Catherine, the devoted band mother in Erica Plouffe Lazure's "Marchers," is a wonderful example of just how affecting strong, straightforward, reliable narration can be. With an admitted pride in her son's accomplishments and an implied annoyance at the petty goings-on of her small-town life in rural North Carolina, Catherine's direct and clear narration makes the stranger elements of the story—Shriners in fezzes and miniature cars, young women bearing the agriculturally themed, honorific … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Erica Plouffe Lazure
Marchers
I knew the first time I saw him marching among the other children, this would be the first of a decade’s worth of parades I’d sit through, cheering, waving, catching float candy for later. Turns out I was right. In the past twelve years, Toby moved from Cub Scouts to soccer to marching band, and now here he is, Mr. Drum Major of Mewborn High School, keeping his classmates lockstep in maroon polyester, proud and strong, arm pumping the pole, leading the way down Main Street. Contrary to what … [Read more...] about Marchers
Online Fiction Interview: Kathleen Founds
In recent months, we've had the very great pleasure of publishing lots of terrific stuff online—and we've covered a lot of ground, topically. From an epistolary piece that used the format of a student evaluation form as its scaffolding to a naturalistic piece about a recently returned veteran and his do-gooder brother-in-law, we've aimed to mix it up in this space. We've taken that to a new extreme this month, as we published "The Wormhole" by Kathleen Founds. It's an epistolary story that … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Kathleen Founds
The Wormhole
Dear Janice Gibbs, Here is my submission to El Giraffe. “Gruesome Horrors to Whisper in the Dusk” is a series of soul-chilling tales containing beneficial lessons for students such as ourselves. I know that you have high expectations and exacting standards: after all, El Giraffe used to be two pages bound with staples, and now that you are Editor-In-Chief, it is fifteen pages bound with string. This year I bet people might start to like it, or even read it, especially if it has tales that glue … [Read more...] about The Wormhole
Online Fiction Interview: Amber Sparks
There are at least as many ways to title a story as there are to write one. An author might conjure up a title that points to a story's symbolic weight ("A Perfect Day for Bananafish," say) while another might employ a seemingly benign phrase ("Family Furnishings") only to have it churn and reverberate in the mind of a reader throughout the reading experience. And then there are the deceptively simple titles like Cheever's "The Swimmer," which, yes, is literally about a swimmer, but that doesn't … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Amber Sparks
The Janitor in Space
The janitor makes her way through the hallway with purpose, suctioning space dust and human debris from crevices of the space station. She is good at her job. She can push off from the walls in a steady trajectory without even looking; her eyes are always on the windows and the impossibly bright stars beyond. The astronauts are good but unclean, thinks the space janitor. Like the astronaut who left liquid salt floating in little globs all over the kitchen today. Like the lady astronauts who … [Read more...] about The Janitor in Space