Category: Past Issues

SCR Issue 55.1 includes poetry by Ifeoluwa Ayandele and Elizabeth Erin Smith, with fiction by Glenn Bertram and Banzelman Guret, a translation by Maria José Caro, and a book review by Miriam McEwen.

Contents

Poetry

1 EVELYN OLMOS House of Mirrors

5 KATE GASKIN Multiverse with Boybands and Roses; Poem Beginning with a Phrase from Cosmos

9 AZA PACE The Sorceress

19 IFEOLUWA AYANDELE How You Try to Remove the Soil Buried in Your Fingernails

20 BENJAMIN PALOFF Of Cruelty; That Difficulties Augment Our Desires

22 SARAH BROWNING Quarantine, Middle Days

24 DEE MATTHEWS to tell you three things on my mind is to tell you about quarantine and temperance

32 DAVID ANUAR The Health of Insurance; Axial; She Refuses to Die

47 JESSICA POLI Pennsylvania Backwoods Elegy

49 ERNEST O. ÒGÚNYEMÍ About Weaving

59 NYLAH LYMAN The Beds We Make

61 HALSEY HYER Self-portrait as Interrupted Home Alone (1990) Synopsis

62 SHEERE LA PUMA When the Marriage Was Over

74 RODNEY GOMEZ Desert Cold; You Can Build a Person Out of the Desert

85 ISSA M. LEWIS Learning a Foreign Language

86 ADAM TAVEL The Fury of Paintbrushes

87 WILLIAM FARGASON Elegy with Shadows

100 EMILY PAIGE WILSON Vanity

101 ERIN ELIZABETH SMITH When You Ask If I’m Okay; Skin and Bones

104 BEN KLINE Graveside

116 ELLEN JUNE WRIGHT The Egg

117 GAGE SAYLOR Give Me the Trash-Lined Streets of Philly

118 EMMA AYLOR Absent Prayer

128 DAN FLIEGEL The English

Fiction

2 SETH GLECKMAN Sun God

10 RA ‘NIQUA LEE Tread Softly Here

26 MARIA JOSÉ CARO Beirut

35 DANIEL DONAGHY Underpass

50 BANZELMAN GURET A Plan’s a Plan

63 PATRICK DACEY The Queen Sea

76 ALEKSANDAR STEVIC The Dial Tone

89 THEO YUREVITCH Talisman Magic

106 GLENN BERTRAM The Gig

120 RESHMI HEBBAR Remember That I Am Good

Book Reviews

130 MIRIAM MCEWEN Hearing Voices: The Mystery of Shared Grief in Tracey Lien’s All That’s Left Unsaid

133 STEPHEN D. CALDES Why Tell Tales: A Review of Erin Swan’s Walk the Vanished Earth

137 KEEN BUTTERWORTH A Question of Redemption: Gordon Van Ness’ James Dickey: A Literary Life

141 JASON DURHAM Life Without a Net: Keith Flynn’s and Charter Week’s Prosperity Gospel

Contributors

145

SCR Issue 54.2 includes poetry by Domenica Martinello, and Despy Boutris, with fiction by Khem K. Aryal, Gionni Ponce, and Katherine Tunning.

