Author: Heavy Feather

“Mythical Magic”: Gay Degani Interviews Tara Campbell

When I first picked up Circe’s Bicycle by Tara Campbell with its clean, stylish cover, I had to remind myself exactly who Circe was in mythology. Here’s the Wikipedia definition: Circe (/ˈsɜːrsiː/; Greek: Κίρκη Kírkē pronounced [kírkɛː]) is a goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress in Greek mythology. I soon found…
“repeat means repeat means,” a poem by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

repeat means repeat means stop writing the same poemabout guns and cities and deadchildren who aren’t yours when there’s been so much rainthe sewers are spitting backwater writing the same poem you wander unpaved streetslooking for your son’s lost galoshas children who aren’t yours pretend to hold guns in his classroomaim crayons and legos and…
A Woman Is a Woman Until She Is a Mother, an essay collection by Anna Prushinskaya, reviewed by Vivian Wagner

Anna Prushinskaya’s collection of essays, A Woman Is a Woman Until She Is a Mother, interrogates the meaning and experience of womanhood and motherhood. She looks at the blurry, liminal boundary between these two states and tries to come to terms with the fact that there’s no simple, reliable definition for either one. Prushinskaya is,…
Four Fictions from Debra Di Blasi’s Today Is the Day That Will Matter: Oral Histories from the New America #AlternativeFictions

Her Father, Reclining The daughter must wait on him hand and foot. Her hand flutters at the foot of his bed where he is reclining naked, exposed, his pebbly ass facing her each time she enters the room with a gold tray of milk and Nutella and salt-free butter sandwiches fried in butter. He loves…
“Foundation,” a fiction story by Christine Hennessey

There was a man living in her walls. Fiona hadn’t seen or spoken to him, though late at night when he emerged from behind the plaster she could hear the sounds he made, the grease sizzling in the frying pan, the methodic thud of knife against cutting board. The scents that slipped under her bedroom…
The Garbage Times/White Ibis, a double novella by Sam Pink, reviewed by Vivian Wells

Writing about a book that I have creased pages with constant re-readings is a daunting task. Even now the fraying of the pages and bending of the spine speak volumes to the level of brilliance the book professes. My thoughts on the exploits of Pink as the character are almost as scattered and beautiful as…
Fiction: “1,000 Ghosts” by Diana Clark

He insists on lying down. Dr. Greenwood tells him, “That’s only in the movies, the couch part; you’re more than welcome to sit up,” but then she remembers how much he loves movies, his Air Force One comment from 2015, remembers Harrison Ford in his interview on Studio 10, and decides not to push the…
Like a Champion, stories by Vincent Chu, reviewed by Rebekah Daniel

Like a Champion, by Vincent Chu, is a collection of short stories that could be written about your next-door neighbor. So when you peek through the blinds and glance at the house across the street, Fred—who works in finance, who just wants a drink at happy hour with Glen—could be living there. And next time…
Clara at the Edge, a novel by Maryl Jo Fox, reviewed by Laura-Gray Lovelace

The story of Clara Breckenridge is the story of a woman who uproots her whole life, moving her house to Jackpot, Nevada, in an effort to reunite with an emotionally distant son, Frank, and to come to terms with the loss of her husband and daughter, after years of cordoning it off in her brain.…