Author: reckonreview

  • Buried Nitrogen: The Tragedy of the Brussel Sprout

    by Sandra K. Barnidge It all went wrong because of the barbecue pit. Not because of the pit itself, a Texas-style brick barbecue built in the 1950s, but because of where the pit is located in my backyard: under the twin shades of a mature camellia and a scraggly dogwood. You see, the pit has…

  • Part of the Business

    Fiction by Travis Cravey Tommy had been going over invoices for two hours. His computer was getting warm and the heat made Tommy’s little office hot. His desk was just piles of paper and a keyboard, save one picture taped to his monitor of Tommy’s sister Katy and her baby. The picture was old now,…

  • Mother Road

    A Flash Fiction Collaboration with Process Notes By Amy Cipolla Barnes and Sara Hills Sally Any second now, Dad will turn the car around and drive back to the Gemini Giant where we left Mom on the side of the road. He’ll race down the highway, not caring about speed limits or police, knowing the…

  • Two Innocents

    Fiction by Elizabeth Walztoni Casey Fried’s grandfather had often told her that she was one of God’s honest children. He never would explain what it meant, to be one, but said the fact she could not understand was proof of it. She still thought about it wherever she went. God’s honest child has clocked in…

  • Dinè Storyteller

    A Conversation with Sunny Dooley By Edward Karshner I met Sunny Dooley toward the end of my time working in the Pine Springs Community, on the Navajo Nation. I had spent nearly ten years learning about the inner workings of Dinè folk-metaphysics and culture. With Sunny, however, I learned about the power of story. And…

  • She Leaves

    Creative Nonfiction by Jennifer Robinson The elms on the grounds of this Mennonite school have been tied with bright orange ribbons and at first glance, she thinks they are marked for death. The city arborists use the same neon orange to paint a ring around trees infected with Dutch Elm, identifying the ones to be…

  • Reckoning Flash

    An Interview with Tommy Dean by Mandira Pattnaik I have been writing Flash Fiction for about three years now. As a new writer, I read a lot. Most literary magazines have archives that are free to read, and full of gorgeous pieces. I’ve learned structure and narrative nuances and have discovered some great Flash Fiction writers.…

  • Mama Bear, Protect the Herd

    Flash Fiction by Annie Frazier The first coral snake I ever killed snuck up. There I was in the pony’s half-cleaned stall, leaning sweaty against the pitchfork handle, answering a text. Up it rose from under the stall mat where it had laid coiled between packed red clay and black rubber. Silent. Shocking red. Cohabitating…

  • Beginnings

    An Interview with Lyndsey Ellis by Michaella Thornton I had the good fortune of being introduced to Lyndsey Ellis’ phenomenal writing through a creative writing teacher and indie publisher we both love, Christi Craig of Hidden Timber Books. Once I read Lyndsey’s debut novel, Bone Broth, last summer, I was in awe of how Lyndsey…

  • When your mom is a wind-up doll

    Fiction by Brittany Terwilliger Pull the string once and she drinks half a bottle of Grey Goose.  You’re just having fun. Sunday brunch at that old garage with the rhubarb pancakes, the summertime corn fields as high as your head, you get that happy shimmer a person could float in forever. The craft cocktails are…