Swetha Amit: Take us back to the beginning of your book How to Get There from Here. Where did the first spark come from, and how did the project evolve from that initial idea? Beth Sherman: I was going to write about a fractured family and had 32 stories written....
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Review of Samuel Delaney’s NOVA by David McNicholas
Notes on Samuel Delany's Nova 1968 – 2026. Earth. Nova is a world confident with mystery. Its queerness is embodied in literal one-shoe-on-one-shoe-off space pirates and the neuro-congruent defect shared by several main characters. The text is...
Surprised by the Deliciousness of Air: A Second Person Review of Réka Nyitrai’s Conjoined Works Split Split and Game of Little Deaths by Jonathan Cardew
You think there’s something almost kinky about Nyitrai’s two works in one, a book you have to physically flip if you want to read the other. Two works lying in bed together, toe to nose. The middle of the book, a sort of portal, contains the following...
Swetha Amit interviews Preeti Vangani about Fifty Mothers (River River Books, 2026), her new poetry collection
SA: Your book begins with an image of your mother's handwritten diary, showing her name change after marriage. What were your thoughts about including that image? PV: The idea of adding the image came much later, after some poems had been written. One of my...
Review of The Boat With a Girl’s Heart by Neil de la Flor by Jonathan Cardew
In the preface to The Boat with a Girl’s Heart, Neil de la Flor offers a candid account of his process and motivation, framing the book as an homage to his late friend and collaborator, Maureen Seaton. De la Flor explains that he drew from their collaborative...
Review of Burnside Soleil’s Berceuse Parish by Francois Bereaud
The epigraph of this remarkable collection (whose title I’ve shortened for obvious reason) reads: “Enterrez-moi là où mon père est enterré.” (Bury me there where my father is buried) which we are told is a line from an Acadian ballad. It’s also the perfect...
Swetha Amit interviews Josh Dale about Rage, his new chapbook of flash gems
SA: RAGE is a compelling collection of flash stories that explore themes of death, loss, and brokenness. What inspired this collection? JD: RAGE began as a few stories set in a suburbanized rural setting, where the characters are doing their thing. Some are on drugs....
Review of Kristina Ten’s Tell Me Yours I’ll Tell You Mine by Francois Bereaud
A few years ago, I went to the Pinball Museum in Asheville, North Carolina. The price of admission got me unlimited play on over 100 machines with themes across the years of my youth. The 3D aspect of pinball, the flashing lights, the sound of the silver balls...
Swetha Amit interviews Francine Witte about Some Distant Pin of Light (Cervena Barva Press)
SA: Some Distant Pin of Light is a beautiful collection of poems that captures fleeting moments, heartbreak, and longing. What inspired this collection? How long did it take you to put it together? FW: These are poems I wrote over the past five years or so. I have...
Review of Skylighting by Charles Hansmann by Britta Stromeyer
Poetic Exploration of Grief: Charles Hansmann's Skylighting “I feel countless lesions scarring inside me, internal marks to mock my survival.,” writes Charles Hansmann in the opening pages of his short novel Skylighting—an introspective and lyrical...
Review of Brendan Gillen’s Hang Time by Francois Bereaud
As it turns out, there is a wrong way to fire a machine gun. We watch sports for lots of reasons. One of them is to find out what happens next. In any game or event, there’s always the possibility of seeing, hearing, or sensing something for the first time, whether...
Maia Cardew interview with Cactus Club owner, Kelsey Kaufmann
Recently, I had the pleasure to discuss one of my favorite Milwaukee venues with none other than owner Kelsey Kauffman. Cactus Club has been a pillar of the Milwaukee community for over a century, beginning as an Italian Anarchist book club in the early 1900s. Today,...
Review of Kristin Tenor’s This is How They Mourn by Jonathan Cardew
On Loss and Losing: A Review of Kristin Tenor’s This is How They Mourn (Thirty West Press) When I received Kristin Tenor’s book for review, I was headed to England to take care of my dad. He was dying of cancer, and I was there to help him along. I didn’t get to the...
Maia Cardew’s October Playlist
Some gently upbeat sounds to keep you going this fall, every other band local to Wisconsin... Track 1: Debora, "Diet Lite" Track 2: Veruca Salt, "Get Back" Track 3: Social Cig, "Yellow Weekends" Track 4: Elliott Smith, "Waltz No. 2 (XO)" Track 5: Yolk, "Lemonade...
Interview with Patricia Q. Bidar about her forthcoming book, Pardon Me for Moonwalking
Swetha Amit: Pardon me for Moonwalking is a collection of bittersweet stories about human connections, love, loss, and isolation. What inspired this collection? How long did it take you to assemble it? Patricia Bidar: Some of these stories began as fragments of...
Review of Kiik Araki- Kawaguchi’s Disintegration Made Plain and Easy by Yetta Stein
In the penultimate poem of Disintegration Made Plain and Easy — the recently published collection crafted by Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi — we are running “naked thrashing and failing / Through a storm of yellowjackets”. Or, not we, but the poem’s speaker. We don’t...
Review of Percival Everett’s The Trees by David John Baer McNicholas
Humor, venom, and wit play in an absurd sandbox much like our own world, in Percival Everett's recent 2021 novel, The Trees. With bracing satire and fearless reflection, the story starts in Money, Mississippi, where the descendants of the murderers of Emmett...
Review of Massive Attack’s June 5th performance at Manchester’s Co-op Live by Maia Cardew
Sarajevo Bosnia 1992. The Realness Ball NYC. Trump’s AI Gaza. #BlueAvianMessage. Purchasing tickets for Massive Attack’s Co-op Live Manchester concert, I didn’t realize I was also signing up for a cinematic exposé of socio-political corruption-one that would transport...
Review of Dancing Backwards Toward Pluperfect by Koss, by Matthew Freeman
I was so honored to receive Koss’ new collection, Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect (Diode Editions), and I wasn’t disappointed. To be honest, I was sold at “Pluperfect”, being something of an armchair grammarian. And as the journey went along, I saw such...
Review of Cold Toast by Kathryn Aldridge- Morris by Sarah Freligh
Is there a difference between a collection of pieces and a book? As a fiction writer and a poet, I want to think so—and so, apparently, did Robert Frost when he posited that if there are twenty-four poems, the twenty-fifth poem needs to be the book, that is, an...
Review of Select Screen by Abigail Stewart by François Bereaud
Let’s stipulate that we all spend time too much time on our phones / online (kudos to any of you who don’t). Given that fact, and the associated guilt I feel for falling into the “too much” category, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to enjoy Abigail Stewart’s novel Select...
Review of SeparateButEqual by Assia Lau’ren by François Beread
SEPARATEBUTEQUAL is a photography collection released by the Los Angeles based actor, writer, and photographer, Assia Lau’ren. The collection is divided into two sections: a series of photographs taken on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia and a second series from...
Review of Jonathan Danielson’s The Lowest Basin: Arizona Stories by Francois Bereaud
“About a month before I killed my dipshit nephew, the bride came to my table carrying forty dollars in chips.” This sentence opens “Tributary,” the first story in Jonathan Danielson’s amazing collection of stories set in Arizona and published by Cowboy Jamboree Press....