Contents

Poetry

1 GALE MARIE THOMPSON Wind Shear

3 DOMENICA MARTINELLO Power Ballad; There’s a Life Inside My Life

19 ELIZABETH LINDSEY ROGERS Fertility Ballad

22 JUSTIN REED No, I Mean I Really Want You to Live Forever

36 KATIE KEMPLE Before I can write about love

50 LILLIAN BERTRAM Money Rules: A Duplex; Anthropocene Money; Colonizer Money

63 STELLA WONG how the HR department responds to a report

64 DAVE NIELSEN How to Make a Hootenanny Pancake

73 MAYA MARSHALL Girl Born with Cleft Palate Turns Ten, Divines for Water in Her Backyard

77 SEBASTIÁN H. PÁRAMO Sobbing in a U-Haul

78 DEPSY BOUTRIS Falling; Breakup Ghazal

102 GEORGIA TIFFANY To Live in That Room

104 ERIKA. LUCKERT Moules Marinères

114 JEFFREY BEAN Love Poem in Quarantine

116 JANE ZWART Poem With a Hole In It

156 MEL RUTH Ridgeway, VA 2008

Fiction

7 HANNAH FEUSTLE If That’s How You Have To Be

24 STEVE ALMOND I’m Not the Only One

39 A.T. BISESI City Lights

54 KHEM. K. ARYAL Shopping for Glasses

65 DOUG RAMSPECK Omens

74 KATHERINE TUNNING The Sofa

81 DEAN TUCK The Amnesiacs

106 GIONNI PONCE The City to See and Be Seen

117 HARRY GORDON Dust

Book Reviews

128 WALT HUNTER A Necessary Language: Tracy K. Smith’s Such Color

131 AMBER LEE Coming to Terms with American Expression of Race: Connor Towne O’Neill’s Down Along with That Devil’s Bones: A Reckoning with Monuments, Memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy

134 STEPHEN HUNDLEY Daddy’s Rotten Kingdom: Steve Almond’s All the Secrets of the World

Contributors

138

SCR Issue 54.1 includes poetry by Juan Camillo Garza, and Jody Winer, with fiction by Alice Yang, Brock Clarke, and Romina Paredes, and features our Ronald Moran Prize winners Leila Ortiz (Poetry) and Alexandra Watson (Fiction).

Contents

Poetry

1 LEILA ORTIZ Poem in Which a Bird is Never Mentioned

15 JUAN CAMILLO GARZA Lonely Apocalypse of the Heart; The Fisherman

25 JODY WINER Riptide

27 KELSEY CARMODY WORT Postal Service

28 ERIN WILSON Rakes, Kickstands, Freckles; New Moon, Halfway to Winter Solstice

39 G.C. WALDREP The Fern Cliff II (Monazite); The Fern Cliff (III)

41 DARON JOHNSON Mama the Witch Doctor

51 DEVON BALWIT Amanuensis: Notes on Mann’s Doctor Faustus

52 GRACE Q. SONG Donation

64 ALEXIS IVY At the Tejas Rodeo

72 CINDY KING Daily Affirvotions

87 K. IVER Tupelo, MS; [Boy] Meets Them

90 ROBIN GOW rental car; distortion

104 BRIAN CLIFTON It Doesn’t Sound Good At All

119 PJ KRASS Benjamin Franklin’s Returrn

128 ELI COYLE Nocturne

136 TALAL ALYAN Mumbai, 2003

Fiction

3 ALEXANDRA WATSON Even Days

17 CONSTANCE RENFROW Handbook for Demolition Cats

21 BROCK CLARKE Happy Birthday

30 JOSEPHINE SLOYAN Oblivion

42 ROMINA PAREDES Kinstugi

53 STEPHAN ERIK CLARK The Dead Goldfish: A Russian Love Story

65 EVAN J MASSEY Joint Readiness

74 PRISCILLA THOMPSON The Ghost Apple

95 ALICE YANG W*RK

106 KATE KRAUTKRAMER ATS

121 ROBIN VIGFUSSON Going to Hades

131 FRANCIS WALSH How May I Direct Your Call?

Book Reviews

138 MIRIAM MCEWEN Bad Acting: The Many Dark Revelations in Tales the Devil Told Me

140 ANNA BLAKE KEELEY Writing Through the Impossible: Sadie Hoagland’s Strange Children

144 ADRIENNE K. BURRIS “A woman can make a living”:  Heather Herrman’s The Corpse Queen

147 STEVIE EDWARDS Unlearning Shame: Mother Body by Diamond Forde

152 GARY KERLEY Deception, Guilt, and the Search for Racial Redemption in Marlin Barton’s Children of Dust

155 SARAH BLACKMAN The Future Feels Like This: Lance Olsen’s Skin Elegies

Contributors

159

SCR Issue 53.2 includes poetry by Stella Wong, and Sheila Black, with fiction by Marlin Barton, Tracy Lien, and Dany Salvatierra, and features our Ronald Moran Prize winners Lauren Morrow (fiction) and Denise Jarrott (poetry).

