THE HOUR WASP by Jay Sheets does the unspeakable. It takes you on a journey, in three sections, through morose, sometimes tragic imagery (the ouroboros rinsed in venom / [flickering] the shape of things unshaped // no silken moments / only that which is always breaking / [something is always / breaking here]), and finds itself, in those melancholy moments of the second section some hint of a truth, of a reason, of hope, or a hope (the hour wasp awakens // &amp; we are the things that take shape / &amp; we let the things without shape take shape), and then, finally, we come to the final section, the send-off, the great, all-encompassing display of universal truths, using similar images, visions Mr. Sheets has experienced himself through dreams and meditations, and gives the reader the sense of understanding, almost accomplishment as she has waded through the dark along with the author and illustrator and come to find a sense of solace, one that may stand the test of time (i see the thousandth star / she looks to the thousandth star / the thousandth star is us // &amp; i wonder if i / or anyone i know should be so lucky / &amp; i light a new fire at the end of myself).

The Hour Wasp

Literature & Fiction

Sheets, Jay

Poetry

April Gloaming Publishing

Welcome to Andermatt County. Hill country. South-central Texas. The residents walk the terrain and feel the air as if in a haze of their own self-interest. The children live in a mystical void of wonder mixed with downtrodden hopes of their lives to come.
In YE SHALL BE AS GODS, meet Emmett Anhalt, a young, curious boy who lives with all women, none of them giving him the time of day, so he embarks on a walk through the brush and woods where he is introduced to the alluring ways of Rex Henry Burr--a serial killer. Emmett and Rex's journeys together are chronicled in this story, along with the lives and hopes and dreams of their victims and other residents of Andermatt County, each with his or her own personal quirks and downfalls.
In HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR BITSY, we are introduced to the proverbial paradise of living in Andermatt County's social circles. Esther Fielding, or bitsy, is turning six years old, and her mother only wishes for her to replace her love for dead squirrels and rodents with a love for dolls and teatimes. But is she doing this solely for herself? Or is Esther already limpidly trudging down the right road?

Andermatt County: Two Parables

Jones, Pam

United States

Aria Viscera

Carter, Kristi

Do you hear them? The witches that whisper in the woods. Do you see them? The birds that gather on the top of the church. Do you taste them? The fruit that lies in her womb. Do you smell them? The smoke tendrils that rise from smoldering ash. Can you touch them? The omens that make up your future. In this poetry collection, Trista Edwards weaves readers through elaborate images-some of terror, some of beauty-that transfix on the things that warn of an entire realm beyond physical sight. Through palm reading, incantations in the night, the blending of body with earth and the ethereal, Spectral Evidence serves as a medium through which one can be delivered, a roadmap to the other side, the guide that lays out connections between where the soul resides now and where the soul will one day make its home.

Spectral Evidence

Edwards, Trista

This story takes place in the Prohibition-era Ozarks. Our introduction to Willie Henderson happens on a train taking him home, at long last, after a one-year stint in prison where he served time for illegally bootlegging and producing the area's finest moonshine. Upon his arrival back into Stone County, he is met by Sheriff Michael Baker, the county's new lawman who has a penchant for dismantling Stone County's storied illegal moonshining industry. Willie arrives home to find his wife, Mabel, lying in bed, sickly, with her and her young son unable to have afforded her needed medicine. With Mabel's health rapidly declining and Willie's breadth of knowledge and talent in shining, Willie is soon left with only one option-to return to his old bootlegging ways. In this highly suspenseful cat-and-mouse Southern thriller, we are taken through a series of chess moves between Willie and his nemesis, Sheriff Michael Baker. Who will outsmart the other? And who will inevitably come out on top?

Old Field Pines

Lindsey, C F

One two three four five six seven eight nine zero. Counting to zero helps Henry make sense of the world. Born with a developmental delay, bright orange hair, and one leg shorter than the other, Henry finds meaning in what he knows to be distinct truths-that life is about being even, that the canal must be finished so that the mules with red saddles will come, and sadly, that the voice in his head of his former abuser, Hiram, must be extinguished. Battling a past of being sexually assaulted, Henry must confront this voice, his inner demon, and conform his mind so that Hiram does not possess him any longer and that he can once again be even. Finding companionship with a couple of the town's children, Henry must draw the line between playing pretend and being the person he is meant to be. In this unusual, yet important tale, we are taken on a journey that bounces between Henry's grotesque truths, we pray alongside him as he scrubs the local church's pews, and we hope, with all our hearts, that Henry will find the light, even after some downfalls, and especially, even in the quiet places.

