Author: Heavy Feather

Fiction Review: Isabelle Zhu Reads Ann Cavlovic’s Novel Count on Me

On the topic of workplace harassment, one of my former colleagues once made the remark, “You should be able to advocate for yourself, since you’re mature.” For him, the capacity to believe that one’s version of reality is legitimate and ought to be fought for is a necessary condition of maturity. He implied that there…
Three Poems of Bad Survivalism: Sebastian Hunter

The Vintner I saw a lot of miracles on my descent to the gardenInnumerable rodents in crotches of carmine redstained with halos and television antennaeStand close enough and you can pick up messages for the unemployed,calls from one desolate sibling to anotherAt the base of the alder lazes the young vintner,preoccupied with “filtration” and what…
Poetry Review: Matt Betts Reads Samiya Bashir’s Collection I Hope This Helps

It’s hard not to be floored by I Hope This Helps by Samiya Bashir. The pieces in this collection come at us from unexpected directions and sneak up in stealth mode. The first piece “The Dressmaker” shows up, unannounced to let us know this isn’t going to go the way we expect it to. It…
“Cheers to the Weirdos!”: Jesi Bender Presents a Heavy Feather Favorites List for 2025

Here we go again! Putting together this year brings me such joy and I hope you find something beautiful here, too. Sometimes, it can seem as if no one reads anymore but making this list reassures me that there are a lot of us out there, still trying to learn, still trying to create, still…
Fiction for Bad Survivalist: “If, Then” by Iryna Somkina

Prologue: SPLIT SECOND “I pierced it myself”. He lifted his shirt to prove it. We weren’t that close—not really. But we shared the same side of the joke more often than not. He once teased me for not getting a kiss I wanted. I got him back—called him by that dumb alias he picked up…
Poetry from the Future: “salamander exfil” by Dennis Hinrichsen

slept in the hostilewoke in the hostile buffalo nickel on a hard rail glooming more and morethe gesture jackals behind every door midnight moonlight with too much metal in it when will it be cowboy again? lariats of oxygenand a straight shot wordwordwordnot this crawl space antler cowering I am myself as potent as a…
Review: Matt Martinson Reads Kelly Krumrie’s Genre-Defying Book No Measure

I remember reading Martin Heidegger’s What Is Called Thinking? in grad school, with his near-constant refrain: “The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.” He saw a world in which human industry was advancing even as the ability or willingness to ask the big questions about life was…
New Poetry by David M. Alper: “Press 3 to Listen Again”

You have one new message. It came in at sunsetwhen the sky was a smeared fruit color. Hello. Here I am—your first language,the one you planted in the school playground,the rusty swing set, the dusk train stop. I remember your lips sometimes.When they were learning, they forgot me.How teeth molded me like freshly baked bread…
Poetry Review: Dawn Macdonald Reads Aisha Sasha John’s New Collection total

Aisha Sasha John is a dancer. Aisha Sasha John writes in ALL CAPS. Aisha Sasha John is a wise woman/wise guy; is funny/not funny. Aisha Sasha John is not on the Internet as much as you might expect for someone who writes as if large portions of the Internet are being continuously generated out of…