The Southeast Review Onlinetag:southeastreview.org,2009-06-24://12012-02-02T19:45:56ZThe online companion to The Southeast Review.http://southeastreview.org/images/ser.pngMovable Type Pro 4.34-enAnne Lakewoodtag:southeastreview.org,2012://1.3912012-02-01T04:25:44Z2012-02-02T19:45:56ZWinter 2011 Writing Regimen Contest Winner At the end of every month-long writing regimen for adults, participants are invited to submit up to three of their best regimen-inspired pieces for a chance at publication on southeastreview.org. After sifting through the excellent submissions from this winter's re-run, we chose one poem to display on our website. We are proud to announce that Anne Lakewood is our most recent winner. Anne Lakewood, Winter 2011 WinnerAnne Lakewood was raised in upstate New York and she lives in Northern California. When she’s not working as a hydrogeologist, she enjoys meeting with other writers and attending local writing festivals. In 2006, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from Saint Mary’s College of California. “You Bought a Gun” is her...SEROnline, Winter 2012tag:southeastreview.org,2012://1.3902012-01-01T21:50:28Z2012-02-01T04:36:28ZBook review: Mule by Shane McCraetag:southeastreview.org,2012://1.3892012-01-01T21:19:13Z2012-01-01T23:13:51ZBook Review: When We Danced on Water by Evan Fallenbergtag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3882011-12-31T01:57:14Z2012-01-02T01:31:35ZBook Review: Nox by Anne Carsontag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3872011-12-31T01:39:03Z2012-01-06T03:30:47ZBook Review: tell a pitiful story by Patrick Morantag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3862011-12-31T00:33:07Z2012-01-02T00:46:57ZDessatag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3852011-12-31T00:07:04Z2012-01-01T23:12:57ZWatskytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3842011-12-30T23:09:43Z2012-01-02T02:40:16ZJeanne Larsentag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3832011-12-30T21:10:19Z2012-01-02T02:41:17ZBook Review: Send Me Work by Katherine Karlintag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3822011-12-30T20:13:03Z2012-01-02T00:49:02ZBook Review: About the Dead by Travis Mossottitag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3812011-12-30T19:38:30Z2012-01-01T23:04:56ZNadia Ibrashitag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3802011-11-22T20:57:40Z2011-11-23T04:54:38ZFall 2011 Regimen Contest WinnerJoe Vallesetag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3792011-11-04T22:21:06Z2011-11-04T22:23:37ZKimberly Long Cockroft tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3782011-11-04T22:16:57Z2011-11-04T22:18:45ZAnnah Browning tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3772011-11-04T22:07:59Z2011-11-04T22:14:53ZPhilip Belchertag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3762011-11-04T22:01:34Z2011-11-04T22:05:19ZSitting in the Stands: An Interview with Leslie Epsteintag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3752011-10-21T04:22:07Z2012-01-01T23:03:49ZSEROnline, Fall 2011tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3742011-10-07T17:52:27Z2011-12-08T05:31:15Zmilk #11, 13" x 16" from "Milk Series" (16 paintings total)acrylic on canvas, 2011Rebecca AdamsAdams collects and catalogues vintage stock photography and film stills, which are the source of all her images. Frequently dealing in sequences and series, her work deals with different forms of repetition. She lives in Providence, RI. ***Please join us in congratulating The Southeast Review's 2011 Pushcart Nominees!Volume 29.1Poetry: “Do Not Leave This Box,” by Heather June GibbonsFiction: “White Rabbit,” by Kristin FitzPatrickNonfiction: “What Are the Young Muslims Doing Today?” by Zakariya LoutfiVolume 29.2Poetry: “Fishsuit,” by Charles Harper WebbFiction: “Role Play,” by Douglas SilverNonfiction: “Blood, Brothers,” by Joe Vallese***Our latest issue, 29.2, features poetry by Charles Harper Webb, intricate panoramic art by Echo Miriam Railton, interviews with Leslie Epstein, Mark Halliday,...David Kirbytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3732011-10-05T22:44:38Z2011-10-06T12:45:35ZCynie Corytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3722011-10-05T22:26:41Z2011-10-06T14:01:21ZCynie Cory is the author of American Girl, a collection of poems which was a 2003 New Issues Poetry Prize Selection. Kathryn Harrison says of American Girl, "Cynie Cory’s poems dare to approach the sublime—the sublime in madness, in desire, in grief. Laments, love letters, eulogies—all of these surface in the seascape of American Girl." Her poetry has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, New American Writing, Shade, Verse, and Western Humanities Review. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and earned her Ph.D. at Florida State University. She currently lives in Tallahassee, FL.Listen as she reads some of her recent work. [download]...Book Review: Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronskytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3712011-10-04T00:09:03Z2011-10-06T23:05:24ZAlina Bronsky. Broken Glass Park. Europa Editions, 2010.Reviewed by Darby PriceEvery now and then, a novel comes along that is so authentic, so well-crafted and real, that I can’t stop thinking about it once I’ve read it. Alina Bronsky’s Broken Glass Park is one such book. Stunning and gritty, it balances the tough life of a teenager growing up in the wrong side of Berlin with overarching themes of love and redemption. Bronsky’s protagonist is Sascha Naimann, an intelligent young woman who lives in Berlin's Russian ghetto, a neighborhood called "The Emerald." The world that Sascha inhabits is stark and full of unwelcome realities. Prospects are bleak for people her age: “Most of the people who live around here don’t have any dreams at all,”...Book Review: Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loorytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3702011-10-03T23:27:00Z2011-10-10T18:42:35ZBen Loory. Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day. Penguin, 2011.Reviewed by Micah Dean HicksA collection of fables and magical tales, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day is Ben Loory's first book. It includes forty brief stories and spans about two hundred pages. The last story in the collection, “The TV,” appeared in The New Yorker last April. Though many of these pieces would qualify as flash fiction—they average just a few pages—Loory's stories follow an older form. At times, they have the feel of Hans Christian Andersen's work, if Andersen had lived in a time with UFO and Bigfoot sightings, concrete swimming pools, and television. “The Man Who Went to China” begins with the line, “Once upon a time, a man...Book Review: Ghost Lights by Keith Montesanotag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3692011-10-03T20:28:21Z2011-10-06T23:00:35ZKeith Montesano. Ghost Lights. Dream Horse Press, 2010.Reviewed by John Beardsley@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "ＭＳ 明朝"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; In Ghost Lights, the debut collection by Keith Montesano, the poet pulls us into a charred and soot-blackened world of rust belt decay, where a multitude of lives and their respective indignities are laid on the examination table for the various speakers' consideration and ours. It is a book of meditations and elegies, spun out in vivid and cinematic narrative. Montesano’s poems take in film, music, and news items, as well as personal and public history, recording the...J. Allyn Rossertag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3682011-10-03T16:57:01Z2011-10-06T23:06:15ZBook Review: The Hermit by Laura Solomontag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3672011-10-03T16:39:03Z2011-12-30T20:50:27ZLaura Solomon. The Hermit. Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011.Reviewed by Melinda Kaye WilsonLaura Solomon’s newest collection The Hermit drops its reader into a complicated dreamscape, one in which bats “eat themselves like chicken wings” (14) and “a witch made of sand / returns to the sea” (17). The poems are simultaneously confessional and guarded as they detail the loneliness, anxiety and confusion that their speakers encounter. The title poem expounds on this loneliness yet removes it from the speaker. Solomon writes, “the copper pheasant cries / inconsolably it cries for a mate it cannot find” (4). Rather than predictably discussing suffering in relation to the speaker, Solomon disconnects the heartache from the speaker and attributes it to a bird, allowing both speaker and reader to gain...Book Review: Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jonestag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3652011-09-30T12:13:07Z2011-10-06T22:51:00ZBook Review: The Book of Ten by Susan Woodtag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3642011-09-30T12:09:13Z2011-10-06T22:49:30ZRhythm and Bluestag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3632011-09-30T11:43:41Z2011-10-06T23:07:56ZJohn Casteentag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3622011-09-30T10:32:57Z2011-10-04T17:21:00ZInterviewed by April ManterisJohn Casteen is the author of For the Mountain Laurel (2011) and Free Union (2009), part of the VQR Poetry Series from The University of Georgia Press. His poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Best American Poetry. He teaches at Sweet Briar College, where he founded and directs the Sweet Briar Undergraduate Creative Writing Conference. He lives in Earlysville, Virginia, and serves on the editorial staff of Virginia Quarterly Review.Casteen has contributed prose on gun policy, professional ethics, and environmental policy to Slate.com, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other magazines and newspapers.Read his poem "Rhythm and Blues" Q: Nature, particularly the local landscape, seems vital to your poetry. What is the relationship, for you, between...C Wallace Walker's Comicstag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3612011-09-30T08:44:28Z2011-10-04T17:21:16ZC Wallace Walker began her writing career in fourth grade by sending complaint letters to companies on behalf of her Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking grandmother; writing success in those days came in the form of complimentary new fan blades and coupons for free cat food and cereal. Now she is the author of clever comics, like the ones featured below. She has written obituaries, edited speeches, and is a technical translator. Her professional stature and desirability were inexplicably enhanced by the seizure and confiscation of her passport and visa in the former USSR. She is a member of the Broadneck Writers’ Workshop and an award-winning screenwriter and poet. Her work has appeared in Monkeybicycle, The Copperfield Review and The Little Patuxent Review, among others. She is the...Chris Wiewioratag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3602011-09-13T06:31:12Z2011-09-14T14:36:36ZIf I had to give one word to describe my studies at the University of Central Florida I would use: serendipitous. In the fall of my sophomore year, I took the introduction to creative writing class because my brother, who was an English major, suggested I try it out; in the spring, I entered a poetry workshop because it was the only one available; and at the end of the school year, I was encouraged by a poetry classmate to intern for The Florida Review. I sent an e-mail asking if I could get involved, I was invited to stop by the office, and then I was interviewed for the summer internship by Jeanne Leiby.When I came into The Florida Review office, I had no...Rebecca Hoogstag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3582011-08-31T17:13:11Z2011-08-31T17:15:38Z2011 Poetry Contest WinnerMiss Scarlet She’s tired of all the accusations,all the whodunit, with what, and where.So there’s no Mr. Scarlet to call honey bun,so she wears red, so she might be a whore,but certainly not a murderer. If there’s anything to confess, it’s thatshe fell hard for Plum. He used a word,weapon without a playing piece, to shatterher heart. In the billiards room. Now allshe wants is to ditch this mansion,get a pied-à-terre, a church to solveher sins, and a little mother-of-pearl gunmore delicate than that revolver. Shit,the question should be: who hasn’t done it?...Betsy Densontag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3562011-08-29T21:54:39Z2011-08-29T21:56:30ZBrenna Dixontag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3552011-08-29T21:49:43Z2011-08-29T21:52:29ZChuck Carlisetag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3542011-08-29T21:46:11Z2011-08-29T21:47:23ZMarcela Sulak tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3532011-08-29T21:41:50Z2011-08-29T21:43:16ZJill Bergkamptag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3522011-08-29T21:36:03Z2011-08-29T21:39:09ZF. Daniel Rzicznektag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3512011-08-29T21:15:49Z2011-08-29T21:33:39ZJim Dolsontag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3502011-08-27T16:44:37Z2011-08-27T17:17:49ZSummer 2011 Writing Regimen Contest Winner At the end of every month-long writing regimen for adults, participants are invited to submit up to three of their best regimen-inspired pieces for a chance at publication on southeastreview.org. After sifting through the excellent submissions from this summer's re-run, we chose one prose piece to display on our website. We are proud to announce that Jim Dolson is our most recent winner. Jim Dolson, Summer 2011 WinnerJim Dolson retired from a career in information systems. Now in his mid-60’s, he is pursuing his long latent love of writing. Over the last year he joined his first writers’ group (FSU OLLI), attended his first workshop and attended his first writers’ conference. The 30-Day Writing Regimen was another wonderful learning...Mary Morrissytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3492011-07-11T18:24:28Z2011-10-06T23:09:38ZMelissa Pritchardtag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3482011-07-02T20:22:48Z2011-07-11T18:16:59ZElizabeth Weldtag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3472011-07-02T19:48:56Z2011-07-05T22:03:26ZNat Sobeltag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3462011-07-02T19:26:02Z2011-07-05T22:04:30ZRobin Hemleytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3452011-07-01T20:48:17Z2011-07-01T20:57:56ZRobin Hemley is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on DO-OVER!. He has published seven books, and his stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and many literary magazines and anthologies. Robin received his MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop; he currently directs the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa and lives in Iowa City, IA.Listen as he reads some of his recent work. [download]...Review of Adam Moorad's Oikostag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3442011-07-01T18:43:19Z2011-07-05T21:59:53ZSER Online, Summer 2011tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3432011-06-30T17:50:20Z2011-09-26T20:52:14ZJanice Eidustag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3422011-05-27T20:00:14Z2011-05-27T20:14:33ZJeanne and I called ourselves "The Locked Elbow Girls." This meant that whenever we got together we immediately locked our elbows tight—even before we kissed hello. We did this to symbolize the fact that we were good friends who "had each other's back." Beneath our respective auras of bravado and confidence, we both felt vulnerable and in need of comfort. We had made a commitment to each other. I miss her.