in which the book reviews its positions

as told to Glenn Ingersoll

Excerpt from Autobiography of a Book

I stand, mostly. I stand and wait. I stand among my brothers, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. Among my sisters, cheek by jowl. Each to each pressed. I stand among them, many of them far greater, older, more praised, more frequently translated, larger in the world. And am I proud to be in their company? I am grateful! Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Fiction

Inside Your Cheek You Carry Stones

by Dorsey Craft

We sit together on the bed of a white pickup that draws
an empty trailer along an island road, just come from dropping

the boat in the water, from catching small rays and throwing
them back. Your toes drag gravel, rest on aluminum,

curl in the air like fish. When water bugs are snatched
from below, it seems they were never there. This is what
Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Poetry

E2-E4

by Ted McCarthy

We were so far from being different.
The world, if it had cared
to look, would have seen itself reflected
in everything we said,
two kids walking through a wind
that blew across the cold harbour
of our minds, the little we’d read. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Poetry

Sixth Grade Autobiography

by Bryce Berkowitz

after Donika Ross Kelly

We live in Carbondale, Illinois.
We have a wood stove, a TV antenna, and a deer head hanging on the wall.
Mom decorates it with Christmas lights, a Santa hat, and calls it Rudolph.
My favorite things are secrets, sugar-strawberries,
and pretending chopped logs are bazookas. I pick green beans in the garden
and play basketball with Dad at sunset. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Poetry

Waimanu

by Malia Collins

I grew up in Hawai`i and before I learned to read, I was made to memorize the list of superstitions my mother kept posted on the side of the fridge, superstitions we’d repeat back to her, like a mantra, whenever we broke one: no whistling at night; don’t sleep with your feet towards the window or the doorway; don’t look outside once it’s dark; don’t cut your nails at night; never step over a body on the floor; don’t sweep trash outside the door; don’t cut your hair, and if you do cut your hair, save it. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Nonfiction