Skip to content

About Exist Otherwise Literary Journal

Editor

My name is Eric Jennings, and I am the editor/publisher of Exist Otherwise. My credentials are non-existent. I am nobody. I might be you. My background is in theatre and performance. My day job is graphic design and website building. I am a yoga instructor with three different certifications.

As a 64 year old cis-hetero white male, I recognize my privilege and acknowledge limitations to speak on topics outside my personal experience. I am a survivor of CPTSD as a result of childhood sexual victimization, as well as physical and emotional abuse. I am on the Board of Directors of Silenced by Stigma, and I am a volunteer with MenHealing, whose healing retreats for male survivors were instrumental in my recovery.

I want this journal to be as open and sensitive to queer, trans and marginalized communities as possible. I invite and encourage anyone to contact me with any questions or concerns. I am open to being challenged and always willing to learn and grow. Contact Me.

Why Claude Cahun?

It’s reasonable to ask why I have chosen to model this journal after a gender-non-conforming woman (more about that label below). It was Cahun’s self portraits that first struck me because they remind me of some of my own self-portraits (at the time I was feeling insecure about being the focus of my own photos so I felt validated by their work). I also share their background and interest in photography, theatrical performance, and writing. So they have become a personal muse for me, as an artist. Cahun’s identity as a woman who defied social norms was also inspiring for me. As a person who has struggled with mental illness and childhood trauma I have always felt like a social misfit.

Cahun was born Lucy Schwob but published her writing and art under the name Claude Cahun. As far as I know, Cahun did not call herself a lesbian, homosexual, or even gender-nonconforming (if there was an equivalent expression in their time). Their lifetime partner and artistic collaborator also used an assumed name, Marcel Moore (they were born Suzanne Malherbe). Both names, Claude and Marcel, were ambiguous at the time, and could be either male or female. This makes clear that they weren’t presenting as male but were choosing not to be bound by gender. My use of the the pronouns, they/them for Cahun and Moore was influenced by Harper-Hugo Darling on the website Making Queer History.

Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.

~ Claude Cahun.

Cahun and Moore were also activists in the French Resistance, and were imprisoned and sentenced to death. The end of the war resulted in their freedom. There is much about them that should be inspiring to anyone. I highly recommend the book whose title I appropriated for this project, “Exist Otherwise,” by Jennifer L. Shaw.