Author: Heavy Feather

Book Review: Matt Martinson Reads Stéphane Mallarmé’s Long Poem A Roll of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance

My introduction to Stéphane Mallarmé was unique. My college courses that touched on literary Modernism never mentioned him. Nor did my theory courses—despite his looming, spectral influence of Derrida and De Man—ever even say Mallarmé’s name. And what’s more, when I finally did “discover” Monsieur Mallarmé, it was not via his most famous work, A Roll…
Side A Fiction by Jon Doughboy: “Your Mother Is on Her Way”

My mother’s lawyer called me this morning which came as a surprise because I didn’t know my mother had a lawyer or would have a need for a lawyer or even knew any lawyers. As a matter of fact it wasn’t the lawyer, a Mr. Defiore, Esq., who called but his secretary, introducing herself as…
New Side A Poetry: “Called Up / 2025 USA” by Jonathan Memmert

Called Up / 2025 USA We live in a place called what’s the differenceWe swim in an ocean called what’s to know We have something to say called who caresWe fall in love to a song called who remembers We wake to each morning called rewindWe eat meals each day called handouts We go to…
Fiction Review: Emily Webber Reads Josh Denslow’s Sophomore Collection Magic Can’t Save Us

What surprised me most about reading Josh Denslow’s new short story collection, Magic Can’t Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure, is that while I loved encountering all the magical creatures, the actual humans are the most compelling parts of these stories. Every story, laced with humor and sarcasm, calls out how easy it is…
New Poetry: “Inventory” by Em Townsend

The law of conservation states that energy in an isolated system will remain constant over time It is day 2 of post-graduate reality: alreadyyou are lonely Your hair is choppy around your forehead from where you trimmed it yourself in a moment of desperation, wanting to feel like you had control over something, wanting to…
Nonfiction Review: Asha Dore on Lidia Yuknavitch’s Memoir Reading the Waves

Like many of Lidia Yuknavitch’s readers, I was once her student. I met Yuknavitch first through The Chronology of Water, a book that gave me permission to abandon literary structure in a way that made memoir feel closer to telling the truth. When I found out she’d be heading the nonfiction program at Eastern Oregon…
Fiction for Bad Survivalist: “The Pit” by Sarp Sozdinler

People come to Cannon Hill for two reasons: to die quietly or to watch the gators. The gator pit is behind the Shell station. There’s a faded lawn chair wedged in the fence and a warped “NO TRESPASSING” sign that everyone ignores. It’s not an attraction in the official sense. The town doesn’t list it…
“Being Alive Is Just One Way of Being Alive”: Grant Gerald Miller on Alan Michael Parker’s New Story Collection Bingo, Bango, Boingo

I left Memphis for Olympia, Washington, on the Amtrak with $200 tucked inside a copy of The Journal of Albion Moonlight. I had never heard of Kenneth Patchen. The bold, abstract cover designed by the groundbreaking New Directions designer Alvin Lustig caught my eye. But it was the title that truly captivated me: The Journal…
Poetry Review: Thoughts on Uche Nduka’s Bainbridge Island Notebook by Peter Valente

Uche Nduka explores the nature of eros and the political in terms of our present world. Desire that points to any utopic vision of an alternate world is often compromised by cultural and ideological factors. Pleasure is often tainted by class, power plays, and gender wars. We are a product of our time and perhaps…