Bøger udgivet af UNDERGROUND VOICES

A collection of short stories from author John Abbott. REVIEWS "Easy to forget all around us are worlds in motion with lives larger or smaller than our own involved in most of the similar intricacies it takes to survive, to live, to struggle, to love, suffer, procreate, laugh or just stand still. What's not so easy is the ability to take all these individual identities and have them stand out in their worlds of activity where normally they might not. John Abbott's ability to allow his characters and their situations to stand out on the page is something one gets in the exchange that takes place between he and his reader. Theft: And Other Tales of Loss and the Working Class masterfully accomplishes the deepest part of this relationship and offers the reader something unique, something apart from the expected, and from the commonplace in the name of a reality running parallel to our own and right before our eyes." - Paul B. Roth, editor & publisher The Bitter "John Abbott's stories remind me of those writers like Chekhov and de Maupassant. They have the same control of language, the same wry affection for their characters, the same understanding of, as Faulkner put, "the human heart in conflict with itself." Every moment of emotion in these stories is earned, and the stories' mastery literally jumps off the page when I read them. The work here is serious without being self-serious, funny without being easy, and always engaging." - Steven Carter, author of I Was Howard Hughes and Famous Writers School "This is a dazzling story collection about ordinary people in extraordinary moments, and Abbott give us these moments, beautifully, in lucid prose." - J.D. Dolan, author of Phoenix: A Brother's Life

15 of the best short stories from author and playwright J.S. Kierland. REVIEWS "J.S. Kierland is that rare writer, one who can deal with both urban and rural themes in masterful fashion. This gift allows him to write about a wide range of disparate characters and settings with astonishing precision and power. His taut prose style, innate sense of drama and ability to look at life in an unflinching but always compassionate way are everywhere in evidence in this remarkable collection of stories." --Willard Manus editor/publisher of lively-arts.com; author of "Mott The Hoople." "In 15, Kierland focuses on the human elements of worlds that have more rust than gold. His stories stand strong because they are so real." --Jeff Provine, author. ABOUT THE AUTHOR A graduate of the Yale school of Drama, J.S. Kierland was founder and director of the Los Angeles Playwright's Group and was Playwright-in-residence at New York Lincoln's Center, Brandeis University and the Los Angeles Actor's Theater. Kierland's original plays have been produced throughout the U.S. and Europe, and his film work includes writing the screenplay for the feature film, "O'Hara's wife, " starring a young Jodie Foster. He has published a novel, edited two books of one-act plays, written two films, and has had over forty publications of his short stories in literary reviews and magazines around the country. This is his first collection of short stories.

A short story collection from Michael C. Keith, master of the near normal and bizarre. "Michael C. Keith's ferocious imagination has been in overdrive, as usual, and the result is his latest book, The Collector of Tears. Each story is like being the passenger in a speeding car driven by a brilliant mad man; an elegant ride, but you don't know where he's taking you!" - Boston Literary Magazine About the Author: Michael C. Keith is the author of more than 20 books on electronic media, among them Talking Radio, Voices in the Purple Haze, Radio Cultures, Signals in the Air, and the classic textbook The Radio Station (now Keith's Radio Station). The recipient of numerous awards in the academic field, he is also the author of dozens of articles and short stories and has served in a variety of editorial positions. In addition, he is the author of an acclaimed memoir--The Next Better Place (screenplay co-written with Cetywa Powell), a young adult novel--Life is Falling Sideways, and six story collections--Of Night and Light, Everything is Epic, Sad Boy, And Through the Trembling Air, Hoag's Object, and The Collector of Tears. He has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and a PEN/O.Henry Award and was a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Award for short fiction anthology and a finalist for the 2013 International Book Award in the "Fiction Visionary" category. www.michaelckeith.com