Review of Other Emergencies by Sarah Freligh, by Britta Stromeyer
Sarah Freligh's story collection, Other Emergencies, explores themes of grief, resilience, family dynamics, and the quiet struggles of everyday life in small-town America. With a keen eye for detail and poetic caress, Freligh creates narratives that are both...
“We Began in Cosmic Obscenity”: A Review of Alina Stefanescu’s My Heresies by Jonathan Cardew
Giants exist in Alina Stefanescu’s My Heresies. Giants of the past. Romanian giants. Beatific giants. Poetic giants like Rilke and pop cultural ones like Neko Case. Giant wit. A giant bang! “As for the giants, they were gigantic,” shrugs...
Review of Hey You Assholes by Kyle Seibel, by Francois Bereaud
I was walking with a friend recently when she began to complain a bit about the guy she was dating. One of her main issues was that she organized all of their outings, he seemed happy to go along with whatever she wanted to do. I kept my mouth shut, but knowing what a...
Review of Kurt Baumeister’s Twilight of the Gods, by Al Kratz
Twilight of the Gods, the second novel from Kurt Baumeister is so big, so fun, so electric, it could almost use its own entrance song. Multi-colored lights. Smoke machine. That guy yelling into the microphone that it’s time to rumble. I’m sure it was one hell of...
Popcorning Parts by Amy Marques: A Conversation Between Claudia Monpere and Kim Steutermann Rogers
Kim Steutermann Rogers Do you remember when Amy showed us PARTS? We were in the lobby of a hotel during AWP, a long Starbucks line behind us. We’d been chatting for probably an hour, getting to know each other in person for the first time after meeting in numerous...
Review of Freda Epum’s The Gloomy Girl Variety Show, by Britta Stromeyer
“No matter my current place of residence, my identities follow me. I’ve told you I’m searching, that I’m on the market for belonging,” writes Freda Epum in her memoir The Gloomy Girl Variety Show. Epum’s debut is an impressive, and incisive exploration of...
Conversation with Mandira Pattnaik
By Swetha Amit SA: Glass/Fire is an emotional and riveting narrative of threads that explores the lives of daughters of a family impacted by reverse migration from New Jersey to their ancestral home in India, capturing their trials and tribulations. How and when did...
Review of Tina Barry’s I Tell Henrietta by Britta Stromeyer
Tina Barry's I Tell Henrietta, a collaboration with artist Kristin Flynn, is a riveting miscellany of poetry, prose, and art that defies traditional genre boundaries. This imaginative collection reads like a novella, weaving together fragments of a life story...
Review of Nate Lippens’ Ripcord, by David John Baer McNicholas
Ripcord, by Nate Lippens, is a riveting collection of aborted facebook posts and tweets chronicling a year in the life of a bartender and catering server. But, like a few of us understand, this is an identity assumed for survival. Lippens' narrator and his text...
Review by David McNicholas: Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco by K. Iver, aWord Search
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Review of Benjamin Drevlow’s Honky by Francois Bereaud
After I read a book and let it sit and soak in for a while, there’s a game I like to play with certain texts and writers. I open the book to a random page and find a line which stuns with its beauty, weirdness, imagery, or some other facet of great writing. Often, I...
Review of Luke Wortley’s Shared Blood by David John Baer McNicholas
Shared Blood is a 2023 full length book of poetry by Luke Wortley. While reading it, I was reminded of the sinisterness of shadow puppets and that my father keeps a part of himself locked in a tiny metal box, and that he never shares it with anyone. I'm used to...
Review of Christy Tending’s High Priestess of the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Disobedience by François Bereaud
The introduction to Christy Tending’s remarkable memoir in flash essays, High Priestess of the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Disobedience, opens with the following questions: How do we meet the feeling that the world as we know it is ending? How do we maintain...
Review of Steve Passey’s In Line At Walmart With All The Other Damned by Francois Bereaud
Steve Passey is from Alberta, Canada, a place I take to have lots of space and relatively few people. In his remarkable collection, In Line At Walmart with All the Other Damned (Cowboy Jamboree Press), Passey manages to give us both the intimacy of lives lived hard...
Conversation with Francine Witte
by Swetha Amit SW: RADIO WATER is a beautiful collection of flash stories dealing with poignant themes. What inspired this selection, and how did you put it all together? FW: I published a book last year, Just Outside the Tunnel of Love, and found that there were...
Review of Luke Johnson’s Quiver by David John Baer McNicholas
“For he is not mad, he through whom the abject exists.”—Julia Kristeva I. Cruelty is God. Thou shalt have no other God before cruelty. Thou shalt make no serene images. Thou shalt kill what offends thee. Thou shalt kill what entices you out of sheer blank-faced...
Review of Melissa Flores Anderson’s A Body In Motion by Francois Bereaud
“Here, you are only a body. You have no future, no hopes, no dreams. You are a heart that beats too fast.” The opening line from “A Body in Motion,” one of the creative non-fiction pieces in Melissa Flores Anderson’s debut chapbook with the same title published...
Review of Terese Svoboda’s Dog On Fire by David John Baer McNicholas
The dead do not simply disappear underground. This is something every murderer learns; you keep what you kill. It’s true in more subtle ways when death is inflicted more slowly through family dynamics. Svoboda’s narrator lives in a town where she can’t escape her dead...
Bending Genres Q & A with author Kathryn Silver- Hajo
Kathryn attended our Bending Genres retreat at Synergia Ranch, outside of Santa Fe last August 2023. We asked Kathryn six questions about her experience at the retreat and her writing. What went into the decision to attend the Bending Genres Synergia Ranch August 2023...
It’s God’s Fog Up Top: A Review of Benjamin Niespodziany’s Cardboard Clouds by Jonathan Cardew Who Quotes Various Lines from the Work Instead of a Traditional Review (Plus a Few Pics) Partly Because He is Lazy and Partly Because He Doesn’t Want to Debase This Extraordinary Hybrid Collection of One-act Plays and Prose Poem Oddities with the Mundanity of Review Language Hence This Recycled Homage to Language Play Itself (and a Few Pics)
Language! “The symphony in the pit consists of rhythmic minimalists.” “Lips like witch” “The sky is a sweltering velvet, held together by loose nails.” “Low. But also loud. Like a herd of cattle. Like dark, dark dust. Dense. Shut up.” “She sews a wisdom tooth into her...
Bending Genres Q & A with Dominique Christina by BG Editor David McNicholas
Dominique Christina is a prolific artist. Last month she taught a weekend workshop on writing allegory at Bending Genres. I was lucky enough to attend, where I found myself generating writing from places I couldn’t anticipate. I wanted to share Dominique’s inspiring...
Review of Shannon Wolf’s Green Card Girl
by Francois Bereaud “It’s the things you don’t expect to miss that hit you the hardest.” This line from Green Card Girl, a prose poetry collection from the British-American writer Shannon Wolf hit me hard. In this, her first collection published by ELJ Press,...
