Vaughn M. Watson
Vaughn M. Watson is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer based in New York City. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have been published in literary journals as varied as Tahoma Literary Review, About Place, and The Common. His debut poetry collection, going out & being normal, was named Runner-Up for the 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry.
[going out & being normal is] a great collection of prose poetry that benchmarks sexuality, race, and ethnicity. [Watson] will propel readers through his lessons learned with his short cliff-hangers loaded with metaphor. Here is a strong, new voice in prose poetry. —Tom Lombardo, Press 53 Poetry Series Editor, judge for the Press 53 Award for Poetry
by Vaughn M. Watson
Runner-Up 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
ISBN 978-1-950413-94-2
9 × 6 softcover, 74 pages
by Vaughn M. Watson
Runner-Up 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
ISBN 978-1-950413-94-2
9 × 6 softcover, 74 pages
BOOK DESCRIPTION
In his debut poetry collection, going out & being normal, Vaughn M. Watson examines a broken society. Pairing prose poetry with more traditional verse, Watson’s speakers travel from Beijing to Brazil, they fence with future lovers and dissociate on trains, they see themselves in lockdown celebrity photoshoots and TSA bins. This collection, broken into 4 distinct sections, takes us on a journey through the mind of an overthinker and chronic observer who just wants to get things right, for once. Runner-Up 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry.
SAMPLE Poem
if I loved you (68°F / 20°C)
In the constant babbling of recycled Jersey spa water, the how I
loved you in the final measures of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “If
I Loved You.” Everything below my neck submerged in those final
lines—how I loved you / if I loved you. I cling to the ladder and
once more try to enjoy the chill of frigid water.
Rush of the waterfall faucet that fills the temptress of a neighboring
pool (100°F/37°C). After two minutes in the cold plunge, I’m
told, what is wintry might feel warm and inviting. / never, never to
know. To plunge into cold depths is to be victim of caprice. Shallow
breaths, forceful gripping of the ladder: / how I loved you. Violent
dunking of the neck, head, hair in one committed motion. Rupture
of the water’s surface / if I loved you. Hesitant body succumbs to
unyielding mind.
Praise for Going Out & Being Normal
Written in the aftermath of a global pandemic, Vaughn M. Watson’s superbly fresh poetry collection, going out & being normal, is both a debut and reemergence from the harrowing “isolation of lockdowns.” Part trauma diary, part celebratory NYC afterparty, part travelogue toward spiritual self-actualization, Watson’s poems dance with a fencer’s cunning (“this sudden lunge forward; the rubber-like bend of a foil—contact!”) and strike with an ease that can only be achieved with razor-sharp craft. These cool, witty and graceful poems are the ideal wingman for our post-COVID times. going out & being normal is a poetry collection to make Frank O’Hara proud.
—Jared Harél, author of Let Our Bodies Change the Subject