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Florida Beach 4-Pack #1

April 10, 2022 - By Marsha Bryant

There will never be an end
To this droning of the surf.
—Wallace Stevens, “Fabliau of Florida”

As Spring breakers, vacationers, snowbirds
Hit the beaches of Florida, these words
In my limericks here
Are to recommend beers
For your forthcoming excursions seaward.

From the Gulf and Atlantic-side makers
Of craft brews that pair well with breakers
(And the sunshine and shore),
I’ve selected these four
For all bona fide beach beer partakers.

1

Beach Blonde Ale, an approachable brew,
Is a beach blanket starter for you.
And a tease of the tang
In its finish will hang
On the tip of your tongue. Citrine hued.

2

When the ocean’s your...

(Almost) 10 Questions for Meg Pinto

April 8, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

The day I arrived on the butter schooner a cow had fallen off the cliff. Its carcass was found on the beach in the cove below, near the high tide line, by some men waiting to load the hogs and butter onto the boat for the return trip to San Francisco. Everyone agreed the ranch foreman would be angry, but these things happen. Cows fall from the sky into the sea.
—from "Butter Schooner," Volume 63, Issue 1 (Spring 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I was in my twenties, I wrote two stories about women who were quite a bit older than I. In one, a woman living in Rome realizes that people have stopped referring to her as Signorina and now address her as Signora. In the other, a woman,...

10 Questions for C.Dale Young

April 5, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

It is easy to believe there are no flowers
growing in the folds of sand stretching before us.
Night has erased them. And the Blue Moon
does little to illuminate anything but the sand:
—from "Blue Moon," Volume 63, Issue 1 (Spring 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
One of the first poems I wrote in college was based on the story of Abraham and Isaac, likely because I had seen a painting based on the biblical story. I was deeply disturbed by the idea God would ask as proof of faith that a man kill his own son. And I was more disturbed Abraham was willing to go through with it. In many ways, the poem I wrote was an invective against Abraham.

What writer(s) or works have influenced...

Westerners Have a Way. . .

April 3, 2022 - By Noy Holland

Editor’s note: On March 28, 2022, in Bowker Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the UMass School of Earth & Sustainability, in partnership with the Fine Arts Center and the MFA Program for Poets and Writers convened a unique meeting of artists, climate and social scientists, and activists working at the intersection of climate change, literature, and social justice. Noy Holland, from the MFA Program introduced and moderated this discussion.

Westerners have a way of talking about climate, nature, the environment as though it is over there. Something apart, something other. But we are nature and nature is us and we are making a mess of ourselves and everything that lives. Nature is storm surge and dengue, beetle-kill and Lyme. It is...

The Last Letter in the Alphabet Of Lies

April 1, 2022 - By Geneviève Piron

Pure fabrication, interpretation, and lies. Where is the line between these different types of distortion of truth? And how deep have we sunk?

In Russian, there is a word that suggests there is indeed a distinction: the word “vranio” means something between baloney and untruth, it is used to refer to a storyteller who distorts or exaggerates, even creates myths. We like it in Russian culture; it gives colour to life. The word “lies” in the Russian language has a different connotation, with a more active, performative dimension. There is an expression which alludes to this moral aspect: “To live not in accordance to lies”. It was used by dissidents to encourage people to resist State lies and to stand for...