181 June, 2012

portrait One on One

Amina Gautier

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

Amina Gautier is the winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction for her short story collection At-Risk. Seventy-five of her stories have been published, appearing in Glimmer Train, Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, North American Review, and Southern Review among other places.

Jennifer Maestre

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

Jennifer Maestre’s unique sculptures caught our eye immediately. The object she relies on in her sculptures are coincidentally the main tool originally used to create the literary works we all love to read. Pencils! Colored ones at that!

map Macro-Fiction

Jesus in the Field of Land Mines

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

When she and the medical team finally arrived at the tiny airport in Phnom Penh, she stepped out into the heat of a blast furnace and immediately felt her clothes soaked in perspiration.

Brad’s House

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

Brad and Stacie were always in bed when I arrived--lights off. Each time I put the key in to enter their house, I wondered if they had changed the locks. But it never happened.

local_library Poetry

book Book Lovers

They’re Calling You Home

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

Gabe Burke, the narrator of Doug Crandell’s fourth novel, is a writer, and a genial, philosophical and searching fellow, who loves nature and has an affinity for outcasts.

pages Micro-Fiction

Blizzard of ’56

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

She is near me now, the Mayor’s Wife. It is her hair I smell - fresh flowers and fruits. She is as silent as the snow that holds us, packs us in.

On the Spon-Com Circuit

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

Struck down by subatomic particles in subatomic nuclear explosions leading to: yes, internal fireball. This the fate of Aunt Claire, who once yelled at me for pulling her dog’s tail.

perm_identity From the Editor

Celebration Days for Mom and Dad

Issue No. 181 ~ June, 2012

One year, when I was in my twenties, my mother sent me a Mother's Day card with her familiar small but exceedingly legible handwriting inside telling me not to worry about doing anything for her on Mother's Day, it was just another day, and she was a mother everyday, so she didn't understand what all the fuss was about.