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Issue # 29 Fall 2013
Table of Contents
Poetry Table of Contents
Fiction Table of
Contents
Nonfiction Table of Contents
Contributors' Notes
Editors for this Issue
Fiction: Lynda Schor
Poetry: Roger Mitchell
Nonfiction: Reamy Jansen
2013 Books from Hamilton Stone Editions
Miguel Antonio Ortiz's novel Parental Sins; James Cervantes' poems, From Mr. Bondo's Unshared Life; Kelly Watt's Camino Meditations
Poetry
Sarah Anderson
Duality
Melt, April
Snowscape
Late August
Nina Bennett
Semper Fi
Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon
Roy Bentley
A Partial Accounting of the Lost Years of Susan Bentley Accompanied by the Lefty Frizell Song “If You’ve Got Money, Honey”
Tally
Ace Boggess
Letter to David Lehman
Letter to the Telemarketing Boss Who Fired Me After Only Three Days
A Light Dusting of Snow
Doug Bolling
Circling the Margins
Remembering
Craig Cotter
I Feel Fine
Slice
Mark DeCarteret
The Fall II
William Doreski
A Black River, A Dark Fall
Your Plumbing Is Such a Tangle
The Turkey Within
George Freek
On a Theme by Aiken
Monet’s Universe
On a Theme by Randall Jarrell
Nels Hanson
Late February
Night Drift
Maureen Kingston
Epithalamium: The Wedding Guestbook
Tricia Knoll
Humming to the Radio
Philip Kobylarz
Filigree
Tulleries of Tulleries
Desmond Kon
v is for virtuality
x is for xyst
David McAleavey
Stump Grinder
Canalettos in Dresden
Bruce McRae
Corporate Jester
Karla Linn Merrifield
Death Comes to the Famous Red Canvas Camp Chair
BZ Niditch
Improvisation
Holly Painter
Heinous
Horror
Impregnable
Joyce Peseroff
Elegy
Bite Force
Cool Story
Roger Pfingston
Blessing
My Mother’s Brace
Brianna Pike
Wigs
Tim Suermondt
World War II
The Soldier in Me
Anne Whitehouse
Readings
Chelsea Whitton
Knowledge
Leonore Wilson
Seat of the Soul
The Peri
FictionRebecca Andem
Girl Fight
Jack Dowling
A Pleasure to Serve
Desirée Jung
In a Hotel Room
Richard Kostelanetz
Lovings
Robyn Ryle
Soil
Yong Takahashi
Memories
John Duncan Talbird
Waiting
It's a Shame That One of Us Has to Die
So Much Snow So Close to Home
Nonfiction
David W. Ricker
Bariolage
Jerry Wemple
The True and Complete Story of Orange
James Ferry
Me. Accident
Terry Barr
Shoes Make the Man
Jim Krosschell
Mr. Harlan's Jacket
Contributors' Notes
Rebecca Andem earned an MFA through the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. Her short fiction has been published in literary magazines such as Upstreet, Petrichor Review, Prick of the Spindle, and The Meadow. She also has three novels in circulation. Currently, she lives in Chengdu, China where she teaches writing at an international high school.
Sarah Anderson is an English teacher at a public high school in southern Maine, where
she currently teaches American Literature and Fiction Writing. She studied English at
Skidmore College and The National University of Ireland in Galway, and earned an
MFA from the Warren Wilson College MFA Program. Originally from the northwest corner of Connecticut, she now lives in Exeter, New Hampshire, with her husband, their two young children, a yellow lab, and some chickens. Sarah’s poems have appeared in The 2008 Poets Guide to New Hampshire, Twin Farms Anthology, Currents V: Seacoast Writers Association Journal, and The Oakland Review.
Terry Barr is a regular contributor to culturemass.com, writing about music and memory. His essays have also appeared in Red Fez, Squalorly, Steel Toe Review, and are forthcoming in Sport Literate, Blue Lyra Review, and Melange Press. He lives in Greenville, SC, with his wife and two daughters and can be found at gtbarr@facebook.com.
Nina Bennett is the author of Forgotten Tears A Grandmother’s Journey Through Grief. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Kansas City Voices, Red Poppy Review, Houseboat, Bryant Literary Review, Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, The Broadkill Review, and American Society: What Poets See. Nina’s chapbook, “Sound Effects,” was published in 2013 by Broadkill Press as part of their Key Poetry Series.
