OPPORTUNITY COST

Short story by Kelly Stanton

***

APRIL

Short story by James Robison

***

DIVIDING DAY AT THE GRAND-HOTEL DU CAP - FERRAT

Literary non-fiction by Loren Stephens

***

STARBUCKS IN THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Short story by Cooper Sy

ESSAY | IN WONDERLAND

BY BERNARD QUETCHENBACH

In 1991, I left graduate school to take a position teaching in the English department at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, a small agricultural town in the Bighorn Basin east of Yellowstone... | read |

***

ESSAY | JACK'S ROOM

BY MICHAEL MILBURN

My three brothers, eighteen, sixteen, and fourteen years my senior, lived away from home for most of my childhood. Our interaction was limited to their week-end visits to our parents' house, or the occasional longer stay when they would reoccupy their rooms during... | read |

***

THE WRITING LIFE | HOW & WHY I WROTE "YOU COMMA IDIOT "

BY DOUG HARRIS

I wrote 'YOU comma Idiot' over a period of years starting in my late thirties and ending well into my forties. It began because I suddenly stopped enjoying novels... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | PHOEBE AND EDGAR IN THE GARDEN OF AMERICA

BY ANNA KAEHLER

There's an elderberry tree between my house and Edgar's house, in the wash filled with desert grass. My dad says it shouldn't grow because there isn't enough water in this place to fill up a belly button, but it grows anyway... | read |

***

POETRY | THE HERB

Selected poems by Aisa Al Ysairy | read |

***

SHORT STORY | THE LAST LION

BY N. NEWMARK

The Rebbe Mendel Gross had fallen asleep at his desk again. He dozed slumped over some tenth grade exams. In his dream he was young once more, standing on... | read |

***

POETRY | TRIPLE YOUR TROUBLE

BY JUDITH CODY

Feeling pain is not great, agreed? / Feeling pain you feel when / someone you love cares means / ... | read |

***

A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

BY MARK DWORTZAN

***

THE WRITING LIFE | WHY I WRITE

JAMES ROBISON

I'm lonely but I dislike the company of other people and this puts me in a hellbox. MoMA just now has the de Kooning show and a reviewer somewhere was rehearsing this man's method of work, which was draw, paint over drawing, draw on painting, scrape off some paint-I know I know... | read |

***

ESSAY | MAX FRISCH

BY MALCOLM FORBES

One hundred years ago Max Frisch was born in Zurich. He died twenty years ago in the same city. In between he got out and travelled widely, and in 1952 lived in the US and Mexico on a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation... | read |

***

BOOK REVIEW | ALONE IN WAITING

BY MALCOLM FORBES

On "The Blindness of the Heart" by Julia Franck | read |

***

SHORT STORY | OUR BUICK STOPPED HERE

BY LEE MATTHEW GOLDBERG

From the front seat of their car, his daddy reached back and swatted Colt's hand away with a grimace of twisted yellow... | read |

***

POETRY | SIMON PERCHIK

What more proof do you need! jagged... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | SOMETHING TOLSTOYAN

BY BRIAN CONLON

I wanted to write something Tolstoyan. Something so heavy-handed you, dear reader, would gnash your teeth and roll... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | SICKNESS AND HEALTH

BY ROBERT WEXELBLATT

Many affairs of this life are fueled by money but one doesn't think about it unless the gas runs out... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | GREAT LAKES FOUNDRY 1990

BY JAMES ROBISON

In a used bookstore I buy a self hypnosis guide for a quarter and take it under leaning clouds to my apartment and in the spring afternoon I hypnotize me, going down the dark staircases of my ego... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | COOKIES

BY LEE MATTHEW GOLDBERG

The chosen movie to begin Janine Acorn's annual slumber party for her Senior Flower Patch Scout Troop was Glengarry Glen Ross , a pick from Janine herself, thought to be motivational required viewing for any young Flower Patchian... | read |

***

TRAVEL NOTES | SE VENDE/FOR SALE

BY CHRISTOPHER FLYNN

El Pipila and the MEGA store, revolution and commerce, welcome visitors to San Miguel de Allende, México... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | A SHORT DISTANCE BEHIND US

BY DORENE O'BRIEN

Jodie and I have been operating at the intersection of I Love You and Fuck Off for the past year, fighting and forgiving at breakneck speeds. We're both tired, but apparently not too tired to crawl into a cramped economy car and head west together... | read |

***

THE WRITING LIFE | STEVEN MAYOFF

Like any good Jewish Montreal boy, one of my most important literary influences is Mordecai Richler. Although I began writing poetry and lyrics in high school, it took many years before I could ever imagine myself as a writer... | read |

***

SHOUTS & MURMURS | CUT THE ALPHABET TO SAVE THE COUNTRY

BY DAVID BUTLER

The Royal Spanish Academy recently removed two letters from the Spanish alphabet. I applaud this action... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | THE LIGHTBEARER

