Category: Side A

New Short Comic for Side A: “Young Lions” by Hal Flower

Mini-interview with Hal Flower HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as a writer (or continues to)? HF: While attending a series of screenings of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Decalogue, I came to understand that the writer’s aspiration ought to be clarity, not complexity. HFR: What are you reading? HF: Having recently finished…
New Side A Flash Fiction: “Don’t Look at the New Moon Through Glass” by Alison L. Fraser

Don’t Look at the New Moon Through Glass I put her superstitions away for later, when she had proven herself to be a ghost. Hand outstretched towards me, obscenities dripped from her fingers, her brain encased in cancer, her frontal lobe an abyss of dead matter, she told me not to leave her with that…
A “Test” for Side A: Visual Poetry by Valen Arcelo

Mini-interview with Valen Arcelo HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as a writer (or continues to)? VA: One of the turning points that has shaped me as a writer was discovering the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and the poem “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r” by E. E. Cummings. Honestly, the first time I saw these…
New Side A Poem: Nathanael Jones’ “In the Absence of Language II”

In the Absence of Language II How will we say goodbye? You watch film after film and never notice that the music stops one moment and starts the next. I don’t think about it, you say. You turn your head away. A motor car peels through the corner of a cobblestone square; it is a…
Side A Poem: “Wrong Turn” by Paula Gil-Ordoñez Gomez

Wrong Turn There’s a dead catsprawled on the side of the road. No official burial ceremonybut woodchips and straw spread by snakes with a soul.The sky will be cobalt soon now it’s peach.Is there a blueprint for melancholy? I wish I turned the cat to the palm trees.No one should have to face their killer…
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…