The Day My Father Learns He Is Losing His Mind

by Deborah Jiang Stein

Originally published on November 17, 2010

The scholar measured language and life as if there were only one way to the promised land, in a mind disciplined nearly military style.

First, Do No Harm

reviewed by Adrienne Friedberg

Originally published on November 16, 2010

Knife Music, the title of David Carnoy’s debut novel, refers to the soundtrack surgeons choose to accompany their own performance in the operating room. This medical thriller opens like a scene from one of the better episodes of ER.

“No kiss?”

by Michael Solana

Originally published on November 1, 2010

He played guitar and wrote stories on the back of paper targets and sent me to get milk shakes for him when his sugar was low and he was feeling tired but couldn’t shake his customers; a diabetic, he told me he would die young. I was 16 and in love with him. And a boy.

Richard Hugo House Literary Series

by Lissa Richardson

Originally published on November 1, 2010

The fourth season of Richard Hugo House’s Literary Series is well underway. Beginning in October, the Lit Series spans six months with four events, the next of which is November 19th. The events bolster Hugo House’s commitment to fostering new writing by commissioning three writers and a band to produce new texts and a song [...]

Mark Goldblatt

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on November 1, 2010

I’m not a natural performer; if the material isn’t up to par, I have the potential to bomb in a big way. But the book is funny, or at least it’s meant to be funny, and it’s full of word play, and that sort of thing tends to work when read aloud. What’s Chuckles the Clown’s motto? “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.”

The Factory

by Alana Folsom

Originally published on November 1, 2010

The factory closed yesterday. The gate hung heavy with chain. The metal mouths no longer exhaling smoke. The children no longer singing songs about cyanide and Manager Bill. The morning came and no thermoses were filled with thick black coffee. No wives paired bologna and cheddar. No husbands slid their swollen feet into waiting boots, [...]

Word

by Allan Johnston

Originally published on November 1, 2010

Between us imagine a saying. It could relate to the balance of things or to inclement weather. It is of no consequence. And yet there is also this list of simple facts to contend with. For instance, those who walk in the sun, hands over head, to dig the graves they will stand beside before [...]

Three Poems by Emma Bolden

by Emma Bolden

Originally published on November 1, 2010

PALMISTRY You will find yourself a hum by the hearth the spoon happy to lick soup from the pot’s broad chest you will see yourself a needle aquiver at the thrust of thread your hair will tie itself with the ribbons his hands most love to untie you will lye scour your skirts with stones [...]

Edwin Floating

by Michael Andreoni

Originally published on November 1, 2010

Edwin nodded approvingly. This was the way they had always done it, spinning the world soft in gossamer humor, diving under, pulling it up over their heads, safe

Now that the voting is over

by Derek Alger

Originally published on November 1, 2010

Many will be relieved, either happy or down, with most indifferent, as the results of the mid-term elections across the country will now be official, in most cases. For me, I’m simply happy my mailbox will no longer be stuffed with campaign literature. It’s amazing how bad, in terms of being effective, most campaign literature [...]