Author: Heavy Feather

You Never Get It Back, short stories by Cara Blue Adams, reviewed by Vincent James Perrone

Often, short stories are a gesture, a head nod, a breath, a whole lot of symbolism beneath every action and conversation. They’re the shadows that make up the moments of life. For another kind of writer, the short story is a microcosm. It’s a portal that opens up, sucks you in, spins you around, and…
Inheritances of Hunger, a debut chapbook by Stella Lei, reviewed by Daisuke Shen

Secrets serve as our guides to navigate the world of Stella Lei’s first chapbook, Inheritances of Hunger. But secrets are only granted once one has proven themselves to be worthy of Lei’s trust—do we know how to hold her narrators’ hurt, to engage with it as if our own? Masochism and sacrifice form the foundations…
Haunted Passages: “A Guide to the Land of the Mist,” a hermit crab short story by Casey Reiland

*Ed.’s Note: click on images to view larger sizes. Casey Reiland’s work has appeared in trampset, On the Seawall, The Puritan, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, DC, and you can find her on Twitter @CaseyReiland. Image: scifinow.co.uk
Terminal Park, a novel by Gary J. Shipley, reviewed by Dave Fitzgerald

How do you write about the meaning behind a book whose core subject is essentially the end of meaning? How do you encapsulate a book that struggles to contain itself? That churns, and roils, and seeps off of every page until its typeface is practically crawling up your arms and invading your orifices like the…
John-Michael Bloomquist: Three Father Nescio Poems from The Future

Father Nescio and the Ark of the Future The lift was a mile-long throat up to the scorched surface of the Earth. The phlegm-yellow sky hacked thunder and spat lightning around the Ark— a shimmering peanut of mercury larger than the New York skyline sitting in the vaporized seabed— a coral graveyard bleached like an albino…
Shannon Wolf on Refuse to be Done, a craft book by Matt Bell

In perhaps the craft book to end all other craft books, Matt Bell implores us to take ownership of our writing, to stop and take a second, third, hundredth look, and above all, to Refuse to Be Done—at least until we’re actually genuinely done with a manuscript and ready to kick it from the nest.…
And If the Woods Carry You, the third poetry collection by Erin Rodoni, reviewed by Daniel A. Rabuzzi

Erin Rodoni’s And If the Woods Carry You enthralls from the start and maintains the intensity of its revelations throughout. These are poems for a world whose woods are on fire, a significant contribution to the literature grappling with our looming climate catastrophe. Rodoni’s particular genius is her powerful use of European fairy tale tropes…
Side A Fiction: “To See the Moon” by Marlene Olin

To See the Moon What she hates most are the lights. There’s no dawn. No dusk. No silver sliver falling through the slats. Instead a light as bright as a photographer’s flash burns day and night. She’s almost sleeping. She would die for some blessed sleep. Instead she hears the squeak squeak squeak of a…
Haunted Passages: “Ghost of Girl,” a short story by Morghen Tidd

The house is beautiful they say but bathtub flows over water spilling in drops then steady stream swallowing the all of the floor around the claw feet. candle light flickers night drawing down through the open window blows crisp breeze in the room. listen carefully crowing of a bird mixes into wind a haunting howl.…