Roy Bentley’s poems are from his manuscript, called “The Pop-up Book of Falling in Love.” Other poems from this book have found their way into North American Review, Shenandoah, Blackbird, Laurel Review, Sou’wester, Pleiades, Guernica and forthcoming in The Southern Review. He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Ohio Arts Council, having published three books: Boy in a Boat (University of Alabama Press), Any One Man (Bottom Dog Books), and The Trouble with a Short Horse in Montana, won the White Pine Press poetry award. A fourth book, Starlight Taxi, received the 2012 Blue Lynx Prize in Poetry and has just been published by Lynx House.
Ace Boggess is author of two collections of poetry: The Prisoners (forthcoming from Brick Road Poetry Press) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, Atlanta Review, RATTLE, River Styx, Southern Humanities Review and many other journals. He currently resides in Charleston, West Virginia.
Doug Bolling’s poetry has appeared widely in literary reviews including Basalt, Italian Americana, Tribeca Poetry Review, Wallace Stevens Journal, Indefinite Space and Blueline among others. Most recently in The Missing Slate with Poet of the Month and interview. He has received four Pushcart nominations, has graduate degrees from the University of Iowa and has taught at several colleges and universities. He currently resides in Flossmoor, Illinois, part of the greater Chicago area.
Craig Cotter was born in 1960 in New York and has lived in California since 1986. His third collection of poetry, CHOPSTIX NUMBERS, is available from Boise State University's Ahsahta Press. Poems from his new manuscript AFTER LUNCH have appeared in Global Tapestry Review, poems-for-all, Poetry New Zealand, Assaracus, Court Green, Eleven Eleven, Euphony, The Antigonish Review & Caliban Online. Twelve of his poems were nominated for Pushcart Prizes 2009-2012. In 2011 his new manuscript, AFTER LUNCH, was a finalist for the National Poetry Series. His website is www.craigcotter.com.
Mark DeCarteret has met up with some luck as of late at BlazeVOX, coconut, Confrontation,Gargoyle, Hunger Mountain, Spillway, St. Petersburg Review, THRUSH, Toad Suck Review and Welter.
William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. His latest book is City of Palms (AA Press, 2012). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell’s Shifting Colors. His fiction, essays, poetry, and reviews have appeared in many journals, including Massachusetts Review, Notre Dame Review, Worcester Review, The Alembic, New England Quarterly, Harvard Review, Modern Philology, Antioch Review, Natural Bridge. He won the 2010 Aesthetica poetry award.
Jack Dowling says: "I was born in New Jersey and came directly to New York City after high school to attend The Cooper Union where I had been granted a scholarship to study art. Upon graduation I moved to Italy where I painted and taught drawing during the summer at the Positano Art Workshop while maintaining an apartment in Rome for two years."On returning to New York City I developed, after a lot of hit and miss, what I wanted to do with paint, a style based on snapshots, mostly my family and then friends. Ivan Karp, then At Leo Castelli Gallery, took a liking to my work and saw to it that I was included in a number of important exhibits. A long protracted legal problem interfered with continuing to paint, and I ended up homeless at the age of 40. With luck I found a spot at Westbeth, the smallest studio, 400 sq. ft.
"For some reason I did want to paint any more. As time passed my itch to make something nagged at me, and I turned to the hardest thing that it was possible for me to do: writing. I learned to love it. I learned to ignore my grammar problem as I wrote, realizing that in the many edits that would follow I would correct the errors. The editing is like polishing a stone and in many ways the favorite part of writing for me because as I work the edit, new inclusions come to mind; scenes broaden out or are clipped.
"I live at Westbeth Artists Housing in the West Village. A 'Profiles in Art' interview on my life as a painter is posted with images at www.westbeth.org. scroll down the right panel."
James Ferry holds an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. His work has appeared in several literary journals including The Fiddleback, Pitkin Review, Heavy Feather Review, and the Citron Review. A lifelong itinerant bachelor, he remains, at forty, single and childless. He has no permanent address, but you can find him here: www.swirlsinthenegativespace.com.
