Author: Heavy Feather

“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…
This Particular Happiness, a Forest Avenue Press memoir by Jackie Shannon Hollis, reviewed by Katharine Coldiron

Jackie Shannon Hollis’s debut book, a memoir, braids together a variety of stories and timelines to tell a holistic tale about its author’s choice not to have children. It would have been easy to write this book as a polemic; choosing not to have children is an extremely contentious topic. However, Hollis did not come…
Xerox Over Manhattan, an Apocalypse Party novel by Shane Jesse Christmass, reviewed by Bryce Jones

Narrative buttons smashed. Glitching the reader through three frames of reality. External/internal/media. Each sentence tersely punctuated. The reader written into demolishing pauses. No paragraphs. Periods acting like doormen, asleep on the job, letting in strangers. A flimsy caesura. Loose nails pierce the page-walls. Purported as breath-hangings. Wrinkled breath bleating on the floor of your chest:…
“We’re a Creepy Bunch”: Hillary Leftwich Talks to Sarah Read, Author of the Story Collection Out of Water

Sarah Read is a force in the horror genre and has a long-standing history of publications in numerous top tier journals. She’s the author of a new collection, Out of Water (published by Trepidatio Publishing), and one I’ve been anticipating with excitement for months now. Sarah chatted with me over email communication over a week…
In the Dream House, a Graywolf Press memoir by Carmen Maria Machado, reviewed by Benjamin Kinney

One of my favorite horror tropes is the house that builds itself. Inhabitants stumble into rooms they know they’ve never visited before. There is nothing overtly menacing about the rooms, at least initially—they have the same walls and ceiling and furniture as the rest of the house. The fear is in being disoriented, as well…
CL Bledsoe Reviews Nathan Leslie’s Ninth Story Collection Hurry Up and Relax

I’m a big fan of Nathan Leslie’s short story collections. Over the years, he’s published nine, as well as a novella collection, an excellent novel, and a poetry collection. His stories are often funny, often poignant, and always try to get at an understanding of how to live in this sometimes unsatisfying but usually surprising…