Author: Heavy Feather
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“We Push Up Against Change and Resist It, Sometimes Violently So”: An Interview with Peter Grandbois by Cameron Contois
I was very excited to interview author Peter Grandbois. Grandbois, who has authored six books, did not disappoint with his compelling and thought-provoking insights. His novel, The Gravedigger, was picked for the “Discover Great New Writers” program by Barnes & Noble. His hybrid memoir, The Arsenic Lobster, has also received high acclaim. More recently, Grandbois…
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The Deep Zoo, short essays by Rikki Ducornet, reviewed by Allegra Hyde
“It is the work of the writer to move beyond the simple definitions or descriptions of things,” states Rikki Ducornet in her new essay collection The Deep Zoo. To her, the unmapped world is of greater interest, as it presents an opportunity “to bring a dream to life through the alchemy of language; to move…
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“The Tension between Order and Chaos”: An Interview with Kristina Marie Darling by Shin Yu Pai
Kristina Marie Darling is the author of twenty books, which include Melancholia (An Essay) (Ravenna Press, 2012), Petrarchan (BlazeVOX Books, 2013), and Scorched Altar: Selected Poems and Stories 2007-2014 (BlazeVOX Books, 2014). Her awards include fellowships from Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, as well as…
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The Year of Perfect Happiness, stories by Becky Adnot-Haynes, reviewed by Erin Flanagan
In this collection, winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, Adnot-Haynes mines the iffy world of early adulthood, where the players are constantly looking over their shoulders, about to be found out as imposters. The things they’re supposed to want—babies, mortgages, and stable, healthy relationships—aren’t what they really want at all, and…
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Poetry Review: AK Afferez on Paper, Cotton, Leather by Jenny Sadre-Orafai
Consider this: happy endings, when they do happen, are usually found near the end of the story. We are left to imagine a world of pure unadulterated bliss following marriage and the trials that led to it. Obviously this trend is being subverted by writers and artists who, increasingly, want to look at the aftermath…
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The Luminol Reels, fiction by Laura Ellen Joyce, reviewed by James R. Gapinski
The stories in Laura Ellen Joyce’s The Luminol Reels read like a series of inverse flashbulbs. There’s encroaching dark matter on every page, clouding the reader’s headspace with snapshots of autopsy, incest, coat hangers, and blood splatters. Make sure you’re up for it. This book ain’t for hemophobes. Joyce’s collection has moments of light, so…
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Fiction Review: Sam Slaughter on In the Season of Blood & Gold, a novel by Taylor Brown
Even though it hasn’t happened yet, you get a sense after reading In the Season of Blood & Gold that Taylor Brown has seen the end of the world and when he saw the end of the world, he wrote down everything that happened. In his debut story collection, the Montana Prize for Fiction-winning author…
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Poetry Review: BJ Love on The Three Einsteins by Sarah Galvin
The best jokes are linear. This happens and then this happens and then punch line. They work because they feel inevitable. Of course the chicken crossed the road because he wanted to get to the other side. Of course cheese that isn’t yours is called nacho cheese. Of course the old man upon hearing his…
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Fiction Review: Louise Henrich on We Were Flying to Chicago, short stories by Kevin Clouther
We Were Flying to Chicago explores the weariness of life when you don’t become who you expected to be, and the loneliness of trying to connect to others in that existence. This collection has two very different types of stories. The titular story, “Open House,” and “I Know Who You Are” are propelled by their…
Heavy Feather Review 