Review of Amy Barnes’ Child Craft by Francois Bereaud
A mom, two kids, a jar of pickles, an abandoned K-Mart, and a flood walk into an Amy Barnes story … For the rest, you’ll have to read Barnes’ new hybrid collection, Child Craft, recently released from Belle Point Press. Whether Barnes’ punchlines hit in the...
Review of Laurie Marshall’s Proof of Life by Francois Bereaud
“At first, you think it’s snowing.” This opening line of “Some of Your Favorite Things Aren’t Made to Last,” the first story in Laurie Marshall’s masterful flash collection, Proof of Life, sets the tone for an unexpected and wild, but, ultimately, very...
Process, Process, Process: A Review of Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash by Michael Loveday (review by Jonathan Cardew)
When I opened up Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash by Michael Loveday, I did what I imagine most writers will do when they get this brilliant guide: I wrangled and chivvied a bunch of flashes into a novella-in-flash. Ergo, this guide works. It’s...
Review of no farther than the end of the street by Benjamin Niespodziany (by Robyn Schindeldecker)
There Goes the Neighborhood: A Review of Benjamin Niespodziany’s No Farther Than the End of the Street In The Poetics of Space, the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard draws a connection between the solitude of human consciousness and the solace of intimate...
Review of A World Beyond Cardboard by Jonathan Cardew (by Dan Crawley)
I was ecstatic to find out that Jonathan Cardew published a debut microfiction collection, A World Beyond Cardboard (ELJ Editions, 2022). I have been following his writing for years and greatly admire his talent of creating memorable short fiction. Cardew’s use of...
A Review of Leigh Chadwick’s YOUR FAVORITE POET by Dan Crawley
Leigh Chadwick is the kind of poet who causes me to constantly blurt out, “That is so true!” when I read her superlative writing. And her new collection, Your Favorite Poet (Malarkey Books, 2022) causes me to shout my praises to the top of the sky about her...
Michelle Ross’s They Kept Running, review by Dan Crawley
They Kept Running (University of North Texas Press, 2022) by Michelle Ross is the 2021 Winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. As I read this gem of a book by one of my favorite writers, I was not surprised this collection of flash fictions...
A review of Jayne Martin’s Daddy Chronicles by Jonathan Cardew
Less is more, so they say. But more what? In Jayne Martin’s case: more devastating, more incisive, more insightful. This book is a case in point. Through 37 bite-sized chapters, each about 100-300 words, Martin recounts her experiences growing up without a...
A Review of Stella Lei’s, “Inheritances of Hunger” by Amy Cipolla Barnes
Pull up a seat to Stella Lei’s word table with her collection Inheritances of Hunger. It feeds the soul in five story courses: “Games,” “Changeling,” “On Building a Nest,” “Graftings,” and “Meals for the End of the World.” Throughout, she...
Triumph of Female Empowerment: a review by Claire Polders of Let Our Bodies Be Returned to Us by Lynn Mundell
I’ve been a fan of Lynn Mundell’s writing ever since I discovered her work in 2015, so when her debut collection won the Yemassee 2021 Fiction Prize, I was not surprised. Mundell is a master of the darkly funny and tenderly magical. In this collection, she...
With the Help of Leigh Chadwick, I Review Shane Kowalski’s Small Moods
by Leigh Chadwick I first came across Shane Kowalski’s writing while doom-scrolling through Leigh Chadwick’s Twitter feed. It was a piece of flash fiction—nothing more than a slight paragraph. It’s been months since I read that piece of Shane Kowalski’s writing on...
How Far I’ve Come by Kim Magowan
How Far I've Come by Kim Magowan, review by Dan Crawley Kim Magowan’s How Far I’ve Come (Gold Wake Press, 2022) is a collection of flash fictions and a few longer works that brought me joy while I read. Yes, I smiled with delight, finding myself smiling time...
A Review Q&A with Myself on the Subject of Dan Crawley’s Collection The Wind, It Swirls with the Principal Answer Being I Couldn’t Put This Book Down by Jonathan Cardew
Q: Could you put this book down? A: No, I could not. I could not put this book down. Q: Why is it you couldn’t put this book down? Can you put your finger on the reason? A: I think there are many reasons. The stories fizz with interesting characters and...
TURMERIC & SUGAR: STORIES by Anna Vangala Jones; review by Dan Crawley
The debut short story collection, Turmeric & Sugar: Stories by Anna Vangala Jones (Thirty West Publishing House), is a feast for the senses and a tour of the challenges of love, triumph, and regret. Throughout, Jones’s prose is a wonderful mix of magic...
My Fave Five- May 2021
May 2021 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew May Selector: Andrew Bertaina What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up...
MY FAVE FIVE- APRIL 2021
April 2021 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew April Selector: Minyoung Lee What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up...
BENDING GENRES PRESENTS!!! Meg Tuite interviews Garielle Lutz about writing, life and so much more! So honored to have these two amazing writers in conversation…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTIyc9wIjL0 And you can order Gari's new book, WORSTED, from SF/LD here: https://www.hobartpulp.com/books/worsted
Bending Genres Reading for SMOLfair- March 5, 2021 at 9:00 p.m. E.S.T. This Friday, we have a great line-up for our Bending Genres Reading for the SMOLfair book fair event happening March 3- 7. Fiction Editor, Meg Tuite and EIC Robert Vaughan will be hosting a...
My Fave 5 – October 2020
October 2020 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew August Selector: Tommy Dean What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up...
Fave 5: Taylor Byas
Series Curator: Jonathan CardewJune Selector: Taylor Byas What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In...
Demolition in the Tropics by Rogan Kelly (review by Alina Stefanescu)
Rogan Kelly. Demolition in the Tropics. Lewisburg, PA: Seven Kitchens Press, 2019. 28 pages. $9.00. Some readers expect to be punched in the gut repeatedly. Demolition in the Tropics is not for them. Rogan Kelly's poetic line is wistful, impressionistic, similar to...
Death, Desire and Other Destinations by Tara Isabel Zambrano (review by Dan Crawley)
Tara Isabel Zambrano’s full-length flash collection, Death, Desire, and Other Destinations (Okay Donkey Press, 2020), illuminates, enchants. I’m awestruck with Zambrano’s effortless talent, her swings from stark realism to inventive magic realism. She is...
Pat Foran: My Fave Five
Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew June Selector: Pat Foran What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up with Pat Foran!...
Directory by Christopher Linforth (review by Levi Andrew Noe)
Sauteing your Sense of Self We are at a loss with how to describe this book in any cumulative, definitive way. We don’t want to summarize or euphemize or categorize a book that was not built for “I”s (see what we did there?). So we will just say that the...
Bending Genres Anthology Review
The Bending Genres Anthology – 2018/2019, published earlier this year, is an artfully curated collection and a beautifully produced book that celebrates some of the best in their first two years as a journal.
Leonora Desar: My Fave Five
Leonora Desaar gives us a little selection of her favorite writing from May 2020.
Collective Gravities by Chloe N. Clark (review by Erin Schmiel)
Gravities is a collection with perfect pacing where longer stories that build plot, characters and images immerse you into a world only to release you back up to the small, rich flash pieces that give you a glimmer of a whole new reality.
