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Cleaver Magazine

Fresh-Cut Lit & Art

Cleaver Magazine
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IN THE WOODS, a visual narrative by Emily Steinberg

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by thwackJune 30, 2020

IN THE WOODS

Mid-June. It’s cool. It’s quiet. the sun-dappled path is rugged and craggy and I’ve been walking it one or another for 55 years. Gus pulls me along, his pantaloons jauntily swaying in the breeze, stopping at each watering hold with expectant, happy eyes. In here, I don’t have to think about 115,000 dead. In here, I don’t have to think about a 27-year old shot in the back in a Wendy’s parking lot or a 46-year old dying with a knee on his neck after 9 minutes…

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Issue 30, Visual Narrative. (Click for permalink.)

ENGAGED by Susan Tacent

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

You scratch because it itches. You’re over the moon with excitement. Good news always drives your histamine reaction and now you’re breaking out in hives. You drink a glass of water. You breathe, slow breaths, in, out, the way the yoga teacher and the meditation guru and the homeopathist and the ENT guy instruct. The itch gets funky, like a dance, up and down your arms, the backs of your thighs, a place between your shoulder blades you can’t reach. You ask Ben to reach for you and he says he won’t because scratching only makes it worse. If you’re going to marry this guy, you want to know. You tell him he has to and when he does, you know you made the right choice.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

SOME BRIEF THOUGHTS ON SELF-IMPROVEMENT by Reilly Joret

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

My wife fingered the remaining chocolate syrup from her bowl to her mouth and announced she was going to bed. I’ll admit The Tonight Show monologue that night wasn’t going to change her mind. It was all obvious punchlines about the president’s Asia trip, with some cheap shots at the end for the congressman with the Honduran mistress maid, and the reality TV star with the unflattering DUI mugshot. I feared this was becoming the norm. I followed my wife upstairs, hoping we might discuss this unsettling trend, or get in something cursory between the two of us, but she fell asleep in a way that suggested a medical condition.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Fiction, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

NORTHWEST STALKER by Jan Stinchcomb

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

The truth is, she misses everything from those days, the skirts they wore and the bangs they had, side swept, always on the verge of disappearing, like youth. Like life. It all slipped away, as her parents had warned her, even the people. Girlfriends you thought you’d have forever, poof, lost to marriage or motherhood or minds suddenly changed. They didn’t want to be girls anymore. They moved to other states. They changed their names and lost themselves.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

TWO POEMS by Jaewon Chang

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

Blindness

It began with a stove,
burnt mahogany dissipates in, wishing
the ember hinted the future: mother
running out of her favorite house,
home to the ancestors’ cedar trees. She had one last look
at her bedroom door, the one grandfather
painted pink, now dark red. I could only recall

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Issue 30, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

SPECIFIC AIR by Rebecca Titus

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

It is midnight in early March and you are pacing the wood floors of your sweet, single-story house in East Nashville—a place with a pair of red-tailed hawks in the front yard and a pair of train tracks in the back. You are on the phone with your musician-botanist-projectionist friend, comparing the vibrant gardens of your childhood to coral reefs. Before it sold, she saw your parents’ house for herself last summer: the lightning bugs, the flowering vines, the fractal canopy suspended above the creek. She gets what you mean about the flowers. You jot down some notes, hang up, and go fill a water glass. You catch a flash of white light through the slats of your blinds and step on the back deck.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Issue 30, Nonfiction. (Click for permalink.)

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD by Melissa Brooks

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

The world was fuzzy. Victoria blinked. She blinked again and again until the room came into focus. A pixelated ceiling. A window opening to blackness. An unkempt man slouched in a chair, fist propping up a mess of greasy dark hair. He had sallow skin, dark bags beneath bloodshot eyes. Familiar eyes. Barry’s eyes? Benny? Billy? Billy.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Fiction, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

DON’T WORRY by Charles Holdefer

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

Squinting against whiteness the child left her mother beside the woodpile. With the sudden drop in temperature an icy crust had formed on last night’s new snow. “We’ll find it!” her mother called, watching the child walk on the surface while she stood shin-deep, clutching her stump to her breast. It was tightly wrapped in rags. Bleeding was stanched. The throbbing had slowed, perhaps due to the cold. But she was burning up, dizzy.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

MATRYOSHKA by Marion Peters Denard

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

When Mom died Rachel started asking questions. What did Mom make for Christmas morning? Egg casserole. When did Mom go back to school? I was fourteen, you were eleven. The questions got smaller and bigger, as though by their specificity they were magnified.  What did she smell like? She wore Chanel No. 5. I know that, Tabbie. But what did she smell like?  She smelled like orange honey and coral lipstick and bright green breath mints. What did her hugs feel like? They were nice. Tabbie. Like she was bringing you in and keeping you out at the same time.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Fiction, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

THE MYTH OF THE ARAN FISHERMAN: The Art of Jan Powell

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by laserjJune 29, 2020

Knitting transcends time, and is a dominant theme in Jan Powell’s life and work as an artist. Through her use and creative exploration of this craft, Jan has produced—over the past four decades—a tangible amalgam of heritage, feminism, and memory.

