Since the summer of 2017, “Philosophical Idiot,” an online “literary playground for oddballs” has been publishing poems and other creative works that are “easy on the eyes but hard on the emotions.”

 

Taking in submissions from anyone willing to write and submit, “Philosophical Idiot,” leans towards the sobering and weird, often dark, but sometimes much more whimsical. The online publication rocks a minimalist aesthetic, the color palette consisting only of black and white, remaining a consistent and neutral canvas for accepted authors’ written murals. Although the publication is for anyone interested, a great deal of the work leans towards postmodernism, giving voice to fringe and traditional writers alike.

 

Founder Brandon Diehl (28), author of Ballpoint Penitentiary (2018) and Zeller’s Alley (2016), started the publication as a haven for “weird, funny, or experimental” work. “I was seeing too many journals taking themselves too seriously,” Diehl said.

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Since November of 2017, Penn State Behrend graduate, Kat Giordano (23) has been co-editor for “Philosophical Idiot.” She discovered “Philosophical Idiot” when she became Facebook friends with Diehl and they were subsequently booked for the same poetry reading. “It all avalanched at once,” Giordano said.

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While Giordano and Diehl remain topically sensitive when needed, they remain open minded and will look at and consider everything sent to them. “We’re pretty anything goes,” Giordano said, “and it’s not a rare thing for us to be pleasantly surprised by some of the submissions we receive.” While the site is dominated more so by poetry, the “other” section on the website includes less orthodox works. “I mean, we’ve published curated lists of tweets on multiple occasions. A few months ago, we published a list of my embarrassing Google searches,” Giordano said. “I hope people find that encouraging, or at least weird and entertaining.”

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In the long run, Diehl and Giordano plan to persist in vetting and publishing submission. While they have some regular contributors, they are always seeking new work, and are working on other ways of distributing published work. While there are some vague things currently in works for the future of “Philosophical Idiot,” Diehl said that they certainly want to print more books. “Even if the two of us ever decide to stop publishing stuff start running a chicken farm or something, the site will stay up,” Diehl said.