George Freek is a poet/playwright living in Belvidere, IL. His poems have recently appeared in 'Bone Parade'; 'The Missing Slate'; 'The Poydras Review'; 'Boston Poetry Magazine'; 'The Oklahoma Review'; 'Literary Juice'; and 'The Empirical Review'. His plays have recently been produced by The Auburn Players Community Theatre (NY); The Gaspipe Theatre (PA); The Roxbbury Repertory (MA); The Lee Street Theatre (NC); the Complete Theatre Company (NYC); The South Shore Theatre Experience (Long Island NY) and The King's Theatre (Nova Scotia).
Nels Hanson’s fiction received the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan Award
and Pushcart Prize nominations in 2010 and 2012. Stories have appeared in Antioch
Review, Texas Review, Black Warrior Review, Southeast Review, Montreal Review, and
other journals. Poems appeared in Word Riot, Oklahoma Review, Heavy Feather Review,
Meadowlands Review, Citron Review, Ilanot Review, and other magazines, and are in
press at Stone Highway Review, Works & Days, Scintilla, Emerge Literary Journal, and
Hoot & Hare Review.
Desirée Jung is a writer and translator. Her background is in film and literature. She has received her M. F. A in Creative Writing and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. She has published translations and poetry in Exile, The Dirty Goat, Modern Poetry in Translation, The Antagonish Review, Gravel Magazine, The Literary Yard, TreeHouse, among others. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Maureen Kingston is an assistant editor at The Centrifugal Eye. Her poems and prose have
appeared or are forthcoming in Big River Poetry Review, Blue Earth Review, Gargoyle, Gutter
Eloquence Magazine, Rufous City Review, San Pedro River Review, Stone Highway Review,
Tattoo Highway, Terrain.org, and The Untidy Season: An Anthology of Nebraska Women Poets.
One of her prose pieces was recently named to Wigleaf’s Top 50 (Very) Short Fiction list for
2013.
Individual entries on Richard Kostelanetz’s work in several fields appear in various editions of Readers Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers, Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, Contemporary Poets, Contemporary Novelists, Postmodern Fiction, Webster's Dictionary of American Writers, The HarperCollins Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Directory of American Scholars, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in American Art, NNDB.com, Wikipedia.com, and Britannica.com, among other distinguished directories. Otherwise, he survives in New York, where he was born, unemployed and thus overworked.
Tricia Knoll is a Portland, Oregon poet. She has a mild voice disability -- but hums and
sings with great gusto to the radio and while tending a native plant garden. Her poetry and
haiku appear in numerous journals and several anthologies. She is working on a book-length manuscript, “Hum of the Tulip Throat.”
Philip Kobylarz lives in the East Bay of San Francisco. Recent work of his appears or will appear in Tampa Review, Apt, Santa Fe Literary Review, New American Writing, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Salzburg Review and has appeared in Best American Poetry. His book, rues, has recently been published by Blue Light Press of San Francisco, his short story collection and essay/memoire/philosophical travelogue are forthcoming.
The founding editor of Squircle Line Press, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé is the author of the poetry collections, I Didn’t Know Mani Was A Conceptualist, as well as The Arbitrary Sign, forthcoming in 2013. Desmond has also edited more than ten books and co-produced three audio books, several pro bono for nonprofit organizations. Trained in publishing at Stanford, Desmond received his theology masters (world religions) from Harvard and fine arts masters (creative
writing) from Notre Dame. An interdisciplinary artist, Desmond also works in clay, his ceramic works housed in museums and private collections in India, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. He is the recipient of the PEN American Center Shorts Prize, Swale Life Poetry Prize, Cyclamens & Swords Poetry Prize, Stepping Stones Nigeria Poetry Prize, and Little Red Tree International Poetry Prize, among other awards.
David McAleavey’s poetry has appeared in many journals, including Ploughshares, Poetry and The Georgia Review; since early 2010 he has had over a hundred poems and prose poems in Epoch, Poetry Northwest, Denver Quarterly, Birmingham Poetry Review, diode poetry journal, anderbo.com, Stand, Drunken Boat, American Letters & Commentary, and dozens of others. His fifth and most recent book is HUGE HAIKU (317 pp., Chax Press, Tucson, 2005). He teaches literature and creative writing at George Washington University in D.C.
Originally from Niagara Falls Ontario, Pushcart-nominee Bruce McRae is a musician who has spent much of his life in London and British Columbia. He has been published in hundreds of periodicals and anthologies. His first book, The So-Called Sonnets, is available from the Silenced Press website or via Amazon books. To hear his music and view more poems visit his
website: www.bpmcrae.com.