Beauty by Christina Chiu (review by Haley Papa)
Christina Chiu’s Beauty is a fascinating look into the fictionalized world of an up-and-coming designer, Amy Wong…
Bury Me In The Sky by Sara Comito (review by Luke Johnson)
If there’s one thing (of many) I’ve learned, from reading Sara Comito’s “Bury Me in the Sky,” it’s this: she will not spare her reader.
My Fave Five with Alina Stefanescu
April 2020 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew April Selector: Alina Stefanescu What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch...
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland (review by Haley Papa)
It is difficult to believe how little Jenn Shapland knew of Carson McCullers prior to the creation of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, but upon her discovery of “intimate, suggestive” love letters between McCullers and Swiss writer and photographer Annemarie...
Bending Genres Presents … Sara Comito
Sara Comito reads “The Germ Suspended” published in the Bending Genres Anthology 2018/2019.
Colin Pope Video
Bending Genres Productions is pleased to present a video of several people reading a poem by Colin Pope.
Bending Genres Presents … Tara Campbell
Tara Campbell reads "The Fish," published in Bending Genres Anthology 2018/2019. Tara Campbell (www.taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. Prior publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review,...
Bending Genres Presents … Jayne Martin
Jayne Martin reads "One of A Kind," published in Bending Genres Anthology 2018/2019 Jayne Martin lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she rides horses and drinks copious amounts of fine wines, though not at the same time. She is a Pushcart, Best Small Fictions,...
My Fave Five
My Fave Five… March 2020 Series Editor: Jonathan Cardew March Selector: Jude Higgins What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we...
Sam Pink (review by Tyler Dempsey)
I’m ignorant in many ways. Writing one. Reading only “Goosebumps” till college, when I was hired at a used bookstore because the gay manager thought I was attractive. Solicited my opinion on romance covers he’d ripped off and taped behind our desk. We got about 4...
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (reviewed by Haley Papa)
Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir reads like a whispered truth only she can give the reader, and a different take on what a memoir entails. Machado first entered the literary world with her short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties in 2017, and now sets...
Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria (reviewed by Emily Bertholf)
Juliet is an adolescent girl. Juliet is a cutter. Juliet is dizzy. Juliet is bored. Juliet is afraid of birds. Juliet is feeling helpless. Juliet is a machine. Juliet is any old kid. Juliet is...
the Internet is for real by Chris Campanioni (reviewed by Emily Bertholf)
Chris Campanioni’s the Internet is for real: a review in phrasal substitutions and futuristic fabrication by Emily Bertholf Rad Fib #1: from Only You Can See What You Saved (Full Size Render) Full Size Render is the stranger of this shadow. Full Size Render is...
Ghosts of You by Cathy Ulrich (reviewed by Audra Kerr Brown)
Audra Kerr Brown lives betwixt the corn and soybean fields of southeast Iowa with her husband and two children.
Bending Genres Q & A with author Karen Stefano (What A Body Remembers) and Emily Bertholf
Q & A : Interview with Karen Stefano, author of What A Body Remembers. Emily Bertholf: Your latest book is a memoir about the life-altering night in 1984 when you were violently attacked on your way home from work and your long struggle of dealing with...
Shame by Iris N. Schwartz (reviewed by Paul Beckman)
Shame . Shame on Iris Schwartz. She’s at it again. She has no shame. It’s all in this book. Coming on the heels of her critically acclaimed collection, “My Secret Life With Chris Noth” is her new short story, flash fiction, & micro-fiction collection,...
Bending Genres Q & A with author William R. Soldan
Bending Genres Interview with Author William R. Soldan: What went into the decision to attend the Taos Mabel Dodge Bending Genres July 2018 Writing Retreat? -With the exception of attending a weeklong writing workshop in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2014, after being...
Not Everyone is Special by Josh Denslow (reviewed by Audra Kerr Brown)
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The In-Betweens by Davon Loeb (reviewed by Levi Andrew Noe)
Identity. To say it’s complicated is like saying that losing an arm might hurt a bit. Family is complex too, except that’s more like saying that lopping off your head might make filing your own taxes problematic. For Davon Loeb, identity and family are the foundations...
Some Field Notes on Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003 – 2018 by Kathy Fish (in Randomized Order) Published by Matter Press
Final Thought: Buy this Book. The Lines That Would Not Be Considered “Killer” But Are “Killer” Because They Are Not Necessarily “Killer”: “The man stretches his legs out. He mutes the television and chuckles. She thinks he muted the television to make sure she...
Closing Statements on the Virginia Project
Welcome to the conclusion of the Virginia Project Diaries! This is the last of four focused interactions with writer Tina Barry, a closing interview on her successful exhibition of 14 artists giving their interpretation of her words through a medium of their...
Postcard Poetry Contest #2
Bending Genres Postcard Poetry Contest—December 2018 Guest Judge: Sara Comito The premise of the contest is simple: write a poem, one page or less, using the front and back of the "postcard" below as a prompt. You could be the person that sends it, the postperson...
You Might Want to Get a Handjob from Rick Moranis: A Review of Madam Velvet’s Cabaret Of Oddities by Nancy Stohlman
I mean, possibly. Nothing’s beyond the conceivable, especially when Stohlman’s in the car. When she’s driving it, and it’s a clown car, and one of the clown’s in the upside down position “because Marty needs a break,” anything becomes possible (like fantasy handjobs...
The Virginia Project Diaries: The Next Seven
Here are the next seven women who created art for Tina Barry's The Virginia Project. Each piece is inspired by a passage which is included. Take a moment to read through their work, what they've done, and check out the great work that was created by each and every...
Random-and-Oftentimes-Fabricated Statistics About Sad Laughter (Brian Alan Ellis), by Ryan Werner
(329) The number of times I thought “These were tweets, right?” (0) The number of times I actually went to Brian’s Twitter to check if these were tweets because, much like the aura and culture of literature are constantly pointed out to be in Sad Laughter, that would...
I too dislike flash fiction, sometimes by David Swann (with cartoons by Bob Nancollis)
I. The first widely-read ‘books’ appeared in Medieval times. They were made out of stained glass, and relied upon sunshine. When illiterate church-goers visited the new cathedrals, they’d read stories about saints and sinners, painted in light. Eventually, illustrated...
The Virginia Project Diaries: The First Seven
Fourteen wonderful artists have contributed their time and effort to create visual interpretations of Tina Barry’s words. We will be showcasing a glimpse of what the artists have done for Ms. Barry, and also letting them rock out with their respective accomplishments...
Three Men on the Edge by Michael Loveday; V. Press, U.K.
Everything explained? Boring. Linear plot? Boring. Long chapters? Boring. Three Men on the Edge by Michael Loveday? Not boring. This book—the first full-length flash collection from UK-based V. Press—takes us to the edge of traditional prose and veers into poetry....