BY CARL BLOOM

What is faith, without a little test now and then? Like the camper striking his flint into a pile of damp leaves, "The next spark will get it going, for sure!" Even if his thumbs start to bleed... | read |

***

POETRY | SHARON SIEGEL

Crisp, frigid air... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | A GOOD SAMARITAN WILL STOP

BY JOHN WENKE

"Got to go. He's here." His shiny gold Toyota Avalon stops in the middle of the curved street... | read |

***

POETRY BY

REBECCA PARSON, JIM TOLAN,

ROBERT WEXELBLATT, SIMON PERCHIK, ERNESTINE LAHEY

***

CREATIVE NON-FICTION | GOAT

BY LAURIE STONE

Twice a day I walk a three-mile course on a country road that banks the art colony where I am staying and where Joe, one of the writers, practices letting go of anger... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | SKINNY TRIANGLES

BY MICHAEL BURNS

Ian McKenna's brother-in-law, Brian, was suddenly in the doorway of his study, a cigarette in one hand... | read |

***

POETRY | ROBERT HILL LONG

The night she left America on the ferry north... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | BETWEEN THE BOOK AND SHAPIRO

BY ERIC MARONEY

Shaul Shapiro stopped leaving his house on busy... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | "SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL, YES"

BY SHAWN MITCHELL

The man was browsing for a bottle of wine for his dinner... | read |

***

STORY | ONE MORE THING

BY JOSEPH GRIM FEINBERG

***

POETRY | JANICE D. SODERLING

He stepped into the room like the fog drifting down... | read |

***

STORY | CHURCH GOING

BY CAROLINE ARDEN

In early January, Catherine was pulling laundry from the dryer when she discovered her swimsuit balled... | read |

***

POETRY | HUGH FOX

Blunt stone casements and Hi-Def days... | read |

***

STORY | THE GRAND CANYON

BY KATIE RYAN DAHLSON

***

STORY | RUNNIG

BY PETER LUCAS

We made camp on the edge of the vineyard, under the gnarled arm of an oak tree... | read |

***

STORY | WAITING

BY JENNIFER BLAIR

During the eulogy, Lila's eyes drifted up to the vaulted roof, as if it might be possible to detect the exact shade of sky... | read |

***

CREATIVE NON-FICTION | SMOKE

BY JERROD E. BOHN

I'm standing outside a bar with some friends, enjoying a beer while they switch back and forth between... | read |

***

POETRY | SKITCH AND OTHER POEMS

BY AMANDA PAPENFUS

Hang on like he'll keep you... | read |

***

STORY | GET WELL SOON

BY ERNESTINE LAHEY

"We had no choice, Mrs. Walker. Your life was in imminent danger..." | read |

***

POETRY | SOLE EXISTENCE

BY JUDY STODDART

the psychotic old man... | read |

***

POETRY | THE MOST PERFECT STATE OF WATER

BY RICHARD KREITNER

The most perfect state of water is when... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | SUN LIGHT ON GREEN HILLS

BY JOHN LOWRY

Greg was looking for a job on a Saturday, in a cold rain... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | "HALF-LIFES"

BY BILL TEITELBAUM

For about a year, I think, or perhaps a bit more, my dear Evelyn had a love affair with someone named Paul... | read |

***

POETRY | SEVEN ACTS OF MERCY

BY JON STOCKS

First he would salvage the old photographs... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | "THE PREMONITION"

BY JULIE BERNHARDT

My ex-boyfriend, Jason, grins at me. His perfect smile, minus the front teeth overlapping slightly, is all too familiar... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | "DON'T GET COMFORTABLE"

BY WILLIAM FARRANT

On a date I was asked what I thought the most important thing in life was. I struggle with questions that have over-arching, deeper meanings to them... | read |

***

POETRY | "BEESWAX VOCAL CHORDS" AND OTHER POEMS

BY CAROLYN McGEE

We sing, voices together feeling the resonance with our blind sight one that comes only with sweet harmony... | read |

***

PROSE POEM | "PET POEM"

BY JANIS BUTLER HOLM

This poem wants to howl until you return. This poem wants to jump up and down as you open the door... | read |

***

SHORT STORY | "BIG TALKER"

BY ERNESTINE LAHEY

"Shoot him", she thought one day.  "Shoot the bastard, then he'll shut up."  Her first thought was to aim for a shoulder or a foot.  But she put that thought right out of her head... | read |  

***

SHORT STORY | "UNLIKE THE BURBS"

BY DANIEL PEARLMAN

Francesco at thirty-five loves his job, loves his life, and on his way to work he whistles to the sparrows on the telephone wires and wishes he could stroke the soft red breast of that hungry little robin pecking around on Mrs. Alvarez's lawn.  It's nice living only ten minutes from your job, unlike his relatives out in the burbs... | read |

***