Fiction

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Justin Taylor is the author of the story collection Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever and the novel The Gospel of Anarchy. He teaches at the Pratt Institute and at New York University. He collects cover songs, standards, and photos of text at askforgiveness.tumblr.com. His own work is collected at justindtaylor.net.

Volume 1, Issue 1. June 2012.

Wheeler on Richard Burgin’s Shadow Traffic and Ron Rash’s The Cove | Dawes on Teju Cole’s Open City and Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow | Harlan-Orsi on emily m. danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post | Das on Adil Jussawalla’s Trying to Say Goodbye | Crews on Bruce Snider’s Paradise, Indiana

Richard Burgin. Shadow Traffic. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.

Reviewed by Theodore Wheeler

Katie Wudel’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The Rumpus, Monkeybicycle, and other publications. A recent writer in residence at Hedgebrook, Katie has taught creative writing at San Francisco’s School of the Arts and the University of Nebraska-Omaha Writer’s Workshop. Her story “Tongueless” was listed among Wigleaf’s Top [Very] Short Fictions of 2011. You can find out more about Katie by visiting www.katiewudel.com.

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You use third person point of view, but Harry's unique (acerbic, vocal) way of seeing things really comes through in the narration. How did you decide on this perspective, and how did you develop Harry's voice?

Sigrid Nunez is the author of six novels, including The Last of Her Kind and, most recently, Salvation City. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. Her story “Worried Sisters” appears in the Spring 2012 issue of Prairie Schooner.

"Peach" appears in the current issue of Prairie Schooner, the 2011 Winter edition.

Also, please note that Nuala Ní Chonchúir will take part in the official Launch Party of the Winter issue next week in Lincoln. On Thursday, February 9, at 2pm, she will participate in a reading and interview at the Sheldon Museum of Art. On Friday, February 10, there will be a reception at the Sheldon from 7-8pm (with Irish-themed food and beverages!), following by readings from Nuala, Sandra Bunting, Aiden Rooney, and Deanie Rowan Blank. It's going to be a good time.

Karen Brown received the 2011 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction for her book Little Sinners and Other Stories, which is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press. Her first collection of short stories, Pins and Needles, received AWP’s Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction and, in 2007, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Her work has appeared twice in the PEN/O.

Swan's Home
For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. -Psalm 88

The call comes at high noon, with the sun bright on the rocks and sage, not in the dark midnight hours like Ferrell Swan always expected. On her cell from his old Ohio home, his ex-wife Rilla asks if he's sitting down.

"You bet," Ferrell says, standing at the porch rail. He looks across the high desert country, knowing the news is about Levon, Rilla's child from her first marriage. Ferrell helped raise the boy preschool to high school, the most strife and turmoil ever seen. Though Levon's now thirty-one, not a whole lot has changed.

"What this time?" he says when she doesn't volunteer the words.

"He crashed his car."

"Bad?"

Born in Dublin in 1970, Nuala Ní Chonchúir lives in Galway county. Her début novel You (New Island, 2010) was called ‘a heart-warmer’ by The Irish Times and ‘a gem’ by The Irish Examiner. Her third short story collection Nude (Salt, 2009)) was shortlisted for the UK’s Edge Hill Prize. Her second short story collection To The World of Men, Welcome has just been re-issued by Arlen House in an expanded paperback edition.

We submitted Pushcart Prize nominations yesterday! Congratulations and best of luck to our nominees:

“Counting Sheep” by Linda Pastan, a poem from the Fall Issue.

“I'll Tell You about Speaking In Tongues” by Roxanne Beth Johnson, a poem from the Spring issue.

“Early Explorer’s Journal” by Desiree Alvarez, a poem from the Fall issue.

“Peach” by Nuala Ní Chonchúir, a short story from the forthcoming Winter issue.

“The Bird Lady” by Melodie Edwards, a short story from the Summer issue.

“How to Eat a Quince” by Patrick Toland, a poem from the forthcoming Winter issue.