The Spring 2013 issue of the Apple Valley Review (April 2, 2013)

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The Spring 2013 issue of the journal features short fiction by Jessica Rafalko, Daniel Ellis, Scott David, and Paul Pekin; a series of three short essays by Laura Vrcek; poetry by Lyn Lifshin, Sharlene Teo, Priscilla Atkins, Christina Frei, Jada Ach, Iain Macdonald, Claudia Serea, Pádrí Veum, and Gail Peck; and artwork by modern Russian landscape painter Dmitry Levin.

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.

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

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Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc. by David Sedaris (Little, Brown and Company, 2013).

My favorite essay was "A Guy Walks into a Bar Car" (pp. 123-137), which was originally published in The New Yorker as "Guy Walks into a Bar Car" on April 20, 2009.

My other favorites were "Memory Laps" (pp. 27-41), "Easy, Tiger" (pp. 77-86) and "Laugh, Kookaburra" (pp. 87-99), which were also originally published in The New Yorker.

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass

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The Thing Is

to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands . . .

"The Thing Is," a poem by Ellen Bass, continued online in The Writer's Almanac or in print in her collection Mules of Love (BOA Editions, 2002).

A few poems for April

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The lake freezes, the lake closes its eyes
and a minor paralysis comes upon us.
From the knees, I stand in landfall, landfill. . . .

From "This Body of Water Is Not Meant to Move," a poem by Jane Wong, published in Linebreak (April 3, 2013).

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After work I'd go to the little bars
along the bright green river, Chloe's Lounge,
Cloverleaf, Barleycorn, it was like dying
to sit at five p.m. with a Bud so cold
it had no taste, it stung my hand,
when I returned home I missed my keys
and rang until my wife's delicate head
emerged in her high window . . .

From "The Bars," a poem by D. Nurkse, published in A Night in Brooklyn (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012) and presented by Knopf Poem-a-Day on April 4, 2013.

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I am dreaming of a letter
that I am writing to my
dead sister. The text
appears word for word
before me and I find that
it is the coming accounting
of her eulogy or this poem. . . .

From "Our Hair," a poem by Barbara Gravelle, published in Salome Magazine (April 1, 2013).

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I wanted to give you something —
no stone, clay, bracelet,
no edible leaf could pass through. . . .

From "The Present," a poem by Jane Hirshfield, published in Come, Thief (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011) and presented by Knopf Poem-a-Day on April 11, 2013.

Four short stories, a poem, and an essay

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"As Dreams of Poets," a short story by Timothy Dyke, Drunken Boat (Number 15).

"I Am Thinking of Starting My Own Religion," a short story by Timothy C. Dyke, Spork Press.

"What Happened When She Moved In," flash fiction by Steven D. Stark, Fleeting (February 27, 2013).

"Cortes Island," a short story by Alice Munro, The New Yorker (October 12, 1998) and reprinted in her story collection The Love of a Good Woman (Vintage 1998, pp. 117-145).

"Russian Beggarwoman II," a poem by Gail Peck, Ekphrasis (2008).

"The Poverty Clinic," an essay by Paul Tough, The New Yorker (March 21, 2011, pp. 25-32).

The Quiet Winter

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The Quiet Winter, a chapbook by Carrie Bennett (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). I really liked the way this collection was formatted. There was a lot of white space on each page, so that each set of words looked a bit like a snowflake, and there was a quietness to the words themselves, both in terms of the layout and the content.
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"what monster," a poem by Kristy Bowen, from her chapbook havoc (Dancing Girl Press, 2011).
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"Walkers," a poem by Stephanie Barbé Hammer, from her chapbook Sex with Buildings: Prose Poems (Dancing Girl Press, 2012).

A poem by Claudia Serea and two chapbooks from Dancing Girl Press

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She filled the yard of the sky
with domestic animals and birds,

and the yard screeched
when it turned,
like a rusty wheel,
with the shrill of crickets.

From "Away from the lights of the house," a poem by Claudia Serea, continued in Grey Sparrow Journal (Winter Issue, January 18, 2013).

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"Ella at the Cafe," a poem by Liz Kay, from her chapbook Something to Help Me Sleep (Dancing Girl Press, 2012).

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"Medina Street" (page 7), "Absence" (p. 14), and "Ladies' Night" (p. 26), poems by Sara Tracey, from her chapbook Flood Year (Dancing Girl Press, 2009).

From Sara Tracey's poem "Ladies' Night":

The rain was always doing things like this,
always the wrong night, the wrong back yard.
One hundred other things would be worse,
but right now, you can't think of any.
Forget riding five to a taxi, forget metro cards.
Tonight, you're walking two miles
with no umbrella, your favorite jeans
wet to your knees. See, even though you checked
the forecast, this is the kind of night
you'll end up crying in the bathroom
while some guy you don't want to kiss
holds your coat. . . .