According to Whom?

by Derek Alger

Originally published on July 2, 2010

It’s a simple phrase, an elementary question, but one which probably should be considered more frequently by people in general, and journalists, in particular, both print and broadcast, and that is “According to whom?” In an age where passions, and resulting generalizations run high, outlandish pronouncements have a way of masquerading as truth simply because [...]

Brenda Eisenberg

interviewed by Ryan Gleason

Originally published on July 1, 2010

This feels like an important story to write. For one thing, it offers a fresh angle on the apartheid story, through the eyes of a young orthodox Jew. But also, it looks at powerlessness in the face of a system you feel you can’t change and how young people turn to extreme solutions when they experience that impotence.

Radio, Active Decay

by Evan Retzer

Originally published on July 1, 2010

The cherries of our cigarettes pulse like exit signs outside the front door, drive away flies.

Lunch on the Grass

by Richard Holinger

Originally published on July 1, 2010

They won’t ask realistic questions because they will be too shocked with style to fixate on content.

Marisa Silver

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on July 1, 2010

Marisa Silver, who made her fiction debut in The New Yorker when she was featured in that magazine’s first “Debut Fiction” issue, is the author of two novels and two story collections, her most recent collection, Alone With You, published by Simon & Schuster earlier this year. Silver’s first story collection, Babe in Paradise, was [...]

The Whole Thing

by CE Chaffin

Originally published on July 1, 2010

is a nimiety of untold proportions, a whirling globe of radishes, a carnival with a trillion barkers, a moon braying at a palm forest, a thousand-eyed politician, numberless embalmers clutching brake fluid, a porcine ballerina twirling toward light speed like a gyroscopic ham, how pumpkin seeds coat everything, the evaporation of water, salt crust of [...]

Writer with Lap Dog

by Anna Monardo

Originally published on July 1, 2010

I got a dog last week. My first dog ever, and this never should have happened. For one thing, I dislike dogs.

Prayer to La Virgen

by CE Chaffin

Originally published on July 1, 2010

La Virgen de Guadalupe’s chintzy frame, gold tinsel nuggeted with colored lights, flashes in concert with the cricket outside. Las Vegas lives too much in Mexico; I should be accustomed to the glitz. The people here are poor, the light is rich and yet this cheezy, plastic abomination (as if we must re-decorate creation, send [...]

High Stakes Stuff

by Brenda Eisenberg

Originally published on July 1, 2010

I’d been half-hoping that someone like that might turn up. What a wonderful surprise this would be for him… these orderly grave beds, the paths so clean, this fence so nice and upright…

2666

reviewed by Ryan Gleason

Originally published on July 1, 2010

Roberto Bolaño’s final novel 2666, released posthumously, is a sprawling literary tome. It’s the kind of work that possesses a staggering amount of angles, gliding through time periods, characters, both widespread and intimate violence, sexuality, and Bolaño’s expertise, the imagining and dismantling of artists.