Author: Heavy Feather
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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…
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“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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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“Are We Ready to Read Cris Mazza Yet?”: Marianna Nash Reviews Cris Mazza’s Charlatan: New and Selected Stories
Many of the women Cris Mazza writes are unpleasant. That’s as it should be: Many people are unpleasant, and women are people. Mazza’s latest collection, Charlatan, showcases thirty years of work that explores, in nearly as many ways, what happens when you write women as people. More than two decades after she co-edited the Chick…
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Playing with Dynamite, a memoir by Sharon Harrigan, reviewed by Robert Young
What hooks you about Sharon Harrigan’s potent memoir Playing with Dynamite is just how true the story is. The book is reminiscent of the quest narrative: a woman going on a journey into the forgotten, suppressed, and painful parts of her past to discover more about herself. Under the surface, the memoir marinates in the…
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Fiction: An Excerpt from Visions by Troy James Weaver
That day, the first day, she didn’t believe me, and it would be another ten years before she finally would—and then only after she was dead. I knew she’d be in the kitchen. She was always in the kitchen. She was cooking grits in a small pot, and had the radio turned up, listening to…