CONTENTS

POETRY

1 ELLA FLORES North American Tectonic Plate Realizes It Can Speak, Tries 

11 DENISE JARROTT; Cash Tender Total, Tea Rose Nightgown 

27 HANNAH MARSHALL We Were Naked, We Were Horses 

28 SHEILA BLACK Heartbreak 

37 DIAMOND FORDE Ars Poetica with Snow Globes; Without Hunger 

44 TERRY L. KENNEDY Uneasiness Is What  

45 DANIEL GLEASON My Childen Understand that the Laminator is a Sacred Object 

50 STELLA WONG Pyramid Scheme; Multiple Worlds Interpretation; To Scare Men 

65 LAURA OHLMANN Back to Nineteen Ninety-Four 

79 MARINA GREENFELD Diatoms 

81 DARREN DEMAREE Emily as Soft Answer  

88 ASHLEY ROBLES Procession 

106 SUJASH PURNA Story City  

108 JULIE E. BLOEMEKE After Emily Carr’s The Raven 1928–1929 

112 JOHN SIBLEY WILLIAMS The Moon Is Two Half-Moons Joined Together

120 AMY GAETA ER; Drone 

131 ANNA NEWMAN This or that 

32 BEATRICE SZYMKOWIAK Through the Window Outside my Lungs; Eagle Creek Fire 

142 AMBALILA HEMSELL Hydrangea Blue; Sex in the Anthropocene 

152 ALISHA YI White Morning

152 ALISHA YI White Morning

FICTION

2 JESSE MOTTE Woof Woof, Bow Wow 

16 LAUREN MORROW Bodies of Water

30 DANY SALVATIERRA Pick Up the Phone Right Now 

40 JESSICA LEE RICHARDSON The Game Before Hart Goes 

46 JOE FARLEY To a Band I Loved 

54 TRACEY LIEN Temblors 

66 CASEY MCCONAHAY This Is How You Get There 

82 GARIELLE LUTZ Worsted 

90 MARLIN BARTON Up a River 

109 ELIZABETH KIRSCHNER Make Lasting Friends 

114 JOHN FULTON Winter Drive 

123 ROB SWIGART Floater 

134 DAVID HANSEN Three Welsh Names 

144 CHARLI SPIER Sandwich Architecture 

BOOK REVIEWS

154 JULIA KOETS The Pleasure of Digression: Michael Griffith’s The Speaking Stone: Stories Cemeteries Tell 

157 SKIP EISIMINGER When Light and Dark Merge: John Lane’s Whose Woods These Are  

160 GORDON VAN NESS Touch Without Touch: Julie E. Bloemeke’s Slide to Unlock 

CONTRIBUTORS

163

SCR Issue 53.1 includes fiction by Kevin Wilson and Evan Lavender-Smith, poetry by Lisa Summe and Elsa Cross, and an interview with Toni Jensen, author of Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land.

CONTENTS

POETRY

1 DWAINE RIEVES  Factory
2 OJO TAIYE  Last Rite
14 ALINA STEFANESCU  Artifice
24 LAURA MINOR  Author’s Prayer; In Fractals of Matter on Earth Where Heaven is a Metaphor for Heaven
36 TODD BOSS  Never Done
38 JOHNSON CHEU  What Would I Do Able-Bodied?
65 ELSA CROSS  Footnote; Coda
Translated by SUSAN AYRES
77 LISA SUMME  Regret in X Parts; When I spend the night, first time; At My Grandma’s Funeral I Think Only of My Grandfather
91 TODD DAVIS  What We Died For
92 BRITTON SHURLEY  To Francisco Starks, who Stole my Car from my Driveway, Late One Saturday Night
94 FOX HENRY FRAZIER  Silver-Eyed Lilínabalén’s Enduring Curse Is Thought to Be the Reason that the Caxxinoqi Have Preserved Their Ancient Prohibition Against All Practices of Divination
100 BRADFORD TICE  Our Affairs
117 RONALD DZERIGIAN  After National Public Radio Names Seventeen Dead
118 ALAMGIR HASHMI  Garbage News
127 STEPHEN FELLNER  Second Attempt at a Cantrip for my Mother’s Dementia
128 MICHAEL MALAN  Beside the Waiting River
137 DAVID TROUPES  Then Almost an Unbroken Forest