 

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Art, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

SOULS FALLING INTO HELL LIKE SNOWFLAKES by Roy Bentley

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

Am I the only one in the Cleveland Art Museum today
looking for mercy? I’m looking at an artwork about Hell
or the end of the world, recalling my then-small son saying,
of the Challenger disaster, I’d have gotten out. In the painting,
there are boats and the boats are filling, the sea aswarm and
starkly bullying like the first dopplered image of a hurricane.
Angels with an artist’s idea of wings are manning the tillers,
captaining across a broth of larvae-white bodies, the deltas

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Issue 30, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

UNDONE by Elaine Crauder

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

The banana bread would not bake. Maddy had followed the recipe to a T, only substituting canola oil for half the butter, honey for half the sugar, skim for whole milk, and nutmeg for cinnamon. Putting on long oven mitts and pulling the door open, she checked the loaf again. Three hundred and fifty degree heat swept into the kitchen, already filled with late summer swelter. Not wanting to take the time to lift the single bread pan onto the top of the stove, she pulled out the rack, took off one mitt and stuck a toothpick into the loaf. Raising it straight up, it was plain to the naked eye—her reading glasses were sitting idle on the kitchen table—that raw batter clung to the sliver of wood for dear life. If it had been at all cooperative it would let the toothpick withdraw, leaving no trace on the twig, as if untouched by the experience.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Fiction, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

GRAB, SNATCH by Michelle Ephraim

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

The hospice nurse is gloves-and-salve practical.

She says: your mother must want something from you.

My mother can’t walk or talk. Her body is bones wrapped in reams of moth skin. Her brain works in insect twitches.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT by Brenna Womer

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

While shopping what’s left of the canned goods at the grocery store, an announcement at the top of the hour, robust and autotuned: “All employees must now perform a personal temperature check,” and I, in a pair of disposable vinyl gloves but not a facemask because Dr. Gupta says they’re unnecessary for the still- and now- and currently-healthy, holding the last can of Kroger no-salt garbanzos, recall they’ve always made this announcement, but two weeks ago they were checking the temperature of the meats.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

THE WOMAN IN THE DREAM by Mirande Bissel

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

hands the swaddled child over. A dream is no place
for a baby. She has seen revelers pour the baby
from a carafe—he’s white wine, fruity like the summer
he is born into, and they drink the baby in the purple
dusk of a dream-cafe. She’s always too late to stop them.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Issue 30, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

WALKING THROUGH THE UNDERWORLD by Stella Hayes

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

out my window colored heads bound in swiftness. in their decision to bring about movement

& motion. the snow is taking a break from falling, as it did just days before. the village is

painted in primordial gray, with roofs in color too happy even for a rainbow. eavesdropping

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Issue 30, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

TO LIFT US UP WHEN WE ARE FALLEN by Leonard Kress

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoJune 29, 2020

There are three women installed in the living room when I arrive. Smartly dressed, young moms most likely, with highlighted loosely curled hair, gleaming toenails, and tailored pantsuits. All have open laptops and cell phones—new information and guidelines saturate the air. I arrive with a friend because this is where our weekly writing group meets, at Hope’s house—because she’s wheelchair-bound, and can’t easily secure a ride to our usual meeting places. The women are from the hospice—nurse, social worker, and gerontologist. It occurs to me that the more they deal with the dying, the farther away they get from death. They bring a pleasing scent to the room, perfume and doughnuts and pastries, which overpower the disinfectant used to clean up after Hope’s father’s renal stent failed in the middle of the night and urine soaked into the carpet.

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Published on June 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 30. (Click for permalink.)

CLEANNESS, a novel by Garth Greenwell, reviewed by Nikki Caffier Smith 

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 25, 2020 by thwackJune 25, 2020

At its heart, Cleanness is a novel about duality: the duality of spirit, of desire, of self-perception. How one can be “dirty” and “clean” at the same time. With deft and expressive writing, Greenwell questions our understanding of these concepts. What does it mean to be dirty? What does it mean to be clean? To go outside or stay in. To stay in or go outside. Perhaps they are just two facets of the same thing.

