Author: Heavy Feather

“Coming of Age Glacially”: A Review of Jerry Gabriel’s Drowned Boy by Robert Boucheron

Jerry Gabriel quickly sets the scene in his first book of stories, linked by place and characters. In “Boys Industrial School,” the third sentence reads: “Beyond Nate and Donnie Holland there was just the desolate November woods and the endless hills and Milford Run meandering next to the road among the thickets.” The entire book…
“Less Pom-Pom, More Circumstance”: William Henderson Reviews Dare Me by Megan Abbott

Cheerleading and friendship, in sixteen-year-old Addy Hanlon’s world—brilliantly created by Edgar Award-winning Megan Abbott in the just-out Dare Me—vie for Most Competitive Sport in the weeks leading up to the big game, where a scout may just help the varsity cheerleading squad get a shot at regionals. What you’ve heard about cheerleaders, and what you’ve…
“Strange Bravery I Pay the Gods For,” a poem by Sarah Bartlett

We close our eyesso we don’t have to seeeach other. I drive my carthis way and die three timesa week. I keep coming back—life is relentless in its lesson.I drive my car past your housewith my eyes closed and arrive inAtlantic City. I play the penny slotsand stare at Cleopatra.I drop coins in her asp’smouth…
“KISS Scared the Living Shit Out of Me Back When I Was a Little Kid—or, More Precisely, It Was Gene Simmons”: An Interview with Joshua Kornreich by Jason Teal

Joshua Kornreich’s characters are oftentimes detectives of the familiar, deconstructing what once passed for the reader’s everyday, in processes just as equally regimented or overlooked. With The Boy Who Killed Caterpillars Kornreich delivers a mystery unlike any other, in his positioning of sentences outside of the traditional paragraph structure. This gives weight not only to the…
“Just in Case There Are Any Odd Little Paste-eating Girls Reading This, I’d Like to Give Them Some Small Ray of Hope”: An Interview with Julie Innis by Robert Vaughan

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Julie Innis now lives in New York. Her stories and essays have appeared in Post Road, Pindeldyboz, Gargoyle, and The Long Story, among others. She holds a Master’s in English Literature from Ohio University and is currently on staff at One Story as a reader. She is the author of Three…
“Needing It, Getting It, Not Being Satisfied by It, Trying to Learn to Live Without It”: An Interview with Brad Sucks by Jason Teal

Brad Sucks is a musician from Ottawa, Ontario. His back catalog boasts two full-length albums, I Don’t Know What I’m Doing (2003) and Out of It (2008), and he is hard at work mixing a third, Guess Who’s a Mess. Brad is noted not only for his catchy hooks, but also for his employment of open-source music…
“I Can Barely Interrupt a Telemarketer”: An Interview with Chelsea Martin by Kim Stoll

Chelsea Martin “studied” art and writing at California College of the Arts (though she holds no degree because she owes $300 in tuition). Both her first book, Everything Was Fine Until Whatever, and her second, The Really Funny Thing about Apathy, continue to be huge sources of stress, particularly when someone asks her what her…
“If I Were to Write a Book About Tibet”: An Interview with Dinty W. Moore by Nathan Floom

Dinty W. Moore is a professor and director of creative writing at Ohio University and is regularly invited to speak and teach in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to publishing fiction and nonfiction, he has published two books on the art and craft of writing. He has been published in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, Arts…
“The Internet Is Where It’s At”: An Interview with Carson Mell by Joe Martin

Carson Mell is a writer/filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. His work embraces many mediums, from music videos to Sundance-screened short films, to his two novels Saguaro and The Blue Bourbon Orchestra. With an original voice oozing both cool and humorous, Mell’s work has brought to life unique characters such as a contemplative inter-dimensional traveler, an introspective writer with hotel…