—Janice Eidus, author of The Last Jewish Virgin[Read more of In Memoriam for Jeanne Leiby]...William Giralditag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3412011-05-19T20:15:11Z2011-05-19T20:20:42ZC.S. Lewis begins his meditation A Grief Observed with the immortal line, "No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear." My life has been so pervaded by the young dead—my parents, relatives, friends—that you'd think I'd have grown quite accustomed to the news, the phone call in the night, the fanged grief that bites like fear. Why fear? Not because the newly dead put us in mind of our own mortality, the earth that waits for us, our inevitable exit, but because we are afraid of living without that loved one, afraid of the vacuum, of experiencing the world with a new black hole in it. Jeannie's absence is indeed a black hole for me: it has a frightful gravity. We won't...Sean Prentisstag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3402011-05-19T20:05:02Z2011-05-19T20:10:40ZJeanne Leiby did not change my life as a writer, and I only met her once, at AWP Washington D.C., so I can barely claim to know her. But in the fifteen minutes of talking, she was so excited and lively the entire time, so much so that she asked me to consider starting a major project with her once she realized we had similar connections. And by the end of the conversation, she gave me a Southern Review tee shirt to wear (only if I promised to take a photograph of me wearing it and send it to the magazine's website). Jeanne and I never did work on the project. But I did send the Southern Review a photograph of me rock climbing in...John Dufresnetag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3392011-05-16T19:39:05Z2011-05-19T20:11:25ZI expected to see Jeanne Leiby at least twice a year, at AWP and at the Sanibel Island Writers' Conference. Every time we met we picked up our last conversation in mid-sentence. And we weren't finished talking. I don't like this silence. I want my friend back, goddamnit. Jeanne was generous and funny; she was honest, smart, and without pretense. Those of us she left behind will be telling Jeanne Leiby stories to each other for a long, long time.—John Dufresne, author of Requiem, Mass.[Read more of In Memoriam for Jeanne Leiby]...James Claffeytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3372011-05-13T17:53:47Z2011-05-13T18:02:36ZJeanne Leiby changed me as a writer because she told me the unvarnished truth, always. I met with Jeanne frequently in her office at the Old President's House where she edited The Southern Review, and more often than not we'd step outside so she could smoke a cigarette and kvetch about the latest political issue, or the amazing excerpt from Mark Richard's House of Prayer No.2 that she was so proud of publishing in the review and trumping Harper's in the process. Jeanne loved writers. She loved Bonnie Jo Campbell. She loved William Gay. She loved Philip Levine. She loved Janice Eidus. Jeanne hated my metaphors. I hated my metaphors, too. With her guidance I wrote my MFA thesis, a novel. The pages she marked...Review of William Trowbridge's Ship of Fooltag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3362011-05-11T16:42:53Z2011-07-02T22:11:22Z@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoTitle, li.MsoTitle, div.MsoTitle { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: bold; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }William Trowbridge. Ship of Fool. Red Hen Press, 2011. $18.95. reviewed by April Manteris EveryfoolIn his latest collection, Ship of Fool, William Trowbridge paddle-shocks life back into the old metaphor “hell on earth,” and Hell is hilarious. Navigating the peaks and tar pits of how to be a hopeful sap in a hopeless world, Fool takes us on a three part tour of tragic humanity—at least when he’s not busy qualifying for the “X-tra Special...AWP 2011 Post-It Contest Winners and Finaliststag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3352011-05-11T16:25:35Z2011-07-04T20:51:22ZTom DeMarchitag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3342011-05-06T21:03:42Z2011-05-06T21:25:13ZLike a lot of people, the professional relationship I had with Jeanne Leiby eventually evolved into a friendship. So I will miss her as a colleague, of course, but mostly as a friend.The first time I met Jeanne—at the 2005 Miami Book Fair—she was standing behind a table at The Florida Review booth. I mentioned that I was planning my first writers conference. She leaned over the table and said, "Here's my card. We need to talk about getting UCF students there. And we should partner in some way, get The Florida Review there as a significant presence. You need to hold a contest. I can help you organize that. How are you marketing? Okay, here's what you need to do: Launch a marketing campaign...Nick Mainieritag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3332011-05-06T20:34:32Z2011-05-06T21:00:38ZCass Cross -- My Friend, Jill Caputotag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3322011-05-06T00:36:52Z2011-05-06T01:35:39Z I remember Jill asking me once, in a moment of insecurity, if I thought she was a good writer. I said, yes, without a doubt. She asked again, stressing honesty. She wanted to really believe me when I said it. Though I remember her so much for being tough—ballsy, even—there was a fragility to her that surfaced quickly and quietly. I recognized that need to know; I barely had enough courage to voice my own. She was so persistent that day that I ran out of things to say. "Jill, do you think I'm a good writer?" I asked. I was trying to make a point about belief—if I believed her, she should believe me—expecting her to answer immediately, yes, of course. She replied,...Quinn Daltontag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3312011-05-06T00:21:48Z2011-05-06T14:24:48Z In the meantime, here's another Jeanne post from Quinn Dalton: I chose Jeanne Leiby's collection, Downriver, for the Carolina Wren Press contest in 2006. There were other strong entries that year, I remember, but when I started reading her stories, I couldn't stop. Though nothing in them was predictable, the voice felt like one I knew--or it knew me—and I was hooked. Of course, I knew nothing about Jeanne when I was reading her collection. But once I'd made my choice, I was gratified to learn that she had dedicated her life to writing—not just to her own, but to that of students and other writers as a teacher and editor. And when I met her, I understood why The Southern Review had made...Karen R. Tolchintag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3302011-05-06T00:18:25Z2011-05-06T14:30:09ZCaitlin Horrocks tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3292011-05-05T01:12:09Z2011-05-06T14:25:21ZJeanne Leiby changed my life as a writer by scolding me on Facebook. She’d already changed my life once, by accepting my fiction for The Southern Review; three years later, when another editor might have let the story, or me, fade from her memory, Jeanne saw a status update I’d made on Facebook about a meeting. She immediately sent me a private message to tell me to be careful what I posted. My first response was dismay, then even annoyance; I tend to be neurotically circumspect about what I post online, and I worried that Jeanne had received the wrong impression of me. Which was, of course, exactly what she was warning me about. As we messaged back and forth, all was forgiven, and more—“I...April Manteristag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3282011-05-03T20:54:30Z2011-05-06T14:26:02ZJeanne Leiby changed my life as a writer by telling me, upon reading some of my poetry during a visit the first year of my MFA, that she saw flashes of genius. It wasn't flattery. She urged me, without hesitation or a gentle tongue, to begin there, with those moments, because the rest didn't hold up to them. Her honesty and encouragement remain foundational in my revision process, in what I expect from myself and what my poems expect from me. —April Manteris, Poetry PhD student, FSU[Read more of In Memoriam for Jeanne Leiby]...Michael Trammelltag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3272011-05-03T20:42:34Z2011-05-06T00:13:35ZJeanne Leiby changed my life as a writer by ... Showing a buoyant passion for literary journals and the writing life on an editors' panel we co-chaired at a conference several years ago; her zeal helped reawaken my own enthusiasm that had been languishing at that point. Her energy and generosity were always contagious!