Swetha Amit interviews Beth Sherman about her new flash novella, How to Get There From Here
Swetha Amit: Take us back to the beginning of your book How to Get There from Here. Where did the first spark come from, and how did the project evolve from that initial idea? Beth Sherman: I was going to write about a fractured family and had 32 stories written....
Review of Samuel Delaney’s NOVA by David McNicholas
Notes on Samuel Delany's Nova 1968 – 2026. Earth. Nova is a world confident with mystery. Its queerness is embodied in literal one-shoe-on-one-shoe-off space pirates and the neuro-congruent defect shared by several main characters. The text is...
Surprised by the Deliciousness of Air: A Second Person Review of Réka Nyitrai’s Conjoined Works Split Split and Game of Little Deaths by Jonathan Cardew
You think there’s something almost kinky about Nyitrai’s two works in one, a book you have to physically flip if you want to read the other. Two works lying in bed together, toe to nose. The middle of the book, a sort of portal, contains the following...
Swetha Amit interviews Preeti Vangani about Fifty Mothers (River River Books, 2026), her new poetry collection
SA: Your book begins with an image of your mother's handwritten diary, showing her name change after marriage. What were your thoughts about including that image? PV: The idea of adding the image came much later, after some poems had been written. One of my...
Review of The Boat With a Girl’s Heart by Neil de la Flor by Jonathan Cardew
In the preface to The Boat with a Girl’s Heart, Neil de la Flor offers a candid account of his process and motivation, framing the book as an homage to his late friend and collaborator, Maureen Seaton. De la Flor explains that he drew from their collaborative...
Review of Burnside Soleil’s Berceuse Parish by Francois Bereaud
The epigraph of this remarkable collection (whose title I’ve shortened for obvious reason) reads: “Enterrez-moi là où mon père est enterré.” (Bury me there where my father is buried) which we are told is a line from an Acadian ballad. It’s also the perfect...
Swetha Amit interviews Josh Dale about Rage, his new chapbook of flash gems
SA: RAGE is a compelling collection of flash stories that explore themes of death, loss, and brokenness. What inspired this collection? JD: RAGE began as a few stories set in a suburbanized rural setting, where the characters are doing their thing. Some are on drugs....
Review of Kristina Ten’s Tell Me Yours I’ll Tell You Mine by Francois Bereaud
A few years ago, I went to the Pinball Museum in Asheville, North Carolina. The price of admission got me unlimited play on over 100 machines with themes across the years of my youth. The 3D aspect of pinball, the flashing lights, the sound of the silver balls...
Swetha Amit interviews Francine Witte about Some Distant Pin of Light (Cervena Barva Press)
SA: Some Distant Pin of Light is a beautiful collection of poems that captures fleeting moments, heartbreak, and longing. What inspired this collection? How long did it take you to put it together? FW: These are poems I wrote over the past five years or so. I have...
Review of Skylighting by Charles Hansmann by Britta Stromeyer
Poetic Exploration of Grief: Charles Hansmann's Skylighting “I feel countless lesions scarring inside me, internal marks to mock my survival.,” writes Charles Hansmann in the opening pages of his short novel Skylighting—an introspective and lyrical...
Review of Brendan Gillen’s Hang Time by Francois Bereaud
As it turns out, there is a wrong way to fire a machine gun. We watch sports for lots of reasons. One of them is to find out what happens next. In any game or event, there’s always the possibility of seeing, hearing, or sensing something for the first time, whether...
Maia Cardew interview with Cactus Club owner, Kelsey Kaufmann
Recently, I had the pleasure to discuss one of my favorite Milwaukee venues with none other than owner Kelsey Kauffman. Cactus Club has been a pillar of the Milwaukee community for over a century, beginning as an Italian Anarchist book club in the early 1900s. Today,...
Review of Kristin Tenor’s This is How They Mourn by Jonathan Cardew
On Loss and Losing: A Review of Kristin Tenor’s This is How They Mourn (Thirty West Press) When I received Kristin Tenor’s book for review, I was headed to England to take care of my dad. He was dying of cancer, and I was there to help him along. I didn’t get to the...
Maia Cardew’s October Playlist
Some gently upbeat sounds to keep you going this fall, every other band local to Wisconsin... Track 1: Debora, "Diet Lite" Track 2: Veruca Salt, "Get Back" Track 3: Social Cig, "Yellow Weekends" Track 4: Elliott Smith, "Waltz No. 2 (XO)" Track 5: Yolk, "Lemonade...
Interview with Patricia Q. Bidar about her forthcoming book, Pardon Me for Moonwalking
Swetha Amit: Pardon me for Moonwalking is a collection of bittersweet stories about human connections, love, loss, and isolation. What inspired this collection? How long did it take you to assemble it? Patricia Bidar: Some of these stories began as fragments of...
Review of Kiik Araki- Kawaguchi’s Disintegration Made Plain and Easy by Yetta Stein
In the penultimate poem of Disintegration Made Plain and Easy — the recently published collection crafted by Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi — we are running “naked thrashing and failing / Through a storm of yellowjackets”. Or, not we, but the poem’s speaker. We don’t...
Review of Percival Everett’s The Trees by David John Baer McNicholas
Humor, venom, and wit play in an absurd sandbox much like our own world, in Percival Everett's recent 2021 novel, The Trees. With bracing satire and fearless reflection, the story starts in Money, Mississippi, where the descendants of the murderers of Emmett...
Review of Massive Attack’s June 5th performance at Manchester’s Co-op Live by Maia Cardew
Sarajevo Bosnia 1992. The Realness Ball NYC. Trump’s AI Gaza. #BlueAvianMessage. Purchasing tickets for Massive Attack’s Co-op Live Manchester concert, I didn’t realize I was also signing up for a cinematic exposé of socio-political corruption-one that would transport...
Review of Dancing Backwards Toward Pluperfect by Koss, by Matthew Freeman
I was so honored to receive Koss’ new collection, Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect (Diode Editions), and I wasn’t disappointed. To be honest, I was sold at “Pluperfect”, being something of an armchair grammarian. And as the journey went along, I saw such...
Review of Cold Toast by Kathryn Aldridge- Morris by Sarah Freligh
Is there a difference between a collection of pieces and a book? As a fiction writer and a poet, I want to think so—and so, apparently, did Robert Frost when he posited that if there are twenty-four poems, the twenty-fifth poem needs to be the book, that is, an...
Review of Select Screen by Abigail Stewart by François Bereaud
Let’s stipulate that we all spend time too much time on our phones / online (kudos to any of you who don’t). Given that fact, and the associated guilt I feel for falling into the “too much” category, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to enjoy Abigail Stewart’s novel Select...
Review of SeparateButEqual by Assia Lau’ren by François Beread
SEPARATEBUTEQUAL is a photography collection released by the Los Angeles based actor, writer, and photographer, Assia Lau’ren. The collection is divided into two sections: a series of photographs taken on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia and a second series from...
Review of Jonathan Danielson’s The Lowest Basin: Arizona Stories by Francois Bereaud
“About a month before I killed my dipshit nephew, the bride came to my table carrying forty dollars in chips.” This sentence opens “Tributary,” the first story in Jonathan Danielson’s amazing collection of stories set in Arizona and published by Cowboy Jamboree Press....
