| Featured Book |
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| Just West of Famous |
| Charles Baxter doesn't pull any punches when he answers Lisa Coutant's questions in this month's author interview.
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| In this issue: |
An encore poem from Gol McAdam
Claire Litton's amazing Authenticity Leads
A collection of poetry from Craig Kirchner
New fiction from Maria Pollack and Josh Stewart
Plus great poetry from Corie Feiner, Gary Wilkins, and Sherry Pasquerello |
| Coming Next Month |
Anne Frasier has some fresh ideas about how to boost her book sales,
Ron Hogan is the ultimate literary insider - and next month he's going to take the Picolata Review into his world for an exclusive look around.
Plus:More great poetry, short fiction, and features. Enough great writing to satisfy any literary palate.
Want to submit to The Picolata Review? Send your submissions and queries to submissions@picolatareview.org
Complete guidelines can be found here. |
| The Picolata Review |
Managing Editor Mark Pettus is a full time journalist in St. Augustine, Florida, and author of the novel, Transit Gloria
Features Editor Lisa Coutant is a consultant, former writer for the Philadelphia Theatre Review, and a fiction writer. She is also Vice President of the professional writing group, Pennwriters.
Poetry Editor Andy H-H., is a poet who lives in the beautiful countryside of West Yorkshire
with his partner and a menagerie of pets (a sheep occasionally stares in through the kitchen window), in a home surrounded by literary history. Ted Hughes was born there, Sylvia Plath is buried nearby, and first Emily Bronte, then Kate
Bush, made a certain stretch of desolate land five minutes' walk away very famous indeed.
Fiction Editor Serenity Banks's day job is as an industry magazine editor. She also writes an online sex-advice column, and is trying to find an agent for her latest horror novel.
The Picolata Review is a monthly online publication, and a place to find emerging writers and poets. We welcome you, and hope we'll see you again. If you forget our address, look for us just a little west of famous. |
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| Volume 1, Number 2 August, 2006 |
| A collection of poetry by Craig Kirchner |
Aperitif
Great art is inspired
by the sub-conscious
she nonchalantly mused,
lying naked on
the pink comforter,
sipping Pastis and water,
head propped on her palms,
a tiny glowing sphinx,
reading poems
with Cleopatra lips.
I half listen,
knowing the words,
knees at her waist,
molding child-like
cleavages with id,
tracing illusions in
firm, tan sand of spine.
Rehearsal
People took to us,
but whispered.
We talked to everyone.
No anxiety. Free,
reaching like new blooms
in Indian summer sun.
We feigned opera
in leather jackets,
drank cranberry cordial
from plastic cups.
Cross-dressed at gay bars,
played Halloween,
rarely made it to the bed
when we’d get home.
We painted faces,
pressed your breasts
against canvas
and called it art.
Watching pleasure,
mouthing pleasure,
knowing the play was us,
the season was short,
running through leaves
of contempt, from eyes
that have no autumn.
Clementine and Cleopatra
In the middle of the sale
she fell dead asleep.
There was a chance of showers
so I let her rest - no toothbrush,
and now it's noticed no umbrella,
just the set of new encyclopedias
on the coffee table
opened to the 'C's.
Perhaps a stepmother cruelly treated her,
forced her to sell to exhaustion -
now she naps - a petite princess, maybe a 5 and a half,
looking magically submissive,
trusting her new customer
like one would a godmother
and obviously the weather.
When she awakes I'll introduce her
to my neighbor - a psych major - he's her age,
single and has a foot fetish.
I'll make sure she leaves
a navy pump in his room
so that he can find her right foot
and determine the dynamics
of her dysfunctional domicile.
I know he'll fall in love -
he always does -
and perhaps marry our door-to-door coquette,
piss off the stepsisters, get the books for free,
loan them to me until he needs them.
I want to finish the Cinderella story
and am looking forward to
Clementine and Cleopatra.
Editor's note: If you've read my note on Gol McAdam's piece, you already know the editors at the Picolata Review use a blind review process to select the works we publish. They don't know who the author of any piece is until that piece has selected for publication. These three poems were each selected on their own merits, and each had its own champion on the editorial staff.
It's interesting that seen as a group I can find common threads that eluded us when we looked at these poems as part of the larger pool of submissions. More interesting I think is the divergent emotions the poet draws from. I hope seeing this collection together won't dilute the power of the these three poems. We loved them. I hope you do too. Mark Pettus, Managing Editor
Craig Kirchner lives and works as a consultant in the Mid-Atlantic. His works have appeared in journals including Slow Trains, Lily, Erosha, Thunder Sandwich, 3 AM MAGAZINE, Adagio, Triplopia and Laura Hird. Craig has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. |
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