Excerpt: Claire Bateman
From Locals: A Collection of Prose Poems XXXI Question: What do the following inhabitants of this realm, strangers to one another, have in common? a. the scholar shredding his dissertation b. the scientist scowling at the printout of her test results c. the songwriter unable to move past the first stanza Answer: Each has neglected … Read more
Story: Emma Ramadan
Fictioned You said you’d write about me. I asked you to make me perfectly flawed like the girls in the Russian short stories you read, those girls I am always so jealous of, but I comfort myself knowing they only exist in prose. Men craft the most exquisitely fragile but also terribly sturdy female creatures. … Read more
Poem: Mercedes Lawry
Nearby The father tries to be wise but he’s too near the bend. The two daughters roll eyes and plan on cream cheese and crackers to take the edge off. They are hauling the recycle bins, a gallop of noise, down the driveway. I’m in the Hitchcock house, observing. The stellar jays are boxing on … Read more
In Place: Lori Desrosiers, Live at New England College
This episode is part of our new In Place LIVE series. We are pleased to be able to bring you live performances from some of our favorite writers. Desrosiers’s reading was part of the New England College MFA program’s 10th anniversary celebration on June 23, 2012. Please support our second season of “In Place” with … Read more
Excerpt: Mary Armstrong
From Burn Pit The Way We Measure This could be a humid jungle, but it’s Ohio, and there’s oil three thousand feet below the barns and hog pens, beneath the row of ruffled kale, the cattle yard with its electric fence. In the distance, I can see the outline of a well, its push and … Read more
Story: Joseph Pfister
Thank You For Your Patience Kyle hears his dead mother’s voice each morning on his commute to work. He petitions the MTA regularly, asking them to re-record their subway announcements using someone else’s dead mother, but they always send him the same letter, politely declining his request. Three years later, his mother’s measured, expressionless tone … Read more
Poem: Kylan Rice
Life and Death in Santa Cruz I build my instant city on struts and trestles over the ocean and people angle along the edges for young sunfish to paint the eyelids of. Their lines girt in the fog from fifty feet on the pier out to the uncut deep. The barking beneath sounds like the … Read more
Excerpt: Anthony D’Aries
From The Language of Men: A Memoir My father speaks his own language. A hillbilly twang of the Looney Tunes dialect – Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam – mixed with the African-American jive of the dirtiest comedians – Redd Foxx or Richard Pryor. His swearing is part of a well-oiled machine, except when a driver cuts … Read more
Story: Sonya Huber
One-Hitter When you tried to stop smoking pot, you couldn’t hide far enough from the reminders. And I couldn’t help bringing those loose threads into our home and conversations like I always seem to slap a sunburn, stumbling into pain as if drawn to accidental impact. I brought home a free laser pointer key chain … Read more
Lyric: Do You Like To Read by Strand of Oaks
Lyric is our new feature where we explore the lyricist as poet, allowing the words to stand apart from the music and do their own thing. Songwriting as crafted poetry is rarely given the attention it deserves, except for a few celebrated artists like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith. We think there are many … Read more
