Author: Heavy Feather

  • Poetry: “VW Ramblings” by Kat Cameron

    Poetry: “VW Ramblings” by Kat Cameron

    Found poem on a VW bus Check ego. Pay attention.I’m diagonally parked in a parallel universe. Where are we going? Jerome, Arizona.Grow your own dope. I need the money.No guts, no glory. Go for it. It’s the scenic route. Why am I in this handbasket?Don’t make me release the flying monkeys.Bring back the wolf. Plant…

  • “Eye of the Other,” an essay about Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers by Toti O’Brien

    “Eye of the Other,” an essay about Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers by Toti O’Brien

    Five years after its publication I have read Rachel Kushner’s second novel, The Flamethrowers1. My intention isn’t to comment on the book—excellent reviewers have done it—but to share my reflections about a small section, a fragment that I find remarkably strange and worthy of attention. It begins on page 317 to culminate on 320. Seen…

  • “Race Day,” an essay by Freda Epum

    “Race Day,” an essay by Freda Epum

    You board a bus and it seems as though there is a sea of Black people. If it weren’t for the fact that your skin is brown, your hair is curly, your eyes are black and almond, and you’ve got a nice ass (or so you’ve been told), you’d think there were no Black people in…

  • ActivAmerica, a story collection by Meagan Cass, reviewed by Ryan Werner

    ActivAmerica, a story collection by Meagan Cass, reviewed by Ryan Werner

    I’m a bad loser and an even worse winner. My wife won’t go mini-golfing with me. I’ve slammed bar stools against pinball machines. I’ve rage-quit every video game after two weeks of playing and then never looked back. It’s with this attitude I approach sports stories. Somebody’s going home a fucking loser, which is a…

  • Poetry: “Swallowed Whole” by Christopher Latin

    Poetry: “Swallowed Whole” by Christopher Latin

    even my god/  can be colonized even my body/  is a preexisting condition but what/ of love/  do we have to be ashamed —from a version of “Crimson Ring,” a poem for Sasha Wall   screaming         is the best way to not be silent             mouthful          seizure of want night’s long teeth                     sweetheart      …

  • Unbroken, an incredibly true WWII story by Laura Hillenbrand, reviewed by Samantha Seto

    Unbroken, an incredibly true WWII story by Laura Hillenbrand, reviewed by Samantha Seto

    Laura Hillenbrand’s story is a narrative history that reflects the American experience during World War II and the cruelty of the Japanese. While the body counts mount in the middle east in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq in a military tally, the war is wrenching, tragic, and poignant as it quietly proceeds. Every day more…

  • “More Than This,” a poem by Tim Carrier

    “More Than This,” a poem by Tim Carrier

    Yes, I liked it when we had abundance. Liked its love. Like we were sitting up on the roof rolling thin white cigarettes, with a pale tobacco, very light on the fine white paper. Ryan climbing up to the long flat roof with a bag of Fritos. Karen in her faux-hide boots, with shining gold…

  • Lessons in Camouflage, a poetry collection by Martin Ott, reviewed by Micah Zevin

    Lessons in Camouflage, a poetry collection by Martin Ott, reviewed by Micah Zevin

    Can we ever leave war behind and not remember its images, its roles, and deaths, or will it forever follow us? What goes missing and what will ever be recovered? When we exit the battlefield, there are other fights to be fought, whether of the mind or the body, or other seemingly mundane life tasks…