The Hollow Profile

Kera Hollow, known best for her amateur poetry that circulated amongst indie feminist literary circles, has departed somewhere greener. Where that place is, we'd best not speculate too loudly, as the embittered atheist would sour in her grave if she heard our prayers.

What little we know of her early life is best pieced together through her diary-like online articles, where she complained in heavy-handed detail about her mentally ill mother's abandonment and other first-world traumas.

Many readers believe her fondness (and countless blatherings) about pigeons comes from her childhood neglect. In one of her forgotten poems, Hollow wrote, "I felt them a kindred spirit, those rats with wings. As forgotten as I am by the humans that once cared for me."

One of her most popular poems was never published in her lifetime. This was due in part to its heavy subject matter and lack of public interest. But its subject matter delves deeply into her relentless passion for mourning a childhood that never was. Here is an excerpt from that untitled poem:

Let it be known I am miserable,

shivering, and waiting for your return,

not that you care.

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Outside of her poetry, which ranged in levels of self-loathing, Hollow was a passionate fiction writer.

Her fiction is lesser known, though it had a charm to its youthful clunkiness. In the Seoul Writing Circle, which she was a founding member of in 2025, Hollow joined forces with notable Korea-based authors to create the literary Zine, Confluence.

Confluence, which was in all senses a vanity project for the young, future novelists, gave Hollow a much-needed community. She learned how to critique and share ideas without pressure. There was a shift in her writing, most notably, an optimism that permeated through her essays and poetry.

Around this time, she joined an online site called vocal.media, where she experimented and seemed to find a genuine footing in her craft as well as a gaggle of new poet friends.

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As a feverish fan of Roxane Gay, Hollow was often overheard lamenting over her dream of capturing the feminist truth. Gay's work, which far surpassed everything Hollow had ever written, was a great influence on the New York-born writer. After reading Gay's confessional memoir, Hunger, Hollow attempted to write her own memoir, focusing heavily on her tumultuous childhood. The memoir was never released to the public at the request of her late partner. It is speculated, however, that Hollow probably spent many pages ranting about the mistreatment of pigeons and gushing over her hoard of street cats.

Surprisingly, Hollow did find some mild success in the flash fiction world. Naturally snippy, she found a calling in creating brief, 100 to 400-word stories. One of her shortest works was published in the 42 Anthology, which was a fascinating group project between 42 authors who together wrote 42 flash works complete at 42 words. Here is Hollow's contribution to the anthology:

Insatiable Killers and Vocal Fears Lead Me

faint and woozy when I hear that buzzing sound up above.

Nowhere to hide

from the enemy approaching with cutting precision.

I’m scared and need to cover, my ears and my eyes.

Peeling my skin, demanding my blood.

God,

I hate mosquitos.

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Her approach to writing never seemed to have a clear formula. Her genre and style changed throughout her short life.

She practiced her craft when she could between ESL and Korean lessons. Her former students had no idea they were sitting across the desk from an aspiring author, which, considering her strong desire for privacy, was most likely preferable.

Despite her lack of commercial success, Hollow's work can still be found online, defiantly pushing back against the rigid world of traditional publishing.

If she were still here today, Hollow would certainly not bat an eye at what the masses deemed as literary success. She had no time for accolades or what some might call 'networking'. She was too busy writing. Which is, in her words, 'the only true marker of a writer'.