Contributors: Patti Abbott, Zachary Amendt, James Babbs, Cody Badaracca, Ronan Barbour, Timothy Bearly, James Brown, Kristen Falso-Capaldi, Jamez Chang, Mark Daponte, Jose Hernandez Diaz, R.C. Edrington, Zdravka Evtimova, JeanPaul Ferro, Simon Friel, Mitchell Grabois, Khanh Ha, Rodger Jacobs, Ted Jean, Meg Johnson, Thomas Kearnes, Michael C. Keith, Dennis Kennedy, Mary Krienke, Steven Loton, David Luntz, Jenean McBrearty, Jim Meirose, B.Z. Niditch, Olyn Ozbick, Marc Pietrzykowski, Frederick Pollack, Ken Poyner, D.H. Schleicher, Carter Schwonke, Noel Sloboda, Conor Powers-Smith, Stephanie Smith, George Sparling, Evan W. Stoner, David Synder, Luke Tennis

Guskind was a former Washington Post reporter whose life unraveled after years of heavy drug use. He sustained his drug habit on a string of minimum wage jobs and petty crime. Eventually, he returned to reporting after cleaning himself up. Over a period of two years, Guskind sent Underground Voices "test pages" that he hoped would become his memoir covering the drug years. His memoir never came to fruition but Underground Voices has gathered his "unfinished memoir," hoping it comes close to what he would have wanted.

Underground Voices' 2012 print anthology featuring incredible talent. FICTION Steven Loton, William C. Kilby, D. Keramitas, Daniel Davis, William J. Fedigan, Phillip Gardner, Gary Clifton, Nick Medina, Jo Neace Krause, Christian Riley, Beau Johnson, Timothy Bearly, TT Jax, Scott Neuffer, Ellen Denton POETRY Ken Poyner, Riley Spilman, Steven Gulvezan, Cassandra Dallett, Sara Letourneau, Jonathan Hine, Mary Shanley, Ron D'Alena, Catfish McDaris

Last Train To Noir City: A short story and poetry anthology from Underground Voices

Set in post-war Vietnam, The Demon Who Peddled Longing tells the terrible journey of a nineteen-year-old boy in search of the two brothers who are drifters and who raped and killed his cousin also his girl. It brings together the damned, the unfit, the brave, who succumb by their own doing to the call of fate. Yet their desire to survive and to face life again never dies, so that when someone like the boy who is psychologically damaged by his family tragedy, who no sooner gets his life together after being rescued by a fisherwoman than falls in love with an untouchable girl and finds his life in peril, takes his leave in the end, there is nothing left but a longing in the heart that goes with him. REVIEWS "The Demon Who Peddled Longing takes you on the quest of an insular boy - a quest to avenge his cousin's murder and to win the heart of a fickle woman. His deliverance lies not in the consummation of these goals but in the dignity with which he pursues them. As poetic as Faulkner, as stark as Cormac McCarthy, The Demon Who Peddled Longing is an absorbing read." -James Hanna, "The Sand Hill Review" "Compelling and beautifully written ... a richly accomplished story set in a land still wounded by war." -Stephen Evans, author of "The Marriage of True Minds" "An unnamed protagonist journeys through a Faulknerian dreamscape where redemption arises out of violence and beauty blossoms from the mire of loss. A rare achievement through a mesmerizing rhythm of language. That this novel is an artistic triumph is an understatement." -John M. Gist, "Red Savina Review" ABOUT THE AUTHOR Khanh Ha is the author of Flesh (2012, Black Heron Press). He is a three-time Pushcart nominee and the recipient of Greensboro Review's 2014 ROBERT WATSON LITERARY PRIZE IN FICTION.

