A personal take on a day of national remembrance

by Derek Alger

Originally published on September 3, 2011

Of course, all that changed in an instant on 9/11, with no one even thinking of the Democratic primary for Mayor in New York City. much less voting, after the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

Aaron Belz

interviewed by Luke Irwin

Originally published on September 1, 2011

Aaron Belz is the author of poetry collections The Bird Hoverer (BlazeVOX Books, 2007) and Lovely, Raspberry (Persea, 2010). His poems and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Wired, First Things, Books & Culture, Gulf Coast, and Fence among many others.

Alan Cheuse

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on September 1, 2011

Cheuse is well-known as a book commentator, and a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications and literary journals, including The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, The Idaho Review, and The Southern Review.

Home

by Owen Tucker

Originally published on September 1, 2011

When the earthquake struck nearby Sichuan province that May, we did everything wrong; we did not leap from the one free window. We remained calm, sought out doorways and braced ourselves, hearing the windows rattle in their loose frames and the doors above slamming as the upstairs residents fled the building in fright.

Wave

by Robert Nordstrom

Originally published on September 1, 2011

He never has either but he doesn’t tell her that. He pulls his own bathing suit down and guides her hand. She just holds it. They look at each other, then quickly away, to their mothers at the top of the bluff.

Confirmation

by Jules Riley

Originally published on September 1, 2011

Across the boulevard there were still old buildings. An elderly woman appeared and threw a bucket of steaming water at the pavement. He crossed the boulevard and realized she was scrubbing excrement.

A Meanness in this World

by Roger Pincus

Originally published on September 1, 2011

She’d make it to the grassy island in the middle of the road just before the vehicle sped by. She had been playing this game more often lately, including at night. She challenged her timing more each time, cutting things closer and closer.

Senor Squirrel

by Kris Bigalk

Originally published on September 1, 2011

The habenero peppers were no accident. I grew them especially for you, to watch you pluck a bright yellow bonnet, turn it over in your hands like a topaz or tourmaline, then sink your bicuspids hard into the flesh, only to throw it three feet into the air, your mouth on fire with my revenge, [...]

Unfathomable Mammals

by Marc Vincenz

Originally published on September 1, 2011

Nowhere to go so you lean back into this squall saltspray cold. A witch’s tit nursing you into your life-rollicking. This foam twisting, curling, churning, frothing at the teeth, this dark azure slapping beneath— godhand fingering fibreglass— where whales breed in waterbeds of sulfuric purple weed. Three of us tied to the gills, toggled, strapped [...]