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Karen Rile Chestnut Hill Bookstore Tour In Northwest Philly’s Chestnut Hill, where I’ve lived since 1987, we have an embarrassment of riches: four (count ‘em!) independent bookstores on our 1.5-mile main drag, each store complementing the others with its own distinct flavor and mission. Here’s my weekend walking tour: Multiverse: The first thing you notice when […] The post Philadelphia Book…
A Writing Tip by Michelle Reale MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK Temporal Breakneck Monologue Axis Countenance The above list of inscrutable words — inscrutable at least in how they appear together — represents a deposit that I made in my word bank this week. It joins hundreds of other words that I have collected so […] The post MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK by Michelle Reale appeared first on Cleaver Magazine .
A Writing Tip by Amy Beth Sisson DO THE WRONG THING In an acting workshop I attended recently, the director urged us to perform the scene “wrong” — to inhabit our character in a way that made no sense, that would be absolutely inappropriate. One student played a job applicant in an interview. He performed […] The post DO THE WRONG THING by Amy Beth Sisson appeared first on Cleaver Magazine .
Nonfiction by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle FOREST EUPHORIA: THE ABOUNDING QUEERNESS OF NATURE (Spiegel & Grau) A traditionally formatted, text version of this review is available HERE. Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian was published by Spiegel & Grau in May 2025. Lara Boyle is a […] The post FOREST EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu…
Nonfiction by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle FOREST EUPHORIA: THE ABOUNDING QUEERNESS OF NATURE (Spiegel & Grau) Many people who oppose LGBTQ+ rights argue that queerness is somehow unnatural, but in the essay collection, Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian argues the opposite is true: our existence has […] The post FOREST EUPHORIA…
A Craft Essay by John Sergio BETTERED BY A BOT: A Hopeful Submission, an Immediate Response, and an Existential Crisis Almost immediately after my short story was rejected by one publisher, it was selected and shortlisted by a different one. That, however, offered little consolation. The rejection itself didn’t bother me. Writers are well acquainted […] The post BETTERED BY A BOT: A Hopeful…
A Writing Tip by Bob McNeil POEMS WITH PURPOSE Throughout history, numerous luminaries in every art form have given their talents to improve existence. Their voices helped abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights activists. Some months back, my lung collapsed, and I faced a painful end. Pneumothorax inspired my writing to venture beyond self-aggrandizement. From the […] The post POEMS WITH…
Fiction by Munir Hachemi translated by Julia Sanches, reviewed by Luke Shuffield MUNIR HACHEMI WALKS THE LINE: THE MULAI IN THE MIDDLE We know dystopian literature when we see it. Utopian, likewise. But is there wiggle room somewhere in the middle? What do we do with tall tales of our fellow humans going about their […] The post THE MULAI by Munir Hachemi, reviewed by Luke Shuffield appeared first…
Flash Nonfiction by Kathryn Ganfield PEOPLE SAY PIT BULLS ARE SWEETHEARTS A woman screams without stopping. Two men in penny loafers leap out of a sedan. Three dogs circle in the street. All pit bulls, two on one. Those infamous jaws doing what hundreds of years of human selection have successfully wrought. Two clamping down […] The post PEOPLE SAY PIT BULLS ARE SWEETHEARTS, by Kathryn Ganfield…
Fiction by Nick KunzeCLOSED ON SUNDAYS While Father Thomas surveyed his sparse Sunday Mass crowd, he thought he smelled chicken. He sniffed. It was faint enough to be dismissed. A phantom smell. Perhaps his guilt was taking aromatic forms. He spread his arms wide in welcome. “The Lord be with you,” Father Thomas said. “And […] The post CLOSED ON SUNDAYS, by Nick Kunze appeared first on Cleaver…
