Matthew Volmer fuses the insight of extended meditation with the immediacy of social media in his new collection Permanent Exhibit. These collage-style essays experiment with stream-of-conscious musings as Vollmer opens a browser window into his own mind: letting his thoughts wander through a fast-forward montage of flying snakes, mass shootings, emojis, pop stars, stargazing, ghosts, circuses, and a hundred other things. Full of keen observations and unexpected insights, Permanent Exhibit reclaims the art of letting one’s mind wander in the age of the status update.
