Author: Heavy Feather

Fiction Review: Kevin McMahon Reads Alexis Von Konigslow’s Novel The Exclusion Zone

Chernobyl. The name itself conjures a range of emotions and images, and my own intrigue in this infamous disaster was more than sufficient to pique my interest in giving this particular title a read. There’s a fantastic German word for the overwhelming sense of unease that’s palpable throughout—unheimlich—literally, “unhomely,” or the exact opposite feeling of…
New Essay: “The Gospel of the Dumpster” by Joey Colby Bernert

Move-out day, April 2022. I had just graduated, just came out, and was sitting on everything the university left behind. The Photo This was me in April of 2022. A queer who had come to terms with their gender identity and sexuality. I had just finished my undergraduate degree in Women and Gender Studies. I was…
Original Haunted Passages Short Story: “The Late Mrs. Cole” by Salvatore Difalco

Mrs. Cole lived down the street from us. People said she was a witch. They’d seen her flying around on a broom. And she had been spotted in Eastwood Park picking poisonous mushrooms by the back fence. She was also said to walk around the neighborhood with a shopping bag full of frogs. But most…
Short Fiction for Haunted Passages: “Splitting a Pig” by Austin Goodmanson

The machines in my daughter’s bedroom kept their rhythm for weeks. Beep. Beep. Nothing changed that I could prove. Then last week I sat beside her bed, rambling about whatever came to mind. Regrets from her childhood. When I said I was sorry, her cheek was wet. One tear. I thought it was a fluke.…
Side A Short Fiction: “Stained Glass” by Lindsey James

Stained Glass There will be shards on the floor, beer-stuck to the tile, when Dominic walks back into the kitchen. All the broken things will still be there, the visible and invisible ones. The glass, at least, he will be able to sweep up. * The first time Natalie had invited him over, he pretended…
Haunted Passages Original Fiction: “Bupropion Hydrochloride, or, Pills for Vanquishing” by K. Degala-Paraíso

– 0-mg – Your sister has been evicted from her apartment—again. You count this to be her eleventh eviction. This time, instead of paying her landlord rent for the last three months, your sister bought: lots of cocaine, even more molly, Burning Man tickets, plane tickets to Nevada, a 10-person tent, a persian cat, and…
Poetry from the Future: “You Will Click Here Now” by Wes Civilz

Click here now. Click this glowing button now And mute the news and pause the videos And watch the calendar expand anew With layered glitchy dummy text imposed. Now kill all calendar events (deleting Events brings all to front). Expand. Repeat. Recurring weekly thing. Click. Oops. Repeating Event goes daily now so go complete Your…
Side A Poetry: “Haint Walk” by Andreas Savvides

Haint Walk I was murdered by a mob when I was just 14.Now I do the Haint Walk. Nobody told me what I had did, even when I asked!They told me animals don’t get an explanationas the sea of cloaked arms and hoods pushed me towards the tree.It’s still hard to shake that sensation of…
Three Fictions for Flavor Town USA: Elissa Matthews

Roast Duck with Plum Sauce At two in the morning my mother phones, waking me. Insomnia, fear, and the need to talk have overwhelmed her once again. There’s pain between us—some open wounds, some badly healed ones, some jagged scars—but we both know we have only a few months left. “I’m hungry,” she says. “Make…