griffin epstein is a non-binary settler working as an educator and community-engaged researcher in Toronto (Dish with One Spoon territory). Their first chapbook will be released with Frog Hollow Press in late 2021. Their poetry has appeared in Grain, The Maynard and Plenitude. They also play music and make videogames.
Against Diagnosis
i.
experts say my head is a saltine: full of holes
good for kids
as if i was pulled from the deck of threats
different but complete
tell me to stop playing
walk like i have wiring
in my gut
between my ears
and wish to be cured of it
experts say: eat this or that
make a map of your needs
give yourself a special name
grab the new heroics while you can
wait for applause like clinking glass
ii.
i refuse to disown my sickness
i am mother to her
cover her with fresh love
turned up like soil
in these years of Sad Time and vitamins
i have learned to feed
her when she’s hungry
change her when she’s wet
see her
through cut paper
taped to the window of
the kindergarten class
no metaphor or signal
her very own being
not to be prefixed with blood or brain
or names she can’t understand
in her open palm i place
seeds and buttons
wait for her to notice
we are already standing
at the gates of ease
From the Editor:
We hope that readers receive In Parentheses as a medium through which the evolution of human thought can be appreciated, nurtured and precipitated. It will present a dynamo of artistic expression, journalism, informal analysis of our daily world, entertainment of ideas considered lofty and criticism of today’s popular culture. The featured content does not follow any specific ideology except for that of intellectual expansion of the masses.
Founded in late 2011, In Parentheses prides itself upon analysis of the current condition of intelligence in the minds of these young people, and building a hypothesis for one looming question: what comes after Post-Modernism?
The idea for this magazine stems from a simple conversation regarding the aforementioned question, which drew out the need to identify our generation’s place in literary history.
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By In Parentheses in Volume 10
48 pages, published 10/15/2025
in parentheses 
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