Review of Other Emergencies by Sarah Freligh, by Britta Stromeyer
Sarah Freligh's story collection, Other Emergencies, explores themes of grief, resilience, family dynamics, and the quiet struggles of everyday life in small-town America. With a keen eye for detail and poetic caress, Freligh creates narratives that are both...
“We Began in Cosmic Obscenity”: A Review of Alina Stefanescu’s My Heresies by Jonathan Cardew
Giants exist in Alina Stefanescu’s My Heresies. Giants of the past. Romanian giants. Beatific giants. Poetic giants like Rilke and pop cultural ones like Neko Case. Giant wit. A giant bang! “As for the giants, they were gigantic,” shrugs...
Review of Hey You Assholes by Kyle Seibel, by Francois Bereaud
I was walking with a friend recently when she began to complain a bit about the guy she was dating. One of her main issues was that she organized all of their outings, he seemed happy to go along with whatever she wanted to do. I kept my mouth shut, but knowing what a...
Review of Kurt Baumeister’s Twilight of the Gods, by Al Kratz
Twilight of the Gods, the second novel from Kurt Baumeister is so big, so fun, so electric, it could almost use its own entrance song. Multi-colored lights. Smoke machine. That guy yelling into the microphone that it’s time to rumble. I’m sure it was one hell of...
Popcorning Parts by Amy Marques: A Conversation Between Claudia Monpere and Kim Steutermann Rogers
Kim Steutermann Rogers Do you remember when Amy showed us PARTS? We were in the lobby of a hotel during AWP, a long Starbucks line behind us. We’d been chatting for probably an hour, getting to know each other in person for the first time after meeting in numerous...
Review of Freda Epum’s The Gloomy Girl Variety Show, by Britta Stromeyer
“No matter my current place of residence, my identities follow me. I’ve told you I’m searching, that I’m on the market for belonging,” writes Freda Epum in her memoir The Gloomy Girl Variety Show. Epum’s debut is an impressive, and incisive exploration of...
Conversation with Mandira Pattnaik
By Swetha Amit SA: Glass/Fire is an emotional and riveting narrative of threads that explores the lives of daughters of a family impacted by reverse migration from New Jersey to their ancestral home in India, capturing their trials and tribulations. How and when did...
Review of Tina Barry’s I Tell Henrietta by Britta Stromeyer
Tina Barry's I Tell Henrietta, a collaboration with artist Kristin Flynn, is a riveting miscellany of poetry, prose, and art that defies traditional genre boundaries. This imaginative collection reads like a novella, weaving together fragments of a life story...
Review of Nate Lippens’ Ripcord, by David John Baer McNicholas
Ripcord, by Nate Lippens, is a riveting collection of aborted facebook posts and tweets chronicling a year in the life of a bartender and catering server. But, like a few of us understand, this is an identity assumed for survival. Lippens' narrator and his text...
Review by David McNicholas: Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco by K. Iver, aWord Search
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Review of Benjamin Drevlow’s Honky by Francois Bereaud
After I read a book and let it sit and soak in for a while, there’s a game I like to play with certain texts and writers. I open the book to a random page and find a line which stuns with its beauty, weirdness, imagery, or some other facet of great writing. Often, I...
Review of Luke Wortley’s Shared Blood by David John Baer McNicholas
Shared Blood is a 2023 full length book of poetry by Luke Wortley. While reading it, I was reminded of the sinisterness of shadow puppets and that my father keeps a part of himself locked in a tiny metal box, and that he never shares it with anyone. I'm used to...
Review of Christy Tending’s High Priestess of the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Disobedience by François Bereaud
The introduction to Christy Tending’s remarkable memoir in flash essays, High Priestess of the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Disobedience, opens with the following questions: How do we meet the feeling that the world as we know it is ending? How do we maintain...
Review of Steve Passey’s In Line At Walmart With All The Other Damned by Francois Bereaud
Steve Passey is from Alberta, Canada, a place I take to have lots of space and relatively few people. In his remarkable collection, In Line At Walmart with All the Other Damned (Cowboy Jamboree Press), Passey manages to give us both the intimacy of lives lived hard...
Conversation with Francine Witte
by Swetha Amit SW: RADIO WATER is a beautiful collection of flash stories dealing with poignant themes. What inspired this selection, and how did you put it all together? FW: I published a book last year, Just Outside the Tunnel of Love, and found that there were...
Review of Luke Johnson’s Quiver by David John Baer McNicholas
“For he is not mad, he through whom the abject exists.”—Julia Kristeva I. Cruelty is God. Thou shalt have no other God before cruelty. Thou shalt make no serene images. Thou shalt kill what offends thee. Thou shalt kill what entices you out of sheer blank-faced...
Review of Melissa Flores Anderson’s A Body In Motion by Francois Bereaud
“Here, you are only a body. You have no future, no hopes, no dreams. You are a heart that beats too fast.” The opening line from “A Body in Motion,” one of the creative non-fiction pieces in Melissa Flores Anderson’s debut chapbook with the same title published...
Review of Terese Svoboda’s Dog On Fire by David John Baer McNicholas
The dead do not simply disappear underground. This is something every murderer learns; you keep what you kill. It’s true in more subtle ways when death is inflicted more slowly through family dynamics. Svoboda’s narrator lives in a town where she can’t escape her dead...
Bending Genres Q & A with author Kathryn Silver- Hajo
Kathryn attended our Bending Genres retreat at Synergia Ranch, outside of Santa Fe last August 2023. We asked Kathryn six questions about her experience at the retreat and her writing. What went into the decision to attend the Bending Genres Synergia Ranch August 2023...
It’s God’s Fog Up Top: A Review of Benjamin Niespodziany’s Cardboard Clouds by Jonathan Cardew Who Quotes Various Lines from the Work Instead of a Traditional Review (Plus a Few Pics) Partly Because He is Lazy and Partly Because He Doesn’t Want to Debase This Extraordinary Hybrid Collection of One-act Plays and Prose Poem Oddities with the Mundanity of Review Language Hence This Recycled Homage to Language Play Itself (and a Few Pics)
Language! “The symphony in the pit consists of rhythmic minimalists.” “Lips like witch” “The sky is a sweltering velvet, held together by loose nails.” “Low. But also loud. Like a herd of cattle. Like dark, dark dust. Dense. Shut up.” “She sews a wisdom tooth into her...
Bending Genres Q & A with Dominique Christina by BG Editor David McNicholas
Dominique Christina is a prolific artist. Last month she taught a weekend workshop on writing allegory at Bending Genres. I was lucky enough to attend, where I found myself generating writing from places I couldn’t anticipate. I wanted to share Dominique’s inspiring...
Review of Shannon Wolf’s Green Card Girl
by Francois Bereaud “It’s the things you don’t expect to miss that hit you the hardest.” This line from Green Card Girl, a prose poetry collection from the British-American writer Shannon Wolf hit me hard. In this, her first collection published by ELJ Press,...
