from self-protection. This is a study in intimacy and vulnerability--what it means to let go of our words in order to let other people in.

Innovative Prose, No. 5
Selected by Katie Jean Shinkle