Karla Linn Merrifield has had 400+ poems appear in dozens of publications. Among her ten
published books are her new Lithic Scatter and Other Poems (Mercury Heartlink) and Attaining
Canopy: Amazon Poems (FootHills Publishing). Visit her blog at http://karlalinn.blogspot.com.
B.Z. Niditch is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and teacher. His work is widely published in journals and magazines throughout the world, including: Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art; The Literary Review; Denver Quarterly; Hawaii Review; Le Guepard (France); Kadmos (France); Prism International; Jejune (Czech Republic); Leopold Bloom (Budapest); Antioch Review; and Prairie Schooner, among others. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Holly Painter is a poet and editor who lives with her partner in Singapore and the US. These poems come from Awkwords” a collection of 70 sonnets about awkward words. Holly doesn’t juggle very well, but she’s an excellent teacher.
Joyce Peseroff’s most recent books are Eastern Mountain Time and Simply Lasting: Writers On Jane Kenyon. Her fifth book of poems, Know Thyself, will be published by Carnegie Mellon late next year. She teaches in the MFA Program at UMass Boston.
Roger Pfingston is a retired teacher of English and photography. He has poems in recent issues of Passager, Naugatuck River Review, and Innisfree Poetry Journal. New poems will appear in the fall issues of Poetry East and DMQ Review. His latest chapbook, A Day Marked for Telling, is available from Finishing Line Press.
Brianna Pike lives in Indianapolis where she teaches creative writing and literature at Ivy Tech Community College. She earned her MFA in poetry from Murray State University.
David W. Ricker is a husband, father of four, and shepherd to a small flock of sheep that range over a gloriously rocky patch of earth in Orford, New Hampshire.
Robyn Ryle 's short story in HSR 29 is part of a series of short stories centered around a community garden. She has a short story forthcoming in Pea River Journal and flash fiction pieces in Boston Literary Magazine and WhiskeyPaper.
Tim Suermondt is the author of two full-length collections: TRYING TO HELP THE
ELEPHANT MAN DANCE ( The Backwaters Press, 2007 ) and JUST BEAUTIFUL from
New York Quarterly Books, 2010. He has published poems in Poetry, The Georgia Review,
Blackbird, Able Muse, Prairie Schooner, PANK, Bellevue Literary Review and Stand Magazine
(U.K.) and has poems forthcoming in Mudlark, A Narrow Fellow and Plume Poetry Journal among others. After many years in Queens and Brooklyn, he has moved to Cambridge with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.
Yong Takahashi placed first in the Chattahoochee Valley Writers Conference National Short Story Contest and in the Writer's Digest's Write It Your Way Contest. Her works appear in Cactus Heart, Emerge Literary Journal, River & South Review, Rusty Nail Magazine, and Split Infinitive.
John Duncan Talbird's fiction is forthcoming or has recently appeared in Ploughshares, The Rusty Toque, Ambit, South Carolina Review, and Amoskeog among others. His book of stories with images by Leslie Kerby, A Modicum of Mankind, will be out this fall from Brooklyn publisher Norte Maar. He's held residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and is an English professor at Queensborough Community College in New York City.
Jerry Wemple is the author of three poetry collections: You Can See It from Here (Lotus Press), The Civil War in Baltimore (Word Press), and The Artemas Poems, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. His poems and nonfiction appear in numerous journals and anthologies. He teaches at Bloomsburg University.
Anne Whitehouse’s poetry collections include The Surveyor’s Hand, Blessings and Curses, Bear in Mind, One Sunday Morning, and The Refrain. She is also the author of the novel Fall Love, now available as an e-book from Smashwords and Feedbooks. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and lives in New York City. Her recollections of her childhood during the civil rights movement are available here. See her website at http://www.annewhitehouse.com.
Chelsea Whitton holds an MFA in poetry from The New School. Her poems appear in such places as Cimarron Review, Sixth Finch, Rougarou, Ilk Journal, and Bateau, among others. She lives and works in Manhattan.
Leonore Wilson is on the MFA advisory board of St. Mary's College. She has won fellowships to Villa Montalvo and University of Utah. For twenty years she taught in the Bay Area. Her work has been in such magazines as Quarterly West, Pif, Third Coast, Spiritus, Madison Review, etc.