Author: Heavy Feather

Graphic Novel Review: Ryan Werner on Jesse Jacobs’ Crawl Space

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. One time at the preschool where I work, a four-year-old asked me what “orange” means. I said it was a color, like pink or red, and she didn’t get it. So, I told her it was like a carrot or cheddar cheese or an orange itself, the…
Poetry Review: Thel Seraphim Reads Elegy Department Spring by Kay Gabriel

Begin with the cover, apparently a cropped still from the last scene of the 1971 Warhol/Morrissey movie, Women in Revolt. The movie follows the trans Warhol superstars Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling, and Holly Woodlawn, on a romp through a parodic women’s group called PIGs (Politically Involved Girls). Candy has left it all behind to become…
Poetry: “Air Canada” by Kirstin Ethridge

We could fly to Thunder Bay on a plane, kissing our palms and pressing them to the cold metal exterior before boarding, listening to the scarf-wearing flight attendant rattle off safety instructions in English and en Français. We used to joke, but now it’s true: fuck America, I’ll take my chances with the cold. Thunder…
Fiction: “The Pregnant Milessa” by Nick Kocz

The Pregnant Milessa had been awaiting the birth of her first child for nine years. Sonograms foretold a boy but, though she had vague recollections of being clumsily diddled by some guy reeking of beer, date rape drugs were prevalent and she had no knowledge of the father or the act that led to her…
Exclusive Interview: Benefit Album for Chelsea Manning Organized Thanks to Trans/Genderqueer Activist Evan Greer

The journalist, singer/songwriter, and activist has called on some of the biggest names in the music industry to support the US Army soldier and whistleblower. By Bernadette Giacomazzo Image: Chelsea Manning Instagram The name “Chelsea Manning” invokes a wide variety of reactions—people think she’s either a patriot or a traitor, a freedom fighter or a terrorist,…
Three Poems by Jessica Abughattas

Attachment (fearful-avoidant) Our half-drunk glasses of Cava by the kitchen sink. Smashing stems into the dust until my knuckles are bloodied. Opening the cupboard for more ammo. My roommate picking me up by the shards a soaked towel at my temples. Remembering the night we swallowed pills, danced a city into the living room. Singing…
Two Poems by Diego Quintero

Yankees The fall of a sound a shirt wrapped in sweat, the mouth the tooth both conjugated with spasm in flesh Sing my love, please sing the flesh made for each other inside each other. And Mom? And the house? She didn’t know of singular professions; the subtle act of bullfighting or playing out…
“The day woke with a (*)”: Xan Schwartz Reads Sheila McMullin’s daughterrarium

Sheila McMullin’s collection daughterrarium immediately piques the reader’s interest with a perfectly placed asterisk. The strange natural imagery and experimental form in “Tapering” introduce both mystery and play, two ideas that stream throughout the collection. My sister also said * we think because of our mother; (I) feared * and (I) held (I) Interrupted *: Many…
“Sometimes I tried never to think about the past. Sometimes I tried always to think about the past.”: Jackson Nieuwland Reviews This Paper Boat by Gregory Kan

We are often told that every first book is an autobiography. With This Paper Boat, Gregory Kan subverts this expectation. This book-length sequence of poems intertwines Kan’s autobiographical writing with the work of Iris Wilkinson (a New Zealand writer who published under the name Robin Hyde in the 1930s), as well as other found language.…