 

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Published on June 25, 2020 in fiction reviews, reviews. (Click for permalink.)

An Interview with Sharon Harrigan, author of the novel HALF, by Virginia Pye

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 15, 2020 by thwackJune 15, 2020

Writers have a way of finding each other in Virginia, thanks to several strong literary non-profits. Sharon Harrigan teaches at WriterHouse in Charlottesville and I used to help run James River Writers in Richmond. We met years ago at the annual JRW Writers Conference. When my first novel came out, Sharon generously reached out and offered to interview me for Fiction Writers Review. I moved to Cambridge several years later, but we continued to keep track of each other’s careers, cheering on each new publication. I’m delighted to interview her now about her debut novel, HALF. In sparse, lyrical prose, it tells the story of identical twins who speak in one voice, until they can’t any longer.

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Published on June 15, 2020 in Interviews, Interviews with Fiction Writers. (Click for permalink.)

WHAT I CARRY, a YA novel by Jennifer Longo, reviewed by Aja Todd

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 12, 2020 by thwackJune 12, 2020

From the very first moment of her existence, Muiriel was born alone. Found abandoned at a medical center with no parents to claim her, Muiriel has lived in foster care her entire life. But blessed with a book of survival by naturalist John Muir and her experience in nearly twenty different foster homes, seventeen-year-old Muiriel knows she will not let her past dictate her future:

Aging out is terrifying.

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Published on June 12, 2020 in reviews, young adult fiction reviews. (Click for permalink.)

ASK JUNE: Coronavirus II: The Old Marcher and the Masked Baby

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 9, 2020 by thwackJune 9, 2020

A note to my readers:

Here are a few more coronavirus-related letters. Knowing what I know now, I would have submitted them all at once, a few weeks ago, instead of spacing them out. Things have changed so quickly since that first batch: problems like nagging mothers and the niceties of social-distancing behavior may seem petty and quaint as compared to the deadly-serious questions and sweeping protests following the murder of George Floyd. I will submit my second batch of letters now, but humbly, in hopes that they may provide a moment of entertainment for those of you who are taking a break from weightier matters, and that they may still be of use to those of you who are still worried about contracting the virus during normal daily activities.

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Published on June 9, 2020 in Ask June. (Click for permalink.)

TO THE BONE, poems by Angela Narciso Torres, reviewed by Alina Stefanescu

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 7, 2020 by thwackJune 7, 2020

To The Bone is a book about the particular sort of remembering that accompanies losing a parent to Alzheimer’s. The poet’s mother is brought tenuously, haltingly, on the page. A sense of slippage is accomplished through layering, repetitions, and fluctuating temporality to reveal how a disease of memory appears to the mind struggling to find shore in presence.

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Published on June 7, 2020 in poetry reviews, reviews. (Click for permalink.)

HARD TACK by Jamie Alliotts

Cleaver Magazine Posted on June 5, 2020 by thwackJune 15, 2020

It’s a damp, drizzly November night—Thanksgiving—and I can’t help but think of Melville’s famous orphan, who sets out from this insular city of the Manhattoes, goes to sea with branded Ahab, and eats hardtack with his shipmates aboard the doomed Pequod. ■ Blinky grew up on a cattle ranch in Miami. As a boy, he spent time in foster homes, on the street. He tells me about his father—then asks me to leave him out of it. Saw his mother for the first time when he was 12 or 13, around the time he started smoking crack. Saw her again—and for the last time—a few years later.

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Published on June 5, 2020 in Flash, Issue 30, Nonfiction. (Click for permalink.)

AFTERBURN A Workshop the Art of Flash Revision Taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa | August 3 to August 22, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 29, 2020 by thwackOctober 4, 2020

AFTERBURN
A Workshop the Art of Flash Revision
Taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa

3 weeks
August 3 to August 22
Click here to register
$125 early bird / $150 regular
Class limit: 12
Questions: [email protected]

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Published on May 29, 2020 in Sold Out, The Art of Flash, Workshops. (Click for permalink.)

MINOR DETAIL, a novel by Adania Shibli, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette and reviewed by Dylan Cook

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 29, 2020 by thwackJune 12, 2020

Tables need at least three legs to stand; guitar strings only ring when taut around two points. Minor Detail, Adania Shibli’s third novel, takes its title as a challenge: how much can hinge upon one moment? How can a single moment of pain bridge the past to the present? 

