I am assuming we’ve all survived somewhat intact from the AWP excursion. I’m writing just a few days before the event begins. I’m looking forward to meeting and reuniting with so many of the exceptional writers out there who I know from cyberspace or was lucky enough to read and hang out with last year at Chicago’s convention and many who I admire from afar in the writing cosmos out there. AWP is an insane, hysterical, manic, money-sucking, beer-sucking festival of readings, loading up on books, more readings, more drinking, more books and people, people and more people. I hope you remembered to bring some Advil and a port-a-potty in a backpack. I love Boston and am at this moment fantasizing about some damn good seafood, as well. But, enough of that. If I’m reading this, I’ve made it through. The mid-March issue of Connotation Press is an outstanding cast of exceptional writers.
Our March 15th featured writer is the phenomenal, Tiff Holland. If you haven’t read her chapbook, “Betty Superman,” winner of the Rose Metal Press Fifth Annual Chapbook contest, get a copy. You won’t be able to put it down. We are honored to publish two of her flash stories, “Day Bed,” and “Stealth,” which capture that strange, wonderful mother-daughter relationship in all its weird hybrid forms. The interview with Tiff was a blast and you get to know about her process and what’s ahead for her. Am looking forward to meeting her next week.
Jessica Keener gives us one of the stories from her upcoming collection titled, “Heart.” Learning to trust in a new relationship, especially a long distance one is tough and Keener takes us on this bumpy journey with all its baggage from the past. Beautifully written, as always.
Michael C. Keith delivers a mesmerizing story, “Streams of Consciousness,” that takes us through one man’s dark battle with insomnia that weaves us in and out of his past, present and those fantasies that hit hardest in the middle of a sleepless, tossing, endless night.
Danny Hoey’s heartbreaking story, “She danced, she did,” tells a tale of the secret a mother reveals to her son on her deathbed and the realization that yes, secrets can be kept for a lifetime. Another masterfully woven story. WOW!
Eva Sandoval brings us into a cafe where strangers sometimes have a keener vision of who we are than those we know or they assume too much in her quirky, excellent story “Rose Window.” Great characters!
Jonathan Taylor conducts an exquisite symphony of a story, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Tonight’s Concert Will Commence in Fifteen Minutes,” moving us through a brilliantly structured layering of a relationship that unfurls before us all the way to a magnificent crescendo of an ending. LOVE!
Hope you enjoy these stories as much as I have! Cheers!