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Brothers in Harms
A Review of Mark Westmoreland’s A Mourning Song By Wiley Reiver Mark Westmoreland’s A Mourning Song, (Shotgun Honey, 2023) the sequel to his gritty, snarling A Violent Gospel, explores the consequences of violence and loss in a way not often found in genre fiction. To be sure, this second story about Mack and Marshall Dooley […]
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Eulogy
Fiction by Stephen J. Golds The old man always liked to say he’d outlive me. He was wrong about that. Wrong about a lot of things as so many fathers are inclined to be. My sister, she was the one called me to let me know. Her voice sounding like a foreign language down the […]
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Sin & Righteousness in Appalachia
a review of Michael Amos Cody’s A Twilight Reel by Chris McGinley Michael Amos Cody’s A Twilight Reel is simply one of the finest collections of Appalachian short stories around. In its breadth, and in its subtle evocation of theme, it recalls the work of Chris Holbrook, Chris Offutt, or Ann Pancake. Indeed, the twelve […]
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TV Time: Learning About Narrative Structure from a Book to TV Adaptation
By Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez I spent the summer reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I read a chapter or two every night for about three months with the intention of watching the novel’s TV adaptation immediately afterwards. The novel and subsequent TV show follow a Korean family living through Japanese rule in Korea, their immigration […]
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Codependency (Animals Included)
Flash Fiction by Anna Schachner My sister has a pair of fake alligator boots that come up to her thighs. Tonight, on pills, she is only a little high—thigh high, she says—and asks for them. I pull them from her closet and hold them out to her. “No, you,” she says, flopping her head against […]
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The Second Eve
A Review of Addie Tsai’s Unwieldy Creatures By Alex Carrigan Humanity has been caught in a cycle of creation and destruction since the beginning of time. We have many tales of humans being consumed by their creations or their creations causing death and destruction in the wake of their creator’s ideal. Whether it’s Pygmalion creating […]
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How Should a Writer Be?: GOOD, HARD WORK
By Nick Rees Gardner My love for working class literature goes back to my preteen years when, over the summer, I rode with my dad to mid-Ohio car dealerships where we’d repair car interiors and windshield chips. We walked the hot asphalt and sweated. I listened to my dad trade stories with smarmy dealers and […]
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Drivin’ Purple
Fiction by Ric Hoeben One thing about Friday’s come round, people could really, finally, and truly get to where they were looking forward to the catfish stew, the catfish regular, the greens plenty, and the piles of deviled crab. Robanna’s had it all: three buffet islands, a dessert bar and tea sweetened and less sweetened. […]
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You Come Too
A Review of James Calemine’s Ghostland America By Kristy Bell James Calemine’s Ghostland America (Snake Nation Press, 2022) ought to come with a warning label. I’ll confess I had to take it in chunks. Certainly not because it was boring or hard to read, but because it left me with a taste of rust and […]