Review of Amy Barnes’ Child Craft by Francois Bereaud
A mom, two kids, a jar of pickles, an abandoned K-Mart, and a flood walk into an Amy Barnes story … For the rest, you’ll have to read Barnes’ new hybrid collection, Child Craft, recently released from Belle Point Press. Whether Barnes’ punchlines hit in the...
Review of Laurie Marshall’s Proof of Life by Francois Bereaud
“At first, you think it’s snowing.” This opening line of “Some of Your Favorite Things Aren’t Made to Last,” the first story in Laurie Marshall’s masterful flash collection, Proof of Life, sets the tone for an unexpected and wild, but, ultimately, very...
Process, Process, Process: A Review of Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash by Michael Loveday (review by Jonathan Cardew)
When I opened up Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash by Michael Loveday, I did what I imagine most writers will do when they get this brilliant guide: I wrangled and chivvied a bunch of flashes into a novella-in-flash. Ergo, this guide works. It’s...
Review of no farther than the end of the street by Benjamin Niespodziany (by Robyn Schindeldecker)
There Goes the Neighborhood: A Review of Benjamin Niespodziany’s No Farther Than the End of the Street In The Poetics of Space, the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard draws a connection between the solitude of human consciousness and the solace of intimate...
Review of A World Beyond Cardboard by Jonathan Cardew (by Dan Crawley)
I was ecstatic to find out that Jonathan Cardew published a debut microfiction collection, A World Beyond Cardboard (ELJ Editions, 2022). I have been following his writing for years and greatly admire his talent of creating memorable short fiction. Cardew’s use of...
A Review of Leigh Chadwick’s YOUR FAVORITE POET by Dan Crawley
Leigh Chadwick is the kind of poet who causes me to constantly blurt out, “That is so true!” when I read her superlative writing. And her new collection, Your Favorite Poet (Malarkey Books, 2022) causes me to shout my praises to the top of the sky about her...
Michelle Ross’s They Kept Running, review by Dan Crawley
They Kept Running (University of North Texas Press, 2022) by Michelle Ross is the 2021 Winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. As I read this gem of a book by one of my favorite writers, I was not surprised this collection of flash fictions...
A review of Jayne Martin’s Daddy Chronicles by Jonathan Cardew
Less is more, so they say. But more what? In Jayne Martin’s case: more devastating, more incisive, more insightful. This book is a case in point. Through 37 bite-sized chapters, each about 100-300 words, Martin recounts her experiences growing up without a...
A Review of Stella Lei’s, “Inheritances of Hunger” by Amy Cipolla Barnes
Pull up a seat to Stella Lei’s word table with her collection Inheritances of Hunger. It feeds the soul in five story courses: “Games,” “Changeling,” “On Building a Nest,” “Graftings,” and “Meals for the End of the World.” Throughout, she...
Triumph of Female Empowerment: a review by Claire Polders of Let Our Bodies Be Returned to Us by Lynn Mundell
I’ve been a fan of Lynn Mundell’s writing ever since I discovered her work in 2015, so when her debut collection won the Yemassee 2021 Fiction Prize, I was not surprised. Mundell is a master of the darkly funny and tenderly magical. In this collection, she...
With the Help of Leigh Chadwick, I Review Shane Kowalski’s Small Moods
by Leigh Chadwick I first came across Shane Kowalski’s writing while doom-scrolling through Leigh Chadwick’s Twitter feed. It was a piece of flash fiction—nothing more than a slight paragraph. It’s been months since I read that piece of Shane Kowalski’s writing on...
How Far I’ve Come by Kim Magowan
How Far I've Come by Kim Magowan, review by Dan Crawley Kim Magowan’s How Far I’ve Come (Gold Wake Press, 2022) is a collection of flash fictions and a few longer works that brought me joy while I read. Yes, I smiled with delight, finding myself smiling time...
A Review Q&A with Myself on the Subject of Dan Crawley’s Collection The Wind, It Swirls with the Principal Answer Being I Couldn’t Put This Book Down by Jonathan Cardew
Q: Could you put this book down? A: No, I could not. I could not put this book down. Q: Why is it you couldn’t put this book down? Can you put your finger on the reason? A: I think there are many reasons. The stories fizz with interesting characters and...
TURMERIC & SUGAR: STORIES by Anna Vangala Jones; review by Dan Crawley
The debut short story collection, Turmeric & Sugar: Stories by Anna Vangala Jones (Thirty West Publishing House), is a feast for the senses and a tour of the challenges of love, triumph, and regret. Throughout, Jones’s prose is a wonderful mix of magic...
My Fave Five- May 2021
May 2021 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew May Selector: Andrew Bertaina What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up...
MY FAVE FIVE- APRIL 2021
April 2021 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew April Selector: Minyoung Lee What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up...
BENDING GENRES PRESENTS!!! Meg Tuite interviews Garielle Lutz about writing, life and so much more! So honored to have these two amazing writers in conversation…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTIyc9wIjL0 And you can order Gari's new book, WORSTED, from SF/LD here: https://www.hobartpulp.com/books/worsted
Bending Genres Reading for SMOLfair- March 5, 2021 at 9:00 p.m. E.S.T. This Friday, we have a great line-up for our Bending Genres Reading for the SMOLfair book fair event happening March 3- 7. Fiction Editor, Meg Tuite and EIC Robert Vaughan will be hosting a...
My Fave 5 – October 2020
October 2020 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew August Selector: Tommy Dean What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up...
Fave 5: Taylor Byas
Series Curator: Jonathan CardewJune Selector: Taylor Byas What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In...
Demolition in the Tropics by Rogan Kelly (review by Alina Stefanescu)
Rogan Kelly. Demolition in the Tropics. Lewisburg, PA: Seven Kitchens Press, 2019. 28 pages. $9.00. Some readers expect to be punched in the gut repeatedly. Demolition in the Tropics is not for them. Rogan Kelly's poetic line is wistful, impressionistic, similar to...
Death, Desire and Other Destinations by Tara Isabel Zambrano (review by Dan Crawley)
Tara Isabel Zambrano’s full-length flash collection, Death, Desire, and Other Destinations (Okay Donkey Press, 2020), illuminates, enchants. I’m awestruck with Zambrano’s effortless talent, her swings from stark realism to inventive magic realism. She is...
Pat Foran: My Fave Five
Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew June Selector: Pat Foran What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch up with Pat Foran!...
Directory by Christopher Linforth (review by Levi Andrew Noe)
Sauteing your Sense of Self We are at a loss with how to describe this book in any cumulative, definitive way. We don’t want to summarize or euphemize or categorize a book that was not built for “I”s (see what we did there?). So we will just say that the...
Bending Genres Anthology Review
The Bending Genres Anthology – 2018/2019, published earlier this year, is an artfully curated collection and a beautifully produced book that celebrates some of the best in their first two years as a journal.
Leonora Desar: My Fave Five
Leonora Desaar gives us a little selection of her favorite writing from May 2020.
Collective Gravities by Chloe N. Clark (review by Erin Schmiel)
Gravities is a collection with perfect pacing where longer stories that build plot, characters and images immerse you into a world only to release you back up to the small, rich flash pieces that give you a glimmer of a whole new reality.