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Published on May 29, 2020 in fiction reviews, reviews, translation. (Click for permalink.)

THE BIG WARM HOUSE An Essay on the Art of Becoming a Writer by Emma Sloley

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 28, 2020 by thwackJune 1, 2020

The thing I believe writers (and perhaps also readers) need to know about the big warm house is that it’s built on a foundation of contradiction. Everyone who lives inside must crave solitude but instead find themselves bumping up against furniture, beds, each other, themselves. They must be forced into intimacy and driven apart by failing to understand one another. The fictional house must always be full of people but also profoundly lonely. The house must represent safety but also danger—a waystation between two worlds, though never exposing in which direction lies folly and which salvation. Most importantly, the inhabitants of the story house must be torn between desperately wanting to get away, and wanting never to leave.

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Published on May 28, 2020 in Craft Essays, Fiction Craft Essays, Nonfiction. (Click for permalink.)

THE PROPULSIVE PICTURE, Image as an Engine in Poetry, a Workshop taught by Cleaver Poetry Editor Claire Oleson | July 11 to August 15, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 25, 2020 by thwackSeptember 17, 2020

THE PROPULSIVE PICTURE Image as an Engine in Poetry Taught by Cleaver Poetry Editor Claire Oleson 5 weeks July 11-August 15 SOLD OUT Class limit: 12 Questions: [email protected] In this course, we will explore how images can serve as the engine in a poem: driving the language as a plot might in a story or novel. We will work primarily on generating new work, encouraging participants to push their boundaries and hone their voice to create memorable and authentic pieces. The workshop model will facilitate constructive responses from both peers and the instructor. Particular attention will be placed on the visual life of the poetry we read and write. We will read a few selections of poetry weekly that demonstrate the potential of images as communicative engines. The readings will be brief but rich, with the intent of inviting multiple re-readings, close readings, note-taking and flexibility for everyone’s lives and … chop! chop! read more!

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Published on May 25, 2020 in Poetry Workshops, Sold Out, Workshops. (Click for permalink.)

TELLING TRUE STORIES A Workshop in Creative Nonfiction Taught by Cleaver Editor Sydney Tammarine | October 19–November 20, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 22, 2020 by thwackSeptember 21, 2020

TELLING TRUE STORIES A Workshop in Creative Nonfiction Taught by Cleaver Editor Sydney Tammarine 5 weeks October 19–November 20 Class limit: 12 Questions: [email protected] Writer Dinty W. Moore says that creative nonfiction equals curiosity plus truth. CNF comes in a variety of forms: from expansive memoir to intimate personal essay to the lightbulb “eureka!” of flash. But in any form, the CNF writer is a guiding voice in the dark: a storyteller seeking truth, thinking alongside the reader toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world. In this class, we’ll practice the essay in its most dynamic form: a verb that means “to test; to practice; to taste; to try to do, accomplish, or make (anything difficult).” Each week, we will read and discuss one or more example essays and generate new work from prompts. Students will share their work for peer and instructor feedback. This workshop has weekly … chop! chop! read more!

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Published on May 22, 2020 in CNF Workshops, Fall 2020 Workshops, Sold Out, Workshops. (Click for permalink.)

THE ART OF THE SCENE: A Workshop in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction taught by Lisa Borders | August 2 – September 4, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 21, 2020 by thwackSeptember 17, 2020

THE ART OF THE SCENE  A Workshop in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Taught by Lisa Borders 5 weeks August 2 – September 4 introductory Zoom meeting at 2 pm ET on Sun Aug 2 SOLD OUT $200 early bird / $225 regular Class limit: 12 Questions: [email protected] The writer Sandra Scofield describes a “pulse”—that spark that makes the story come alive— as a vital element to all scenes. This pulse is especially crucial for opening scenes, as many agents and editors report that if they are not hooked on a manuscript within the first five pages, they will not read on. But what is a “pulse,” and how can a writer ensure that each scene—not just the opening— has one? How can we write in such a way that our characters come to life, that a scene breathes emotion and urgency, while moving the plot forward and keeping tension taut? … chop! chop! read more!

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Published on May 21, 2020 in CNF Workshops, Fiction Workshops, Sold Out, Summer 2020 Workshops, Workshops. (Click for permalink.)

MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CARSON MCCULLERS, a memoir by Jenn Shapland, reviewed by Claire Oleson

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 14, 2020 by thwackJune 6, 2020

Jenn Shapland’s hybridized memoir and biography straddles what its seemingly-impossible title suggests: an ability to write about oneself by writing about someone else. Far from taking on a myopic or narcissistic project, ​My Autobiography of Carson McCullers i​s eager to talk about the self for the sake of empathy, to revive written-off lives, to question presumed heterosexualities, and to make a bodily connection with now-irrecoverable marginalized bodies.