—Michael Trammell, Editor, Apalachee Review[Read more of In Memoriam for Jeanne Leiby]...Andrew Ervintag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3262011-05-03T20:35:48Z2011-05-06T14:26:32ZJeannie was a visionary editor, someone who painted in strokes broader than anyone else thought were possible. She had big ideas, all the time. —Andrew Ervin, author of Extraordinary RenditionsFor more about Jeanne Leiby, go to [Andrew Ervin's blog].[Read more of In Memoriam for Jeanne Leiby]...Julianna Baggotttag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3252011-05-03T20:24:33Z2011-07-05T22:02:05ZJeanne Leiby changed my life as a writer by ... giving me a hard time for veering from my post as upholding all things literary. I explained that I wasn't interested in that role. I wanted to storm the gates of what has been—for so long—ghettoized as genre. I wanted to get dirty and see what I could do in those worlds with language. Honestly, Jeanne was telling me what I think a lot of people from the literary world would like to tell me—Stop messing around. Get serious. Come back to us with all your muscle. Don't pull any punches. Jeanne had the guts to say what she thought, when others don't. I loved that about her. Admired it deeply. I convinced her that...Katie Cortesetag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3242011-05-03T18:29:58Z2011-09-15T00:18:06Z Jeanne Leiby changed my life as a writer and editor by calling me to tell me my story didn't make it into The Southern Review. There are few editors who call about acceptances and almost none who phone about close calls, but Jeanne was determined to change the way literary journals work. She wanted to use them to forge community. She changed The Southeast Review, at the very least, and I know her example won't stop there.—Katie Cortese, Editor, SER[Read more of In Memoriam for Jeanne Leiby]...Sandy Coomer and Lisa Abelleratag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3232011-05-02T16:57:00Z2011-05-04T14:35:18ZSpring 2011 Writing Regimen Contest Winners At the end of every month-long writing regimen for adults, participants are invited to submit up to three of their best regimen-inspired pieces for a chance at publication on southeastreview.org. After sifting through the excellent submissions from our recent spring regimen, we chose one poem and one prose piece to display on our website. We are proud to announce that Sandy Coomer and Lisa Abellera are our most recent winners.POETRY WINNER: Sandy Coomer Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Sandy Coomer is a...tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3212011-02-01T01:35:29Z2011-02-01T01:36:07ZJennifer Sperry Steinorthtag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3202011-01-18T18:13:24Z2011-01-18T19:13:19ZWinter 2010 Writing Regimen Contest Winner At the end of every month-long writing regimen for adults, participants are invited to submit up to three of their best regimen-inspired pieces for a chance at publication on southeastreview.org. After sifting through many accomplished submissions from the Winter regimen, we chose one poem to display on our website. We are proud to announce that Jennifer Sperry Steinorth is our most recent winner.Jennifer Sperry SteinorthJennifer Sperry Steinorth is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy where she majored in dance. She has a degree in literature with emphases on creative writing and philosophy, and is the vice-chair of Michigan Writers. She pays the piper as a builder/designer in northern Michigan where she lives with her husband and two boys. Her...Book Review: Look! Look! Feathers tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3192011-01-09T03:30:54Z2011-01-09T03:34:23ZSER Online, Winter 2011tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3182011-01-08T17:28:14Z2011-05-13T17:23:23ZReview: Fight For Your Long Daytag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3172011-01-07T23:08:07Z2011-01-08T18:51:46ZReview: The Necessary Marriagetag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3162011-01-07T23:03:04Z2011-01-08T18:50:13ZRick Hilles - "Red Scarf & The Black Briefcase"tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3152011-01-07T22:57:01Z2011-01-08T19:20:39ZReview: Richard Yatestag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3142011-01-07T22:49:59Z2011-01-26T16:36:09ZReview: Everything is Quiet tag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3132011-01-07T22:43:51Z2011-01-26T16:36:54Z Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Cambria","serif";} Everything is Quiet by Kendra Grant Malone Review by Stephen Tully Dierks Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Cambria","serif";} Everything is Quiet is the first print book by Kendra Grant Malone, a poet living in Brooklyn, but her work has been widely published on the Internet, including several e-books. She writes autobiographical poems that seem sincere and very personal. I have had a recurring, irrational thought that she is somehow “the standard” for...Book Review: Wishbone: A Memoir in Fracturestag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3122011-01-07T22:38:00Z2011-01-08T18:45:21ZWishbone: A Memoir in Fracturesby Julie Marie Wade (Colgate University Press, 2010)reviewed by Shelah Woodruff “This is the baptism I remember: full and vigorous immersion: my father lifting me up in his arms, then casting me—long and lean as a baited line—into those harrowing waves. And when I came up for air, breaking (as they say) the surface, I smiled—despite the piercing cold, despite the unstoppable force and its untraceable source—and begged him to throw me back again like a bad catch, like a fish not worthy of nets” (54). Reading Julie Marie Wade's memoir Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures feels just a lot like this. Told, as the title asserts, through pages of fragmented stories and re-membering, Wade's collection pushes the boundaries of the...Book Review: Braziltag:southeastreview.org,2011://1.3112011-01-07T22:19:24Z2011-01-08T17:42:44ZBrazil by Jesse Lee Kercheval Reviewed by Megan Straub Though the title of Jesse Lee Kercheval’s Brazil conjures images of exotic romances in faraway lands, America is the focus of this novella. Or more likely, two characters’ wild ride through what they hope America really is. Neither they nor the readers are quite sure why the journey begins, but this quick read, set in 1988, appropriately begins at the bottom of the map, in Miami. We can sense that Paulo, our narrator, is searching for something, despite his failure to finish even one year of college, in the only city outside Miami that he’s ever been to. He admits that his pay as a bellhop at a middle-of-the-row hotel is enough to keep him grounded...Manoli Kouremetistag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3102010-12-08T18:58:28Z2010-12-08T19:15:01ZWinks Fiction from The Southeast Review Volume 28.2We share two falls. One fall is the autumn after Mom died, those first days just us two in the house. Other fathers had put their sons in Scouts or gotten them jobs shoveling out horse barns, but you set me up with half racks of Milwaukee’s Best in cans. We drank them up together, watched Wildcat basketball, slept on the couch in our clothes. In the morning, you’d go in to Rand McNally, and I’d go to high school, both of us with stinging hangovers. I finally felt a connection, like a thread come loose from your sleeve stretched through town to meet up with mine. I imagined that thread trailing through town past the courthouse and...Evan Hansentag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3092010-12-08T18:44:31Z2010-12-08T18:54:02Z Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} A SUCCESSFUL JOB HUNT BEGINS SOMEWHERE From The Southeast Review Volume 28.2O boredom, let’s get all tarted upand go out drinking. Let’s shaveand do some sit-ups, look at picturesof ourselves when we were young.Let’s put the laundry in and makea sandwich with iceberg lettuceand eat until nothing remainsbut weight in our stomach—a little ballast lest we float throughthe