Author: Heavy Feather

Essay: “Proving Our Salt” by Sarah Fonseca

From the beginning, there was a lot of talk about his hands; so much that a particularly religious eavesdropper might’ve mistaken a conversation about him—transpiring during Easter, Ascension, or an average Friday train commute—for one about his antithesis, the martyred Jesus Christ. Coined by the clairvoyant writer Graydon Carter in 1989, “the short-fingered vulgarian” nickname…
Fiction: Katie M. Flynn’s “A Gift from Your Leader”

On the night of the election, I write a little satire piece about Trump involving Russian-speaking elves, hit send, and the next morning I’ve got an acceptance letter waiting in my inbox! Six weeks later, I have twelve more Twitter followers, and there’s a pair of shoes waiting for me outside my apartment door. The…
Review: Nick Sweeney on Found Audio by N.J. Campbell

N.J. Campbell’s Found Audio is the new Pandora’s Box of weird contemporary fiction. It forces the reader to grapple the very reason they are reading this slim but dense novel. It begs to be read. It questions itself. It haunts us. Most importantly, however, it makes the reader think about the very thin line between…
Essay: Erin Gunther’s “On Dancing”

I watched the two of them dancing on the table, my father sitting on the couch opposite the spectacle, looking utterly horrified. My mother was dancing with a mutual friend of my father’s, Helene. They had been drinking all night. I was only nine years old and had not often been around drunken adults. My…
Three Poems by Jess Smith

COMPLCT Long taught silence, long known loud. I’ve read we’re ripe for revolution. What’s it like (this is what it’s like) to watchthe world navel-split, umbilical and sticky with citrus? We shake hands, each as viscous as the next, each chin dribbled with what we swear we haven’t eaten, or were not finger-fed. Lipstick on…
Robert Young Review: Jac Jemc’s Novel The Grip of It

If you’re like me and are a big fan of psychological horror, you’ve been craving a book like The Grip of It. Jac Jemc’s novel is pitched as a “literary horror novel,” and it blurs many lines. As a psychological horror novel, the book blurs the line between the natural and the supernatural, what is…
Poetry: “Holiday Advisory” by Jude Marr

A Christmas candle is still a candle if you light it any other day. When the power goes out, a candle gives off enough light to let a person feel they still exist. A candle is always dangerous. Strike a match. The smallest spark is potential conflagration. A cigarette can be Christmas if you spray…
Review: Nick Sweeney on The History of the Future by Edward McPherson

I made the mistake of reading The History of the Future before I went to bed. It was a mistake not because of anything Edward McPherson said in particular, it was the mere notion of thinking of place. I thought about my hometown, of minor celebrities who went to the local high school, the nearby…
Nonfiction Review: James Ardis on Kingdom Hearts II by Alexa Ray Corriea

In the final hours of the Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts II, a bad boy named Axel sacrifices himself in the middle of an overwhelming battle. He swings his weapon and summons fire until he falls in exhaustion. As he dies next to Sora (our protagonist) with Donald Duck and Goofy not far behind, Axel…