Author: Heavy Feather

“Because Every Day Brings a New Jumble of Knives”: An Interview with Douglas Watson by Joseph Scapellato

When I read Douglas Watson’s debut story collection, The Era of Not Quite, I was awash with a rare and nourishing feeling: that what I was reading was exactly what I needed to be reading at that time exactly. Each of his stories deals a dark and witty blow. The collection is alive with a…
Together, Apart, fiction by Ben Hoffman, reviewed by Gavin Tomson

“The Great Deschmutzing,” the first story in Ben Hoffman’s chapbook collection, Together, Apart, begins with a gut-punch: “The first thing I want you to know is that none of us miss you.” The narrator, here, is speaking to her recently deceased father, in her heart and mind a failure. The same day he died, her…
Contributors’ Corner: Dan Mancilla

Welcome to “Contributors’ Corner,” where each week we open the floor to one of our contributors to the journal. This week, we hear from Dan Mancilla, whose story “Lucha Libre” appears in 3.2. Dan Mancilla’s fiction has appeared in Barrelhouse, The Chicago Tribune, Monkeybicycle, Slice, and River Styx, among other journals. You can read more about Dan…
Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow, an essay collection by Andy Sturdevanton, reviewed by Nichole L. Reber

Books about place have an almost guaranteed audience of locals who already live in that place and travelers, who may have or may eventually travel to the locale of topic. That can’t necessarily be said of Andy Sturdevant’s book about place, Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow. The 233-page collection of short pieces (called essays…
Backswing, short stories by Aaron Burch, reviewed by Jeremy Griffin

There’s this great video on YouTube of the late Kurt Vonnegut giving a lecture on story shapes. Standing before a chalkboard in a dusty brown blazer, the author graphs out some of the more common narrative arcs, the idea being that the more familiar one is with the shape of stories, the easier it is…
Contributors’ Corner: Carol Guess

Welcome to “Contributors’ Corner,” where each week we open the floor to one of our contributors to the journal. This week, we hear from Carol Guess, whose story with Kelly Magee, “With Sloth” appears in 2.2. Carol Guess is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, including Tinderbox Lawn (Rose Metal Press, 2008) and Doll Studies: Forensics…
Going Home Nowhere and Fast, fiction by Nathan Blake, reviewed by Gavin Tomson

Nathan Blake’s first, slim chapbook of stories, Going Home Nowhere and Fast, is more of a sample than a cycle. Not only does the collection offer few overarching concerns or ideas; little unifies Blake’s style, save his drive to experiment with it. And experiment he does. From “Ward” (a post-apocalypse narrative, told from the perspective…
“Friday Was the Bomb”: An Interview with Nathan Deuel

Nathan Deuel’s new book Friday Was the Bomb: Five Years in the Middle East (Dzanc Books) is a memoir about raising his young daughter in the Middle East—living in Riyadh, Istanbul, and then Beirut—while his wife, Kelly McEvers, worked throughout the region as a war correspondent and eventually NPR’s Baghdad Bureau chief. Amid the chaos…
Beside Myself, stories by Ashley Farmer, reviewed by James R. Gapinski

Ashley Farmer’s Beside Myself has plenty of surreal imagery and an accelerated pace, but the collection feels oddly calm. It’s a book about introspection rather than bombshell plot twists. The characters are constantly turning the narrative inward, and there’s a sense of nostalgic distance in many stories—the kind of clarity that comes with time. Consider…