The Fiction Shelf

This rich poem asks many questions and answers few. The poet commands imagery well and peppers the narrative with questions to intrigue and engage the reader. Nature and humanity are combined in a poem whose greatest success is its use of language.

A poem that revels in its disorder. A memory written as furiously as the time lived. Brief and sharp, this work is beautiful in its honesty.

An honest, lyric sonnet whose simple imagery captures excellently the gentle expectations of youth and the desire to reclaim them for the present.

A short poem in simple meter that discusses in part the transience of emotion. Accurate words steeped with meaning by their scarcity create a cool, delicate atmosphere that beautifully mirrors the tone of the subject.

In this piece the Author explores the relationship between the protagonist and their Grandfather. The focus upon the Grandfather’s love of photography and his meticulous journal keeping are in contrast to the fleeting moments shared and the contrasting interpretations of their days spent together.

Like Nabokov’s Pale Fire, this innovative and interesting story acts as a user guide to a fictional work. The writer uses a movie review format to examine marriage, possession and tokens of affection.

A poem of pleasant frustration. There is a nostalgia in the brutal honesty of the memories of working class life. The sepia‐toned recollections suggest confusion about a place in a society where death and illness are the only constant.

With speech that is at once engaging and familiar, and a steady, dramatic narrative, Belldown explores long‐established family dynamics and the effect they have on external relationships. The narrative voice expresses fluently a filial struggle that often lays unsaid.

A rookie rock and roll journalist senses his big break when he gets granted a rare audience with a reclusive rock legend. A classy short story that is as much about getting old as it is about rock and roll.