Author: Heavy Feather

The Kirschbaum Lectures, a new novel by Seth Rogoff, reviewed by Jacob M. Appel

Who is Sy Kirschbaum? Is he a “neurotic anarchist” rebelling against society’s total systems of control as his analyst at Vermont’s Mountain View Clinic claims? Or is he a literary-translator-turned-mystical-gumshoe on a tortuous pursuit of purloined manuscripts and exegetic enigmas across Mitteleuropa from Weimar Berlin to post-Velvet Prague? And on which side of that diaphanous…
Haunted Passages Poetry: “Disrupted” by Ansley Clark

That is not a windowbut a circle cut in concrete the desire to consume smoldering like an expensive holidaywhat I have been for a long time becomes real as I walk through glass and metal landscapes the taste of badness in my throat several bags filled with receipts to avoid the building’s shadows which…
“Talk Show Host,” a new hybrid piece for Side A by Chris McCreary

Talk Show Host bombs his monologue. Checks his notes, blinks meaningfully into camera two. Talk Show Host throws his desk out the window. It hits the trampoline, bounces back onto his lap. Talk Show Host puts on his therapist’s cap, but the guests have removed their mics their mouths faces & eyes they’ve receded behind…
“Secret Rewards” Craft Essay: Jolene McIlwain on Writing PTSD in Fiction

You don’t want to think it’s your heart. You want to think it’s a pulled muscle, pinched nerve, or bad posture because you’ve always forgotten and slouched. But you agree to the stress test because if it is your heart, this is an early find. You’re only forty-seven. There’s time to repair. It’s been happening…
“Ashenfolk”: William Lessard Interviews Joseph Mosconi + 6 Exclusive Poems

Joseph Mosconi is a writer, editor, and curator based in Los Angeles. A former Google computational linguist, he is the executive director of the Poetic Research Bureau (PRB), a hybrid arts space that hosts weekly readings, performances, and films by today’s most progressive poets and artists. Mosconi is also a co-founder and programmer at 2220…
Fiction Review: Dave Fitzgerald Reads Agustin Maes’ Newborn

“It’s about a dead baby.” This is what author Agustin Maes will reliably answer if you ask him about his book Newborn. Soft-spoken, and humble nearly to the point of bashfulness (this despite being a runner-up for the Paris Literary Prize his first time out the gate), he doesn’t always seem to grasp the weight…
Foundations, a new novel by Abigail Stewart, reviewed by Hayli May Cox

In three dazzling parts, Abigail Stewart’s Foundations follows a trio of women across time, all of them connected by a single Dallas house. Bunny is a housewife who longs for genuine connection and friendship outside of the oppressive suburban life she’s found herself moored to. Jessica is an actress fleeing LA to find something else,…
Side A Material Collaboration: “Sleep Takes More and More of Us” by Philip Lindsey & Matt McBride

Sleep Takes More and More of Us Mini-interview with Philip Lindsey & Matt McBride HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as collaborators (or continues to)? PL: Matt and I met in my studio one evening over a couple of beers to talk about ideas, art, and a way into the project.…
Poetry: “Ode to Broken Birthdays and an Empty High Noon Can” by Samantha Cross

I don’t know if it was the combined birthday partiesWith the Daytona 500 for Alex and me as children,Or being told to shut up when I playedMy saxophone that fateful night in sixth grade.Maybe it was the standardized testing that took placeThe first week of March in Connecticut,Where the governorFailed to recognize the importanceOf in-class…