January/February 2012
 Baby Lotion by Malcolm Aslett Malcolm Aslett – if he is in fact who he says he is – was born in the North of England – a debatable part of Europe located several miles from the nearest sensible conversation. His short stories and Magritte-inspired graphic work can be found in various publications and those parts of the web that don’t do credit checks. His own brand of multi-viewpoint and joiner photographs can be seen on his website at www.joinerphotography.com. Dragonology by Steve Castro Steve Castro has two prose poems forthcoming in print in Hobart No. 13. Other poems are forthcoming in print in The Broken Plate. His poems are found online in The Tower Journal, the Dublin Quarterly, Everyday Genius, etc. His flash fiction can be found in This Great Society (Canada), and his nonfiction can be found in The Whistling Fire. The poet spent six months living in a kibbutz in northern Israel; he has also visited the Tremiti Islands (Italy), Petra (The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), Dahab (Egypt), and most recently, he spent a year studying abroad in Freiburg im Breisgau. Moose by Jenny Catlin Jenny Catlin is a transient writer currently taking up space in Los Angeles CA. When she isn’t scribbling or something like it, she studies lightning and maps of the ocean. Her work pops up here and there online and in print. She is also the editor in chief of scissorsandspackle.com. Collage Sonnet 9 by Thomas Cochran Thomas Cochran was raised in Haynesville, Louisiana. His work includes the novels Roughnecks (Harcourt) and Running the Dogs (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Non-fiction and poetry have appeared under his name in Oxford American, Rattle, Farming Magazine, and other publications. A schoolteacher by trade, he currently lives with his wife on a mountain in rural northwest Arkansas. Love Affair Between Two Writers by Marissa Cohen Marissa Cohen writes about everything from astrology to women’s issues. Her creative writing has been seen in The Survivor’s Review, The Zodiac Review, Grammarly.com, and The Contributor. Currently, she writes for many publications, including Chemistry.com, her own CBS-advertised website HappyGanesh.com, and for her “On the Shelves” book column in She Magazine. In 2003, she received the Letters Honorarium from the Fort Lauderdale branch of the National League of American Pen Women, and in 2011, the Poet Laureate of Florida called her creative work “powerful, both intellectually and emotionally.” She can be contacted at marissa@happyganesh.com. I shook hands with the Previous Year by Michael Credico Michael Credico is a Cleveland-based writer, spending most days listening to and watching the lake, wondering why he has yet to learn to swim, and why he is so afraid to fish (it’s the worms). Leveling by Kathy Crutcher Kathy directs the DC branch of Writopia Lab, a nonprofit that holds creative writing workshops for kids. She has an MFA, and so do you. At her last reading, twenty drunken Santas cheered. This will be impossible to beat. She wrote this piece for her friend, who was also a writer, and who would plant these notecard poems in her garden if she could, between the squash and the basil and the Early Girl tomatoes, because she was just that lovely. Boomerang by Clark Eyck My name is Clark. I am a 21-year-old gangling neoteric with a heart of a lion on a mission to rediscover myself and share love with others. I am passionate about law, art and literature. I paint and I cook. Quite well, or so I have been told. My home is in England. My present is in Holland. And my future is in Australia. One should read between the lines to understand my story and the message it bears. Botany Bay and Alice Springs. Two people, two civilisations, one land. THE RELIC MUSEUM by Howie Good Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the full-length poetry collections Lovesick (Press Americana, 2009), Heart With a Dirty Windshield (BeWrite Books, 2010), and Everything Reminds Me of Me (Desperanto, 2011), as well as numerous print and digital poetry chapbooks. Get Wet, Dragon By Kyle Hemmings Kyle Hemmings once parachuted from a Cessna to surprise an old girlfriend. Unfortunately, he missed and landed in someone’s bathtub. This is the true origin of the term “sun roof.” Anyway, he is the author of several chapbooks: Avenue C (Scars Publications), Cat People (Scars), The Lives of Rock Stars (TenPagePress), and Tokyo Girls in Science Fiction (NAP). He can be seen at night dancing at Amnesia Ibiza. No, not really. Resolution by Paul Maliszewski Paul Maliszewski is the author of Fakers, a book of essays, and Prayer and Parable, a collection of stories. He is a frequent contributor to kindling. Zimbabwe by Caits Meissner Caits Meissner is a multi-disciplinary storyteller and arts educator. Winner of the OneWorld Poetry Contest, Caits attended the 2008 Pan-African Literary Forum in Ghana where she studied under Yusef Komunyakaa. She has been published in various journals and books, including Saul Williams’ forthcoming