Navigation Song
I, too, am a bit Obsessed
with my own wind-tossed turning Continue reading Navigation Song
I, too, am a bit Obsessed
with my own wind-tossed turning Continue reading Navigation Song
I am all unstruck flint &
lost potential. Continue reading Symptoms of Manhood
My tongue swam like leaves in hot tea,
the silence burning at my mouth. Continue reading Four Poems
Despite my wish that I be called Nathaniel, Stephanie has always insisted on calling me Nate. I don’t want to suggest that she is always so contrary, and I do find it endearing now, though it took time. She has a contrarian streak in her that shines through more often than I have been consistently comfortable with, yet I completed much of my PhD thanks … Continue reading The Edge of Something
Each night David’s wife said, “I’ll just help him down.” But when David entered the room an hour later, the crib was always empty. Mother and child lay in bed, asleep in a way he himself never slept. Light from the small lamp, transmuted by canary-painted walls, cast the bedroom in parchment tones. It’s like a new world, he thought, like seeing land from the … Continue reading The Commuter’s Dream
Petaki Road was as far from town as a person could get without leaving: six miles of blacktop running parallel to the county line, hemmed in by corn and soy fields to the east and a sheer cliff face to the west. Road crews and snowplows rarely visited. As soon as inmates were released from Wannehsookah Penitentiary they found shelter on Petaki Road, or they … Continue reading Petaki Road
My father was a monster hunter. He believed in chimeras and yetis. When he looked into the ocean, he saw shadows lurking beneath it. Mother Nature didn’t like being bothered by humans, and she always had a full stock of ammunition to keep them out. It was his job to expose her armies so that children wouldn’t be swallowed by serpents. The monster he … Continue reading Deep Dreams
Schmuhl takes her readers on a journey to a place where nothing is fixed and challenges readers to look inward Elizabeth Schmuhl’s debut collection, Premonitions, is a collection of complex yet simple pieces in motion inviting readers on a journey through life. This collection of 59 poems first stands out with how they are organized: none of the poems in Premonitions are titled. Instead, they … Continue reading Review of Premonitions by Elizabeth Schmuhl
Sixteen strange stories explore the human need for connection. The Loneliness Café is a collection of sixteen short stories that sit together within the pages like a family—all of them share some similarities that make the pages flow, but each is clear and distinct from the rest. Throughout the collection, from “Eddie and Larry and Phil,” a story about a man forming a bond between … Continue reading Review of The Loneliness Cafe by Richard Dokey
Late—or early, depending on how you saw it—under the close stars, through the uncut grass, amid the pulse of crickets and drone of frogs, we led our fathers downhill to drown them. Continue reading At Echo Mire
ART: The Oil Paintings of Emilie Mae FICTION: “Strange Beast” by Eric Notaro “A Forensic Reading of Images” by Kelcey Edwards “At Echo Mire” by Aaron Hull “Transubstantiation” by Kathleen McNamara NONFICTION: “Story of the Ghost” by Gray Hilmerson POETRY: Four Poems by Patricia Caspers Two Poems by Sean Thomas Dougherty “wood-voice, I must pass on” by Eleanor Gray “Some Flowers” by … Continue reading Fall 2018
Every time I plant the perennials —
daffodils, tulips, tiger lilies, hollyhocks —
I’m leaving a part of me immortal… Continue reading This Is Why I Plant Perennials
They sit on the curb just past the customs booth: three dudes staring into the distance, faces hangdog, eyes vacant. Dreadlocks flow down their backs and rest limp on the sidewalk beside their bodies, looking like unearthed roots withering for lack of soil. Above them, the flags of two nations whip in a stiff breeze, while twenty yards off loom the struts and cables … Continue reading Story of the Ghost