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...
Reviews
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...
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...
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.
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 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...
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...
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,...
Not Everyone is Special by Josh Denslow (reviewed by Audra Kerr Brown)
Buy the Book
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...
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...
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...
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....
Show Her A Flower by Peg Alford Pursell; Second Edition, WTAW Press
Ever focus so hard on a star that it disappears? The human eye’s anatomical constraints allow for only oblique attention to life’s wonders. The heart likewise skews in relation to life’s calamities. In her collection, Show Her A Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, Peg Alford...
Kiss, Kiss by Paul Beckman, Truth Serum Press
It’s not especially shocking to find a teenaged narrator playing strip poker with his elderly babysitter in Paul Beckman’s latest flash fiction collection, Kiss Kiss. In fact, that kid is probably better off than the boy who finds his brothers waiting to kill the...
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...
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...
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.
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 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...
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...
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,...
Not Everyone is Special by Josh Denslow (reviewed by Audra Kerr Brown)
Buy the Book
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...
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...
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...
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....
Show Her A Flower by Peg Alford Pursell; Second Edition, WTAW Press
Ever focus so hard on a star that it disappears? The human eye’s anatomical constraints allow for only oblique attention to life’s wonders. The heart likewise skews in relation to life’s calamities. In her collection, Show Her A Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, Peg Alford...
Kiss, Kiss by Paul Beckman, Truth Serum Press
It’s not especially shocking to find a teenaged narrator playing strip poker with his elderly babysitter in Paul Beckman’s latest flash fiction collection, Kiss Kiss. In fact, that kid is probably better off than the boy who finds his brothers waiting to kill the...