Author: Heavy Feather

Cheap Beer and Tacos and Women with Thick Hips: An Interview with Barry Graham

Barry Graham received his MFA from Rutgers University. He is the author of The National Virginity Pledge and Nothing or Next to Nothing. Graham is the editor for DOGZPLOT and publisher of Paper Hero Press. Look for him online barrygfunk.blogspot.com. HFR: Which came first: DOGZPLOT, Paper Hero Press, or the writing? Barry Graham: The writing came first, but I think all three of them were…
Review: Jason Carnahan on God’s Autobio, stories by Rolli

If God’s Autobio, by Rolli, is to be described as any singular thing, it is easily a thesis on voice. A tremendous list of characters inhabits the stories, from the pompous banal to the British Almighty, each an immediate identity which is less introduced and more splashed upon the page in a gleeful display of certainty. Characters…
“Curating,” an essay about the love poem by J. Bradley

Curating Inevitably, love fails, through break ups, divorce, or death. For most, this is incredibly hard to swallow, except for the poet who continues to write love poems. The concern from some potential partners is that they will become fodder, research, like instead of fucking them behind the stacks in some unused part of the…
Review: Matthew C. Mackey on Hotel Utopia, prose poetry by Robert Miltner

I started the trip early in the morning. I was on my way to Chicago to see an old friend of mine. I hadn’t seen her since she left last August. I’m accustomed to travel and the solitude, but not quite the emptiness of time that rests between activities. So, when the Megabus lurched forward,…
Alissa Nutting Looks Back on 2011

Looking back on 2011, here are some things I particularly enjoyed during the year: Poetry Heart First Into the Forest, Stacy Gnall (Alice James Books) Wrenching yet beautiful, at times even sweet in the most glorious, painful sense. Imagine watching, in hi-def slow motion, a future race of twelve foot tall albino supermodels engaged in…
Fiction: “Hunting,” by Meg Pokrass

The doctor told Dad he had a sub-zero temperature. He was almost always home now. My little sister laughed. Tarla laughed at most of what Dad said—but not at what he did. “That is not possible,” I said to Dad. His doctor’s appointments were twice a week. “Well, the doctor slapped my bottom and that…
Review: Cruelty, by Jonathan Podoga

Cruelty, by Jonathan Podoga, is no exception to the Splitleaves Press‘ aesthetic of making beautiful books. It’s a twenty-four page chapbook, printed on heavy paper. The cover and back are flecked and a pleasure to rub. It’s bound by thin string that reminds me of fishing wire. The cover contains a minimalist black and white photograph of a bed.…
Postmail with Chloe Caldwell

Chloe Caldwell lives in upstate New York. Her first book of essays, Legs Get Led Astray, was released by Future Tense Books in April 2012. Excerpts can be found on The Rumpus, SmallDoggies, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood. She works at a music store and writes a column called “Love & Music” for The Faster Times. She hosts the…
“Marco’s Poem”: An Interview with James Valvis by Jason Teal

James Valvis is the author of How to Say Goodbye (Aortic Books, 2011). His writing can be found in Anderbo, Arts & Letters, LA Review, Nimrod, Rattle, River Styx, and is forthcoming in Hanging Loose, Midwest Quarterly, New York Quarterly, Poetry East, storySouth, and others. His poetry has been featured at Verse Daily and the Best American Poetry website. His fiction has twice…