window, the door, our life.Let’s watch fifteen minutes of TV—the election news and hurricanewarning, a list of yesterday’s sportsscores and a...Jackie Davis Martintag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3082010-10-19T18:41:15Z2010-10-19T19:08:33ZFall 2010 Writing Regimen Contest Winner At the end of every month-long writing regimen for adults, participants are invited to submit up to three of their best regimen-inspired pieces for a chance at publication on southeastreview.org. After sifting through many heartfelt and exciting submissions from the Fall regimen, we chose one prose piece to display on our website. We are proud to announce that Jackie Davis Martin is our most recent winner.Jackie Davis MartinJackie Davis Martin’s vocation of teaching literature has consistently blurred into the avocation of reading and writing. Jackie presently teaches at City College of San Francisco, a city where she and her husband pursue Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;...SER Online, October 2010tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3062010-10-05T13:16:49Z2011-01-02T18:07:10ZBook Review: Imperial tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3052010-10-04T01:02:32Z2010-10-09T13:36:05Z 800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Wrestling the Octopus: William T. Vollmann’s Imperial and Biopolitics; or: Rethinking Literary Theory; or: Early Directions in Vollmann Studies by Okla Elliott 1. Imagining I have Eight Arms “As I said, this book forms itself as it goes. Fields, cemeteries, newspapers, and death certificates beguile and delay me; I don’t care that I’ll never finish anything; Imperial will scour them away with its dry winds and the brooms of its five-dollar-an-hour laborers…The desert is real, as are they, but there is no such place as Imperial; and I, who don’t...Book Review: Quotidianatag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3032010-09-26T20:18:57Z2010-10-05T20:17:43ZKate Galetag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3022010-09-26T20:17:50Z2010-10-05T20:26:04ZBook Review: Metrophiliastag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3012010-09-26T20:14:43Z2010-10-05T20:40:47ZBook Review: What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Ustag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.3002010-09-26T20:09:35Z2010-10-05T20:38:13Z Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} reviewed by Michael Beeman What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us By Laura van den Berg Describing the stories in Laura van den Berg's debut collection is like reciting the greatest hits of National Enquirer headlines: Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, a legendary creature haunting the rainy season of Africa, and the mapinguary -the “Sasquatch of Brazil”- all make appearances in this slim volume (only to name a few). One story can be summarized as a college professor witnessing...Rick Hillestag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2992010-09-26T20:08:19Z2011-01-08T19:16:48ZRandall Mann tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2982010-09-26T20:07:41Z2011-01-08T19:13:55ZRobert Boswelltag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2972010-09-26T20:04:52Z2010-10-08T12:29:41ZSheri Parkstag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2962010-09-26T20:03:05Z2010-10-05T20:31:24ZBook Review: Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2942010-09-26T19:51:05Z2010-10-05T20:37:04ZPeter Davis - Poetry! Poetry! Poetry!(Bloof Books, 2010)by Tyler GobbleReview Addressing Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! by Peter Davis Wow. I think you are a stellar book. You made me laugh and cry with both joy and sympathy. With your meta-ness and openness and quirkiness, you are simply wild poems. Everything you do seems purposeful, you book o’ poems you, like you are controlling me. Review Addressing the Two Kinds of People These Poems Seem To Be Addressing It seems to me there are two kinds of people these poems are addressing. One I will call potential validators (academics, colleagues, reviews, journals, etc.), the people that can give some credit to Peter Davis. The other is called “other” like 5 year old boys and trees in autumn....Book Review: Unplugged: My Journey into the Dark World of Video Game Additiontag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2932010-09-26T19:49:26Z2011-01-08T17:40:54ZBook Review: Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2922010-09-26T19:43:25Z2011-01-08T17:37:39ZBook Review: Winter's Journeytag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2912010-09-26T19:39:55Z2011-01-08T17:33:17ZForrest Andersontag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2872010-08-26T19:47:56Z2010-08-27T15:11:47ZI first met Jill Caputo in the summer of 2005 at Ali Baba's, a now-closed hookah bar on Pensacola Street in Tallahassee, Florida. Saleh Assadi, the owner, hosted a weekly reading series for graduate students in the Florida State Creative Writing Program. Thursday nights we would gather to share pita and hummus and listen to our friends read from their work. After, we would sit on the front porch (it was a great front porch), drink pitcher after pitcher of warm beer in the muggy Gulf air, and say things to each other like,"I used to think Lolita was the best novel ever written until I read Pale Fire.""Maybe, but no one can beat Hannah's sentence about feet and uteri.""Nabokov did with two words: picnic—lightning."Simply...Jill Caputo Candlelight Vigil Speech by Shawn Browntag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2902010-08-25T17:25:19Z2010-08-25T17:40:22ZJill Caputo. What can you say about Jill Caputo? Jill, she was one of a kind. From the day she began working for the agency to the last day she signed out, she made sure to tell me, in her own mysterious way, that she was no different than anyone else. From day one I tried to accommodate Jill in every way. I constantly asked her do you need this, do you need that, can I get this, can I get that. She politely told me, "no, I can do it myself." That made me feel so useless. I finally came to realize that Jill was very independent. There were times that I had to be a bit aggressive with my staff about their work...Julianna Baggotttag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2892010-08-24T18:07:31Z2010-08-25T17:21:18ZJill took my Novel Seminar a few years ago. It was an intense group of students, lots of heavy hitters who'd been kicking around novels for years, some of whom already had agents, and lots of publications and awards under their belts, as well as those who were treading into their first novels. There was some jockeying, some tension early on. Let me put it this way. At one point, one student said, "I'll publish a novel before you do." And the other came back, "You want to go right now, mofo." At which point there was a moment of silence. Then I said, "Well, we are already in a circle." Jilll laughed immediately. She had no stop. When a situation deserved a laugh, it...Evan Petersontag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2862010-08-23T19:18:10Z2010-08-25T17:19:00ZJill has always been audacious, fierce, honest, and loving. Suffering a bizarre stroke in childhood, Jill lost most of the movement on one side of her body. This did not stop her from going to graduate school, going to the beach, fighting to be taken seriously as a teacher, having great hair, and writing honest work that neither wallowed in nor shunned self-pity. She was an honest writer and I miss her.We're talking about a woman who showed up to our Politically Incorrect-themed Halloween party dressed up as a disabled prostitute, complete with a cardboard sign that read, "Meals on Wheels." That is how I think of her: bold, funny, daring, and laughing at life's petty unfairness. I think about how she looks like a...John Wangtag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2852010-08-23T19:04:19Z2010-08-25T17:19:44ZBecause I came to FSU after Jill Caputo had finished her coursework I only saw her briefly early on, at department