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Published on May 14, 2020 in nonfiction reviews, reviews. (Click for permalink.)

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY, a Workshop to Jumpstart Your Writing, taught by Tricia Park | September 19 to October 17, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 12, 2020 by thwackSeptember 21, 2020

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY, Part 1 of Two A Workshop to Jumpstart Your Writing open to all levels and genres Parts 1 and 2 may be repeated or taken out of order taught by Cleaver Editor Tricia Park 5 weeks Sept 19, 26, Oct 3, 10, 17. 5 Zoom classes, Saturdays 2-4 pm Eastern Time $200 Class limit: 12 Questions: [email protected] [This session is sold out. Consider Session II, starting Nov 7. Sessions can be repeated and can be taken out of sequence.] EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY is a five-week online generative writing course for writers of all levels and genres. In these days of uncertainty and rapid change, it’s difficult to know what to hang onto. And social distancing leaves us struggling to maintain our mental wellness during this undetermined period of isolation. But what if we can use this time to develop a skill; start a new project; follow a passion? What if … chop! chop! read more!

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Published on May 12, 2020 in CNF Workshops, Fall 2020 Workshops, Fiction Workshops, Sold Out, Workshops. (Click for permalink.)

Emily Steinberg’s QUARANTINE JOURNAL

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 7, 2020 by thwackJuly 13, 2020

Dispatches from inner and outer space…

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Published on May 7, 2020 in Visual Narrative. (Click for permalink.)

TELLING TRUE STORIES, a Workshop in Creative Nonfiction, by Sydney Tammarine | July 27 – August 28, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 6, 2020 by thwackSeptember 20, 2020

TELLING TRUE STORIES A Workshop in Creative Nonfiction Taught by Cleaver Editor Sydney Tammarine 5 weeks July 27 – August 28 [sold out] Class limit: 12 Questions: [email protected] Writer Dinty W. Moore says that creative nonfiction equals curiosity plus truth. CNF comes in a variety of forms: from expansive memoir to intimate personal essay to the lightbulb “eureka!” of flash. But in any form, the CNF writer is a guiding voice in the dark: a storyteller seeking truth, thinking alongside the reader toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world. In this class, we’ll practice the essay in its most dynamic form: a verb that means “to test; to practice; to taste; to try to do, accomplish, or make (anything difficult).” Each week, we will read and discuss one or more example essays and generate new work from prompts. Students will share their work for peer and instructor feedback. This … chop! chop! read more!

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Published on May 6, 2020 in CNF Workshops, Telling True Stories, Workshops. (Click for permalink.)

THE ART OF FLASH, Workshop in Fiction and Nonfiction, taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa | May 9 — June 6, 2020 and June 20 — July 25, 2020 [both sections sold out]

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 6, 2020 by thwackJuly 23, 2020

THE ART OF FLASH A Workshop in Fiction and Nonfiction Taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa Both sessions of Kathryn Kulpa’s The Art of Flash are sold out—new classes by Kathryn will be announced shortly! Session 2: 5 weeks June 20 — July 25, 2020 $125 early bird / $150 regular Class limit: 12 Questions: [email protected] [sold out] Session 1: 5 weeks May 9 — June 6, 2020 $125 early bird / $150 regular Class limit: 12 Questions: [email protected] [sold out] Flash is a genre defined by brevity: vivid emotions and images compressed into a compact form. We most often see flash fiction, but flash can also encompass prose poetry, micro memoir, lyric essays, and hybrid works. In this class, we will take a close look at different styles and forms of flash fiction, as well as flash nonfiction, hybrid, and experimental works. Each week, we will read and … chop! chop! read more!

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Published on May 6, 2020 in Sold Out, The Art of Flash, Workshops. (Click for permalink.)

THE ROYAL ABDULS, a novel by Ramiza Shamoun Koya, reviewed by Beth Kephart

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 4, 2020 by thwackJune 20, 2020

During the day and a half that I ravenously read Ramiza Shamoun Koya’s debut novel, The Royal Abduls, I asked myself these questions. I leaned into the lives of Koya’s magnificently drawn characters, into the nest of troubles they inadvertently twigged together, into the love they did not know how to express. Or forgot to express. Or ran out of time to express.

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Published on May 4, 2020 in fiction reviews, reviews. (Click for permalink.)

