Author: Heavy Feather

Bad Survivalist: Five Poems by Barbara Tomash

Of Ancestors their bodies they knew primarily as instruments of noncompliance almost immortal lost among causes their hearts blacked-out hollows their lungs they pricked trillions of times they could ill afford breath the wrench of speech is that how one dies by sound by echo I repeat you endlessly in a mazy motion above ground…
Fiction Review: Nicole Yurcaba Reads New Millennium Boyz by Alex Kazemi

In the United States, 1999 was a year riddled with huge headlines. Bill Clinton’s impeachment trials began. Yugoslav security forces killed Albanians in Racak, Kosovo. Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” released, becoming the artist’s third UK #1 hit; and music began its irrevocable relationship with the internet. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold,…
Fiction Review: Elizabeth Shick Reads Jody Hobbs Hesler’s What Makes You Think You’re Supposed to Feel Better

Jody Hobbs Hesler’s debut story collection, What Makes You Think You’re Supposed to Feel Better, explores the everyday hardships of American life with a tenderness and understanding that leaves open the possibility of hope. The characters that populate the 17 stories in this collection come from all walks of life: husbands and wives. Parents and…
Bad Survivalist: “Love Poem (with Subtle Anti-Whaling Message)” by Glen Armstrong

I am writing to you with ambergrisand cream, in a style too clumsy to be a hat or even a sunburn.The world has its preferences and I have mine: you are valued.After dinner, I wonder about silence and whales,secrets and beauty that festers then ferments.I am writing to you with a synthetic ambroxide and soy…
Side A Poem: “Wrong Turn” by Paula Gil-Ordoñez Gomez

Wrong Turn There’s a dead catsprawled on the side of the road. No official burial ceremonybut woodchips and straw spread by snakes with a soul.The sky will be cobalt soon now it’s peach.Is there a blueprint for melancholy? I wish I turned the cat to the palm trees.No one should have to face their killer…
Fiction Review: Dave Fitzgerald Reads K Hank Jost’s MadStone

There are a lot of different ways of being poor, and I have tried out several. I don’t want to oversell it. I’ve never lived on the street or anything. I’ve always had a safety net—parents who love me, and wouldn’t let me fall off the map without a fight—but there were definitely years when…
A Short Comic for Side A: “The heart of a blue whale weighs 400 pounds” by Sylvia Santiago & Helena Pantsis

Mini-interview with Sylvia Santiago & Helena Pantsis HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as collaborators (or continues to)? HP: When working with people who specialize in different genres, there’s a real learning curve from both ends when it comes to anticipating how your work will be interpreted as well as how…
Fiction Review: Mary Lynn Reed on Ashley Cowger’s On the Plus Side

Life is a delicate balancing act. For every decision that must be faced, there are pros and cons to be weighed. Is that boyfriend in L.A. worth giving up a paid internship for? How much does the tally tip when you factor in his flea-ridden dog? Is buying yourself expensive bracelets for your birthday worse…
Poetry Review: Jeanne Griggs Reads Mildred Kiconco Barya’s The Animals of My Earth School

The Animals of My Earth School, by Mildred Kiconco Barya, is a collection of poems about animals, surveying a few of the characteristics that they share with people and calling our attention to what we might see if we try looking at the world from the eye level of other kinds of creatures. Barya, originally…