By T.J. Tranchell Good news for Brian Evenson fans: even after nearly thirty books, the short story writer, novelist, translator, and teacher still has plenty to say. His latest, Good Night, Sleep Tight, marks his ninth book with Coffee House Press. The new collection delves into Evenson’s unique space between science fiction and horror, while exploring what a post-human world…
Reviewed by Betty Fall Punchy, provocative, and full of unshakeable pride, NoNieqa Ramos’s They Thought They Buried Us takes a unique, if messy, approach to selling a horror story to its audience while not compromising the identity of its author or protagonist. The book follows Yuiza (she/they), a young Puerto Rican filmmaker, as they struggle to keep their head above…
By J. Schuberth Attica Locke has been busy. The award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and TV producer behind such shows as Empire, When They See Us, From Scratch, and Little Fires Everywhere is currently in a multi-year development deal with Universal Television, working on an adaptation of her Edgar-Award-winning Highway 59 trilogy, among other shows. The Coachella Review caught up with Locke…
Reviewed by Pallas Gutierrez In My Chicano Heart, Daniel A. Olivas presents thirty-one short stories about love, loss, and Chicane identity. The stories range from starkly realistic to deeply magical, and at the core of each one are expertly crafted characters. These characters span a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, from twelve-year-old James falling in love for the first…
if it meant you felt loved, i would do it. this is the sixth love language. it is a feeling, rather. it is happy and it is sad and it is neither. it is quite vermillion with a mystery that cannot be comprehended nor explained. i will love you, and you will be loved by me. but i will not…
By Daniel J. Collins Multi-hyphenate author Nicholas Belardes writes what he knows—the ecological landscape of Central California, the study of climate change and crisis, birds, the Chicano experience—and then blends and turbocharges it with the unknown, crafting energetic and complex works that combine the best elements of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. A graduate of UC Riverside Palm Desert’s Low…
The world came into black and white, not like a movie, but the way a dog saw it: low to the ground, up the ass, running with no purpose/filled with the urge to find myself somewhere in the zig-zag path of movement my head bobbing incessantly, my tongue catching the taste of petrol in the air slowly, I let the…
After When I finally left the stage to little more than polite applause, I had no strength of will to wipe the makeup off, nor any desire to shed the costume as dear to me as skin. In years past, I’d have moved beyond today in minutes and stepped outside to take a long walk home—all thoughts on tomorrow, sure…
Thomas James Boudreau is a playwright whose plays include If I Cleaned Everything, No Jacket, The Campaign, and Astral Projection. His work has been staged by the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and developed by the Actors Studio Drama School. Boudreau earned his BA in English from MCLA and is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwriting at the Actors Studio Drama School. He is…
Granite with Pinon Freckles It’s possible the guy at the bar was just an admonishment. The rain and the heat were strips of plastic hanging in the doorway. A box of pizza left on a corner of the bar, and an electric pot of water with lukewarm hot dogs. You could smile. You could fit a balled hand in the…