Annie Ajami's book store, Faulkner & Friends provides not just a book store but a salon and haven for writers, and a beacon of culture in a run-down neighborhood. But just when the fledgling store seems destined to become financially viable, offering a lifeline to a better future for the destitute characters who have become her adopted family, the shop is plunged into a world of violence and Annie's dream for a literary life falls to ruin, like scattered pages from a broken bookbinding. REVIEWS: "If I didn't know better, I'd swear there's something in the water coming down the river that blooms good writers in New Orleans like magnolia blossoms: Faulkner, Rice, Percy, Toole, etc. And now here's the newest one to squeeze the heart to offer up its secrets. Faulkner & Friends is a wonderful read; that it's set in New Orleans is lagniappe." -- William Greenway, Ph.D., Author of "Everywhere at Once" and "Fishing at the End of the World." "The need to have sympathy for those whom society has left behind, even at personal sacrifice, is key to the novel." --Ruth Latta, author of "The Songcatcher and Me"

A sci-fi novel by Whitney Poole. ABOUT: Sebastian's father is missing. His house is in ruins. He finds the city of his youth changed so much it is almost unrecognizable. All that remains are journal entries about a mystical aleph existing somewhere in the city. In Sebastian's search, he finds that people in the city are losing their memories, only to reappear with entirely new identities and no memory of the past. Worse yet is that Sebastian's memory begins to slip as well... REVIEWS "A young writer finds his chops. It's a wonderful moment to witness." -- Alan Cheuse, book reviewer on NPR "Whitney Poole's writing can only be described as 'magical.' It combines realism and fantasy in a subtle blend that leaves the reader guessing up till the last page. At heart "West" is a mystery story; it is about a son's search for his father, but it is more complex than that. It is an allegory about the times we live in and our unstoppable desire for wealth and power; it is a fusion of Kafka and Roberto Bolano at their best." -- Helon H Ngalabak "Whitney Poole's West is a tremendously engaging novel brimming with deft mystery and surprising revelations. Strong characters along with a fluent and richly textured narrative exposing the foibles of human relationships and the darkness they often inspire will keep the reader thoroughly engrossed from page one to the satisfying finale." -- Michael C. Keith, author of "The Collector of Tears" and "The Near Enough."

"Ad Parnassum" is Nancy Weber's offbeat and eclectic novella, written in 1973. Included are two additional short stories: "Might Have Been" and "A Name For It." REVIEWS "The writing in all three works is rich with action and conflict, and it encourages readers to burrow deeper into the hidden layers of meaning." - Publisher's Weekly "A swift, witty metafiction, Parnassus is life as seen through a kaleidoscope, offering a fresh take on a bright, ever-changing scene." - Kit Reed In Ad Parnassum, Nancy Weber has created a novella that is, on the one hand, entirely ingenious, fascinating and clever and, on the other, profoundly moving. More, she has introduced us to a heroine so singular and compelling that we can only hope that Weber will share her with us again, and soon. How Weber accomplishes this feat is as unique as her heroine. "Ad Parnassum's" extraordinary nonlinear structure (and I will not spoil the surprise by saying more) leads us through a warren of love and sex that are totally separated, sex and love that are complicatedly merged, philosophy where even Eve, Persephone and pomegranates play a role and, yes, cuisine! Weber grasps us, plunks us down in the midst of the early seventies - the age of awakening to free love, restless longing to achieve or at least identify and pursue happiness - and takes us on our heroine's delightful, laugh-out-loud journey where there is no fact, conclusion or conviction that cannot be questioned, controverted or, at the least, finessed. A parting but essential note - try the recipes; they are as delectable as this novella. - Sherri Felt Dratfield "Weber is the pointillist of prose, crafting prismatic fragments of images that resonate in one's soul." - Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of "The Baking Bible." "Nancy Weber excels at whatever she puts her pen to. In her rediscovered work, "Ad Parnassum," dating from 1973, she invented an entirely new style of writing. The reader has to work at unraveling clues, but it's worth it when the pieces of the puzzle come together. There's a double reward, two equally surprising short stories all wrapped up in one package." - Vivian Fancher, Editor, "CEOTraveler.com" ABOUT THE AUTHOR When Nancy Weber was in second grade at Beach Park Elementary School in West Hartford, Connecticut, her poem, "Spring," was published in the sixth grade magazine, causing an elation that shaped her life. If she isn't writing, she's just taking up space. Her books include two slipstream novels, "The Playgroup" and "Brokenhearted"; eight romances under the name Jennifer Rose; a pair of YA novels, "Double Solitaire"; and "The Life Swap," the mostly true story of the glorious mess that came about in 1973 when she tried to become Micki Wrangler while Micki was trying to be her. Nancy wrote the American lyrics for "Seagull: The Musical" with noted Russian composer Alexander Zhurbin. Her pieces on food, sex, travel, and family appear often in www.nycitywoman.com, womensvoicesforchange.org, www.ceotraveler.com, and www.libidoforlife.com. She lives in Greenwich Village, the setting for her next novel, a murder mystery in which lovable swinging seniors are targeted by a repressed food blogger.

