featuring short fiction by Helen Phillips, Amy Bloom, & David James Poissant

ABOUT THE ISSUE 

Issue 4 begins with David James Poissant’s “Venn Diagram,” a story from his debut collection The Heaven of Animals, which we urge you purchase as soon as is humanly possible. We met Jamie when we were all at grad school together at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Since then, we’ve followed his career as he’s received numerous honors and published in prestigious journals and magazines. Now, we’re pleased to feature one of Jamie's award-winning short stories and to share his insights in an interview.

This issue also features not one, not two, but three revelatory drafts of a short, magical, and deft piece of writing by Helen Phillips from her collection And Yet They Were Happy. Helen's story also inspired Mark Vollenweider's mysterious and intense artwork featured on the cover and throughout this issue.

And finally, we’re delighted that Amy Bloom was willing to open her archives and share an early draft of a story from a short story cycle that appeared in Where the God of Love Hangs Out. In addition to an interview with Bloom, the section includes an editors’ discussion about the draft and story and what we found intriguing that may help spark further conversations between readers, writers, editors, instructors, and students.