In late spring, Darla said that she was pregnant. Hermann knew that the baby wasn’t his, couldn’t be his, because she was fastidious about him always using a condom. She made him take it off in the bathroom when … Continued
translated from Polish by Mira Rosenthal A bored married couple of actors in front of a full hall rattle off their lines Bride and Bridegroom from the Song of Songs. Do you remember? I don’t want it that way: … Continued
Znudzone sobą małżeństwo aktorów przy pełnej sali odbębniało kwestie Oblubienicy i Oblubieńca z Pieśni nad Pieśniami. Pamiętasz ich? Ja tak nie chcę. Już wolę w wierszu uciąć ci głowę jak Judyta Holofernesowi i z nieco teatralną mieszaniną strachu i … Continued
(New York: World Editions, 2019) One can be forgiven for approaching Johannes Anyuru’s novel A Storm Blew in from Paradise as “refugee” writing or diasporic fiction. It is not, though. A Storm Blew in From Paradise is about the “still, … Continued
Attack I’m about to take a walk around the lake. Then I remember that, when I walk around the lake, I am often threatened by angry geese. For a moment I think that maybe I shouldn’t take a walk … Continued
1 My daughter has slid down in the bath so that just the island of her face breaks the surface— and when she holds in her breath her body suspends touching nothing I say can you hear me and she … Continued
Here the boy is fifteen when his father’s friend Paul— six foot six and seething because his saxophone career ended twenty-five years ago and, ever since, he’s taught middle school—calls the boy a little prick, a little piece of … Continued
Today it seems absurd to say things like “the way things are,” or “these extraordinary times,” or “in times like these.” There aren’t really “times like these,” there is rather this time, Covid time, which redefines itself from one day … Continued
FOR ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY’S BROWN GIRL She’d walk up and take the sandwich from your hand to feed her kids She’d wear red ’round her rear on Sunday to Sunday service Her lips were painted red Her nails were … Continued
(New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2020) My epileptic brain is intimately related to my work as a writer. A few months after my 2011 diagnosis, I experienced my first episode of status epilepticus, and sustained a mild brain injury. I … Continued
Of Senegambia and seven, she should have been of the not-to be-taken, the not-high price, for a not-prime boy’s a girl of the unsuitable labor (birth not work)—and that years away. (Some of the captured, their spirits: … Continued
Both of my parents are blue-eyed I worked as a housekeeper at 14 I never wanted blonde hair My first accomplishment was controlling my rage I learned to use chopsticks from the Hare Krishnas I’m allergic to … Continued
(Santa Fe, NM: The Santa Fe Writer’s Project, 2020) Beauty by Christina Chiu follows aspiring fashion designer Amy Wong through a lifetime of adversity in an industry and culture that restricts the will and autonomy of women. In unflinching and … Continued
You always be seein some wacky shit on the train. Bitch slap a nigga for eyein her. Nigga piss on somebody who piss him off. Somebody get they throat slit over a gold chain. Shit like that. Like this … Continued
(Bethesda, MD: Alan Squire Publishing, 2020) Poet Elizabeth Hazen writes that she “came of age…in the pre-Internet, grunge-tinted 1990s” and that influence is deeply felt in Girls Like Us, her excellent second collection. With neatness and restraint, these poems convey … Continued
YOU DO NOT CHASE A GHOST BY LOOKING DIRECTLY BUT BY CATCHING HIS REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR. YOU LOOK BEHIND. My father Thomas is long gone, and this year I have outlived his fifty-five years. In the forty years since … Continued
You can lose your brother to Hell and still be happy inside your house. The house has many rooms. You find elegance in its brown walls and furnishings, and though the flames that rush past … Continued
(Indianapolis, IN: Epiphany Publishing, 2019) “I was taught that it was Eve who ended paradise with her hunger,” Lyz Lenz writes in “Cottonwood Creek”—one of the essays in Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church. “But lately, I have … Continued
Instead of crying on your shoulder I cry on the internet. Instead of crying I make allusions to crying by cherry picking the subjects. Instead of crying on his shoulder I build a fountain of black amethyst … Continued
Kelly, whose mother had rolled up the Subaru windows and driven into a lake, took photos of crushed up anti-depressants. Each pill, Kelly said, represented an unanswered question about her mother’s suicide. Sophia, whose parents … Continued
Not to measure my height into the clouds And cheat in the reflected vision, So judge myself soberly, In a way a superior force has dealt with faith: These things were told me on a sidewalk; Once … Continued
(North Adams, MA: Tupelo Press, 2020) Not unlike the shimmering ghazals of Agha Shahid Ali, the poems by Adeeba Shahid Talukder embody a “leaping” quality, an ability to shift surprisingly from one keen observation to another, always landing on her … Continued
(Bethesda, MD: Alan Squire Publishing) Grace Cavalieri is a living legend you may have never heard of. Other Voices, Other Lives: A Grace Cavalieri Collection is an old fashioned “reader” of her literary works that serves as a fine introduction … Continued
(Seattle, WA: Entre Ríos Books, 2020) Orange, by E. Briskin, is a collection of segmented prose about the death of a grieving narrator’s dog. Along with the jolting theme, the form that Orange takes is just as peculiar. The stream-of-conscious … Continued
(Encino, CA: Delphinium 2020) Joe Caldwell, a playwright, novelist, and script-writer for the soap opera Dark Shadows has published his first memoir, In the Shadow of the Bridge with Delphinium (2020). Because Caldwell’s roots are in the theater, it’s no … Continued
Translated from Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles (New York: World Editions, 2020) The Greek goddess Athena, born directly of a father into adulthood and having no mother, has never been a compromised figure displaying a lack of resolve or shying away … Continued
(New York: C&R Press, 2019) Two Californias by Robert Glick is this accomplished writer’s first collection. It gives me some real hope and happiness that Gen X may be finally ready for our winning moments. This book is certainly one. … Continued
Updike, Redux It’s 1993. John Michael Cummings, an award-winning writer, is chasing John Updike down the main drag of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Cummings is clutching his latest manuscript, and he wants the celebrated novelist to read it. Updike, 60 years old … Continued
(New York: Catapult Books, 2020) “I ask myself: how to account for the impression of splendor?” de Kretser writes at the outset of her thoughtful tribute to Shirley Hazzard, acknowledging how it is famously difficult to capture the mystical in … Continued
(New York: Sonder Press, 2019) In its fifth year, The Best Small Fictions anthology is more robust than ever, representing authors across twenty-six nations and six continents. The volume – featuring over one-hundred flash fiction pieces – highlights ten stories … Continued