Author: Heavy Feather

Poetry: “Ass” by Diane DeCillis

Tremulous gibbous moons,sand dunes of the body’s terrain,I’m talking double bubble entendre—not smart ass, the know-it-all,the wiseacre—more cheek to cheek,a tango as it were, the stuff of rumba,samba, mambo—parallelyet unparalleled in synonymy. Call it: buttocks, butt, booty, behind, backside,bum, buns, bedonkadonk, arse, can, cheeks,hind-end, haunches, heinie, keister, glutes,rump, gluteus maximus (or minimus) tail feather,rear, junk-in-the-trunk,…
Everything We Don’t Know, essays by Aaron Gilbreath, reviewed by Vivian Wagner

Aaron Gilbreath’s Everything We Don’t Know is a collection of essays about growing up, coming to consciousness, and taking responsibility for one’s actions and inaction. These intimate and honest essays tell stories about mistakes Gilbreath makes and harms he inflicts, and ultimately they’re also about his slow and winding journey toward compassion and care. Not…
Poetry: “Ni Hao to You Too” by Dorothy Chan

A white man says “Ni hao” to meas I wait for my Las Vegas flight.I can’t look at him though he’s now sitting next to me with his ni hao nervesince he thinks he’s so progressivespeaking Mandarin in his hunting outfit but doesn’t he know that anyonewho’s seen a Rosetta Stone commercialor been to EPCOT…
Essay: “Binge-Watching White Feminism” by Samantha Duncan

November 9 Rory Gilmore cries tears of shock into her coffee, because so much hate exists in the world that didn’t exist before. She knows, she’s searched all of Stars Hollow, including Jess’s coat pockets. First snow is soon. A different scarf and matching hat for each day of the week. Coffee and doughnuts to…
Fiction: Daniel J. Cecil’s “The Stages of Orbit”

-1- Jonathan was drawn back by a force when the airlock opened. It was the vision of the kitchen floor, which was another opening, and another loss of air—something he wasn’t quite expecting the weight of. That day was like this one. The lack of oxygen was what he felt. When his friend returned home…
Fiction: Justin Lawrence Daugherty’s “Whatever Don’t Drown Will Always Rise”

People hear Nebraska and they think Omaha, the big city, or they think nothing at all. They don’t think about Indians crossing over from the rez in South Dakota for a drink, falling asleep in the highways, opening flesh like exposed empty pockets, begging for wounds. My neighbor told me about seventeen dead horses found…
Three Inaugural Poems by jacklyn janeksela

human morality is a distant planet, a fading star from a distance, a bomb-pop is meltingsomeone licks the drippings, but not meand not anyone i know, they swallow like pornstars, hum all the way down ona star-bangled banner, gag on poverty, the heel of bread toughenedlike skins of pigs and patriots and people, yespeople, rather…
Essay: Stacia M. Fleegal’s “How to really watch the borders”

When she won most of the votes but still lost the election, some of the students at the college where I work were devastated and some were not. I gave up hiding my mascara smudges by nine thirty in the morning because the first defiance of misogyny is I’m not here to look good for…
Fiction Review: December Cuccaro on Amanda Marbais’ A Taxonomy of Lies

Amanda Marbais weaves together metamorphic myth, science fiction, and current literary style to give us her debut chapbook, A Taxonomy of Lies. Transformation and omniscient narration are hallmarks of fairy tales, but Marbais uses both to successfully subvert expectations and tie together traditional fairy tale elements with modern malaise. Undercurrents of dissatisfaction and miscommunication run…