The setting for Tsipi Keller's new novel, Nadja on Nadja, is New York City-its neighborhoods, its streets, its people-where "humanity, as if spellbound, is approaching the end of the millennium." Working for a living, Nadja, a girl-woman in her thirties, doesn't delude herself. Corporations, she knows, are dictatorships comprised of many low-level tyrants; she must either subjugate herself, or suffer the consequences. In the words of author Bruce Benderson: "Yet another novelistic feat by Tsipi Keller who tackles the enigmatic social transactions that make us part of the human collective without our ever being able to breach the isolation of the self. Working for a man she detests, Nadja, like a thief, writes a novel on the sly, while contending with other deceptions in her life. Like the rest of us, she is two people: that recognizable and functional social being we show to everyone; and a second self, the intuitive, discerning side of Nadja, delving into a secluded world of true vision." Praise for Tsipi Keller's Previous Novels A Bahamian vacation turns into a nightmarish dreamworld in Tsipi Keller's smart, sly Jackpot. [...] Keller expertly charts Maggie's transformation in this accomplished and oddly gripping novel. Publishers Weekly This marvelously engaging and pleasurable novel is like a cross between watching a sly Eric Rohmer film about the spiritual crisis of vacation and reading a Jean Rhys interior monologue of a woman in extremis. [...] A wickedly readable, psychologically astute and drolly knowing fiction. Phillip Lopate This opaque yet beguiling novel showcases the work of a talented and original writer. Publishers Weekly In her new trilogy, Tsipi Keller is revealed as a superlative psychological novelist. Joshua Cohen About the AuthorNovelist and translator and the author of thirteen books, Tsipi Keller is the recipient of several literary awards, including New York Foundation for the Arts grants, and National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowships. Her work has been compared to the work of Jean Rhys, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Patricia Highsmith, and others.

Van Gogh or the Dawn of It All is a darkly humorous dystopia. It is a parody, simultaneously, of the artistic world and the place of the artist in the world, when the creation no longer embraces the soul and the focal point becomes only for profit. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Petr Merka (1979) is a Czech writer who first released a collection of short stories Telekristus and Mental in 2007; followed by a fairy-tale-like attuned novel Fantasmagoria TV; a collection of short stories Hitler is smiling at you, published in Poland; a graphic novel Van Gogh of the 21st Century, published in Germany; and a collection of bizarre fairy-tale stories Vila Dita. A graphic novel Puberty and Emotions is currently being finalized for release. Petr's creative work is distinctive in a high dose of nonconformity, socially critical subtext, absurdity, and a slightly mystical overtone. Petr belongs to controversial authors who are breaking all literal taboos. David Marcin (1991) is a Slovak comic book artist and illustrator. In 2017, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. David published several short comic stories and illustrations in Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Japan. In collaboration with Petr Merka, he also illustrated the graphic novel Van Gogh of the 21st Century, published in Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Germany. Further, David has collaborated with publishers and clients such as SME, ZumZum Production, Standart Mag, BrAK, and others. David is co-creator of an alternative comic book almanac entitled POMIMO. He currently live and works in Bratislava.

