The epigraph of Katrina Denza’s new short story collection, Burner: And Other Stories, is a quote from Simone de Beauvoir: “The point is not for women simply to take power out of men’s hands, since that wouldn’t change anything about the world. It’s a question precisely of destroying that notion of power.” It’s a thought-provoking […]
“King Cal” by Peter McDade
August 17, 2026 by Leave a Comment
King Cal (Trouser Press 2025), Peter McDade’s third novel, opens with an abrupt moment of loss. By the bottom of the first page, Calvin “has managed to lose his band and his girlfriend, and [realized that] it turns out fighting with people you love drains you emotionally and physically.” A few hours after his girlfriend […]
“A History of Heartache” by Patrick Strickland
June 1, 2026 by Leave a Comment
The first story in A History of Heartache, Patrick Strickland’s debut short story collection, gives away the title when we learn an alcoholic mother “has a history of heartache, most of which she drums up all on her own nowadays.” The question that arises again and again in these loosely-interconnected stories is this: Is heartache […]
“Fulfillment” by Lee Cole
September 28, 2025 by Leave a Comment
In Fulfillment (Knopf 2025), Lee Cole’s second novel, half-brothers Joel and Emmett find themselves together again in their family home in Paducah, Kentucky. You don’t have to have read Cole’s first novel, Groundskeeping, to easily jump into the western Kentucky world of Fulfillment. The two half-brothers are living such different lives. Emmett is broke and […]