FICTION

3 ALYSSA NORTHROP  Thanksgiving
16 KEVIN WILSON  The Blue Tiger
26 KOSISO UGWUEZE  Frontier
39 EVAN LAVENDER-SMITH  Letters from Her Piano Teacher
68 AMY KIGER-WILLIAMS  Tybee Island
84 STEPHEN HUNDLEY  Abstinence for Arkansas
97 RAYMOND DEEJ  Matters of Geese
102 KATHERINE ANN DAVIS  Where There Were Cracks
120 ANNA LOWE WEBER  Fault
129 CHRISTINA YANG  Crossing the Bridge

NONFICTION

140 MIRIAM MCEWEN  Carrying Witness: A Conversation with Toni Jensen

BOOK REVIEWS

145 WALT HUNTER  That Was What Life Was Like: David Blair’s Barbarian Seasons
148 TARA JO LENERTZ  Memories Woven in Space and Time: Julia Koet’s The Rib Joint
152 JENNA RICHARD  The Weight of Silence: Lisa Summe’s Say It Hurts
155 JOHN RICHARD SAYLOR  A Very Effable Sadness: John McNally’s The Fear of Everything

CONTRIBUTORS

157

SCR Issue 52.2 includes fiction by James Ulmer and Joshua Jones, along with poetry by Julianna Baggott and Susanne Paola Antonetta.

CONTENTS

POETRY

2 SUSANNE PAOLA ANTONETTA  Clue
5 SASHA FLETCHER  i told you so
15 TRAVIS LAU  Still Life; Recovered: Vegetable Knife
33 JUDITH CODY  Ultrasound of a Poem
34 ISABEL DUARTE-GRAY  A Portion for Foxes
44 JAN C. GROSSMAN  The Decision
46 JULIANNA BAGGOTT  The Facebook is Empty and Sad
58 JAY DESHPANDE  Narrative Comes Easy; Love in Swan
64 J. ALAN NELSON  Time to Fuck Over Romeo
82 LIZ BOWEN  Amnesia; Aphasia
92 MATTHEW LIPPMAN  What Mingus Knew
105 CAROLINE MAUN  Where I Grew Up
117 CHARLOTTE PENCE  Becoming That Adult
118 MICHAEL ROGNER  Vinyl
120 LELAND SEESE  Dress Shoes
135 AVIVA KASOWSKI  Closure

FICTION

6 JAMES ULMER  The Far Hill
18 JOSHUA JONES  The Long-Distance Runner
36 BRENDAN GILLEN  What Goes Up
48 JENNY ROBERTSON  Ground Truth
60 SARAH BLACKMAN  The Donora Smog
66 DUSTIN M. HOFFMAN  The First Woman
84 MATTHEW FIANDER  Gizzards and Hearts (Mostly Gizzards)
94 MICHAEL GILLS  Swimmer
106 WILL RADKE  Black and Blue
122 CATHERINE BELL  Outward Bound

NONFICTION

75 MATTHEW VOLLMER  Three Essays

BOOK REVIEWS

136 DORSEY CRAFT  “Butterfly on a Chain”: Maurice Manning’s Railsplitter
141 PRESTON TAYLOR STONE  Toward a Queer/Blind Poetics: Kathi Wolfe’s Love and Kumquats
144 DUSTIN PEARSON  Tommy Pico’s Feed Serves Somthing-for-Everybody Appeal
147 Gary Kerley “All’s Fair in Love and Memoir”: Remembering Pat Conroy

CONTRIBUTORS

153

SCR Issue 52.1 includes fiction by Dean Bakopoulos and Emily Collins, along with poetry by Maurice Manning, and Canese Jarboe.