ASK JUNE: The Quarantine Edition

Cleaver Magazine Posted on May 1, 2020 by thwackMay 1, 2020

Dear Readers,

First, let me apologize to you for not having posted in so long. What with one thing and another, my alter ego in the real word became preoccupied. But the pandemic has vastly increased her free time: once she has decontaminated the day’s deliveries, Zoomed for an hour or two, walked the dog, done a little reading and writing, sent off a few irate messages to our elected (who knows how, as Gerard Manley Hopkins would say) officials, and beaten back despair and other existential stuff with carbs and Netflix, there’s really nothing left to do except cleaning and giving advice. So here I am; and, happily, my re-emergence has coincided with a flurry of novel-coronavirus questions. Ahem!

—Love, June

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Published on May 1, 2020 in Ask June. (Click for permalink.)

An Interview with Claire Oleson, author of THINGS FROM THE CREEK BED WE COULD HAVE BEEN, by Andrea Caswell

Cleaver Magazine Posted on April 28, 2020 by thwackApril 28, 2020

Claire Oleson’s chapbook, Things From the Creek Bed We Could Have Been, is the winner of the Newfound 2019 Prose Prize, awarded annually to a chapbook-length work of exceptional fiction or nonfiction that explores how place shapes identity, imagination, and understanding.

In this following interview by Andrea Caswell, Claire discusses the work, and how making art can reshape our understanding of what we see in the world.

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Published on April 28, 2020 in Interviews, Interviews with Fiction Writers, Interviews>Interviews with Cleaver Editors. (Click for permalink.)

NEW TRENDS FOR SPRING, a comic by Emily Steinberg

Cleaver Magazine Posted on April 22, 2020 by thwackApril 22, 2020

Don’t miss Emily Steinberg’s take on new trends for Spring 2020 face masks!

The Wall Streeter, tailored and minimal, this conical face covering oozes quiet authority. Exemplary for Zoom board meetings and other social-distancing-approved company functions.

The Boho, groovy and iconoclastic. Puts your free spirit front and center. Totes rad for riding the waves, catching the rays in Malibu, or wine tasting in Petaluma.

The Prep, flawless on the links, at the club, or yachting off Nantucket, with easy straw access for a steady supply of gin and tonics…

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Published on April 22, 2020 in Visual Narrative. (Click for permalink.)

SQUARE HAUNTING, nonfiction by Francesca Wade, reviewed by Gabriel Chazan

Cleaver Magazine Posted on April 21, 2020 by thwackJuly 8, 2020

In a short piece of writing on “London Under Siege,” written during World War II, Virginia Woolf wrote that “everybody is feeling the same thing: therefore no one is feeling anything in particular. The individual is merged in the mob.” Reading these words now, as we live through a different collective social crisis, I am reminded of the significance of individual intellectual and emotional life as a key form of sustenance and even political action.

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Published on April 21, 2020 in nonfiction reviews, reviews. (Click for permalink.)

POLITICS IS FOR POWER, nonfiction by Eitan Hersh, reviewed by Brian Colker

Cleaver Magazine Posted on April 14, 2020 by thwackJune 6, 2020

On a recent Sunday under quarantine, my spouse Susan Sheu and I donned costume wigs for our Zoom meeting. Twelve volunteers from the Los Angeles area sat at our respective kitchen tables, couches, and easy chairs and wrote postcards for California 38th District assembly member Christy Smith, who is running for Congress via a special election on May 12. Susan came up with the concept “wigging out for Democracy”; she thought that wearing wigs would be a festive and interesting way to make the Zoom meeting less tedious. It worked well: despite the quarantine and general malaise, wearing the wigs did add levity and made the afternoon go by faster.

Eitan Hersh, a political science professor at Tufts University, believes that Zoom meetings like this are critical for progressives. In his new book, Politics is for Power, he contrasts volunteer activity with posting rants on Facebook or watching the news, which he brands “hobbyism”. For decades, organizers from Saul Alinsky, infamous ‘radical’ and author of the classic Rules for Radicals,  and Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz, the intellectual godfather of Obama For America, have pondered how to get liberals off their couches (and off social media) to take meaningful action.

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Published on April 14, 2020 in nonfiction reviews, reviews. (Click for permalink.)

