Winter 2019

Interview with Charles Dodd White

Emily Masters ♦

Issues, Winter 2019 ♦

Interview

“I’m trying to show characters that endure despite terrible things that happen to them,” says Charles Dodd White about his most recent novel In the House of Wilderness, published by Ohio University Press in 2018. Striking a balance between darkness and beauty, between violence and joy, the novel brings to…

James Brown Performs “Cold Sweat” On American Bandstand, 1968

Marianne Worthington ♦

Issues, Winter 2019 ♦

Poetry

We were practicing our splits, perfecting our slides across the basement floor on one foot, impossible to beat the hardest working man in show business even as we cheated in our sock feet. Upstairs, our grandmother hurled her wrecking-ball voice at us before we finished miming the first verse— …

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Amy Wright ♦

Issues, Winter 2019 ♦

Poetry

After Werner Herzog Four charcoal horses animate in torchlight, that flickering first projector, sans horsemen, pre-Apocalypse. Red ochre palm print by the cave mouth like a house number, or graffito, preserved by landslide— a human touch kept from human touch for 32,000 years, the terms of ingress sealed like a…

Seven-Second Meditation

Amy Wright ♦

Issues, Winter 2019 ♦

Poetry

Outside the window a red-headed house finch plucks seed down from the grass as if he is running late for the theater, rifling through the bureau drawers, tossing scarves over his shoulder, shells.

Balance

Melissa Ballard ♦

Issues, Winter 2019 ♦

Creative Nonfiction

A frantic sound is coming from the laundry room. I drop the book I’m reading, race in, and open the aging pale-yellow washer that doesn’t know how to stop itself. I redistribute the clothes, shut the lid, and stand watch for a few minutes to make sure it stays balanced.…

Smart House

Kathryn Milam ♦

Issues, Winter 2019 ♦

Fiction

Maxine knows there’ll be trouble the minute she sees the black bear roaming her front yard, a shadow in the drab morning light. It’s small, a youngster, with a chest blaze, and it munches from an ash bush still laden with late fall berries. Thirty-six years on this earth, in…

Winter 2019 Editor’s Note

Jason Kyle Howard ♦

Issues, Winter 2019 ♦

Editor's Note

At a recent conference focused on Appalachia, a prospective contributor approached our magazine’s exhibit booth and began perusing a recent issue. She had submitted some work during our last reading period, she told a student worker, and she indicated her familiarity with some of our contributors. Then she proceeded to…