She listened to the rhythm of the dishwasher jets hum in the kitchen down the hallway. The cast crunched beneath the scissors, the cold metal of the blades chilling her skin. His forearms strained as he attempted to cut all the way through. Bits of the cast crumbled and scattered all over the comforter and […]
Ever So Slightly More Alive: A Conversation with Jürgen Fauth
April 27, 2012 by 1 Comment
Jürgen Fauth is a writer, film critic, translator, editor, photographer, and co-founder of the literary community Fictionaut. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and received his doctorate from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. He lives with his wife, writer Marcy Dermansky, and their daughter Nina. More here. *** UFR: First, do you consider […]
“Writer’s Block” by Kate Sheridan
April 26, 2012 by 1 Comment
what are you so goddamn scared of, kid? put the pencil to the page careful as a last kiss and reckless as the first dive enveloped in the crisp blue drench that puts mufflers on your ears locked in to the blinking cursor blackness “go” she said “I love you” what do words have to […]
Sara Lippmann’s Read it Loud: “Bread and Jam for Frances”
April 24, 2012 by 3 Comments
This is the latest in Sara Lippmann’s Read it Loud: Notes From Storytime. To go to the column page, please click here. This winter witnessed the death of many great writers: Christopher Hitchens, Christa Wolf. Russell Hoban. At times an adman, an illustrator and novelist, Hoban was perhaps best known—in my household, at least—as the […]
I Am Exploring the Distance: A Talk with Buddy Wakefield
April 23, 2012 by 1 Comment
Buddy Wakefield is the two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion featured on NPR, the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, and most recently signed to Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. He’s the author of Gentleman Practice and Live for A Living and he tours regularly. More here. *** UFR: Notably, in 2001 you quit your job […]
Two poems by Mark DeCarteret
April 20, 2012 by 1 Comment
A Near-Acceptance of Speech A door long left open just barely enough to try tempting the night from its corner where more stars were swept aside, mummified, and you peered at where the years had had their fill of me with something like disregard, negligence. Forever I’ve known only a homeowner’s woe-fulness—these serviceable tragedies hawked […]
“To the End” by Alan Stewart Carl
April 18, 2012 by 3 Comments
That evening, after I’d patched myself up, she called me to the back porch to point out a double rainbow, duel arcs untouching, colliding into the hill behind our house. She stood with arms crossed, shirt still stained with the sauce and wine of her latest fit, hair unwashed for how many days I wish […]
“Supernatural Tyranny of Artistic Subterfuge” by Meg Tuite’s Exquisite Quartet
April 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This is the latest in Meg Tuite’s Exquisite Quartet. To go to the column page, please click here. They were sitting in the airport before she left. Serge was reciting some extremely bad poetry that he’d written in hopes that Joanne would fall in love with him and say, “Oh, yes, I’ve made a huge […]
We Do in Fact Belong: A Conversation with Matt Bell
April 16, 2012 by 1 Comment
Matt Bell is the author of Cataclysm Baby, a novella, and How They Were Found, a collection of fiction, as well as three chapbooks, Wolf Parts, The Collectors, and How the Broken Lead the Blind. His fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, Unsaid,and American Short Fiction, and has been selected for inclusion in anthologies such as Best American Mystery Stories 2010 and Best American Fantasy […]
A Vague Map in My Head: A Talk with Michelle Tea
April 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Michelle Tea has published five novels, a book of poetry, numerous short stories, hundreds of Bay Area newspaper articles and has edited several anthologies on fashion, class, queer writing and personal narrative. Her novel Valencia won the 2000 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction, a San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award for Literature, and the prestigious Rona Jaffe […]