Beauty by Christina Chiu (review by Haley Papa)
Christina Chiu’s Beauty is a fascinating look into the fictionalized world of an up-and-coming designer, Amy Wong…
Bury Me In The Sky by Sara Comito (review by Luke Johnson)
If there’s one thing (of many) I’ve learned, from reading Sara Comito’s “Bury Me in the Sky,” it’s this: she will not spare her reader.
My Fave Five with Alina Stefanescu
April 2020 Series Curator: Jonathan Cardew April Selector: Alina Stefanescu What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid, poetry, and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we catch...
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland (review by Haley Papa)
It is difficult to believe how little Jenn Shapland knew of Carson McCullers prior to the creation of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, but upon her discovery of “intimate, suggestive” love letters between McCullers and Swiss writer and photographer Annemarie...
Bending Genres Presents … Sara Comito
Sara Comito reads “The Germ Suspended” published in the Bending Genres Anthology 2018/2019.
Colin Pope Video
Bending Genres Productions is pleased to present a video of several people reading a poem by Colin Pope.
Bending Genres Presents … Tara Campbell
Tara Campbell reads "The Fish," published in Bending Genres Anthology 2018/2019. Tara Campbell (www.taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. Prior publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review,...
Bending Genres Presents … Jayne Martin
Jayne Martin reads "One of A Kind," published in Bending Genres Anthology 2018/2019 Jayne Martin lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she rides horses and drinks copious amounts of fine wines, though not at the same time. She is a Pushcart, Best Small Fictions,...
My Fave Five
My Fave Five… March 2020 Series Editor: Jonathan Cardew March Selector: Jude Higgins What’s rare, what’s bright, what’s new? This is what we ask a new writer every month in search of the best hybrid and flash writing from the previous month. In this edition, we...
Sam Pink (review by Tyler Dempsey)
I’m ignorant in many ways. Writing one. Reading only “Goosebumps” till college, when I was hired at a used bookstore because the gay manager thought I was attractive. Solicited my opinion on romance covers he’d ripped off and taped behind our desk. We got about 4...
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (reviewed by Haley Papa)
Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir reads like a whispered truth only she can give the reader, and a different take on what a memoir entails. Machado first entered the literary world with her short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties in 2017, and now sets...
Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria (reviewed by Emily Bertholf)
Juliet is an adolescent girl. Juliet is a cutter. Juliet is dizzy. Juliet is bored. Juliet is afraid of birds. Juliet is feeling helpless. Juliet is a machine. Juliet is any old kid. Juliet is...
the Internet is for real by Chris Campanioni (reviewed by Emily Bertholf)
Chris Campanioni’s the Internet is for real: a review in phrasal substitutions and futuristic fabrication by Emily Bertholf Rad Fib #1: from Only You Can See What You Saved (Full Size Render) Full Size Render is the stranger of this shadow. Full Size Render is...
Ghosts of You by Cathy Ulrich (reviewed by Audra Kerr Brown)
Audra Kerr Brown lives betwixt the corn and soybean fields of southeast Iowa with her husband and two children.
Bending Genres Q & A with author Karen Stefano (What A Body Remembers) and Emily Bertholf
Q & A : Interview with Karen Stefano, author of What A Body Remembers. Emily Bertholf: Your latest book is a memoir about the life-altering night in 1984 when you were violently attacked on your way home from work and your long struggle of dealing with...
Shame by Iris N. Schwartz (reviewed by Paul Beckman)
Shame . Shame on Iris Schwartz. She’s at it again. She has no shame. It’s all in this book. Coming on the heels of her critically acclaimed collection, “My Secret Life With Chris Noth” is her new short story, flash fiction, & micro-fiction collection,...
Bending Genres Q & A with author William R. Soldan
Bending Genres Interview with Author William R. Soldan: What went into the decision to attend the Taos Mabel Dodge Bending Genres July 2018 Writing Retreat? -With the exception of attending a weeklong writing workshop in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2014, after being...
Not Everyone is Special by Josh Denslow (reviewed by Audra Kerr Brown)
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The In-Betweens by Davon Loeb (reviewed by Levi Andrew Noe)
Identity. To say it’s complicated is like saying that losing an arm might hurt a bit. Family is complex too, except that’s more like saying that lopping off your head might make filing your own taxes problematic. For Davon Loeb, identity and family are the foundations...
Some Field Notes on Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003 – 2018 by Kathy Fish (in Randomized Order) Published by Matter Press
Final Thought: Buy this Book. The Lines That Would Not Be Considered “Killer” But Are “Killer” Because They Are Not Necessarily “Killer”: “The man stretches his legs out. He mutes the television and chuckles. She thinks he muted the television to make sure she...
Closing Statements on the Virginia Project
Welcome to the conclusion of the Virginia Project Diaries! This is the last of four focused interactions with writer Tina Barry, a closing interview on her successful exhibition of 14 artists giving their interpretation of her words through a medium of their...
Postcard Poetry Contest #2
Bending Genres Postcard Poetry Contest—December 2018 Guest Judge: Sara Comito The premise of the contest is simple: write a poem, one page or less, using the front and back of the "postcard" below as a prompt. You could be the person that sends it, the postperson...
You Might Want to Get a Handjob from Rick Moranis: A Review of Madam Velvet’s Cabaret Of Oddities by Nancy Stohlman
I mean, possibly. Nothing’s beyond the conceivable, especially when Stohlman’s in the car. When she’s driving it, and it’s a clown car, and one of the clown’s in the upside down position “because Marty needs a break,” anything becomes possible (like fantasy handjobs...
The Virginia Project Diaries: The Next Seven
Here are the next seven women who created art for Tina Barry's The Virginia Project. Each piece is inspired by a passage which is included. Take a moment to read through their work, what they've done, and check out the great work that was created by each and every...
Random-and-Oftentimes-Fabricated Statistics About Sad Laughter (Brian Alan Ellis), by Ryan Werner
(329) The number of times I thought “These were tweets, right?” (0) The number of times I actually went to Brian’s Twitter to check if these were tweets because, much like the aura and culture of literature are constantly pointed out to be in Sad Laughter, that would...
I too dislike flash fiction, sometimes by David Swann (with cartoons by Bob Nancollis)
I. The first widely-read ‘books’ appeared in Medieval times. They were made out of stained glass, and relied upon sunshine. When illiterate church-goers visited the new cathedrals, they’d read stories about saints and sinners, painted in light. Eventually, illustrated...
The Virginia Project Diaries: The First Seven
Fourteen wonderful artists have contributed their time and effort to create visual interpretations of Tina Barry’s words. We will be showcasing a glimpse of what the artists have done for Ms. Barry, and also letting them rock out with their respective accomplishments...
Three Men on the Edge by Michael Loveday; V. Press, U.K.
Everything explained? Boring. Linear plot? Boring. Long chapters? Boring. Three Men on the Edge by Michael Loveday? Not boring. This book—the first full-length flash collection from UK-based V. Press—takes us to the edge of traditional prose and veers into poetry....