Mud Season Review
Katie Stromme interviews
Andrew Maynard
Our nonfiction co-editor Katie Stromme recently had this exchange with Andrew Maynard, our Issue #24 featured nonfiction author. Here’s what he had to say about his serendipitous start to writing nonfiction, his typical work habits, and the genesis of his essay “Reservation”… Read more
Natasha Mieszkowski interviews
Brent Fisk
Our fiction co-editor Natasha Mieszkowski recently had this exchange with Brent Fisk, our Issue #24 featured fiction author. Here’s what he had to say about exploring human complexity in his story “Victory Garden,” his approach to writing and revising, and the authors who have moved and inspired him…. Read more
Erin Post interviews
John Manuel Arias
Our poetry co-editor Erin Post recently had this exchange with John Manuel Arias, our Issue #24 featured poet. Here’s what he had to say about his process of writing to music, his use of research in conceiving and crafting poems, and the role poetry plays in connecting us to our feelings…. Read more
Reservation
By Andrew Maynard
I’ve seen tumbleweed before, but never this massive. They look like clumps of wicker, like loosely bundled strands of barbwire, somersaulting viciously across the asphalt and shrinking into the shrub-covered desert. “Goddamn,” my father says, squinting out the passenger window of my truck. “They’re not even this big in Westerns….”
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COFFY AND LA CUMPARSITA
By John Manuel Arias
tonight she feltches battery acid into his missing eyes
he wriggles like a baby bird
mid orgasm and blurts out I’ve just made love
to a shotgun because she’s
sawed off at the waist
he’s a magician
he’s the one who’s done this to her…
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Victory Garden
By Brent Fisk
When I’m working in the garden in the heat of August, ripping out the plants that failed to thrive, I think of my grandmother under her straw hat, her small trowel in her hand and a red bandana knotted at her throat. She was partial to shade-lovers—hostas, creeping Jenny, and coral bells…
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Featured Artist
Lukman Ahmad
Most of Lukman Ahmad’s works are related to the Kurdish legacy, which is enriched with popular stories and epics. Being a member of one of the largest stateless nations in the world, Lukman continuously tries to use render people’s rich heritage into brush strokes…
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