Fall/Winter 2011 Issue

Editor's Note

Feb. UPDATE: Presenting our Third Annual LITERARY CONTEST!

And announcing the new annual STEPHEN DUNN PRIZE IN POETRY: $500. (Stephen Dunn won the Pulitzer Prize for Different Hours and is the distinguished author of 15 other collections of prose and poetry.)

FICTION PRIZE: $1,000. Final Judge: JENNIFER HAIGH, bestselling author of Faith and three other novels. PEN/Hemingway Award Winner.

And our new NONFICTION PRIZE: $500, donated by Michael Steinberg. Final Judge: JERALD WALKER, award-winning author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion and Rejection.

Winners and Finalists published in our Summer Awards Issue.

Also do read our 2012 Fall/Winter Issue below. This time, we’re primarily focusing on humorous/ironic visions, ranging from experimental stories by Eugenio Volpe and Mardith Louisell to Robert Lopez’s (Dzanc Books) postmodern short short, to more realistic ironic stories like that of Bryan S. Wang’s and Margaret Elysia Garcia’s and, finally, to more serious realistic pieces, such as the story of a lonely woman’s joblessness in London, by M. G. Stephens, and finally, a novel excerpt about a boy watching his father kill another boy, by Richard Perry.

In nonfiction, the essays question our culture--from Donna Steiner’s riveting response to late night pornographic phone calls, to Dawn Potter’s lyrical essay on a white woman reading Malcolm X, to Leslie Lawrence’s soul-searching account of teaching Hamlet to public school kids, to Julee Newberger’s musings on serving as an advocate for a foster child.

The distinguished poetry showcases variations in strategies and subject matter and includes such eminent poets as Martha Collins’ spare interrogation of white privilege, Daniel Tobin's accomplished lyrical musings, and Dennis Hinrichsen’s unflinching imagery, and also includes surprising, probing work by other gifted poets.

Please leave comments after reading. Authors often respond. And check out our Photography! We’re all promoting diversity in its many forms. Lee Hope

Fiction
- Down in History
  
  Fiction By Eugenio Volpe
  
  The man who drives the gas truck is built like a fireplug. He’s got a shaved head and goatee. He paces in front of his rig while it idles. I’m in his way.
  
  *
- Had They Learned about Jayne Mansfield?
  
  Fiction By Mardith Louisell
  
  I couldn’t go to a movie with a friend because I had to go to my boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend’s daughter’s wedding. The movie was about a serial killer but it was French so I knew it would be okay …
  
  *
- The Body
  
  Fiction By Robert Lopez
  
  We didn’t know what was wrong with the neighbors. Whenever we passed them in the halls they made a strange sound, like a hiss. They never looked us in the eye, either.
  
  *
- In the Sunday School
  
  Fiction By Bryan Shawn Wang
  
  By the time Dalton D’Amico arrived, Miss Nugent already had the other children at their little tables coloring pictures of Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount. She tried to keep their hands busy; you know what they said about idle hands.
  
  *
- Freak Out in a Moonage Suenos del Dia
  
  Fiction By Margaret Elysia Garcia
  
  My mind was far away, thinking about how my big brothers were taking me out to Santa Monica for the Bowie show that night, when I heard it.
  
  *
- SKINT
  
  Fiction By M. G. Stephens
  
  For two years Eileen lived in Queen’s Crescent, on the southern edge of Hampstead Heath, in the ground floor flat of a Victorian semi-detached building, with her landlord living above her.
  
  *
- Excerpt from FORGIVEN
  
  Fiction By Richard Perry
  
  My father killed Albert Miller on Saturday, June 4th, 1851, an afternoon of high sky and unforgiving sun.
  
  *
Poetry
- [white paper #7]
  
  Poetry By Martha Collins
  
  white line broken line white dividing
  right from right white sign house oh
  
  *
- [white paper #31]
  
  Poetry By Martha Collins
  
  paper sheets of sheets
  robes of hoods winking
  clouds stirring storm
  
  *
- Quartet
  
  Poetry By Daniel Tobin
  
  Leisurely, the evening sky puts on the robe
  
  held up for it by a crown of ancient trees;
  
  *
- Burn Ward
  
  Poetry By Dennis Hinrichsen
  
  What did I know then of the resurrection through
  metal?
  
  *
- When you die
  
  Poetry By Buff Whitman-Bradley
  
  When you die
  Will your lives attend your funeral
  
  *
- Channeling My Sister
  
  Poetry By Karen Skolfield
  
  “You’re not even dead, are you?” I think to ask
  as my cappuccino mug slips to the floor.
  
  *
- Three Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke
  
  Poetry By Susanne Petermann
  
  Rather than escaping,
  this land accepts itself;
  thus it is gentle and harsh,
  vulnerable and saved.
  
  *
- Taxco
  
  Poetry By Massiel Ladron De Guevara
  
  Day opens with my elbow resting
  On a wooden table
  
  *
- The Earth’s Big Forest
  
  Poetry By Susan Johnson
  
  Cutting corners because that’s all we have to cut,
  pulling ourselves through the needle’s eye
  
  *
- The Poet’s Solution
  
  Poetry By Alexander Russo
  
  So listen.
  
  You have to change.
  
  You have to stop being yourself.
  
  *
- Fly and Cricket
  
  Poetry By Daniel Tobin
  
  Its ear attunes homage to those wings
  that would entice a consort’s tailored song.
  
  *
- A Lightbulb
  
  Poetry By Daniel Tobin
  
  Less than a gnat’s hum in the vast expanse,
  its inner antennae flame with your need.
  
  *
- Double Exposure
  
  Poetry By Daniel Tobin
  
  1. As the Gods Who All Things Know
  You would save the harrowed from their foregone fall,
  
  *
- I wake dreaming of Rome
  
  Poetry By Dennis Hinrichsen
  
  I wake dreaming of Rome
  and find my body
  in another place.
  
  *
- Dialysis
  
  Poetry By Dennis Hinrichsen
  
  Blood wants an angel but all it has is Monday,
  my mother
  
  *
- Analemma
  
  Poetry By Karen Skolfield
  
  Even people can make u-turns, you said,
  and I spent the first day doing just that.
  
  *
- Recessive Blue, Left Handed, Red Hair, Webbed Feet, Widow’s Peak, You Name It
  
  Poetry By Karen Skolfield
  
  Blue’s on vacation. Your eyes
  turn white in this light, ivory,
  
  *
Nonfiction
- My Caller
  
  Nonfiction By Donna Steiner
  
  Phone. 4:45 a.m. Still dark out. Nobody calls with good news at this hour. Maybe somebody back east… Maybe something really great happened, so they know it’s okay to wake me up… Hope nobody died…
  
  *
- Hated By Literature
  
  Nonfiction By Dawn Potter
  
  I was in my early teens when I met, for the first time, a book that didn’t like me.
  
  *
- Hamlet in the Hood
  
  Nonfiction By Leslie Lawrence
  
  “Should Ophelia trust Hamlet’s expressions of love?” Ms. Baker asked.
  “No way!” Keena called out. Several others also shook their heads.
  “Why not?” Ms. Baker pressed. “Mavis…? Are you with us? No? Tran? Don’t look at me. Look at the text.”
  
  *
- Destiny’s Lady
  
  Nonfiction By Julee Newberger
  
  I met her for the first time at her father’s apartment just outside Washington, DC.
  
  *