Category: Print Archives

The Future: “Anything Can Be a Weapon,” a collaborative short story by Dana Diehl & Melissa Goodrich (from The Classroom)

When the zombies overtook the Lakeshore School District, the Dads were the first to go. They were crossword Dads. Whiskery and near-sighted. They were dads with novelty bowties. Some say the zombies took the Dads first because they were the strongest, because the zombies were building an army and needed strong soldiers. But we know…
The Future: Four Illustrations by Selene dePackh

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Illuminated Passages 11-a Illuminated Passages 25 PTSD 2nd Restatement PTSD 3rd Restatement Selene dePackh creates innovative story lines that expand the science fiction genre of cyberpunk into an entirely new subcategory which she calls Neuropunk, which draws on her own autism to immerse the reader in a…
Poetry: Three EVP Recording Sessions by Lauren Brazeal Garza

EVP Recording Session #1: The Original Poltergeist Recalls “I moseyed to the lifeless party late, buried my shock under my skirts just like a garter. —Wait. I never moved or carried anything. No clothing in the great beyond. It’s tailored: each unpleasant underworldly task. Our assignment was forgetting all that’s physical. No body danced, I…
Poetry by Alexa Mal: “Everything You Need to Know about Cooking with Blood”

friends, it’s gotten so practical the glass thumbs our feetwarmly & we dancelike academicswith arms at the sky endlessly shifting (fidgetous)& thundered toward a national monument won’t you deconstruct my second headpull out the dead leavesthe crochet needles [sad girl petitions to be mayor of chai lattes] I’m just collecting best friends I’mstill…
“The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living; or, Selfies,” a poem by Jeff Alessandrelli

When asked what he would saveIf his house was on fireJohn Cocteau replied, “The fire.”A convicted arsonist,The work that Cocteau admiredWas of the variety that revealed itself immediatelyAnd then changed such a revealOver time.Fire’s hot, burns things.Each flame understandsAn illusory worldWhere everything isThat’s the caseAnd nothing isEver hidden.Conjecture is confusing:How the thought of what might…
“Heroes,” lyric fiction by Miranda Mellis

1. I am winding around a river in scarves. I become a fish. I am an eel with a man’s head, swimming in an ancient tributary, over gemstones. I finally grow feet, legs, arms, hands and I climb to shore. I walk, naked, and as I walk I sing. As I sing, I grow clothing,…
Essay Hybrid: “Gnome: Excerpts” by Robert Lunday

Kouroi step forward and their smiles are votive candles. How much is lived between the words? What we need to see hides in the blind spots. The more we close our eyes, the more our faces open. Contours ripple to a point of disappearance. Whites of the eyes enhance gaze signals. Eyebrows exaggerate expression. A…
Three Poems by Kim Kyung Ju (Translated by Jake Levine)

Hear the Mackerel Cry In a deep place grown flesh is filled to the brim. If you see the mackerel grill, at first, the mackerel’s lips burst. Ahhhh . . . and pop. Sprinkling from the mouth, black fictions flow freely. Like the one bullet in a thousand that weeps in the flame, the ocean…
A Poem by Rob Gray: “The Rhododendron and Camellia Year Book (1966)”

—for Richard and Frances Chiem 1 We needMore men like RichardSons, brothers, uncles andFathers like Richard We needMore women like RichardDaughters, sisters, aunts andMothers like Richard We needMore poets like RichardPoems like RichardBooks like Richard We needMore metaphors like RichardWe needMore architects like Richard To build sustainable and affordable housing like RichardBungalowsChurchesMosques Tenement buildingsSkyscrapersSynagogues andSupermarkets…