“If we wanted something we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad believe me they never complained again.” —Henry Hill from the movie Goodfellas In the heart of Manhattan’s Little Italy violent men whose... Read More

“Running your own small business is fun and not too difficult especially if you are an artist because you already have what it takes to be successful” Virginia C. Green writes. Green’s book is filled with both encouragement and... Read More

In "The Pets" (Open Letter Books/University of Nebraska Press, 978-1-934824-01-6), Icelandic writer Bragi Ólafsson gives us Emil Halldorsson, who experiences a similar dislocation in a more contemporary setting and without the drastic... Read More

Joe Carmichiel doesn’t need to read the newspaper or watch the evening news to learn about the distressing state of America’s youth. As a high school English teacher, he gets daily, up-close views of students who are completely inept... Read More

"The Freedom Business" (Wordsong, 978-1-932425-57-4) is a cross of forms encompassing an original narrative transcribed from a 1798 manuscript by the one-time slave Venture Smith, poems from Newberry Honor author Marilyn Nelson, and art... Read More

As a boy in 1930’s Wisconsin, Jim Lovell spent his free time reading stories about astronauts and mysterious planets. Forty years later, Jim would find himself in the midst of a real-life space adventure that held the entire world... Read More

Music makes the world go ‘round. Readers of the “Oxford American,” a magazine of all things Southern, have felt for years that they have been the center of that world. It is the steamy South, after all, which has been the source of... Read More

If stories were songs, then "One Dog Happy" would surely be the most hummable of short fiction. Not just because the title story uses music—a minister croons “Make Someone Happy” to an incontinent beagle saved from the pound (and,... Read More