From the Editors
Dear Reader,
Phillip Mandel & Michaela Hansen
You should never be writing for someone; only write for yourself.
Review
How to Travel Without Seeing
A Review of Andrés Neuman’s How to Travel Without Seeing
So, what then, is the point of traveling, if where we visit is not much different from where we left?
Interview
Calling Patient Zero
An Interview with Tomás Morín
I’m a narrative poet with lyric inclinations so it’s no surprise my poems contain stories.
Nonfiction
Repeat
Jessica Smith
There is a repetition compulsion threaded through the hard work of grieving.
Fiction
Every Version of Me
Ashley Morrow Hermsmeier
I know it’s Me even though I don’t recognize Myself
Review
8th Street Power & Light
A Review of Eric Shonkwiler’s 8th Street Power & Light
By evening the clouds had thinned, and it was cold
Review
2084: The End of the World
A Review of Boualem Sansal’s 2084: The End of the World
It’s a somber but beautiful opening that functions as a kind of promise.
Nonfiction
A Good Laugh
Jeremy Griffin
Every last one of them had a cigarette smoldering between their fingers.
Interview
All They Will Call You
An Interview with Tim Hernandez
I think that’s one of the most basic and powerful functions of good art, it invites people to make their own meaning.
Review
Unbearable Splendor
A Review of Sun Yung Shin’s Unbearable Splendor
Shin’s ability to shift directions and perspectives quickly, to zoom in and out to the micro and macro, is hypnotizing.
Poetry
I Am Alive, Skidding
Eve Kenneally
crush. Pitchforked in a salt-worn dream anchor. This space:
Review
From the Vault: The Exes
From the Vault: Phillip Mandel Reviews Pagan Kennedy’s The Exes (1998)
But the drama of drink-and-drug addled artists smashing together for a few years of their lives is timeless.
Fiction
Footwork
Steven Ramirez
I ever tell you the one about the vato who left the desert to go buy sand?
Poetry
A Flash Interview with Stephen Dunn
Andrew Hincapie Talks With Stephen Dunn
It’s no surprise that some poems are difficult, but difficulty is often overrated.