The velvet ant is not velvet, not ant. It is a wasp, grooved with sting. If scooped into the muzzle of a lizard, the velvet ant (not velvet, not ant) jackhammers. Its whole body is ammunition. They call it cow killer. Yet it is beautiful, too: encased in orange & white thistle. Spotted red & …
We won’t keep you in suspense any longer: In our third installment of excerpts from the “The Engines of Fiction” panel at the 7th Robert and Adele Schiff Fiction Festival (held in April at the University of Cincinnati), we hear from fiction writers Jung Yun, Elizabeth McKenzie, Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, and Catherine Lacey about the concept …
When at lastthe last fires burnt out upon the prairie,trains could be heard passing,mournful as whales. There’s no remedy to beingsecond-rate, I heard the brakeman sayas he & his red light were pulledforever into Missouri. But still I waitedfor you like a radio tower, blinkingquietly in the night. See more poems from Issue 17.1 by …
In the second installment of our video clips from the 7th Robert and Adele Schiff Fiction Festival (held at the University of Cincinnati in April), Jung Yun and Antonio Ruiz-Camacho discuss their approaches to tone.
ROSALIND: They say you are a melancholy fellow.JAQUES: I am so; I do love it better than laughing.—As You Like It Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.—Oscar Levant, An American in Paris Oscar Levant is a melancholy figure, full of barbed wit, self-loathing, and Rhapsody in Blue, which he performed more …
A few weeks ago, the University of Cincinnati sponsored the 7th annual Robert and Adele Schiff Fiction Festival. Even if you weren’t able to join us in person, you can experience the insights of the authors: Over the next two weeks, we’ll post a few excerpts from the panel on “The Engines of Fiction.” Here, …
We’re happy to announce that our sister press, Acre Books, has its first title, A Very Angry Baby, now available for purchase on their website, in print or e-book forms! If you pick one up this week, you’ll get free shipping—sorry, no pacifiers or swaddling blankets included. This fabulous anthology, full of previously unpublished pieces, …
As a slight change of pace from our usual “What We’re Reading” posts, CR volunteer Ben Kleier has chosen to discuss Lana Shuttleworth’s unique artwork, which we’re very excited to have in issue 14.1. Ben is a student in the UC master’s program in professional writing and has been working at the Cincinnati Art Museum …