Author: Heavy Feather

“Love, Loss, and Nazis in Norway”: Gay Degani Interviews Johanna Robinson

Johanna Robinson’s flash novella, Homing, is a revelation not only in its form—flash chapters pinpointing specific moments in time in fewer than 800 words—but also because it highlights a World War II event that is less explored than the Invasion of Poland, the Blitz in England, or the capitulation of France. Robinson focuses on the takeover…
An Excerpt from South Side Venus, Mary Ann Cain’s biography of activist, curator, and artist Margaret Burroughs

The extraordinarily productive life of curator, artist, and activist Margaret Burroughs was largely rooted in her work to establish and sustain two significant institutions in Chicago: the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC), founded in 1940, and the DuSable Museum of African American History, founded in her living room in 1961. As Mary Ann Cain’s South…
Relief by Execution, a visit to Mauthausen by Gint Aras, reviewed by Emily Webber

Prompted by a conversation with a stranger, Gint Aras decides to travel to Mauthausen, the site of a Holocaust concentration camp. In Relief by Execution, Aras details this journey and his family history, showing the impact of racism, violence, war, and silence on an individual and throughout generations. He explores how much are we our…
Bonnie Billet: “Dr Larry Nassar,” a poem

when you stand up to speakyou’re suckerpunchedtold you don’tunderstand ‘the nuanced difference between sexual assaultand an appropriate medical procedure’ he pawed your small girl titshe twisted his fingers into your cunt indifferencegave the doctor all the time he needed wearing 4 pairs of underwearand having your mother in the office doesn’t stop the abuse…
Heed the Hollow, a Graywolf Press debut poetry collection by Malcolm Tariq, reviewed by Esteban Rodríguez

There is something about the body that makes it an endless source for the written word. Whether exploring the body’s physical aspects, its changing implications in a changing society, or the fact that it’s seen by many (particularly in a religious context) as a flawed vessel we must navigate in in order to reach a…
“The Burial Party”: Vol. 9 Original Fiction by Adrian Van Young

In her invalid’s bunk on the steamer Virginia, the Nurse cannot stop throwing up. When the boat is in motion, it does not afflict her. She could stand on the prow with her face in the wind. But when the steamboat lies at anchor in the hot airlessness of the day, churning faintly, the Nurse’s…
“You Are What You Read”: An Interview with John Madera about the 10th Anniversary of the Big Other Literary Journal

John Madera’s fiction may be found in Conjunctions, Opium Magazine, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His criticism may be found in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an MFA…
Famine, an Alien Buddha Press novella by Joshua Rodriguez, reviewed by Joaquin Macias

In Famine (Get the hell outta here while you still can) by Joshua Rodriguez, the narrator begins at what must be his lowest point, alcoholic and estranged from his wife and children, but then his brother comes to him with the news that their father had died. They set off together and while the narrator…
“call the necromancer”: Four Poems by Leia Penina Wilson for Haunted Passages

volta OR these snapdragon flower seed pods look like little skulls because it’s all imagination & horror baby can youimagine i liketo lookat myself& i never become obsessed— would youlike to lookat my gothic: all the virgin eyes in the worldare made of glass —horror —horror —horror accumulated knowledge abstract: to eroticwith pleasure to ward…