Vola's poems are honest, funny, imaginative, and unapologetically observant of the culture he finds himeslf stuck in. But more than that, they are trips inside his mind, in deliberate, perfectly constructed streams of consciousness that again and again leave you wondering what else he has to say. He proves that there is still value, still art, in being true to the creative process you are gifted with if you don't hold yourself back. These pieces are raw, brutal, and hilarious. But often brought home with sincerity and heart.
- Niall Power, author of Fall Risk
Vivid, viral, and "screaming cool," Vola's poetry sings the song of selves offered on the altar of big data, pulled asunder by likes and love and the confusion of the two. He has a knack for nihilism and an ear for heartache. Full of wit and wistfulness, Vola writes with the concern of a cultural critic, the acid of a satirist. The poems in this collection stay with you and, like a good meme, beg to be revisited and shared.
- Stephen Cicerelli, author of Nothing Short of: Selected Tales
Life is confusing, life is fractured, and the arc of the moral universe bends toward apathy. This lean batch of prose-poems and poem-poems bottles the numbness of a generation kneecapped by information overload and serves it to us cold, with an octopus emoji swizzle stick that may or may not be ironic. Impractical Taxidermy delivers a knockout blow to sentimentality while recognizing that lowkey checking out is the only rational reaction to an increasingly absurd culture. It's all very came in like a wrecking ball.
- Garrett McDonough