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"The Storm" by Jennifer Flynn - © 2008
<- FROM THE EDITOR -> John Bowers: A versatile writer through the decades
by Derek Alger
"Yes, Bowers was a country boy, but he developed into quite a versatile writer, publishing non-fiction books, celebrity profiles, novels, a Civil War book, Chickamauga and Chattanooga: The Battles that Doomed the Confederacy, and even a highly readable biography of General Stonewall Jackson. Still going strong at the age of 81, Bowers has a novel, Love in Tennessee, which was released this month to come out from Red Hen Press."
<- ONE ON ONE -> Lance Olsen
interviewed by Derek Alger
"Realize, along with T. S. Eliot, that only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. Reach out and support other writers. Understand this writing thing isn't a competition; all of us can win all the time. Think of yourself as part of a conversation about the big stuff of life and narrative that extends across time and space, and ask yourself where your voice fits in, how you can help other voices be heard. And if you plan to write for fame or fortune, do something else . . . immediately."
Julie Kane
interviewed by Derek Alger
"...Diane Ackerman took two of my poems for Epoch when she was the poetry editor -- I was an undergrad and she was in the PhD program, so I was thrilled beyond belief that she considered me a "real poet." T. Coraghessen Boyle, Marilyn Hacker, and Sandra Gilbert all had work in that Winter 1974 issue of Epoch. Maybe I'll be able to sell my copy on eBay to fund my retirement."
<- ESSAY -> Honeymooners Marathon
by Steve Heller
“Can you hear me, Mom?”
She stares straight back into my eyes, but I can tell her gaze has turned inward now. She might be dreaming once again, as her chest rises with the effort of another shallow breath.
As I wait for her head to nod or simply tilt forward beneath the blue bandana, enclosed in the merciful respite of sleep, words well up inside me...
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<- POETRY -> The Last Ballet Class Before the Operation
by Shaindel Beers
Sticky-Shed Syndrome
by David Peak
Runes
by Anthony Madrid
<- MACRO-FICTION -> The Way It Isn't
by Walter Cummins
...He remembered his silences...unable to stop thinking of Valerie...He hadn’t encouraged Valerie to leave Les but did nothing to change her mind, wanting her free even though he wasn’t. And when she was, Lydia was the one who asked him to go, telling him she couldn’t live with a man who ignored her.
The Tea Party
by Carolyn Foster Segal
I really did believe that I loved the boy with the cheekbones, although looking back, it's clear how much lust played a part.
"Do you have a husband?" Mel asks. He doesn't say, as anyone else would, "Are you married?" He makes having a husband sound like owning a pet.
<- MICRO-FICTION -> North of Center
by Mimi Vaquer
We woke to her bedroom door bending with the force of his boot. He drank booze, Paulette said. The word puddled out of her lips and sounded both grown up and baby at the same time. The cow says moo. The Daddy says booze. He kicked the door harder,...
<- BOOK LOVERS -> The Death of Bunny Munro
By Nick Cave
reviewed by Mark Mordue
"The Death of Bunny Munro should carry an EXPLICIT warning too, but the provocative cover art may similarly protect readers from being too surprised. Ironically, it’s the depth – not the in-your-face shallowness – of the book that is the real jack in the box."
The Other
Poetry by Robert Dana
reviewed by Richard Holinger
"The present volume celebrates Dana’s age—in all its meanings—with simple reminiscences delivered with gravity and grace, the poems’ speakers conversationally guiding us through recollections when on the beach, in the mountains, abroad in Europe and, his favorite setting, around his Iowa home...."
<- GUEST COLUMN -> Jayne Anne Phillips Rocks: A Reader’s Retrospective
by Debra Monroe
The daughters Jayne Anne Phillips described were raised by unhappy housewives, but the mass media, and legions of women a few years older who’d marched in the streets, told these daughters they didn’t have to be unhappy housewives. This was my generation. Yet finding our own way, postponing marriage and children as we set our sights on personal goals, was a new plan;...
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