This is the latest in Greg Houser’s Alabama Card Table: Arts and Literature from the Deep South. To go to the column page, please click here. Spring comes early to Tuscaloosa, AL. When the rain finally stops the temperature goes up and people start going outside. These people are irrationally happy, what with all the […]
Alabama Card Table: Arts and Literature from the Deep South: Episode 1.4: Spring
March 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“Embody” by Brenna Kischuk
March 28, 2012 by 1 Comment
At standard pressure water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. 100 degrees Celsius. 373 Kelvin. The bathwater is 102 degrees Fahrenheit. 39 degrees Celsius. 312 Kelvin. I scrub my skin with a mixture of honey and coffee grains. She always had the softest skin. I scoop a fingerful into my mouth and want it to taste […]
So Warm and Old Sounding: A Conversation with Jake Hill
March 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Jake Hill is a singer/songwriter from Plymouth, Massachusetts, from across the country, and from down the street. He has miles on his voice, blisters on his fingers, and stories to tell. He has released a number of albums, including Motel by the Side of the Road, New Men Old Boys, Any Kinda Work Today, In […]
“Holiday” by Michelle Sui
March 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
A bag full of tangerines, unpeeled. Round like your face in pictures. Your hands are not shaking; fruit is always the answer. One word before the juices splat out Three before your grin Five grunts and the dry peels pile up Ten until the end of tea. And you and me You and me My […]
The Wild and Silent Places: A Talk with Cheryl Strayed
March 20, 2012 by 2 Comments
(Photo © Joni Kabana) Cheryl Strayed is the author of three books: Wild, a memoir (Knopf, 2012), Tiny Beautiful Things, a selection of her “Dear Sugar” columns from The Rumpus (forthcoming from Vintage, July 2012), and Torch, a novel (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Wild has been optioned for film by Pacific Standard. Her writing has appeared in the New […]
Reading the Groove: Micah Ling
March 19, 2012 by 1 Comment
Robert Stapleton’s Reading the Groove offers brief conversations with writers about the intersection of music, rhythm, language, inspiration, and occasional bad taste. To go to the column page, please click here. Micah Ling is the author of two books of poetry, Sweetgrass and Three Islands. She teaches at Franklin College and Butler University. In 2011 she claimed the Emerging […]
Different Types of Spaces: A Conversation with Brandi Wells
March 14, 2012 by 1 Comment
Brandi Wells is an MFA candidate at the University of Alabama. She is the author of Please Don’t Be Upset and blogs at http://www.brandiwells.blogspot.com. *** UFR: First, do you consider yourself a writer? What does that term mean, exactly? Brandi Wells: Sure. I’m a writer because I write things. I’m an eater because I eat things. […]
“How My Family Tree Became an Exotic Forest” by Meg Tuite’s Exquisite Quartet (AWP Version)
March 13, 2012 by 3 Comments
This is the latest in Meg Tuite’s Exquisite Quartet. To go to the column page, please click here. I cried when I found pictures from my years in prison. I closed the peeling lid of the box, but it was no use. My hands had no fingers, my teeth had become bone and grandpa’s face […]
“What the Crow Does: A Lyric Essay” by Justin Lawrence Daugherty
March 12, 2012 by 2 Comments
I. Chinese mythology tells a story of the crow in the birthing of the world. Ten sun crows roosted in ten different suns orbiting the Earth, where they perched on red mulberry trees, with mouths opening up at the ends of their branches. Each day, one sun crow would drag a carriage across the sky, […]
Two Poems by Parker Tettleton
March 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Fold-Out I’m right of two brown bottles wearing your first initial in cursive. There are America-colored cans in the trunk, a redhead lawyering his father. Parents in your bed isn’t a metaphor – it’s a next like another as in day. *** You Get To Know Me Trash cans Latin microwaves— sex is over us. […]
