ISSUES | winter 2022
45.4 (Winter 2022): “The Body”
Inside: Winners of the 2022 Perkoff Prize. New fiction from Dina Guidubaldi, Shala Erlich, Malerie Willens, Peter Grimes. and Robynne Graffam; new poetry from Bridget O’Bernstein, Anna V. Q. Ross, and Jeff Whitney; and new essays from Faith Shearin, Adam Boggon, and Joshua Doležal. Also, features on dressing Greta Garbo and the influence of anime on contemporary art, and an omnibus review of contemporary memoirs about coming to terms with illness and affliction.
CONTENT FROM THIS ISSUE
Features
Jul 26 2023
Foreword: The Body
The Body Knowledge in many of the hard sciences—for example, in physics, math, and astronomy—came sooner than in human physiology, partly due to the perennial aversion to dissecting human cadavers.… read more
Fiction
Jul 25 2023
Pet Scents (Perkoff Prize Winner)
Pet Scents Dina Guidubaldi I’m on call today. The sun just rose up like a god from behind Bell Rock, and I’m in my rock-pocked blue Volvo with my name… read more
Poetry
Jul 21 2023
6 Poems by Bridget O’Bernstein (Perkoff Winner)
FERRAGOSTO After Plath The first time my body tried to kill me I was ten, wearing a white nightgown, calling through the window for my mother out in… read more
Nonfiction
Jul 21 2023
Incurable (Perkoff Prize Winner)
Incurable Faith Shearin The summer before fifth grade, I was sick with a kidney infection, and for almost a month, doctors could not figure out what was wrong. I ran… read more
Fiction
Jul 21 2023
Bobby Obvious
Bobby Obvious Malerie Willens Pablo heard the bird sounds for the first time on a Wednesday night. He was hunched over a plate of baby back ribs, making a mental… read more
Fiction
Jul 21 2023
Hunger
Hunger Robynne M. Graffam She did not want to eat him. Not really. It was expected; she knew that, had always known it. But it surprised her to… read more
Fiction
Jul 21 2023
Night Admissions
Night Admissions Shala Erlich Lily walks in the door without knocking and right away asks the hovering boyfriend to leave the room. “Boyfriend” is maybe not the best label; better… read more
Fiction
Jul 21 2023
Herd
Herd Peter Grimes We are reindeer. Reindeer men, actually. In the daytime and on most nights, we are bereaved husbands living and working in Philadelphia, but four times each year,… read more
Poetry
Jul 21 2023
All my poems used to end in sky: 4 Poems by Anna V. Q. Ross
All my poems used to end in sky but now they end in sleep while outside snow blunts the yard and the four hens who survived the fall look… read more
Poetry
Jul 21 2023
5 Poems by Jeff Whitney
There Are Too Many Holes In The Dam Or Not Enough Fingers Because you visit an event: KNIFE SHARPENING TODAY, and because it’s raining, you’re thinking of all those… read more
Nonfiction
Jul 21 2023
Night
Night Adam Boggon The sixty-year-old retired policeman with encephalitis is fidgety in his delirium. This is the fourth cannula he’s pulled out tonight. He speaks, but his words come forth… read more
Nonfiction
Jul 21 2023
Fathers and Sons
Fathers and Sons Joshua Doležal When my wife and I scheduled an ultrasound during her third pregnancy, I expected another girl. The odds were pretty much fifty-fifty, but after… read more
Art
Jul 21 2023
Another World: The Influence of Anime on Contemporary Art
Another World: The Influence of Anime on Contemporary Art Kristine Somerville In fall 2000, when I stepped into the classroom as a new professor of English and creative writing at… read more
Features
Jul 21 2023
The Body’s Betrayals
The Body’s Betrayals Sally Crossley Meghan O’Rourke, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, Random House, 2022. 336 pp. $28. Hardcover. Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of… read more