CONTENTS

POETRY

2   O-JEREMIAH AGBAAKIN  nocturne with the invisible shepherd // or the book of noah
4   SARA WALLACE  Prayer Slid Under the Study Door
10 HOLLY DAY  These Uncharted Wilds; Along the Bay
18 CINDY KING  It’s Either That, or You’re Pregnant Again
20 DAVID BLAIR  At Fenway Park
22 ANTHONY BORRUSO  Suicide Summer
23 LISA RHOADES  The Most Beautiful Migraine in the World
41 LEVI ANDALOU  Three Untitled Poems from the Manuscript “State of the Wards”
59 MAURICE MANNING  White Oak Shadow Half a Mile Away; Frogeyes
62 CANESE JARBOE  Self-Portrait as Disco Ball Missing Tiles; Morning Morning
71 JOHN NIEVES  Counterpoint: Twenty Years
72 RICK MULKEY  Toolbox
74 CAROLINE PARKMAN BARR  For Some Time After
75 HILARY BROWN  Vigil
90 NATHAN SPOON  Sonnet; Buzz Off; The River
100 BRAD JOHNSON  Elegiac Advice Unwanted
101 CECIL MORRIS  At the Diagnosis
102 DIANE R. WIENER  Paradise was consumed
120 RONALD MORAN  Not Only on Sundays

FICTION

6   EMILY ALICE KATZ  Sugar Talk
12 EMILY COLLINS  Marcyland
24 MARY GRIMM  Zane’s Trace
44 DEAN BAKOPOULOS  The Dog
64 JOSÉ SOTOLONGO  The Light in the Woods
76 MONIC DUCTAN  Gullah Babies
94 MATTHEW TURBEVILLE  Run Away with Me
103 EVANGELINE WRIGHT  The House of Forgetting

BOOK REVIEWS

113 EMILY ROSE COLE  Disabled, Queer Pride and Kinship in Laura Hershey: On the Life and Work of an American Master
117 SUSAN TEKULVE  The Dark Heart of Florida: Jon Sealy’s The Edge of America
121 Announcement of Ronald Moran Prize in Fiction and Poetry

CONTRIBUTORS

122

CONTENTS

POETRY

1   NICHOLAS MOLBERT  He Didn’t So Much Die
9   KELLY DAVIO  Immunosuppressive Therapy: IV; The Unreal Woman, Post-Operative; The Unreal Woman Asks You To Put Her Suitcase in the Overhead Compartment
34 ROBERT WRIGLEY  It Was in a Meadow
36 ACE BOGGESS  But What Are You Celebrating?
51 JANELLE EFFIWATT  What Happens Yesterday Getting Lost in Snow
52 SOPHIA GALIFIANAKIS  “I love the way you fabricate shit”; White Trash
71 G.C. WALDREP  The Expensive Tooth
82 LISA SUMME  Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board; Selfie as a Dyke
85 JUAN MORALES  Dogma
86 RAYMOND LUCZAK  Endlessly in Riverside Cemetery
111 JOSHUA ESCOBAR  Orange Roadrunner; Song of Moons
114 KARA KREWER  Alice; Lobster
128 ED MADDEN  Wedding
142 HEATHER LANIER  To the Parent Who Says Her Child’s Disability Isn’t in the Natural Order of Things
144 JOSEPH LANDI  Explain Those Little Tricks

FICTION

3   ALIX OHLIN  You Never Know
23 GEORGE SINGLETON  Everything’s Wild
39 ERIN SWAN  You Won’t Be Sorry
57 SADIE HOAGLAND  Extra Patriotic
73 SARAH DOMET  What My Sister Took
109 JULIO DURÁN  A Sign
117 ANDREW SIEGRIST  Satellites
131 K.C. VANCE  Timshare
147 HENRY GOLDKAMP  Love Story

NONFICTION

70 SUSAN TEKULVE  Graves at Poor Clare’s Monastery
89 MICHAEL GRIFFITH  Death’s Taxicab
155 RICH IVES  On the Inability to Make Decisions; On the Day of the Election

