Category: Side A

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…
New Side A Flash Fiction: “Whereupon” by Jon Doughboy

Whereupon because I’ve always wanted to start a story with the word whereupon will arrive the story: let’s say it’s about a man and a woman and the man likes to sing, is compelled to sing because hearing his voice echoing in the world tells him he’s alive, little ditties of off-key affirmation resounding in…
New Side A Fiction: “Her Fight” by Andrea Marcusa

Her Fight After she got the news, Emily went home, sank into bed, and tried to figure out where all her fight had gone. Some of it went toward her super, Sal, of course, the corrupt, bribe-taking, slime ball. The one with the ski house upstate. Emily remembers confronting him in her flooded apartment, after her…
New Side A Flash Fiction: “I Want to Live in Your Old Lady” by Christina D’Antoni

I Want to Live in Your Old Lady I want to live in your old lady, I messaged the woman on Airbnb. I hoped my phrasing might catch her attention amidst the booking requests, evoke a certain voluptuousness for life. A deep, deep need to stay in this very trailer on the beach. From the…
New Side A Poem: “In Praise of Point Break in 15 Parts” by Drevlow

In Praise of Point Break in 15 Parts 1. Gary Busey says, Surf’s up, ace.Says, Welcome to SeaWorld, kid.Says, Just act stoned and ask questions.Gary Busey has been a cop in LA for twenty-two years.And in those twenty-two years, two big things have changed.The air got dirty and the sex got clean, he says.Drum roll…
New Poetry for Side A: “Is Gone/Are Back” by Maria Fischer

Is Gone/Are Back Credit reports Are gone. Calorie counting Is gone. The addictions counselor Is gone. The scrip for clomipramine Is gone. Poor cell phone reception Is gone. Flying commercial Is gone. Spoilers Are gone. Capitalism Is gone. Jellyfish Are back. And not the crafted kind, crocheted out of discarded plastic bags, extensions left behind…
“What the body will say when you’re dead”: A New Side A Poem by Jeff King

What the body will say when you’re dead He swallowed pills abilify aristada atenolol benzodiazepine buspar chantix divalproex sodium lithium paxil warfarin zoloft zyprexa for thoughts that didn’t make sense for fixing a body He lived smoking a cigarette on the porch in the street in a portrait with ferns a portrait of placid water …
“Story”: Side A Prose Poetry by Wendy Taylor Carlisle

Story I say I don’t want to tell my story but it’s all I want to talk about. The husbands, lovers, one-night-stands, the sweet weekend-artists, I have to rehash them, have to describe that room in Antwerp that looked out on the Zoo—red walls and an hourly rate, across the place from where the railway…
Original Side A Short Story: “Fresh Start” by Jane Snyder

Fresh Start When the car broke down, Doug said it was the fan belt. It wasn’t a bad place to be, if it had to happen, close to a plasma center and a Union Gospel Mission. We’ll give plasma now, he said, then we’ll go to the Mission. Dakota asked why, if we’re getting…