Author: Heavy Feather

“This World We Are Constructing”: An Interview with Alyssa Quinn by Nina Shope

Alyssa Quinn’s debut novel, Habilis, takes place in a mysterious anthropology museum that converts into a disco club at night. When Lucy, a young woman with an uncertain past, finds herself thrust into this museum, she must confront her own origins—and, all the more difficult, the origins of the human species itself. Quinn is the author of…
Side A Poetry: “California” by Dara-Lyn Shrager

California The weeping cherry trees behind our housewere once no taller than kindergarten boyscolliding plastic trucks on a carpet of EZ grass.Now, giant leaf canopies block the sun.There’s just the lone dog out there, chasingsudden whips of wind. Deep beneath my collar,I feel cold. Hungry for those half-eatenbowls of Cheerios left bloating by the kitchensink.…
Side A Hybrid: “Anecdotal Evidence” by Edie Meade

Anecdotal Evidence I. a. A man’s hand amputated at the lumberyard maintains a distal phantom structure through pins and needles continually fingerpicking “Wildwood Flower”; more research is needed into phantom limbs as a grief of the body. b. Necromancy cannot call up legs blown off in Belgian trenches, in part because there is nothing to…
“Please Consider an Upgrade,” original short fiction for Haunted Passages by Carrie Bindschadler

Dear Declan, Thank you for your recent purchase of our signature Home Seance Basic Package. This specially-curated package is our most affordable option. This package allows you to contact a single recently-deceased human being or beloved pet one time only. If you are interested in repeat spiritual visitations, you will need to upgrade to the…
Dr. No, a satirical spy novel by Percival Everett, reviewed by Adam Camiolo

Dr. No, the satirical spy novel by Percival Everett, is uncommonly funny, ridiculously smart, and has a serious score to settle. It is, in short, quite good. The book follows the misadventures of Professor Wala Kitu, a theoretical mathematician whose name is Tagalog and Swahili respectively for Nothing Nothing. Wala specializes in Nothing, an abstract…
Haunted Passages: Two Poems by Matt Wedlock

Tatterdemalion She goes to the laptop on her bed and clicks away with the mouse. It turns white, then cherry colared, then tells herself she needs to update the template. They read for a while, laugh at the link to Waheeda Rehman’s interview in 1996. In the cornerthere’s another tool the techies might send her:…
“An Angry Bull Loose in a Video Store”: Jesse Hilson Reviews Steve Gergley’s Novel Skyscraper

Anyone who has shown up for a new job at a large, intricate organization and tried to get their bearings in the workplace will be able to relate to the germ of the idea behind Steve Gergley’s new novel Skyscraper. A 23-year-old man named Dan Simmons’s would like to play video games and watch action…
Haunted Passages Short Story: “How Close Is It?” by Darlene Eliot

Night driving was easy. He knew what to do with a windy mountain pass, a straight shot through cornfields, a detour around streets too narrow for an eighteen-wheeler. He knew what to do when the moon disappeared behind checkpoints and his headlights were the only light on the road. He knew what to do when…
Side A: “Night” a poem by Brenton Booth

Night She says she has been thinking a lot about killing herself. How everything would be much easier then. She has tears in her eyes she can’t control, I know she isn’t lying. I think of our first date. Wandering around the Botanical Gardens just before it closed for the night. There was an exhibition…