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Refinished
Fiction by Brian McVety The can of tile refinisher smells like the shame of gasoline. Zoë was nine when her father let her pump gas for the first time. He remained in their rusted station wagon to argue with the radio. The powerful gush forced the nozzle from her hands and drenched her denim cutoffs.…
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The Fractured Mirror
Results will Vary: The Disruptive Necessity of Story by Edward Karshner Folklore is the rawest, most subversive type of literature. It adheres to no genre. It belongs to the people, the folk, not institutions or mass media conglomerates. As David Southwell writes “any folk culture that could not be regarded as heretical is short-changing the…
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The Forever Project
Fiction by BettyJoyce Nash The bike chain slips. Vee dismounts and inspects the rusted metal, noticing her lumpy leg veins. Poor circulation, big deal. Her blood’s run around her body long enough. “Lemme have a look.” Finn, from Island Mowing, leaves his machine and ambles over in his ridiculous Hawaiian shorts, jumping with birds of…
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The Nitty Gritty
An Interview with Lannie Stabile Interview by Charlotte Hamrick I first met Lannie Stabile about four years ago when we both volunteered for the same litmag. I knew her as a poet who wrote transcendent, heart-stopping poetry. I was (am) a huge fan. Her book Strange Furniture is a favorite of mine. When she branched…
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TV Time: Revision as Time Travel
by Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez My favorite type of time travel shows and films are about changing the past. I’m obsessed with the “what-ifs” of what my life could have been: what if I had grown up with citizenship, with money? Would that have prevented the domestic violence and emotional abuse? I long to know more…
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Squirrel Hunting
Fiction by Francois Bereaud On an October morning in the last fall of his life, Art sits on his porch, a cup of coffee fortified with a half shot of whiskey in one hand – fuck you cancer – and his pellet gun in the other. Art’s not a stoic about his condition. He’s angry,…
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Intoxicated by Stories
by Nick Rees Gardner While at a residency last month, I sat with a group of artists and writers circled on adirondack chairs sharing some of Vermont’s finest IPAs. At my feet was a fresh four-pack of The Alchemist’s iconic Heady Topper and in my hand I held a Lawson’s Sip of Sunshine. I had…
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Cleaning House
Fiction by Kim Steutermann Rogers Across town, a large hole is being dug to contain your grief, the headline read. Come by at dawn, dump your troubles, start a new day. The first day, Jen offloaded her ex’s favorite coffee mug, the stained one with a big blue “M,” the logo of his college alma…
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Outsider Perspectives: Insider Narratives
by Mandira Pattnaik At daytime, as I sit at my desk to write, there’s an arresting distraction: a narrative flowing within the metal frames of the window pane in front of me. It’s a scene in flux, or multiples thereof. A tragi-comedy as a middle-aged couple argue, shopping bags in hand, on the street below;…
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Orphans
Fiction by Jamy Bond On clear nights we snuck through the window of the bunk house and made our way to the creek to skip rocks and soak our feet. There was something about the cool air, the sable sky, the moon’s vibrant bloom that made our crime worth its potential punishment. If Mr. Brody…