The Spring 2014 issue of the Apple Valley Review

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The Spring 2014 issue of the journal features prose poetry by W.J. Preston and Kelly Scarff; poetry by Robert Lavett Smith, Louisa Howerow, Gail Peck, Abby Rosenthal, Roger Pfingston, and P. Ivan Young; an essay by Vivian Wagner; short fiction by Dave Patterson, Beth Konkoski, and Jennifer Stern; and oil and paper collage by cover artist Ann Marshall. 

The Fall 2013 issue, which was published in October of 2013 and is now available in the archive, features short fiction by Robert Radin and Inderjeet Mani; an essay by Sue Fagalde Lick; poetry by Judith Waller Carroll, Danusha V. Goska, José Angel Araguz, Nandini Dhar, Richard Spilman, Sandra Kohler, and Eric Nelson; and pastel on archival board by cover artist Mary Aslin.

The Apple Valley Review is a semiannual online literary journal. The current issue, previous issues, subscription information, and complete submission guidelines are available at www.applevalleyreview.com.

Three pieces I heard at AWP Seattle, plus a pre-conference memoir and a post-conference story collection

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"Rollerskating, Barking," a short story by Meg Pokrass, storySouth, Issue 34 (Fall 2012). 

 

"Heat," a short story by Grant Faulkner, Word Riot (November 2010).  

 

"Poem for the Breasts," a poem by Sharon Olds, from her collection Stag's Leap (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013, pp. 21-22), and originally published in Ploughshares (Spring 1999).  I mentioned the book in an earlier post, but I didn't fully appreciate this particular poem until I heard her read it out loud. 

 

Joseph Anton, a memoir by Salman Rushdie (Random House, 2012).     

 

The Progress of Love, a collection of short stories by Alice Munro (Alfred A. Knopf, 1986).  My favorite was probably "Monsieur les Deux Chapeaux" (pp. 56-83), which was originally published in Grand Street (Vol. 4, No. 3, Spring 1985, pp. 7-33).

After the Quake

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After the Quake, a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002).

...the letter his wife left for him when she vanished five days after the earthquake was different: I am never coming back, she had written, then went on to explain, simply but clearly, why she no longer wanted to live with him.  
--From "UFO in Kushiro," pp. 3-28, originally published as "U.F.O. in Koshiro" in The New Yorker. 

 

..."So Masakichi the Bear went to town and found a spot for himself in the square.  He put up a sign: Deeelicious Honey.  All Natural.  One Cup ¥ 200." 

"Can bears write?"

"No, of course not," Junpei said.  "There was a nice old man with a pencil sitting next to him, and he asked him to write it."

--From "Honey Pie," pp. 141-181, originally published in The New Yorker (August 20, 2001).  

A Night in Brooklyn (the collection and the poem)

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A Night in Brooklyn, a collection of poetry by D. Nurkse (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012).

...she was washing
at the cold tap, she was binding
back her copper hair...
--From "Red Antares in a Blue Mirror," p. 9, originally published in Harvard Review (Issue 41, Winter 2011). 

 

...

always I teetered on that high stool

while the Schlitz globe revolved so slowly,

disclosing Africa, Asia, Antarctica...
 --From "The Bars," p. 16, originally published in The New Yorker (October 31, 2011, p. 84).  

We undid a button,

turned out the light,

and in that narrow bed

we built a great city...  
--From "A Night in Brooklyn," p. 49, originally published in Poetry (January 2008).

We have to bomb the rebel cities
from a great height, find shelter
for the refugees, carry a sick kitten
to the shade of a blighted elm,
fall in love, walk by the breakwater...

--From "There Is No Time, She Writes," p. 73, originally published in The New Yorker (August 6, 2007).

...

they had not imagined the pain

of dressing, sorting clothes

back into male and female...

--From "Return to the Capital," p. 82, originally published as "A Night in the Capital" in The Manhattan Review (Volume 13, Number 2; Fall/Winter 2008-2009). 

Frost in the Low Areas

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Frost in the Low Areas, a collection of poetry by Karen Skolfield (Zone 3 Press, 2013). 

They've turned back to the food, what's left

of the warm brie.  These are not the people

you want between you and the lifeboats.
--From "Where Babies Come From," p. 3, originally published in Zone 3.

 

Mistake one: driving by two cemeteries when the kids

are tired.  Mistake two: saying only some people get

buried.  Where are the others, my son asks.   
--From "Rumors of Her Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated," p. 31, originally published in BOXCAR Poetry Review (Spring 2011) and later in the 2011 Best of the Net Anthology.  

..the students act as if they were being pressed

to death.  As if the rest of their lives were cheery

and full of volunteer work and perfect omelettes.  
--From "Sturm und Drang," p. 34, originally published in Conte (Volume 7, Issue 1). 

The note said that my pea seeds

are infected with pea weevils, many

apologies, here's a refund...

They're next to a big hunk

of meat and every time I open the freezer

I startle, like the time my daughter

froze her toys, the eyes

of a baby doll staring, rime-rimmed. 
--From "Disposal," pp. 63-64, originally published in Used Furniture Review (September 5, 2012). 

D. Nurkse's "The Bars," two other poems, short stories, and an essay

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"The Bars," a poem by D. Nurkse, reprinted in Knopf's Poem-a-Day series on April 4, 2013, from his collection A Night in Brooklyn (Knopf, 2012), and originally published in The New Yorker (October 31, 2011, p. 84).  

"Is This Part of the Love Ritual?," a short story by Jenny Bitner, PANK, Volume 5, Number 9 (September 2010). 

 

"Eleanor Writes She's Reading Rimbaud," a poem by Susan Aizenberg, Blackbird, Volume 12, Number 2 (Fall 2013). 

 

"Many Houses, Many Windows," a poem by Donna Vorreyer, from her collection A House of Many Windows (Sundress, 2013, p. 69), and originally published in Wicked Alice (October 11, 2012).

 

The Moons of Jupiter, a collection of short stories by Alice Munro (Viking Penguin, 1977).
 

"The Divine Auditor," an essay by Sarah Valentine, Prairie Schooner, Volume 87, Issue 2 (Summer 2013).   

A Hologram for the King

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A Hologram for the King, a novel by Dave Eggers (McSweeney's Books, San Francisco, 2012).