Yearly Archives: 2009
What About This One? by John Kenneth Jensvold, part one
John Jensvold is a 2009 Literary Awards Program Finalist. His entry, What About This One?, will appear in three parts this week.
The Gustav Evacuation, Part 4: Our Return
All bad things must come to an end.
The Gustav Evacuation, Part 3: The Wait, by Ryan Sparks
We know what we smell like, okay? Hours and hours under the sun or smothered by night heat have us sweating coffee, sweating Red Bull. The clench of old cigarette smoke. Fast food and soda breath. We are covered in pet hair or the sticky evidence of children’s fingerprints. We ceased to smell like travelers [...]
The Gustav Evacuation, Part 2: The Drive, by Ryan Sparks
Cue the music. We’re going for a ride. It’s hot as Labor Day weekend should be, summer’s last holiday, last chance to boil. We have our windows down and the music is passing between cars and mixing in the space between, pidgin notes and lyrics. The few radio stations not on a constant bulletin loop, [...]
The Gustav Evacuation, Part 1: Preparations, by Ryan Sparks
As Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Gulf states in August of 2008, memories of the Katrina disaster triggered the largest evacuation in US history. Three million fled the oncoming hurricane. Most of the refugees were from the Louisiana south coast. Author, New Orleans resident, and Katrina veteran Ryan Sparks was among them. The following [...]
James Ellroy’s Blood’s A Rover, a review by Ryan Sparks
Ryan Sparks tackles Ellroy’s latest, Blood’s A Rover A shorter version of this review originally appeared on the Writer’s Center blog, First Person Plural.
Faith, by Maggie Parr
Maggie Parr is a finalist in the 2009 Literary Awards Program. Below is an excerpt from her entry, Faith.
The Crux, by Michael Richardson
The skin of my fingertips is tender from the long climb the day before, stripped down to the thinnest of layers; pink and newborn. I touch the cool morning rock. An ocean breeze blows in past the knuckled headland, curling down the inlet and up the brushy slope to the base of the crag where [...]
The Most Important Thing in the World, conclusion, by Adam Sturtevant
Adam Sturtevant is the third place winner in the 2009 SFWP Literary Awards program. We’re excerpting a story from his winning collection, Ease Chest Tuck Hid Debt Art.