mixers and readings. One of the first things I learned about Jill—via hearsay, as we tend to do in a small academic setting—was that during a workshop of one of her stories the professor had made her cry; but before I could file away that little bit of trivia under something banal and stereotypical I learned this fact: Jill would go on to say that professor was her favorite, because of how he pushed and challenged her. I never did get to spend a lot of time with Jill, but I ran into her frequently while riding around town on my bicycle, seeing her...Celia Leber and Wendy Breuertag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2842010-07-21T04:33:19Z2010-07-21T13:11:48ZSummer 2010 Writing Regimen Contest Winners At the end of every month-long writing regimen for adults, participants are invited to submit up to three of their best regimen-inspired pieces for a chance at publication on southeastreview.org. After sifting through the wide variety of moving, carefully-wrought submissions from our June regimen re-run, we chose one prose piece and one poem to display on our website. We are proud to announce that Celia Leber and Wendy Breuer are our most recent winners.POETRY WINNER: Celia LeberCelia Leber lives in the high desert of Central Oregon, where she practices law and volunteers as a ski patroller. Her work has appeared in the Literary Harvest 2009 Chapbook of the Central Oregon Writers Guild and in Maine Voices: A Celebration of...A Trio of Gulf Coast Poems by Van K. Brocktag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2832010-07-12T04:44:26Z2010-07-19T17:13:30ZVan K. Brock is author of Lightered: New and Collected Poems (2005), Unspeakable Strangers (poems about the Holocaust, 1995), The Window (1981), a chapbook, The Hard Essential Landscape (1979), and other collections. For several decades he was at Florida State University and for a while was co-director of the writing program. He helped found The Southeast Review (then Sundog), International Quarterly (1993-1999), and, in 1973, Anhinga Press, which he directed for 25 years. In 2000, Anhinga Press dedicated Snakebird: 30 Years of Anhinga Poets to Brock and in 2006 named its Florida Poets Series for Brock. His poems from Unspeakable Strangers, (“The Hindenburg” and “This Way to the Gas”) were in the new edition of Charles Fishman’s edition of Blood to Remember: American Poets on...Mare Nostrum tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2812010-07-10T04:31:11Z2010-07-19T05:24:04ZYou want to blame somebody? Fine, good, go for it: BP, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Huey P. Long, Halliburton, the federal Minerals Management Service, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Tea Party—all guilty.Culpability-wise, it’s an embarras de richesse. BP’s so-called “safety protocols” lacked anything identifiable as “safety:" the more you spend on contingency systems, the less money you make. Why fool around with serious disaster plans (such a downer) when the crude’s still gushing and the profits keep piling up and the shareholders are blissed out? Congress capped damages for oil companies at $75 million back in 1990. That was right after the Exxon Valdez slammed into Bligh Reef, spilling 30 million gallons of crude in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Never mind the...Love Letters to the Gulftag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2732010-06-20T00:25:16Z2010-06-24T20:41:07ZI’ve been thinking a lot about Gulf sturgeon lately—these enormous, threatened fish that spawn in the big rivers along the coast. I wrote one of my early short stories about them. Well, a story about a lovesick marine biology student, holed up in an Apalachicola motel while he awaits data for his research project. But it was those sturgeon that came to me first, not my FSU grad student, and it occurs to me that a lot of my work, and much of the work that I enjoy, springs from a similar place. That is, from a desire to shine some light on all that we are losing along the Gulf Coast, as well as all that we have already lost. Threatened wildlife and environs,...Industrial Incidenttag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2762010-06-19T01:38:16Z2010-07-19T07:43:59ZThey suck up ancient creaturesthat ferment beneath the sea.They snare that ooze with cruel drills whiningthrough the stiff Gulf breeze.They want to get it, and sell it, and sell it and sell ituntil it’s all gone.Now our Gulf is an Industrial Incident,please stand back. I know them.They gouge Florida’s ancient dunesthen truck them eastto spread on Miami Beach,which wasn’t a beach,but a mangrove swampwith hidden creatures;a whole world in those leggy roots. They push dry earth into the wet places,execute minnows, frogs,trees, and shady treasures.They smooth it over to hide it good,then build houses on that fake dry place,houses sitting right next to the dry place they dug out, and dug out, and dug outto make it wet. They rip ancient coral from its dark...Wading in the Water: Ode to Dr. Masontag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2782010-06-18T18:46:42Z2010-07-19T07:49:00Z“Wade in the water.Wade in the water, children.Wade in the water.God's gonna trouble the water.”—traditional spiritual Growing up, I spent a lot of my time on Biloxi Beach. When I put my hands over my ears, I hear that wind and water and no other. My identity is so intertwined with that place—those tides and waves, those birds and fish, and the people and culture that attends it—that the most recent disaster feels like a personal assault. That place and I are inexorably connected. Take, for instance, the barrier islands—some in plain sight from the beach, some not—they absorb the brunt of the Gulf’s waves. Because of them, the water of the Mississippi Sound is calm and flat; it looks like a hammered sheet of...The Shining Gulftag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2752010-06-18T01:21:42Z2010-07-19T07:29:33ZThis essay appears in the new anthology, UnspOILed: Writers Speak for Florida's Coast, edited by Susan Cerulean, Janisse Ray, and A. James Wholpart. Learn more about the anthology by visiting UnspOILed.Drought had a choke hold on Tallahassee. The national forest south of town burned out of control most of June. With an evening thunderstorm threatening the festivities at Tom Brown Park, St. George Island seemed a safer bet for fireworks this Fourth of July. God knows my daughter and I needed an outing.“Nice to breathe some fresh air, huh, honey?” I said, watching Lumin stick her feet out the car window as we cruised the familiar route from Tallahassee to St. George: Panacea, Ochlocknee Bay, St. Teresa, Carrabelle, each town like a native wildflower Normal...Hidden Springtag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2742010-06-18T01:11:30Z2010-06-24T19:17:39ZIt was July in the Florida heat when I found a hidden spring off of the Weeki Wachee River, one of many tributaries feeding into the Gulf of Mexico. I wasn’t more than eleven years old but I felt like a conquistador. I crept carefully through the overgrowth that hid the spring so as to not leave a path to my treasure. A solitary boulder jutted out of the crystal clear pool, tempting me to swim to it.The water, on the other hand, stayed sixty-eight degrees year round. On a hundred degree day that was enough to turn my lips blue and cause my teeth to keep rhythm to some tune I couldn’t hear. But I was a wise eleven; I knew I could take...SER Online, Summer 2010tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2432010-06-14T12:37:42Z2010-08-27T14:05:56ZInside this Issue:Connie May FowlerRichard BickelSkip HorackTom DeMarchi2005 Hurricane Katrina Benefit ReadingFrom the Archives: An Interview with Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's BoneAn All-New-Content 30-Day Writing Regimen for Adults starts September 1st, as well as a Young Writer's Regimen Re-Run! And make sure to check out the winning work from June's cycle by Celia Leber and Wendy Breuer!A Tribute to the Gulf Coast, featuring commentary, testimonies, celebrations, and memories of the Gulf Coast