INTERVIEW

158 SARAH BLACKMAN  Border Crossings: A Conversation with Alix Ohlin

BOOK REVIEWS

164 RON MCFARLAND  Resonant Poetics: Geffrey Davis’s Night Angler
168 KATHI WOLFE  Dear Body: Kelly Davio’s The Book of the Unreal Woman
172 ANDREW LEMONS  Essays in a Emergency: Matthew Vollmer’s Permanent Exhibit
176 NANCY SWANSON Recipe for Southern Gumbo: George Singleton’s Staff Picks
178 AMY BORDERS  Holy Fire: Shobha Rao’s Girls Burn Brighter
183 WALT HUNTER  Inventing Appalachia: Meredith McCarroll’s Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film

CONTRIBUTORS

187

CONTENTS

POETRY

1 EMILY ROSE COLE Love Poem to Myself
13  SANDRA BEASLEY  We Got an A-; But You Know What I Mean
23 WILLIAM VIRGIL DAVIS  An Afternoon Thunderstorm
24 MATTHEW GUENETTE  I Too Have Been Unfaithful
32 CADE LEEBRON  Even My Hair Tie Is Sparkly, Asshole; In Winter
43 JEAN-MARK SENS  Brother Wolf
49 JUDITH SAUNDERS  Iris
50 GUY BEINING  Case
55 SARA J. GROSSMAN  Disabled Girl as Water Queen; Disability Impact Statement
82 KATHERINE WILLIAMS  The Book of Geoff
90 RAY MCMANUS  In the Museum of Men and Their Machines; Homo Habitus

FICTION

2    SHOBHA RAO  Bunny
15  KEVIN BARRY  Old Stock
25 DOUG RAMSPECK  Balloon
34 AMY STUBER  Astrology for Everyone
44 RON RASH  The Eagle
51 GEORGE CHOUNDAS  Of Satisfaction and the Lying Sun
58 L. DAVIS  Love in the Time of Non-Euclidean Geometry
66 OINDRILA MUKHERJEE  Roommates
85 JOSH RANDALL  Something Vulnerable
95 CAROL DUNBAR  Last Gleaning

INTERVIEW

110 LEE MORRISSEY  Comedy is the Great Consolation: An Interview with Kevin Barry

BOOK REVIEWS

119 DAVID FARLEY  Mapping Modern Landscapes of the Body
123 DAN LEACH  A Lowcountry Gumbo
126 ANGELINA OBERDAN  Other Voices, Other Bodies

CONTRIBUTORS

130

CONTENTS

1 Wayne Chapman Dedication

POETRY

5 Richard Garcia Katherine
12 David Mohan Hat
13  Jody Winer Bed
38 Jonathan Greenhause A New Attitude; Do not go gently
56 Carrie Shipers Preparing to Leave the Hospital: A Beginner’s Guide
58 Michael Waters Madam Marie
59 Doug Ramspeck Aubade, with Entropy
78 Lisa Hase-Jackson It Happened at Southbrook
79 JC Reilly Time Machine
96 D. Gilson The Hardy Boys & The Church of Bones
97 Derek Mong Lightning 4; Lightning 6
112 Gilbert Allen Belief
113 Scott Withiam Grace

FICTION

6 Carolyn Oliver How Vivian Vaughan Lost the Night Sky
14 John McNally The Fear of Everything
23 Bernard Grant The Gap Between Us
41 Daniel Paul Love (in Airplane Mode)
60 Becky Adnot-Haynes If You Let the Body Lead
81 Lance Olsen grammar : the clatter of time
84 Jacqueline Guidry Golden Then Gone
99 David Jacobs Project Bliss
114 Eric Rasmussen Borrowed Cars

ESSAYS

123 J.D. Ho When Pittsburgh Comes Tumbling Down
131 Gordon Van Ness “A certain starstruck quality”: The Curious Relationship of John Updike and James Dickey

BOOK REVIEWS

144 Jane Hill The Reconstructed Lives of Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach
149 Lee Morrissey Two Perspectives on the
Enlightenment in Ireland: Material and Intellectual
155 Skip Eisiminger Equipped for When the Lightning Strikes

CONTRIBUTORS 158