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I Know a Man
CNF by Kevin Brennan I know a man who will do things for you. Things you don’t want to do. I know a man who will get down and dirty. He’ll gird up for it, he’ll suit himself in hazmat skin. He’ll strap on goggles. He’ll tape his pant legs to his rubber boots. He’ll…
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The Road Never Ends
A Review of Craig Rodgers’ Drift By Eric Williams When reading Craig Rodgers’s forthcoming novel, Drift (Death of Print, 2023), I kept wanting to flip back to the inside cover and consult a map of the late capitalist America he writes about so sharply. Like the imaginary worlds documented at the front of paperback fantasy…
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Solving for X: Word Problems for Novelists
By Tiffany Quay Tyson In elementary school, I sometimes[1] read novels behind my math book. The teacher would write multiplication tables on the chalkboard or drone on about common denominators while I was fully immersed in some story by Lois Duncan or Louise Fitzhugh or Judy Blume. What was the point of memorizing multiplication tables…
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You Lament The Lack Of Asian Actors In American Cinema
Fiction by Eliot Li In your shopping cart at Safeway: a 10-pack of Top Ramen; jumbo box of Depends Undergarments that Grandma asked you to buy; AA batteries for your malfunctioning answering machine; this week’s SF Bay Guardian with Bruce Lee on the cover; and a pleasure pack of Trojans, because even though you’re single…
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Magic, Madness, Meaning
A Review of Jen Knox’ We Arrive Uninvited By Ashley Holloway What is the definition of a “strong female character”? A character who is physically strong and effective at wielding a multitude of weapons as she gracefully takes down the evil villain? Or is she more of a subtle badass like Elle Woods in Legally…
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The Nitty Gritty: Home is a Made-Up Place by Ronit Plank, An Interview
By Charlotte Hamrick I met Ronit Plank when we both signed on as Co-editors in Creative Nonfiction for The Citron Review two years ago. Right from the start we worked well together and found we have pretty much the same aesthetic in our reading preferences. I read her highly acclaimed memoir, When She Comes Back,…
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Boys on the Bridge
Fiction by Jon Sokol Sebastian’s phone buzzed in his pocket at 4:20. He glanced over at his grandmother who sat on the crippled couch. Her hands were buried in the pockets of her threadbare house coat and she seemed completely engrossed in the slap fight taking place on Springer. Carly was lying on the floor…
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Trusting Them, Trusting Ourselves
A Review of Tommi Parrish’s Men I Trust By Helena Pantsis Opening up on a support meeting for alcoholics and people impacted by alcohol, the graphic novel Men I Trust by Tommi Parrish immediately draws you in with its vivid and emotionally cogent watercolour art style. Tackling themes of recovery, gratitude, and queer relationships, Parrish…
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Along the Wires
Fiction by Amelia Franz On one side of the register stood miniature bottles of Fireball and Jack Daniels, on the other a stack of fundraising flyers for the family of a man killed out on 182, rear-ended by an over weight cane truck bound for the Raceland mill. Greer refilled the scratch-off dispenser case, then…