gaze: (verb) to look steadily or intently, especially in admiration, surprise, or thought.

gaze: (noun) a steady, intent look.

gaze: (noun) an online literary journal interested in the intersection between seeing and being seen; an attempt to incite a looking inward/outward at once; a multidirectional kind of love.

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"The look which the eyes manifest, no matter what kind of eyes they are is a pure reference to myself. What I apprehend immediately when I hear the branches crackling behind me is not that someone is there; it is that I am vulnerable, that I have a body which can be hurt, that I occupy a place and that I can not in any case escape from the space in which I am without defense - in short, that I am seen. Thus the look is first an intermediary which refers from me to myself. What is the nature of this intermediary? What does being seen mean for me?" (Jean-Paul Sartre)

“Let it matter what we call a thing.

Let it be the exquisite face for at least 16 seconds.

Let me LOOK at you.

Let me look at you in a light that takes years to get here.”

(Solmaz Sharif)

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gaze is a passion project run by Darla Mottram, a writer based in Portland, Oregon. for transparency’s sake, Darla (she/her) is a white, cis, queer human being committed to unlearning and dismantling the white supremacist cishetero patriarchy; creating, running, and funding gaze is her way of giving back to the literary community, and in particular to the writers and artists who continue to be marginalized even (and especially) within these spaces. you are welcome here, and your work is valued.