night mode

night mode is my debut collection available now from Everybody Press (2023).

night mode is a book-length serial poem that oscillates between digital and IRL topias, blurring the line between the two. In five poetic sequences and a brief coda, this deeply visceral and darkly erotic book explores themes of abjection, violence, limerence, love, and desire. The speaker navigates shifts in their identity in response to the encounters and exchanges they make, allowing each poem to expand upon the last— rupturing into new formal landscapes that give way for a pastiche wasteland of internet speech and cybernetic bodies. Through music, lyric, fragmentation, and play, night mode is an artifact of exploration and identity.

Link to order: https://everybodypress.com/products/night-mode-by-caelan-ernest

Read “put ur phone down for a sec” from night mode in Blush Lit here!

Read excerpts from night mode in a Verse Playlist here!