Author: Heavy Feather

“Surrealism and Reality”: Garrett Ashley Reads a Decade of Meg Pokrass’ Flash Fiction in First Law of Holes

My first experience with Meg Pokrass begins with First Law of Holes, a compilation of fourteen-years of flash fiction spanning six collections, plus some beautiful new work. There is a lot to unpack in Pokrass’ stories as she explores illness and care, marriage, divorce, dead spouses, childhood and nostalgia. Reading such a large collection of…
“Theatre and Science,” a Postscript Chant by Antonin Artaud, translated by Peter Valente

An exhibition of Antonin Artaud’s paintings occurred on July 4, 1947, at the Galerie Pierre in Paris. Artaud had arranged an event on the first night but it was not a success and so he prepared a second event and decided that it would only by invitation only. He prepared the text, “Theatre and Science”…
Fiction Review: “The Retro Allure of Dean Monti’s The Monosexual” by Ellen Birkett Morris

It is rare to find a book that seems to have been written just for you, but I found that in Dean Monti’s latest novel, The Monosexual. The novel is a zany romp through an unnamed time period that based on pop culture references (Sinatra, The Ed Sullivan Show, and classic jazz) and treatment of…
Original Short Story for Haunted Passages: “Everything Got Worse” by Kelli Dianne Rule

November 1, 1991. Myakka City, Florida. The earth-moving machines had long sputtered out and all the workers were eating or sleeping so I got bored and decided to run off to explore the woods behind our construction site. Tall pines and old oak trees covered the floor in dry needles and acorns and when the…
New Side A Poetry: “The Bird’s Heart Stilled by the Roar of the Inferno” by Nwodo Divine

The Bird’s Heart Stilled by the Roar of the Inferno*For Ikenna, whose father was killed in a Boko Haram terrorist attack. He used to call me his little eagle. He’d hoist me high on his shoulders. From that perch, I could see the line where the burnt sky met the thirsty land. He said an…
Fiction Review: Eleanor J. Bader Reads Sue Mell’s Collection A New Day

The thirteen intertwined short stories in Sue Mell’s A New Day are about women you know. None are extraordinary achievers or headline grabbers. Nonetheless, over the course of thirty years, 1982 to 2012, they get and lose jobs, find new lovers, live through breakups and heartache, battle life-threatening illnesses, and bring new life into the world. Set…
Side A Hybrid: “X for the Straight Edge Kids” by Glenn Shaheen

X for the Straight Edge Kids heaven In the woods we built many forts with lumber we found (oops, stole) from around the neighborhood. We’d build platforms, sometimes they’d fall. We knew not to touch Lady Slippers—they were endangered. I don’t think I ever saw a mammal in the woods that wasn’t human. We thought…
“The Bio-Mechanical Language of Universal Emancipation”: Edward J. Matthews Reads Libretto Lunaversitol by Andrew C. Wenaus & Kenji Siratori

In Libretto Lunaversitol: Notes Towards a Glottogenetic Process, a pata-mathematical writing project composed and created by Andrew C. Wenaus & Kenji Siratori, the English language is pulverized into phonetic fragments that slowly drift like stars across the night sky. The text is written in a radicalized aleatory language that does not reflect any kind of…
Thad DeVassie: Four Microfictions from The Factory of Sadness for Bad Survivalist

Bulletin Board Material The bulletin board mounted outside the conference room has dozens of thumbtacks on it. Sticky notes and a few pens are below on an empty desk. There is a prompt written in blue Sharpie along the bulletin board frame: add to the conversation! Wendy put it there about a year ago, without…