South Jersey, circa 1983: A distinctive sub-region, as if a section of the south or midwest was grafted onto the east coast. Francis, a defrocked college student who has made a mess of both his scholastic career and his life, finds himself back home at the Jersey shore and gainfully employed at a sprawling, subterranean gas station.PETROLEUM TRANSFER ENGINEER is not just Francis's story, but is also the chronicle of a time and place that is slowly disappearing: The farmland, little eateries, and raucous bars giving way to development; the louche resort of Atlantic City morphing into its soulless casino incarnation. Via the pages of PETROLEUM TRANSFER ENGINEER, Francis must navigate a terrain that is simultaneously familiar and off-kilter. And--somehow--he must struggle to piece his life back together. REVIEW"Richard Klin masterfully details... the ramshackle world of a young, part-time New Jersey turnpike gas station attendant--an attendant who sees his place as temporary, a purgatory of sorts, courtesy of his breakdown and and premature departure from the hallowed halls of academe. The pace of the novel flows to a brisk and whimsical beat....the beautiful rhythm of Klin's quick traveling prose and wit....Klin's Petroleum Transfer Engineer balances itself on a satirical seesaw, displaying adept craftwork to maintain the razor's edge. Within the bindings, the reader will find just enough realism to relate to and just enough oddity to entertain." --American Book Review ABOUT RICHARD KLINRichard Klin lives in New York's Hudson Valley. He is the author of Something to Say: Thoughts on Art and Politics in America and Abstract Expressionism For Beginners. His work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and has appeared in the Atlantic, the Brooklyn Rail, the Forward, Akashic Books' "Thursdaze" series, and others.

Everyone is trying to get Ritchie "Redrum" Abruzzi to make a comeback in the boxing game. What they don't know is that he's still fighting, only now in bareknuckle, high-stakes underground matches where the winner comes out with a handful of cash and the loser gets a trip to the hospital, if he's lucky. He's also still struggling in the shadow of his father Ritchie "Bam-Bam" Abruzzi, a former world-champion whose accomplishments dwarf those of his son. To make matters even worse, Ritchie has started receiving threatening letters from the son of a man he killed in the ring more than a decade ago. Throw in an ex-wife always after him for the child support, and an unexpected offer from a mysterious b-movie director in Hollywood to star in a low-budget film, and things are about to get interesting- and quite bloody- for Ritchie "Redrum" Abruzzi.

SYNOPSIS In a remote back country near the Mexican border, Andreas Delmorales, young and disadvantaged, uncovers a terrible crime. Instead of the prompt justice he anticipates, bringing this tragedy to the attention of the law leads to Andreas becoming a pawn in the political schemes of a corrupt and ambitious lawman. THE GOOD DEAD follows Andreas into prison and out again, in pursuit of the man who committed the crime he was convicted of, then after the lawman who framed him. When events overwhelm his careful preparations for revenge, he must escape powerful forces operating on both sides of the law. Fleeing with him are Esperanza Armijo, the niece of the man who framed Andreas, and Matthew Walker, a refugee from the collapse of the American middle class. Three lives driven by loss onto paths that converge in the borderlands. When fate throws them together what they have already lost becomes irrelevant. What they could lose next is all that matters. REVIEWS "Al Sim arrests the reader in this powerfully delivered novel where questions of justice and vengeance jolt the senses. There is a creative maturity to the work that blooms through Sim's lucid and masterful domain of narrative language. The work announces and struggles with themes and experiences that directly confront key problems in American society. And it does so without apology or fear. Readers will be captivated by the intense and complex force that drives The Good Dead." --Roberto Vela Córdova ABOUT THE AUTHOR Thirty-one of Al Sim's short stories have been accepted for publication by journals including The Greensboro Review, The Literary Review, Fourteen Hills, Terrain.org, and Blackbird. The editors at Glimmer Train published "Soledad" and "Get the Can"; gave the latter their Very Short Fiction Award; made him a finalist in three of their competitions; and gave him honorable mention in a fourth. Al Sim has been nominated for a Pushcart by the editors at Press 53. They also published his collection STORIES IN THE OLD STYLE. And he has been a finalist for a Fiction Fellowship from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and was a finalist for the SFWP Literary Awards from the Santa Fe Writers Project. A collection of stories called THE DESERT AT NIGHT was a finalist for the 2010 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction.

"Ralph Bland's talent for words will draw the reader into the passenger seat for a ride-along through the roads of Tennessee, down boulevards of wistful dreams, crazed streets of mischance, and along precipices of bad judgment. And the road home will leave you thinking about every single thing you see or experience in a new way, like a landscape scrubbed clean right after a rainstorm. Super Sport takes you to the heart of its characters and lets you listen in on what life brings to them, with all their regrets and all their hopes, and you will miss those characters when you turn the last page of the book." --Sand Pilarski, Pike Press Editor

The Crater of Orizaba and Other Stories, named a finalist in the Texas Review Press 2014 George Garrett Fiction Prize Competition, surveys regions where marvels are still possible, where confrontations between the local and the outsider succinctly reveal the territorial instincts that define our identities. Populated with wayward pilgrims, high altitude guides, convicts, geologists, urban guerrillas and assorted rogues well-versed in the art of subterfuge, these stories track characters who struggle to improve their lot in life by any means necessary. REVIEW "Powerful writing and exotic locales set the stage for author Bart Bonner to weave intriguing tales and complex characters into this diverse collection of short stories. A beautiful and significant work, always deeply human, Bonner's precisely drawn The Crater of Orizaba carries the reader on a magical, intimate journey to small villages and great cities, the domain of world travelers. Each finely sketched character lingers, their stories luring us to worlds we would rather not leave." - Charles Degelman, author, Gates of Eden, A Bowl Full of Nails

Laura Clarey is unemployed and frustrated when her husband proposes a deal: take a solo vacation to recharge. When she accepts, this wife and mother of one has no way of knowing how it will upend her life; away from her family, she must face the failures of her marriage, the people of her past, and the decisions she has made that haunt her. It is not the first time Laura has run, and as she embarks on her holiday to Turkey, she is emboldened so much that she skips her flight home and boards a bus to the interior of the country, where she will stay for another six months. She tries to keep a tenuous hold on her daughter through phone calls and postcards, and she tries to negotiate with her husband the best she can while forging friendships with Yasemin who Laura finds a job with at a struggling hotel and Paul an expat who she has too much in common with both of whom have made a few deals of their own. As she navigates an unfamiliar landscape and language, Laura works to join what she wants to what she is living, until an accident forces her back to Seattle where she finally must confront the realities of her marriage, including what it means to her to have home and family. REVIEWS "Wendy J. Fox's tough, wise novel tells a poignant story of one woman's struggle to tame the contradictions of family and freedom, habit and impulse, obligation and desire. The Pull of It walks a wire of exquisite tension between the things that pull us home and those that pull us away." -Shawn Vestal, author of Daredevils "Wendy J. Fox tells the story of a woman's sudden escape from her familial life and responsibilities with such attention to the nuances and prickles that it's impossible to look away. The language is crackling-there are so many sentences that get down to the tiniest particles of love and loss, as well as the mute rage of domestic life. There are wonderful notions here about the transcendent aspects of friendship and true presence, especially within the generous arms of another culture; how we are sometimes set adrift by our own conventions, only to be rescued in unknown territories by unexpected allies. The Pull of It is a fascinating, gorgeously written story of what it means to finally find home." -Maria Mutch, author of Know the Night "The Pull of It sneaks up on you. The emotional geography is not uncommon, but the trek through it is anything but ordinary. Wendy J. Fox's understanding of each hill and the wisdom with which she renders the journey makes her book fresh country indeed. Fox's language engages; her insights into how we work, why the trail turns, why the hills wear us down, and how we love despite the long walk is remarkable." -Bruce Holbert, author of The Hour of Lead "The narrator of The Pull of It cannot quiet herself. This "pull" to find agency, to follow her intuition, leads her into situations those who care about her don't understand, situations even we as readers are uncomfortable accepting. Yet, Fox's vision underscores the ways in which women are repeatedly defined by the cultures in which they live and asks us to question our assumptions about what it means to be female." -Polly Buckingham, author of The Expense of a View ABOUT WENDY J. FOX WENDY J. FOX was raised in rural Washington state, and lived in Turkey in the early 2000s. She holds an MFA from The Inland Northwest Center for Writers and is a frequent contributor to literary magazines and blogs. Her debut collection The Seven Stages of Anger and Other Stories won Press 53's 2014 competition for short fiction. She currently resides in Denver, where she is at work on a second novel.

"Amendt's beautiful and incisive prose illuminates how we remember the past, both the good moments and the bad. Liquidating Perry is a captivating read that pulls the reader into an intimate family and doesn't let go." -- Christopher Connor, 2014 AWP Intro Journal Project Winner ABOUT ZACHARY AMENDT Zachary Amendt's short fiction has appeared in anthologies alongside George Saunders, James Brown and Jonathan Ames. He is the author of the story collection STAY (Montag Press Collective, 2014).

"No one writes like Timmy Reed; he has a haunting, unique voice that sticks hard and fast in your head. Miraculous Fauna is freaky in the very best way. You'll glide straight through to the tender and enchanting end." -Jessica Anya Blau, author of The WonderBread Summer and Drinking Closer to Home "Miraculous Fauna is nothing less than a miracle of a novel: beautifully strange and richly moving. Timmy Reed continues to create worlds that I long to get lost in, and this novel is no exception. Start reading, and soon you'll want to get lost in Miraculous Fauna too." - Laura van den Berg, author of Isle of Youth and Find Me "Timmy Reed's sense of detail and description astounds me and makes me jealous, that he threads so much of that through this Miraculous Fauna is nothing short of, well, miraculous. Baby Rachel is a beautiful monster and the novel is full of great compassion. Miraculous Fauna is one of the most fantastic and one of the most fucked up novels I've read in years." - Michael Kimball, author of Big Ray, Us and Dear Everybody

ABOUT > REVIEWS "Watch out. You can get dangerously attached to the people of Tot Thompson's world. Dangerous because the last page WILL COME and you shall realize it's only a book." -Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine and others. "The Beginning Things contains three coming-of-age stories, all of them beautifully told with equal parts toughness and tenderness. Readers will recognize important truths about themselves and their lives as lived through Tot, the pre-teen; Elaine, Tot's single mother, and Dan, Elaine's recently widowed father-in-law. Goodjohn balances each of their stories with dry humor and a strong sense of the importance of both endings and beginnings, as well as the battles and triumphs of the in-betweens. This is a rare book, wound tight as thread around a finger, and as lyrical as everyday things fully realized. I have nothing but praise for its wise and insightful author. Enter the world of The Beginning Things, and you will not want to emerge again until the very last word." -Morgan Callan Rogers, author of Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bunny Goodjohn was born in London in 1960 and moved to the United States in 1999. She is published in both prose and poetry and her books include Sticklebacks and Snow Globes (Permanent Press 2007, Scribe 2008, Centrepolygraph 2008) and Bone Song (Briery Creek Press 2015). She teaches and directs the Writing Program at Randolph College in Lynchburg. www.bagoodjohn.com

RC Edrington's gritty, urban poems. Without shame, without apology.

Short stories and poetry from Underground Voices Magazine. FICTION CONTRIBUTORS Zachary Amendt, D.G. Bracey, Andrew Cusick, Jason Price Everett, Iman Carol Fears, Steven Loton, Eric Victor Neagu, Stephen Raburn, Christian Riley, Garrett Socol, Jasmine Swaney, Declan Tan, Tom Vick, H.V. Whitehead, Patrick Witherell POETRY CONTRIBUTORS Cody Badaracca, Cortney Davis, John Dorsey, James H. Duncan, Robert Laughlin, Cynthia Ruth Lewis Dennis Mahagin, Douglas Polk, Geoff Kagan Trenchard

On The Verge of politics, sex, religion and all other forms of societal mayhem are humorous opinions about the B***S*** cluttering our orifices.

SYNOPSIS>The Dirty Hands screenplay took three years from the written phase until early pre-production. It got a small budget, a big casting director (Mali Finn), and a name attached (Woody Harrelson). And then it fell apart.