I met Jessica O’Dwyer when we were both MFA students at Antioch University in Los Angeles. I was immediately taken by her kind and giant heart—and her beautiful writing. I am not alone in my regard for Jessica and her work. Mother Mother: A Novel has received much deserved critical acclaim: it has been named the winner…

“What Is a Criminal?” is a collection of essays by people who have knowledge of the U.S. criminal justice system from various perspectives—including people who have been incarcerated, people working in law and law enforcement, and scholarly researchers. It will be published by Routledge in 2022 Read More

There are ghosts in the room. Every room. They’re in the eaves in the attic, the crawlspaces in the basement, the living room, the kitchen, the den. Spirits haunt our lives through memories, the unconscious mind, our genes. Our parents, and their parents before them, gift us with strengths, joys, and pain. It is those…

“If You Think the Way to Learn,” the first poem in Ana Maria Spagna’s Mile Marker Six, takes us right to the heart of this collection: it moves from Spagna’s past to her present, from her childhood home to the land, from what is, to what was, to what can and can never be. Spagna,…

Take two pieces of Wonder Bread, Classic White. Place them side by side on a dessert plate. In a small, black, cast-iron frying pan, toss a healthy slab of butter. Two tablespoons. Three if you dare! Turn the flame on low. While the butter melts, take a paring knife to a Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar. Hold…

Nick Olson, founder and editor in chief of the literary journal (mac)ro(mic), has a new book out, The Brother We Share—an innovative, alternate personal history, based on a true event: Olson’s 2016 suicide attempt, which he thankfully survived. Read More

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What if he had no ribs? No eyes? Saw her beauty with his heart? Read More

Benediction. It’s the smell that does her in. Always the smell. The smell sets her mind spinning,….. Read More 

A Recurring Mistake Is there any other kind? Bless the soul who learns from her first. Not me. I’m a sucker for repetition, even when it hurts. Read More