Author: Heavy Feather

Chelsea Biondolillo’s essay collection The Skinned Bird, reviewed by Christen Kauffman

Song birds, or oscine Passeriformes, with fixed song repertoires learn to sing in four steps. The steps are studied, in part, because, many linguists believe that these same four steps describe human acquisition. In this essay collection collaged with photographs, migration lists, and ornithological instruction, Chelsea Biondolillo uses experimental form and scientific observation to dig…
Shane Jesse Christmass on Death Valley Superstars, Duke Haney’s occasionally fatal essay collection

For people … like myself … that take morbid delight in the machinery of Hollywood and its end product … movies – then this book is pure candy – a riotous … and virtuous sugar-hit … a thrill ride … of investigative essays somewhat in the vein of Kenneth Anger … or the more Tinsel…
Collaborative Poetry: “In a Late Stage” by Tony Mancus & CL Bledsoe

In a Late Stage It’s not a question of outrunningthe bear; it’s a questionof perfectly seasoning the salmon. A man with no hair and a bagfull of herbs is slightly lessdangerous than a clutch of piranha. The equation starts with a soundunlike thunder, someone screamingnumbers into a small bowl. Arrange them just right, and you’ll…
Amazing Things Are Happening Here, short stories by Jacob M. Appel, reviewed by Patrick Parks

In her essay, “Uncanny Singing that Comes from Certain Husks,” Joy Williams observes that a good piece of fiction “startles the reader back into life … It is so unreal, so precise, so unsurprising, so alarming.” Jacob M. Appel’s newest book of short stories, Amazing Things Are Happening Here, exemplifies Williams’ description, particularly the way…
Haunted Passages: Three Hypnophobia Poems by Ellie White

Hypnophobia[1] #17 In the basement of the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, there is a carousel. Or at least, there used to be. As I descend into the first room, the music starts, and it is that music, only darker. The cheery notes all flattened out and squeaking, a mouse under a cat’s paw. It is…
Bad Survivalist: “Up next,” a visual story hybrid by N.D. Brown

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. _____________________________________ 1. The following are real YouTube videos generated from the search, “Protect My Family.” 2. Times Watched: 3 3. Times Watched: 6 4. Times Watched: 2 5. Times Watched: 4 6. Times Watched: 8 7. Times Watched: 1 8. Times Watched: 1/2 9. Times Watched: 3/4…
Three Disaster Movies from The Future: Poems by Lucas Pingel

Disaster Movie At the edge of the locust storm our toes Make a quiet music a prayer for broken Wings go further than the natural cadence A new word to signal an unplanned spring We remember it as holy another way Our knuckles speak to one another Walls once smooth and white pages Once smooth…
Ryan Mills: “Poem”

Then his pancakes come and I’m likePlease leave the flowers—and really, after his question(“have you ripped a big one lately?”)I see he’s a one-trick pony.A tiny glass vase centers our table Then his pancakes come and I’m likeHow could anybody masturbate to Slaughterhouse-Five?My Aunt the Grandmanever put on a belt herself, how awkward!the dancing. Then…
The Future: “Anything Can Be a Weapon,” a collaborative short story by Dana Diehl & Melissa Goodrich (from The Classroom)

When the zombies overtook the Lakeshore School District, the Dads were the first to go. They were crossword Dads. Whiskery and near-sighted. They were dads with novelty bowties. Some say the zombies took the Dads first because they were the strongest, because the zombies were building an army and needed strong soldiers. But we know…