In his debut poetry collection, going out & being normal, Vaughn M. Watson examines a broken society. Pairing prose poetry with more traditional verse, Watson’s speakers travel from Beijing to Brazil, they fence with future lovers and dissociate on trains, they see themselves in lockdown celebrity photoshoots and TSA bins. This collection, broken into 4 distinct sections, takes us on a journey through the mind of an overthinker and chronic observer who just wants to get things right, for once. Runner-Up for the 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry.