Featured in this Folio
- Willy-O’
- Singer Joy
- Robert Carr
- Rayne Alarcio
- Nicky Yeager
- Mya Matteo Alexice
- Moonyeka
- Michael Russell
- Josh Tvrdy
- Joan Tate
- Jaymz Lea
- Isaac Salazar
- Dia Roth
- Bela Koschalk
- Apollo Chastain
Commonly associated with transgressive forms of sexuality, a fetish can also refer to an irrational fixation or protective talisman. For this folio, we asked contributors to consider what informs their obsessions and rituals. If “every body inherits a hunger,” as Isaac Salazar writes, then who or what thrives on the uttermost edges of indulgence?
This folio is a direct response to the current rise in legislation targeting queer and trans* people. The fifteen poets and artists included herein question the supposed limits of sensation, devotion, and form. Through this exploration, a surreal and mutable environment emerges; to quote Mya Matteo Alexice, “it’s a place you go, not a thing you do: sex.”
From bus stations to incognito browsers, this folio maps a topography of arousal, revealing the political, spiritual, and cultural systems that define the margins–and marginalized bodies–we inhabit. It is a radical act “[t]o let / this body be / what it is,” writes Nicky Yeager. As expressions of queer and trans* desire become increasingly stigmatized, this folio embraces the risks and liberatory potential of practicing fetish in an age of extremism.
Alex Bortell
Guest Editor, Fetish Folio
October 2026
Alex Bortell (he/him) is a Chicago-based poet. He is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee. His work appears or is forthcoming in Antiphony, Foglifter, RHINO, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. (Instagram: @alexbortell).