Author: Heavy Feather
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“Risking Chaos”: Marcus Pactor Chats with David Leo Rice, Author of The New House
David Leo Rice writes singularly weird fiction about the experiences of artists and drifters wandering hallucinatory landscapes. His latest novel, The New House, is a kunstlerroman focused on a child named Jakob, who trains to be an artist in a town of sentient dolls, blood clots who are sisters and lovers and advisors, and men…
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Weeping in the Tropical Moonlight Because Nobody’s Told Her, a poetry book by Fox Henry Frazier, reviewed by Hillary Leftwich
each new world I’d built within you wrecked, each flower wilting & infectedYou’re being protected Fox Henry Frazier’s poetry collection, Weeping in the Tropical Moonlit Night Because Nobody’s Told Her, fulfills its title’s expectations with a dreamy, surreal quality I’ve been craving in the world of poetry to come into existence. With subtle waves of images…
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The Future: “HolyLand, USA,” a short story by Ron Burch
We’re having trouble getting the Red Sea to part, and my boss is flipping out. It’s our highlight and finale. Written about across the country. Our most expensive exhibit, oh yeah. Through an expanse of dirt, our Pilgrims approach the ride, an outside body of water. The water’s resting on the surface, and it looks…
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The New Existence, a novel by Michael Collins, reviewed by Vincent James Perrone
Americans in their cars. Even in cities blessed with workable public transit, the car remains ubiquitous in the image of America. The highway sprawls, the careening suburban neighborhoods, the gridded urban avenues. And in our cars, we become singular, lone pod-people encapsulated and resolute in our isolation, only likely to make contact with others through…
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New Prose Poem “Biscuits”: Sean Thomas Dougherty for Side A
Biscuits Sometimes when I look at the sky I see the clouds become figures seated at a big table. Look, my mother-in-law says, those clouds look like the Last Supper. But it is more like the last brunch, on any Sunday not Mother’s Day, at the Polish Falcons social club, and all the Bushas gossiping…
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“Elle Nash’s Gag Reflex: An (All Too) Human Response to a Nietzschean Sickness,” a review by Charlene Elsby
The first time I saw Elle Nash actually in motion (as opposed to in the static images on social media), she was a presenter on a panel with Kerry St. Laurent, B.R. Yeager, and Burial Grid, hosted by Gallery A3 (on Zoom). The discussion was good, and they covered many significant things about interdisciplinary collaborations…
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The Observant, Ravi Mangla’s second novel, reviewed by Shannon Nakai
In his second novel, The Observant, Ravi Mangla takes us into the trappings—both literally and figuratively—of a world fueled by luxury and power, but stripped of real agency. While filming in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, moderately reputed documentary filmmaker Vasant Rai is kidnapped and held captive in a stark prison on erroneous, underexplained charges…
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Megan Merchant & Luke Johnson Lyric Epistolary Collaboration for Side A
What do we do when the black hole comes,—to L my son asks before the hours lighten. I know so much of this lifeis unreal, but yesterday I cut my lip and flooded my mouth with blood. I read about parents that chew food then mama-birdit into their babies’ mouths so they won’t choke. Haven’t…
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New Flavor Town USA Fiction by Tyler Dillow: “Cherry Rum Flavor”
Deep red cherries in a bowl—I pit them, half them, soak them in rum. These are for later. Small treats take time. Even if only a little. When I make this, I think of countries stuck. Held in time. Always remembered for what they were and this is fine. Pour the cherry-infused rum over a…
Heavy Feather Review 