Author: Heavy Feather

“A History of Hosts and Vectors,” poetry by Kristin Abraham

(This will not end well,they said when it began.But momentum appreciatesonly one way, so any onusthey bore was solelyin the act of throwingup their hands to lamentthe thumb of God, how ithovers over our heads.Because no man can ownhis sins when the veryworld is force majeureall the way down to itsspecks and quarks.) Our…
Unlanguage, an undead workbook novel by Michael Cisco, reviewed by Paul Dee Fecteau

I am not going to assume you’re here because you received the workbook in some innocuous way that in retrospect seems increasingly mysterious—say, a stranger handed it to you on a busy train platform or an unknown colleague stuffed it into your department mailbox. I acknowledge plenty of such stories are circulating on social media…
Poetry: Gene Goldfarb’s “they beat the last fish”

senselessfor his pride whenhe stood up to themon his iridescent finsand called their bibledirt in perfect Aramaicso they hid their shameand made him bleedlike his brethrenwhom they strangledand cut up and ate beforethey invented storieslauding themselvesas kings to the cows andsea creatures Gene Goldfarb, a Long Islander, loves writing and keeps trying it. His poems…
Elizabeth Johnston: “Trump Tweets @ Fairy Tales”

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Elizabeth Johnston’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Satirist, New Verse News, and Room Magazine, among many other magazines and collections. A teacher of writing, a feminist activist, and a co-founder of the 4-woman writing group Straw Mat Writers in Rochester, NY, she…
“Portrait of Desperation”: Paige M. Ferro on Rachel Lyon’s Novel Self-Portrait with Boy

David Foster Wallace once said, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Art in all its forms serves to disrupt. Yet, there stands a difference between the grotesque and the garish, the disturbing and the obscene, art and invasion. This is the premise to Rachel Lyon’s debut novel, Self-Portrait with Boy. The main…
“WITH EDGES THAT MOVE. A river. A crisis.”: Carrie Lorig Talks to Meredith Blankinship

In spring 2016 I interviewed Carrie Lorig about her book The Pulp vs. the Throne (Artifice Press), and her now-published chapbook The Book of Repulsive Women (Essay Press). So much has happened since then, but Lorig’s ways of thinking and writing through “poetry / voice / space / life” is still very necessary to hold…
“Playing Catch-Up”: A Conversation with Allison M. Charette on Translating Fiction from Madagascar by Rick Henry

Allison M. Charette translates literary work from the French, with a growing interest in the literature of Madagascar. Her translation of Naivo’s Beyond the Rice Fields was long-listed for the Best Translated Book Award in 2018. Among her many accomplishments: an NEA Fellowship in Literary Translation and a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant. She visited SUNY…
“Samson,” a poem comic by Corey Oglesby

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Corey Oglesby is a poet, musician, and illustrator from the Washington, D.C., area. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Hobart, Barrow Street, DIAGRAM, Beloit Poetry Journal, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, and elsewhere. Currently the Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Fugue, he earned his MFA in…
Four Poems by W. Todd Kaneko

Oh, Say Can You See I can’t see anything without my glasses, except the world’s blurred words,the moon’s glow through the window. Tonight, my son calls for his mother,and it’s me who soothes him back to sleep. Then it’s just me on the stairs outsidehis room, looking for a poem to write, something about injustice…