region from authors such as Skip Horack, Michael Garriga, Diane Roberts, and more. If you would like to contribute to this ongoing feature of SER Online, Summer 2010, email the editors with your proposed contribution.THE RESULTS ARE IN! To view the winners and finalists of SER's 2010 Poetry, Narrative Nonfiction, and World's...Richard Bickel Slideshowtag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2692010-06-02T20:14:50Z2010-06-15T22:39:06ZDebra Monroetag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1862010-06-01T14:45:03Z2010-07-08T14:00:13ZConnie May Fowlertag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2642010-05-31T15:25:08Z2010-06-16T12:54:29ZInterviewed by Jessica Pitchford Connie May Fowler is an award-winning novelist, memoirist, and screenwriter. Her most recent novel, How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, was published in April 2010. Her other novels include Sugar Cage (1994), River of Hidden Dreams (1996), Before Women had Wings (1997)—recipient of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award from the League of American Pen Women—The Problem with Murmur Lee (2001), and Remembering Blue (2006)—recipient of the Chautauqua South Literary Award. She adapted Before Women had Wings into a screenplay for Oprah Winfrey. The result was an Emmy-winning film starring Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Barkin. In 2002, Fowler published When Katie Wakes, a memoir that explores her descent into and escape from an abusive relationship. Her...Ethel Rohan and Marilyn Cavicchiatag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2392010-05-08T15:38:09Z2010-07-21T04:35:43ZBook Reivew: Monsieur Paintag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2382010-05-04T20:11:36Z2010-05-04T21:11:24ZRoberto Bolaño, Monsieur Pain, trans. Chris Andrews. New Directions, 2010, 134pp. Cloth: $22.95 reviewed by Lily Hoang Monsieur Pain is an early Bolaño, written in 1981 or 82, when he was desperate for prize money, which, sure, he won. What is important about this slender novel’s composition date is that it shows Bolaño’s progression as a writer. Here, in this traditional historical novel, there are murmurs of The Savage Detectives, nascent urges towards what would develop into 2666, and yet it is its own book, and like all Bolaño, it is bold and extravagant in its simplicity and entirely “mesmerizing.” Set in Paris 1938, the eponymous Monsieur Pain, Pierre Pain, is a mesmerist, a follower of Franz Mesmer, a believer that supposed magnetic fluids flowing...SER Online, May 2010tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2372010-05-03T21:25:50Z2010-05-17T23:17:34ZAWP 2010 in Denvertag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2362010-05-03T11:29:20Z2010-05-05T02:16:35ZBook Review: The Bride of Etag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2352010-05-03T11:02:26Z2010-05-05T18:27:13ZMary Jo Bang’s The Bride of E reviewed by Brandi George Yes. And yes: “I cross the street. A horn doesn’t stop me. I cross and cross. On the other side I look back to see the commotion. The driver of the car looks at me, the horn still not stopping, meets my eyes. He sees into me and says, ‘Not you, fuck-face.’ Twelve years later I’m a frayed edge. I’m under everything I know” (76). This is a passage from “G is Going,” a section which blurs the lines between poetry and prose. Bang proves that good literature defies classification—it has a mysterious essence. As David Kirby writes in What Is a Book, “great books contain, not many secrets, but too many secrets” (10)....Book Review: Eat When You Feel Sadtag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2342010-05-03T10:44:03Z2010-05-04T21:24:09Z Eat When You Feel Sad by Zachary German Review by Stephen Tully Dierks Just finished reading Eat When You Feel Sad by Zachary German. I liked it. It is a selection of scenes from the life of a young guy initially living at home with his parents, and then, for the bulk of the novel, living in Brooklyn. The author made a conscious decision to present all actions, words, and thoughts in stripped-down, simple declarative sentences. The effect is to strip away everything usually present in literature that does not relate to concrete reality and the experience of being inside a consciousness. For this reader, there is a tremendous feeling of honesty and familiarity as a result of this technique. This is what it...Book Review: during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer presenttag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2332010-05-03T10:31:57Z2010-05-04T21:26:31Zduring my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer presentby Brandon Scott GorrellReview by Stephen Tully Dierks I read Brandon Scott Gorrell’s book of poems, during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present, last night. I had previously seen other work by Brandon on the internet, but this was my first time reading the whole book. I found it to be ‘incredible,’ ‘honest,’ sad, highly ‘poetic,’ and ‘sublime.’ Not to mention very cohesive and commanding as a complete work. The book charts the emotional journey from birth—the birth of poem titles, of poems—through anxiety, sadness, loneliness, love, and despair, to acceptance. In its voice, its extremely creative, at times science-fiction-fueled vision, its relentlessness, and in the beauty of its moments, Brandon’s...Book Review: From Old Notebookstag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2322010-05-03T09:58:33Z2010-05-04T21:36:26ZBook Review: Evertag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2312010-05-03T09:36:15Z2010-05-04T21:32:53ZDanzy Sennatag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1872010-05-01T16:26:46Z2011-01-08T19:34:01ZBook Review: Kamby Bolongo Mean Rivertag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2272010-04-02T02:06:11Z2010-04-30T15:29:22ZMargaret Luongo tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1852010-04-01T21:03:25Z2011-01-08T19:31:23ZRyan Boudinottag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1202010-04-01T13:44:42Z2010-05-04T20:30:08ZSER Online, April 2010tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2262010-03-29T23:30:10Z2010-04-02T14:26:11Z IN THIS ISSUE Interviews with: Wells Tower Shelley Puhak --AND-- Readings by: D.A. Powell Pamela Ball Kim MacQueen Bucky McMahon Janet Burroway Diane Roberts Mark Hinson The artwork you see here is called "Butterfly #2." It was created by photographer Cara Barer, whose work often uses books as art objects. As for our interviews... David Rodriguez asks Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned author Wells Tower a few questions, including: What writerly habit would you most like to break? Trevor Newberry questions Stalin in Aruba author Shelley Puhak about poetry, history, curse words, and the merits of John Grisham. On the podcast front... D.A. Powell reads some of his new poetry. Plus: Mark Hinson, Diane Roberts, Janet Burroway, Bucky McMahon, Pamela Ball, and Kim MacQeen all...D. A. Powelltag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2222010-03-16T21:40:47Z2010-03-30T05:58:05ZTerry Rowletttag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2192010-03-03T14:50:56Z2010-03-03T15:28:18ZJerome Stern Benefittag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2212010-03-02T09:55:39Z2010-04-02T14:36:52ZShelley Puhaktag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1792010-03-01T19:55:20Z2010-03-29T23:50:36ZElizabeth Hegwood tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2182010-03-01T16:09:19Z2010-03-02T21:45:18ZAnthony Varallotag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2172010-03-01T15:57:52Z2010-03-02T21:49:15ZB.J. Hollarstag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2162010-03-01T15:37:38Z2010-03-02T21:43:03ZTina Karelsontag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2152010-03-01T15:29:22Z2010-03-02T21:22:15ZSER Online, March 2010tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2142010-03-01T15:13:00Z2010-03-05T13:19:22ZWells Towertag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1802010-03-01T06:50:44Z2010-03-29T23:48:30ZInterviewed by David Rodriguez Wells Tower is the author of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, his first collection of short stories, which was published in 2009. He is also the author of many nonfiction articles. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Believer, The Washington Post, Outside, and elsewhere. He received his MFA from Columbia University and is the recipient of The Paris Review Discovery Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and a Henfield Foundation award. He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and owns a house in North Carolina. An animated short of the title story of his collection can be seen on YouTube. Q: The structure of the book works really well, but I read that after you signed the...Keith Ratzlafftag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2102010-02-23T10:00:00Z2010-03-03T19:46:04ZMargaret Atwoodtag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2302010-02-23T03:15:45Z2010-05-04T20:33:44ZMargaret Atwood is a Canadian author and social campaigner. Atwood is winner of the Arthur C. Clark Award, the and Prince of Asturias award for Literature, and numerous other awards. While she may be best known for her work as a novelist, she also writes short stories and is a poet. She is the author of more than 35 volumes of poetry, children's literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman, The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000.Listen as she reads some of her recent work. [download]...Jack Fullertag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.2052010-02-16T22:41:45Z2010-03-03T19:50:11ZSusan Popetag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1962010-02-06T22:26:29Z2010-02-07T02:57:17ZAndrei Codrescutag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1902010-02-01T19:51:39Z2010-03-03T19:50:39ZMary Jo Bangtag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1842010-02-01T19:42:16Z2010-02-05T00:46:58ZJoel Brouwer’s 'And So'tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1822010-02-01T18:49:05Z2010-02-04T22:08:26ZMark Bibbins and Mary Jo Bangtag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1832010-02-01T18:18:54Z2010-03-03T19:52:09Z Mark Bibbins was a founding editor of the journal LIT and teaches in The New School’s MFA program. Individual poems have appeared in Boston Review, Colorado Review, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Yale Review and elsewhere, including the anthologies The Best American Poetry 2004 and Great American Prose Poems. Bibbins received a Lambda Literary Award for his collection of poems Sky Lounge (Graywolf, 2003), and was awarded a 2005 Poetry Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His most recent poetry collection, The Dance of No Hard Feelings (Copper Canyon Press), came out last year. Mary Jo Bang is the author of six collections of poetry, including The Bride of E: Poems, The Eye Like a Strange Balloon, The Downstream Extremity of...John Manntag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1892010-02-01T17:01:19Z2010-02-04T22:09:40Z Folded in Place The photographs in this series are informed by the varied ways that photography, mapping, drawing and sculpture have each tried to describe the landscape. By incorporating each of these methods, Folded in Place highlights the abstraction of the landscape traditionally offered by these means, while creating a tangible photographic “place” in each image that is occupied by a mapped construction. The images therefore provide precise photographic and mapped information while at the same time offering an abstraction of the landscape itself. The viewer is shown a landscape that is simultaneously understood and unknown, a landscape in which the map obtains a new geography of its own. Click on the image to view more of John's work, or visit his website....SER Online, February 2010tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1882010-02-01T16:47:07Z2010-02-07T03:04:02Z Inside this Issue: Susan Pope Beth Gylys Mary Jo Bang Mark Bibbins and Mary Jo Bang Andrei Codrescu Joel Brouwer’s And So John Mann It’s that time of the year when, for a small fee, we offer you a chance at fame and fortune. Okay, maybe that’s not exactly true. On the other hand, it is contest season and, for a small fee, we do offer publication (all finalists!) and prizes ($1500 in cash!). Find out more here. Or maybe what you’re looking for is a little structure in your writerly life, a little direction, a little something to get the creative juices flowing. Fortunately, The Southeast Review has brand new adult and young writer's regimens starting up April 1. Find out more about...Beth Gylystag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1102010-02-01T11:00:57Z2010-02-05T00:45:09ZEileen Pollacktag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1252010-01-01T17:12:25Z2009-12-31T15:33:05ZCody Milestag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1782010-01-01T17:02:01Z2009-12-30T17:12:47Z “Split” 2009 Digital This piece is part of a series on the theme of divorce and separation, and the people affected by it. My intent was to allow the viewer to come up with his or her own narrative based on the evocative nature of the imagery. Technically, I was experimenting with using traditional painting techniques in a digital medium, trying to make the difference indistinguishable. Cody Miles is an illustrator and designer based in San Francisco. To see more work, visit his website, codymiles.com....Mary Blytag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1142010-01-01T12:42:52Z2010-02-25T15:09:59Z Interviewed by Josephine Yu Mary Bly, a Shakespeare scholar with degrees from Oxford and Yale, is associate professor and head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University in New York City and the author of Consuming London: Mapping Plays, Puns, and Tourists in the Early Modern City (Oxford 2000). She is part of a prestigious writing family: her father is the poet Robert Bly, winner of an American Book Award; her mother is the writer Carol Bly; and her godfather is the Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet James Wright. So what is perhaps most surprising about Mary Bly is her double life as Eloisa James, the New York Times bestselling author of historical romance novels that defy the conventions and stereotypes of the genre with impotent...Emily Franklintag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1092010-01-01T10:51:28Z2010-01-09T02:03:10Z Interview by Katherine Burgess Emily Franklin writes regularly about food and parenting for national magazines and newspapers. She is the author of two adult novels, The Girls’ Almanac and Liner Notes, and more than a dozen books for young adults, including the critically-acclaimed seven book fiction series for teens, The Principles of Love. Other young adult books include The Other Half of Me, the Chalet Girls series, and At Face Value, a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac. She edited the anthologies It’s a Wonderful Lie: 26 Truths about Life in Your Twenties and How to Spell Chanukah: 18 Writers Celebrate 8 Nights of Lights. She is co-editor of Before: Short Stories about Pregnancy from Our Top Writers. Her most recent book, Too Many Cooks:...SER Online, January 2010tag:southeastreview.org,2010://1.1732010-01-01T06:53:51Z2010-01-20T04:55:21Z Inside this Issue: Mary Bly Eileen Pollack Emily Franklin John McNally Susan Vreeland Peter Meinke Barry Hannah It's a new year and in the upcoming months we have a great schedule of podcasts, including readings by Mary Jo Bang, Mark Bibbins, Andrei Codrescu, D.A. Powell, Mary Childers, and many others. If you live in Tallahassee, come see these writers in person at The Warehouse. Follow the reading series here. This month we have new interviews with Mary Bly, Eileen Pollack, and Emily Franklin. From our archives, we have an essay by John McNally and readings by Susan Vreeland, Peter Meinke, and the not-to-be-missed Barry Hannah. Enjoy and happy new year! Artwork by Cody Miles....