Archaic Torso of Gumby is a series of interlinked stories and essays by Geoffrey Morrison and Matthew Tomkinson that explore the gooey, prickly, sticky materials of late-capitalist pop culture, from video games to claymation to children’s picture-books commissioned by oil and gas companies. Here lyric essay, personal memoir, fable, pseudohistory, and science fiction all coexist alongside more conventional short story forms. Each part reveals unlikely connections between subjects as different as a sentient wallet, a gathering of headless saints, abject descriptions of 3D-printed food, a sixteenth-century courtier who thinks he’s a horse, a virtual reality religious experience, and a couple with a fetish involving crustaceans. By turns cerebral, goofy, and heartfelt, Archaic Torso of Gumby is a delirious rabbit hole for the adventurous reader.

Matthew Tomkinson is a writer, sound designer, and doctoral student in Theatre Studies at the University of British Columbia. His essays have been published in The Town Crier and Performance Matters, and his chapbook, For a Long Time, is available through Frog Hollow Press. Matthew has worked as a composer and sound designer with Company 605, Kinesis Dance somatheatro, and a number of other local dance artists, and his music has been presented at multiple festivals including PuSh, Dancing on the Edge, and Vines. He lives in Vancouver on the unceded territory of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

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Geoffrey Morrison studied English literature at Simon Fraser University (BA), the University of Western Ontario (MA), and, for a year, the University of Toronto. His poems have appeared in Grain, PRISM, The Malahat Review, Lemon Hound, and elsewhere. He was a longlist finalist for the 2014 Lemon Hound and 2016 PRISM poetry contests, and an honorable mention for the Blodwyn Memorial Prize. He also writes reviews and other odds and ends which can be found at Debutantes, The Rusty Toque, and The Town Crier. He lives on unceded Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh territory.

Geoffrey Morrison's profile page