Author: Heavy Feather

Tales from the Crust, an anthology of pizza horror edited by David James Keaton & Max Booth III, reviewed by Ann Davis-Rowe

I love pizza. I could eat it at least every day, perhaps even every meal. So when I had the opportunity to review Tales from the Curst: An Anthology of Pizza Horror, edited by David James Keaton and Max Booth III, I was stoked! But also, admittedly, a little concerned—what if these stories turned me…
“Dissonance, Shock, and the Inevitable Truth”: Gay Degani Chats with Sandra Arnold

Both the title of Soul Etchings (Retreat West Books, 2019) by Sandra Arnold, the cover with its crackled baby-doll faces, and the uncapitalized chapter titles throughout, prepare the reader for the unease found in the pages of this collection of very short stories. The author seduces us into her world, subverting expectations, almost always putting the…
“Ghost Tree,” a concrete visual poem by Tara Campbell for Haunted Passages

InMuirWoodsthere areredwood treesthat are completelywhite, lacking allchlorophyll. They’re called ghost trees, and theydot the forest, ivory boughsglowing against a backgroundof cinnamon bark and pine-needle green.Because they don’t have chlorophyll these albino trees aren’t able tophotosynthesize. They can’t producetheir own food, relying instead on nutrientsfrom the redwoods around them, absorbed throughan underground network of roots and…
Cathy Ulrich’s Ghosts of You, a fiction collection from Okay Donkey, reviewed by Noreen Hernandez

In the short story collection Ghosts of You, Cathy Ulrich rips apart familiar mystery tropes of noir fiction. Like a seasoned gumshoe, Ulrich dirties her hands, digs through sensationalism, and ignores the obvious to search for clues. She opens up the spaces between what the readers think they understand and the truth. These aren’t whodunits.…
“Trump or Wile E. Coyote?”: A Current Events Quiz by Tara Campbell

Choose A, B, or C for each of the numbered items below:A) Real or proposed border control measureB) Scheme to capture Road RunnerC) Both 1) Firearms2) Cement3) Dogs4) Mirrors5) Gas (sleeping/tear)6) Electric spikes7) Black paint8) Invisible paint9) Dropping anvils10) Cactus Costume11) Shooting legs12) Portable hole13) Exploding tennis balls14) Giant balloons15) Misleading instructions16) Steel plates17) Moat…
Bad Survivalist: Five Plane Crashes by Chance Dibben

The Disappeared The airliner is not at the bottom of the ocean. Nor is it blown to bits over a 1000-mile radius of uninhabited water. No one’s dead. Hostage situation perhaps, the airliner flown to a dark forest, stored for a ransom that never comes. Maybe the passengers are contented. Maybe they will reappear in…
Four Poems by Schyler Butler

If Forced to Join Maleatra Montanez know that he will sayyour legs burst wide like syrup pouredhis throat the drain what was he to dobut unload blame ontoyour blackstrap skinslaughter within youwhat little dignityremained, boy childof yours in the cornerforever tamed, anotherreceptacle of shame What the Devil Tells Me I wouldn’t blame your fatheror the…
Lee Patterson: Two Essay Poems for Bad Survivalist

an essay about funerals I want to set a car on fire, set guns on fire, set love on fire—grow skin so crimson we call it fire. I want to grow a more giving heart, set it on fire, watch what crumbles crumble. trumpets blare against the wall. a temple falls, a medicine cabinet cracks…
Avery Colt Is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar, a debut novel by Ron A. Austin, reviewed by Erin Flanagan

Avery Colt is a kid who could use a break. In addition to the everyday struggles of adolescence, he’s caught in the webs of poverty, masculine expectation, and systemic racism that are keeping him, his family, and his community down. Set in North St. Louis, Ron A. Austin’s debut novel (winner of the Nilsen Prize)…