anthology, CHORUS. Her well-received music album, The Wolf & Me, was released in May 2010. The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You, a collaborative poetry book with poet Tishon, arrived in January 2012 on the Well&Often imprint, where Caits now serves as Founding Editor. Caits produces the webseries “The Livingroom Sessions,” which creates intimate portraits of artists in their home spaces. Chairs and Dolls by Margarita Meklina Margarita Meklina was born in St. Petersburg, the city of mists and mystery, the cradle of the Revolution and Vladimir Nabokov. She moved to mythical and foggy San Francisco in 1994. A recipient of the Andrei Bely Prize, which enjoys a reputation for honoring dissident writers, and the Russian Prize, awarded by the Yeltsin Foundation, now she has switched to English. After visiting Patagonia, she was inspired to write a Bildungsroman about a boy’s journey from Tsarist Russia to the Argentinean pampas, and she summons all the luck in the world to place it with a publisher. The creature wants to burrow by Frank Menchaca Frank Menchaca is the author of Nicolo G---- and the Days of November and AL. His poems have appeared in Omphalos and Coconut. He also publishes reviews and essays on literature and on digital information. He lives and works in metro Detroit, Michigan. Tray Tables Up by Aaron Morrissey Aaron Morrissey arrived in Washington after studying creative nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh, and quickly found himself charmed by the intimacy of the District. Most recently, he was the editor-in-chief of DCist, where he wrote about anything and everything he could get his hands on —transit, food, sports, music, movies, local media, city hall, blizzards, and the Obama Inauguration, to name a few. He has also contributed to the Washington Post, and takes his bourbon with one ice cube. WINGMAN by Pedro Ponce Pedro Ponce is the author of Homeland: A Panorama in 50 States. His fiction has appeared recently in Arroyo Literary Review, PANK, and the anthologies Art from Art, RE:Telling, and Sudden Fiction Latino. A 2012 NEA fellow in creative writing, he lives in Canton, New York, where he teaches at St. Lawrence University. The Exposure of Learned Thought by David Scheier German born and frijole burrito junkie, David Scheier is a writer and illustrator currently living in Chicago, Illinois. He’s the co-founder of the Buttered Toast Reading Series in El Paso, Texas. His work has appeared in the Rio Grande Review Fall 2009, Whole Wheat (a chapbook) 2008, Exhibition: “All the best,” Sullivan Galleries, Chicago IL 2010-2011. He exists in online form as well at: davidscheier.com The Narcoleptic By Peter Tieryas Liu Peter Tieryas Liu once fell in love with a narcoleptic. Unfortunately, she thought the real him was a dream and the Peter she met in her dreams was the reality. The real and unreal Peter Tieryas Liu have never met, though some of his daydreams and hallucinations have been documented in the Bitter Oleander, Camera Obscura Journal, decomP, the Evergreen Review, and the Indiana Review. His murmurings can be found at tieryas.wordpress.com. If you see him in your dreams, don’t shoot him because he might just want to buy you a pecan-vanilla ice cream shaped like a dragon. Meddling with Dragons by Suzanne van Rooyen Suzanne van Rooyen is a freelance writer and author. Her publishing credits include the cyberpunk novel ‘Dragon’s Teeth’ published by Divertir Publishing, LLC, short stories published by Golden Visions Magazine amongst others, and numerous non-fiction articles published across the globe. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, she prefers writing strange tales of the SpecFic persuasion and playing in the snow. She can be found at suzannevanrooyen.com On the similarities of Haiku and people. by Benjamin Wolfe Benjamin Wolfe is a recent graduate in history (something which informs his writing enormously), and currently lives in London. He has published poems in literary magazines like Sarasvati, Emerge and The New Writer, and is due to appear in his first poetry anthology later this year. He grew up all over the world as an expatriate child, and loved the experience so much that one day he hopes to escape again. | Scaly Skin? Look no further Now I'm not dumb enough to believe that unicorns A small girl from a small town wanted more You're more likely to die from mistakes If there can be only one I shook hands with the Previous Year and asked When they removed her breasts I stand still a white fella listening to the sound of my own hard The line is long and barely moving. Rumors She sells sex in Tokyo's soaplands. Will No more pleasing "The music there all sounds the same to me, My neighbor was a puppeteer specializing in The creature wants to burrow. Or so it What happens on an airplane as it taxis is a The cat knows. The cat always knows. The cat A raccoon reads the Webster Dictionary and A 12-year pact formed by caprice, amalgamating The world ended in a song of fire, breathed Like a haiku, she never said enough, |
