Issue 49. June 2014
two poems
downloadSusan Rich reads her poems "Tricks a Girl Can Do" and "Cloud Pharmacy"--and speaks with Poetry Editor Kirun Kapur about ekphrastic poetry, her discovery of photographer Hannah Maynard, and the pleasures of bicycling while reciting Elizabeth Bishop. (14:56)
A Notion I Took
downloadFor a hundred dollars, a young woman jumps into the Rio Grande, a river so filthy, it's dyed blue for the tourists. Money, risk, and self-invention intersect in Joy Castro's "A Notion I Took" as the story's narrator thinks about what is at stake for her as she leaps and descends through the water. (5:57)
Chance
downloadPhysics, hope, and speculation come together beautifully in this moving story about a couple dealing with the chance that their fetus has a rare genetic mutation. In "Chance," Peter Ho Davies raises complex questions about what is certain and what is random, and about how and if our efforts affect the course of our lives. (12:31)
Do You Have a Place For Me
downloadTwo people meet at a half-way point between their homes and lives. But the encounter in Roxane Gay's "Do You Have a Place For Me" is no simple escape, but a shared confrontation--of the self, the body, and the heart. Gay's prose is both analytical--is this cheating?--and intensely figurative in this short and powerful story. (7:41)