Even in the Quiet Places

Doyle, Christopher K

In this gripping memoir, we walk alongside MD Marcus as she follows orders, stands in line, and bides her time during a couple stints at a mental health facility. In the halls, she witnesses what it is that those who are deemed "crazy" or "unsafe to themselves or others" are subjected to undertake: group therapy, announcing ridiculous delusions-lying to make it seem like they are ready to go home. Unable to get her shoelaces back until she asks, MD Marcus then lets us into her mind's deepest, darkest secrets. A place that may be too real and honest for some readers to stomach, especially when her mental state becomes most challenged by her sister's cancer diagnosis. But in the truth lies healing, and in healing lies a way forward. By the end, we are ready to travel home with her, at long last, and continue forth, anew and enlightened.

The Superior Act of Presenting Your Teeth to Strangers

Biographies & Memoirs

Marcus MD

Community & Culture

Inside, these poems will take you to a place, an edge, in the midst of the horrors of racial inequity, re George Floyd, and the ensuing attempts of disestablishing the strongholds of racial bias, discrimination, and injustice. C.I. Aki will take you there, show it to you, urge change for the world, then ask, "Is this the sole purpose of Black poetry?" And, reminding you that he is also the multitudes of the "I am," we are given the complete picture of the poet, his job, and his work. Smattered about are poems of love, poems of hope, poems of questioning with some honest, innovative answers too, and we are forced to sit, and think, and listen to the inexorable genius unveiling itself within these words. These poems are monuments, an unrelenting achievement for the modern Black poet's soul. The world is filled with beasts, but they cannot shroud entirely its beauty.

The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast

Aki, C I

In 33 intertwined/separate flash fiction stories, Chiatulah Ameke accomplishes the rare feat of extending the conversations of racial inequity, inequality, and their horror of a not-so-distant cousin, racism itself. Set in the backdrop of a seemingly too-close reality, some in the present and some in the near or far future, Ameke portrays a world in which houses people who do not turn a blind eye to race issues but take action, even violence, to confront a society so deeply rooted in racism.\nWe are shown brief yet climactic clips of these lives, black lives, who can no longer hold in their deep resentment and abhorrence of being pushed into the background, as if to ask the question of not so much why but when, at what point, will the world as a whole take its own serious action against racial issues?\nEven though these stories are masked under the guise of satire, they still hit the mark of demanding action by showing a world where glossed-over voices can no longer be ignored. Take a trip with us and see stories unfold of the first black pope, the second black US president, a group of activists who demand reparations for families of former slaves, letters to police officers and children, and even children themselves fighting for the necessary change that must still be fought for today.\nDo not ignore this book. Open it up and be changed by it.

Black Lives Rising

Ameke, Chiatulah

Humor & Satire

the tides unbroken. the hidden rocks knowing nothing of battlements. the mind its own white room washed by a confluent prayer... "To enter into Dear Excavator," says American Book Award winner Ed Bok Lee, "is to wade into an epic river-part sour dream mash, part metaphysical disquisition, part tinker's time machine, all lifeline to the jugular sublime austral light in the tradition of William Christenberry, James Agee, Whitman, and Chagall." This debut full-length collection from prose-poet Evan D. Williams comprises two dozen pieces selected from literary journals-including Borderlands and The Mud Season Review-and a further two dozen pieces that appear here for the first time. The volume is divided into seven abstractly thematic parts-starting with Maps of the World in Its Becoming and concluding with The Crocodiles Who Look Back Into an Abyss of Time-which are introduced with striking ink drawings by Southwestern outsider artist JC McCarthy. "Somewhere in the middle of this singularly post-Gothic landscape," Lee continues, "you'll awaken to find yourself soaring through an Inner Americana exhumed back to miraculous life by the sheer forces of love and lyricism."

Dear Excavator

Williams, Evan D

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