RING THE BELLS, a visual narrative by Emily Steinberg

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 30, 2020 by thwackJune 9, 2020

RING THE BELLS A Visual Narrative by Emily Steinberg Emily Steinberg is an artist, writer, and educator whose work has been shown across the United States and Europe. She has been named the first Artist in Residence at Drexel College of Medicine in Philadelphia, where she works with medical students to translate their medical school experiences into words and images. Her visual narratives have been regularly published in Cleaver Magazine where she has recently taken on the role of Visual Narrative Editor. Her memoir, Graphic Therapy, was published serially in Smith Magazine and her short comic “Blogging Towards Oblivion,” was included in The Moment (HarperCollins). She is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Penn State University. Steinberg earned her MFA. and BFA from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. To submit graphic narratives for consideration in Cleaver, contact Emily at [email protected]

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Published on March 30, 2020 in Visual Narrative. (Click for permalink.)

TWO POEMS by Juheon Rhee

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

SIX STAGES OF GRIEF

I. you are going to a Danish pastry down on Jung-gu road to sell your soul to the devil itself no one’s seen you will clutch your handbag once filled with perfumes and lotions full of cards of queens kings you do not recognize how upset you would be when the royalties can not accept your only gift as it withered and is wearing the helm of Hades that you wish existed

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Issue 29, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

CLEAN LINES by Caroline Curran

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

Adrienne lay on the floor of her apartment, thinking that her life had become what she wanted it to be, when her phone began to ring. Sophia sat next to her, cross-legged, with a glass of wine, flipping flashcards and nodding when Adrienne said the right answer. Grassy late-April air drifted through the open window and the sound of crickets came to a swell outside. Neither Adrienne nor Sophia reached for the phone, letting the sound of fluttering bells continue.

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Fiction, Issue 29. (Click for permalink.)

BLESSING ONE: BLESS ME by Sherine Elise Gilmour

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

I have a mother who once said car, lake,
who said, I couldn’t stand holding
your sticky hands any longer,
who said, I found a lake deep enough.

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Issue 29, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

CHICKEN FOR TWO by Kim Magowan

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

After we order the chicken for two, I run a theory by my friend Lois: certain professions are more conducive to being a good spouse than others. I’m not referring to practical considerations here, like the wear and tear a surgeon’s hours (both long and unpredictable) will inflict on her marriage. Rather, the same qualities that make people good at certain jobs make them decent spouses. “Architects, for instance,” I say, “like me. We need to be meticulous, we need imagination and long-range vision. Looking at a building pared to drywall and studs, we picture the pristine home it will become. We gravitate to the fixer-upper.”

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 29. (Click for permalink.)

Umbrellas Could Have Brains: Paintings by Serge Lecomte

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by laserjJune 25, 2020

UMBRELLAS COULD HAVE BRAINS Paintings by Serge Lecomte The real world for me is a mix of images where two realities or more cross. Take two known objects and connect them in some other way. As a teen I saw the paintings by Hieronymus Bosch and was taken by the surreal world he envisioned. The world was never the same for me after that. Images were no longer meant to stagnate in their inert state. Rocks weren’t simply rocks. They could become loaves of bread. And fish could turn into young maidens. Leaves on a tree could turn into birds and vice versa. And umbrellas could have brains. After all, they have to open and close. Words have always inspired images to me. I began my career as a poet and novelist. Then one day, I quit writing because I thought painting would be a better way of expressing ideas. … chop! chop! read more!

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Art, Issue 29. (Click for permalink.)

AUTUMN’S RECKONING by John Middlebrook

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

The fiery fist above slowly loses its hold / and the musky lungs of autumn grow dry. At last, fall staggers and drops upon the rattling grass / breaking the arched back of summer…

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Issue 29, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

ANISCIA by Andrea Ellis-Perez

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

When I come home from school, Papa is pruning the roses. His back hunched, an oval of sweat creasing his white shirt that la Señora Francisca had pressed this morning. He isn’t wearing the gardening gloves that Mama bought him because he insists that it doesn’t let him talk to the roses. They can only hear him through his skin and the rough canvas of the gloves offends their delicate temperament. 

 

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Fiction, Issue 29. (Click for permalink.)

SORRY TO BE LATE by Marc Harshman

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

He knew how it would be—should have.Forgetting the keys on the table, / doors locked, window’s open, returning / on a loop of memories / to finding and un-find / the forgotten un-begotten.

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Issue 29, Poetry. (Click for permalink.)

HOW TO COMB SOMEONE’S HAIR by Uma Dwivedi

Cleaver Magazine Posted on March 29, 2020 by Kendra AquinoMarch 30, 2020

the first step is to love someone who will let you touch their hair. this is very important and cannot be avoided. next, to find them one day in their kitchen, shoulders so tense you think of cliffsides taut with stone—so you take them by the hand, pull them to their living room and sit them on the floor in front of their couch.

