Author: Heavy Feather
-
“The Bread of Life,” a new short story by Katherine Plumhoff
You start by thanking your lovers. You acknowledge the lessons they taught you, spreading gratitude over your history like dry rub over a roast. You thank Carlos, who taught you how to be positive in the face of something frustrating, i.e. having to pay for three places of accommodation—room in Valencia, rental house in Greece,…
-
“Hills, Valleys, Bluffs, Rivers, Streams, Steep Ravines”: An Interview with Keith Pilapil Lesmeister by Giano Cromely
When a friend sent me a copy of Keith Pilapil Lesmeister’s chapbook, Mississippi River Museum, along with the message that she thought it might be up my alley, I didn’t know what to expect. It’s hard to be aware of one’s own literary alleys, or at least what others perceive those alleys to be, so…
-
“Centers of Gravity in Chloe N. Clark’s Short Story Collection Patterns of Orbit”: A Book Review by Patrick Thomas Henry
In a letter frequently quoted in craft essays and books on the art of fiction, Anton Chekhov wrote that writers of short fiction should “[l]et two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she.” Underlying this assertion is the prime directive that Chekhov issues to writers: in the private solar system…
-
Flavor Town USA Nonfiction: “Little Bird Tongues” by Richie Zaborowske
The preparation of the ortolan bunting songbird is steeped in booze, gruesome tradition, and taboo. The tiny birds are captured alive and forced into blackout cages filled with grain. Similar to a clandestine midnight kitchen gorging, the lack of light disorients the birds and they feed until they nearly double in size. The overstuffed birds…
-
“In the White American Light”: Amy K. Bell Reviews Barbara Tomash’s Poetry Collection Her Scant State
In her newest book, Her Scant State, poet and visual artist Barbara Tomash presents an erasure of Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady which, through its inventive formal procedure, illuminates asyntactical, nonlinear, almost stray activations by which we gain meaning. Tomash lifts the voices, ideas, and violences which animated James’ 1881 novel in order…
-
Haunted Passages: “Pursued by a Line of Three Ducks,” a poem by Gregory Crosby
One day, you will have no choice but to walk,the punctured tire of these times behind youon a road brimming with sunlight & dust. The clarity of movement, followed byexhaustion. The clarity of exhaustion.Your feet hurt, & you can’t hear the river. The only question is whether you area refugee or a tourist. Or dead.They…
-
Buffalo Girl, a new poetry collection by Jessica Q. Stark, reviewed by Raye Hendrix
Jessica Q. Stark’s newest collection of poems, Buffalo Girl, is a fairytale—but not the kind that makes you feel good in the end. That isn’t to say this collection is not wonderful (it is) but Stark’s pseudo-mythological reckoning with violence, racism, motherhood, and questions of home aren’t meant to comfort. These are not the fables…
-
The Salt Line, a 2014 novel by Youval Shimoni, reviewed by Yaron Peleg
Youval Shimoni’s 2014 novel, The Salt Line, presents us with an intriguing literary paradox: a story about myths that questions the search for meaningful stories, and an epic novel written in a postmodern age of perishable texts and shortening attention span. Two myths stand at the center of the novel, one fabricated the other implied.…
-
“On Unholy Melodies”: Bunkong Tuon Remembers the Poet Ted Jonathan
Goddammit, Ted. You’re gone. And you left us with an unfinished manuscript. NYQ editor Raymond Hammond and poet Tony Gloeggler put together a fine collection in your memory, Unholy Melodies: New and Collected, which includes your three previously published books and the final manuscript, the titular Unholy Melodies. They did an honorable job. NYQ Books…
Heavy Feather Review 