I am ten years old, and when I watch Patrick Ewing on television, I see my father. I know this shouldn’t make sense. Patrick Ewing is an African American millionaire who dunks basketballs for my beloved New York Knickerbockers, and my father is an Italian mechanic in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a bankrupt city sinking into abandoned […]
I Like to Overstay My Welcome: A Conversation with Jac Jemc
May 29, 2012 by 2 Comments
Jac Jemc lives in Chicago where she makes monsters and writes fiction and poetry. She is the author My Only Wife (Dzanc Books) and her chapbook of stories, This Stranger She’d Invited In, sold out at Greying Ghost Press in March 2011. Jac received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has completed […]
Two Poems by Sarah Sloat
May 28, 2012 by 1 Comment
Typeface #54 The type used to set this book, Sognidhia, was created by an obscure order of Florentine nuns in the 16th century. Living in close quarters, the sisters designed Sognidhia in italics to evoke intimacy and an inclination to bend to God’s will. The ascendant letters (l, k, h, etc.) slenderly loop, while those […]
“Human Movements” by Jen Michalski
May 23, 2012 by 2 Comments
No one ever expects to have an affair; at least, Lia doesn’t. She has always assumed that affairs happen to people who are unhappy or somewhat immoral or desperate. But then she meets Eloise Shaw through a mutual friend, a concert pianist. Eloise was once a second-chair flutist and wants her daughter, Sammy, a cellist, […]
Review: Threats
May 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Reviewed: Threats by Amelia Gray The Reviewer: Joellyn Powers *** David sat next to his wife for three days. They leaned against each other and created a powerful odor. In that way, it was like growing old together. I felt weird reading Amelia Gray’s first novel, Threats – like I was intruding on someone’s very personal, […]
“Nothing But Up” by Meg Tuite’s Exquisite Quartet
May 21, 2012 by 1 Comment
This is the latest in Meg Tuite’s Exquisite Quartet. To go to the column page, please click here. “Baby, we need you. Your dad needs to be suctioned.” I blasted through the last of the pipe. Dad didn’t remember what happened. All we knew is that the ambulance, the cops and the fire truck […]
“Two Dreams with Silence” by Hannah Rodabaugh
May 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
[A] “around the body” [ “Because I thought” ] “I would always know you in dreams” You are sitting across from me in a classroom. [ ]—to rememorize your face. But You do not look [ ]. [ ] I am stuck Out the window but where there is nothing But light [ . […]
Katie Eisenberg’s Famous Battle Cries: “Malpractice Makes Perfect”
May 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This is the latest in Katie Eisenberg’s Famous Battle Cries of Medieval Germany (And Other Stuff I’m Not Qualified to Talk About). To go to the column page, please click here. Note: No one in this story is innocent, but their names have been changed, anyway. The program was called “Explorations,” which makes the whole […]
“Summer Love” by Sam Katz
May 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The bags are packed when I come through the door and Lily is nowhere in sight. My stomach starts going over on itself, pushing out against my organs like a morning after drinking. She got everything. I feel the spidery frame of the Whisperlite beneath the nylon lid, check the straps on the sleeping bags […]
“These Were the Days You Were Strong” by Dalton Day
May 11, 2012 by 2 Comments
these were they days you were strong. you tied cigarettes from the pear tree in the backyard you lit them so the grasshoppers saw a hundred tiny sunsets and as the ashes came down to the grass you said these were only growing pains. your hands are bigger than you are now listening to old […]