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Published on March 29, 2020 in Flash, Issue 29. (Click for permalink.)

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WEEKEND WRITING with Andrea Caswell | Ongoing Sunday Morning Series

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THE ART OF FLASH, taught by Kathryn Kulpa | Feb. 25-March 28, 2021 [SOLD OUT]

THE ART OF FLASH, taught by Kathryn Kulpa | Feb. 25-March 28, 2021 [SOLD OUT]

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PITCHING YOUR ESSAY, taught by Claire Rudy Foster | March 14, 21, 28, 2021

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POETIC ANATOMIES, taught by Claire Oleson |  March 20 to April 24, 2021

THE SHARPEST TOOLS IN THE DRAWER, a masterclass with Lise Funderburg, April 3-24, 2021

THE SHARPEST TOOLS IN THE DRAWER, a masterclass with Lise Funderburg, April 3-24, 2021

AFTERBURN: Flash Revision, taught by Kathryn Kulpa | April 4-April 25 2021

AFTERBURN: Flash Revision, taught by Kathryn Kulpa | April 4-April 25 2021

A GREAT START: Your Novel's Opening Pages, taught by Lisa Borders | April 11 - May 9, 2021

A GREAT START: Your Novel’s Opening Pages, taught by Lisa Borders | April 11 – May 9, 2021

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY, Part 2, taught by Tricia Park | May 9-30, 2021

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY, Part 2, taught by Tricia Park | May 9-30, 2021

TELLING TRUE STORIES, taught by Sydney Tammarine | May 10 - June 11, 2021

TELLING TRUE STORIES, taught by Sydney Tammarine | May 10 – June 11, 2021

UNSHAPING THE ESSAY: Experimental Forms, taught by Sydney Tammarine | July 18 – August 14

UNSHAPING THE ESSAY: Experimental Forms, taught by Sydney Tammarine | July 18 – August 14

Ask June!

Cleaver’s in-house advice columnist opines on matters punctuational, interpersonal, and philosophical, spinning wit and literary wisdom in response to your ethical quandaries. Write to her at today!

ASK JUNE: Coronavirus II: The Old Marcher and the Masked Baby

ASK JUNE: Coronavirus II: The Old Marcher and the Masked Baby

A note to my readers: Here are a few more coronavirus-related letters. Knowing what I know now, I would have submitted them all at once, a few weeks ago, instead of spacing them out. Things have changed so quickly since that first batch: problems like nagging mothers and the niceties of social-distancing behavior may seem petty and quaint as compared to the deadly-serious questions and sweeping protests following the murder of George Floyd. I will submit my second batch of letters now, but humbly, in hopes that they may provide a moment of entertainment for those of you who are ...
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June 9, 2020

Issue 33Launch!

March 23, 2021
19 days to go.
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Daily Thwacks

Six Days in November by Emily Steinberg

Monday Evening

Emily Steinberg’s QUARANTINE JOURNAL

Image of Donald Trump inside virus with caption: we have identified the virus

Dispatches from inner and outer space… …
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CURRENTLY

QUEER (PRIVATE) EYE: Crafting a New Hardboiled Sleuth, a Craft Essay by Margot Douaihy

QUEER (PRIVATE) EYE: Crafting a New Hardboiled Sleuth, a Craft Essay by Margot Douaihy
QUEER (PRIVATE) EYE: Crafting a New Hardboiled Sleuth by Margot Douaihy “It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.” —Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep There's arguably ... Read More
February 23, 2021

COME ON UP, short stories by Jordi Nopca, reviewed by Michael McCarthy

Come on up cover art
COME ON UP by Jordi Nopca translated by Mara Faye Lethem Bellevue Literary Press, 224 pages reviewed by Michael McCarthy At first, it’s a promise. Come on up! It’s a pledge made to every up-and-comer ... Read More
February 22, 2021

A MEMOIR CONVERSATION with David Marchino and Beth Kephart

A MEMOIR CONVERSATION with David Marchino and Beth Kephart
A MEMOIR CONVERSATION with David Marchino and Beth Kephart A former student (now a writer and a teacher) finds himself in his once-teacher’s memoir. A conversation ensues about mirrors, facsimiles, and blankness ... Read More
February 10, 2021
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  • PITCHING YOUR ESSAY, taught by Claire Rudy Foster | March 14, 21, 28, 2021
    PITCHING YOUR ESSAY, taught by Claire Rudy Foster | March 14, 21, 28, 2021
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    HAWAII IN LIVING COLOR: A Travel Essay by Ed Meek
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