Literary Pixie

If These Stalls Could Talk

Edited by Sammy Ginsberg and Brian Sonia-Wallace
Publishing Assistant: Juliana McKenna

Feel free to copy, redistribute, or share this work, but please credit the authors and The Feminist Toilet, and do not sell it. Read PDF below or scroll to read digital links.

This zine was published with support from The Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and Dyson & Womack.

Available at Silver Lake Library and Trident Books in Boulder.

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Foreword

If you had asked me—even six months ago—whether I’d write a piece on toilets—public or private, feminist or otherwise—I would have responded with an emphatic no. But when asked to do just that, I realized there was no reason not to do so. In 2026, when democracy seems to be a bad word in the American political lexicon, can there be anything more democratic than a toilet? No matter its materials or construction, all people need a place to relieve themselves…and, perhaps, to do more. We all need a place of “quiet with your thoughts”, of escape, a place to eavesdrop on the more interesting person in the adjacent space, a place to hide while alone…or not so alone.

And is there any other place more deserving of recognition that here’s a great place for the imagination at work? From the French bidet to the smart toilets of Japan to the hole in the ground I was forced to use on the Greek isle of Corfu, it seems clear that the where and how of relief is a high priority in creative minds. And aren’t toilets often good for a laugh: even Seinfeld had an episode called The Stall where Elaine didn’t have “a square to spare”! So read the following contributions with keen attention; you are one of us.

~Lynne Thompson

Los Angeles Poet Laureate Emerita

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Contents of Our Toilet Bowl

Writing

If These Stalls Could Talk by Brian Sonia-Wallace

Sanctuary of the Porcelain Throne by PK

Jaron’s Potty Poem by Jaron Goldman

Graffiti Treaty by Kro

Public Hiding Spot by Naomi Williams

Anti-Ode to the Third Toilet From the End in the Elephant Bar Bathroom by Victoria Lynne McCoy

Toilets & Intertexts by Sean Pessin

Piss On Your Shoes by Rhiannon Cielos Chavez

Bathroom Politics by Eric Morago

for the wild lovers in every world by Nancy Lynée Woo

Eradicate Automatic Flushing Toilets! by T.D. Flenaugh

I feel god inside this taco bell bathroom: a taco-entrapuntal by Kristin Gustafson

Untitled by Tanya Gabrish

First Kiss in the Boys’ Bathroom by Axel Jordan

EVERY BATHROOM IN L.A. IS GAY NOW by Karla Lamb

For Your Convenience by Frank Ortega

Road Toilet by L. Fuller

Reciprocity by Billy Butler

Toilet Leadership by Sammy Ginsberg

Art

Launch Party – April 26, 2026

Check out the performances and photos from our launch party at the Music Center in DTLA.

Special Thanks

Thank you for accepting our invitation to imbue our daily trips to the bathroom with meaning and joy, for listening to your thoughts and feelings (and faces!!) while using the toilet.

Thank you for gifting them to our zine, and thus, the world!

To PK, Kro, Naomi Williams, Victoria Lynne McCoy, Sean Pessin, Rhiannon Cielos Chavez, Jaron Goldman, Phillip T. Nails, Eric Morago, Nancy Lynée Woo, T.D. Flenaugh, Kristin Gustafson, Tanya Gabrish, Jennifer “Miss B” Baptiste, Axel Jordan, Karla Lamb, Frank Ortega, L. Fuller, Billy Butler, Dani DiPillo, Rochelle Roberts, Hannah Rifkin, Radhaika Kaipur, and Turid for your poetic contributions. 

To Jennifer “Miss B” Baptiste for their illustrations.

Original Cover Artwork by Juliana McKenna

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