By Sophie Ann Hinkson Some authors have a magnetic pull—you keep returning to them, as if by fate. Megan Milks is one such writer, first gaining attention with the body-horror short story “Slug,” from their eponymous collection. Milks is also the author of the novel Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body and the recently released Mega Milk, all published by Feminist Press. Their books explore…
By Jessica Ribera For decades, Rider Strong has been known for his role as Shawn Hunter on the TV series Boy Meets World, and the podcast he makes with his co-star friends, Pod Meets World, is one of the most popular in America. But Strong has always been more than just “that guy from TV.” His new fiction podcast, The…
By Angelo A. Williams Toni Ann Johnson is a writer The Coachella Review has championed since we published her short story “Daughtered Out” and nominated it for a Pushcart Prize. An award-winning television and film writer and the author of the Flannery O’Connor Prize–winning collection Light Skin Gone to Waste, Johnson has built a career exploring Black family life with…
By Dave Oei T.R. Moore is the debut author of The Gods Must Burn, a dark fantasy novel inspired by Korean myth. The story centers on Basuin, a disgraced war hero-turned-reluctant conqueror plagued with panic attacks and survivor’s guilt. Basuin wishes to follow his dead comrades to the heavenly Winter River instead of hell, known as the Blacksalt Sea, where…
By Geordie Stock Tim O’Leary’s work is a family affair: he and his husband, Robert Rice, have worked together to put their unique, modern stamp on episodic stories. The duo’s production company, Murder and Gay Stuff, has created streaming shows such as Demonhuntr (now on Amazon Prime and YouTube channel Here TV) and their latest effort, Laid Bare, which is…
Edited by Cambria Matlow and Angelo A. Williams Voice to Books, meet Voice to Scripts! For this edition we decided to look closely at screenplays as literary documents possessing their own styles, shapes and textures. What kinds of literary choices can screenwriters make to elevate the impact of their stories? What role do craft elements like structure and word choice…
By Pallas M. Gutierrez The Tilting House by Ivonne Lamazares follows Yuri, a Cuban teenager during the country’s Special Period, as she navigates the return of her formerly unknown sister and her escape to New York City. Mariela, Yuri’s sister, returns from la Yuma (the United States) in 1993 to uplift the Cuban people and her own artistic practice. Mariela…
By Tommy Ebrahimi Ian Frazier is obsessed with details and with the specific: the color of an old friend’s kitchen (daffodil yellow), the length of the world’s largest beaver dam (2,790 feet), the inscription on an armored car from the Russian Revolution (“Enemy of Capital”). This particularity suffuses everything Frazier writes. In The Snakes That Ate Florida—a compilation of selected…
By Taj R. Harvey Musical legend Gregory Tate once said, “Being Black in America is a science fiction experience.” For some, stories like the X-Men, Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, and The Handmaid’s Tale feel recent, relevant, and scary, but for African Americans who have lived in the United States for over 400 years, those stories have been a consistent reality…
Reviewed by Shannon Glass In her latest novel, Mercy, Joan Silber gives a multigenerational perspective on the ripples that radiate from one person’s gravest regret. In distinct, hauntingly clear internal monologues, Silber illustrates the many ways that people can show mercy to others and, most importantly, themselves. Each character’s romantic, platonic, and familial relationships take center stage in complicated ways…