She is a cupcake of a woman, poured into the ruffled sheath of her bathing suit. What she wears is a bathing suit, it’s too polka dot cute to be swimsuit. Bathing suits are for Bathing Beauties, the antiquated glamour of pudgy poise. Her hair is pinned into fat black…
What I’ve Learned from Handling Criticism (and Nice Words on How Some Famous People Handle it Too) By Emily Catenzaro
We’ve heard it all before: with writing comes criticism. But until you experience those first rejection letters (or a 2,000 word letter from a reader detailing nearly everything wrong with your story), it’s hard to predict exactly how you’re going to handle criticism. Actually, it’s hard for anyone to know…
Looking Into the Mystique of Betty Friedan by Allison McLellan
“I never set out to write a book to change women’s lives, to change history. It’s like, ‘Who, me?’ Yes, me. I did it. And I’m not that different from other women.… Maybe my power and glory was that I could speak my truth as a woman and it was…
Remembering James Joyce by Carleton Whaley
“Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality.” — James Joyce, “James Clarence Mangan,” A lecture on the poet given at the Literary and Historical Society of the University of Dublin. A man of complexities and contradictions, James Joyce…
The Best American Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Wonderbomb or Bust? Review by Caitlyn Durfee
“Wonder is a blasting cap. It is an emotion that goes off with a bang, shattering settled beliefs, rattling the architecture of the mind, and clearing space for new ideas, new possibilities. Wonder is often thought of as a peaceful emotion, a sense of resounding inner quiet. Of course we…
Remembering Virginia Woolf by Asiya Haouchine
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own English writer and modernist pioneer, Virginia Woolf was born one-hundred and thirty four years ago today….
“The Scientific Process” By Zachary Bradley (2015)
Collins Literary Prize Winner, Poetry (2015) Ants can withstand 5,000 times their weight, a strength attracting the envy of man. But still, even the strongest backs can break. I glue heads to a centrifuge and wait for the force of spinning to make neck snap, “Ants can withstand 5,000 times…
Cold Water By Catherine Hires (An Excerpt) (2015)
Collins Literary Prize Winner, Prose (2015) Nia was still sleeping when I woke up. She was snoring loudly as I crawled my way down the rickety ladder that supported my lofted bed. I walked past her bed, her open mouth smushed ungracefully against her pillow, and made my way into…
A Tie By Joshua Couvares (2015)
Jennie Hackman Memorial Award for Short Fiction, Third Place (2015) Another shot. Tequila dried onto his knuckles, his fingernails. When he makes a fist, the skin between his fingers sticks together, like his hand’s one ball of flesh and bone. It tastes like an extra-bitter version of Vicks nose spray…
Lights in the Night By Stephanie Mei Koo (2015)
Jennie Hackman Memorial Award for Short Fiction, Second Place (2015) Her bedroom lights haven’t been off for twenty-four years. Oh, it is silly, isn’t it — to be scared of the dark? Yet here she is, shivering in her nightgown, far too tired to go to sleep. She likes to…
