The rumor has it there’s a vending machine on the corner of Kennedy and Main that lends an ear. Leona tells me it’s for real. Its buttons are the color of rust, she says, once possibly a brighter red. A tear sizzles down her cheeks as she squirms closer in bed. I once fed it a coin after my mother’s death and it gave me a quarter of her heart back.… more
Author Archives: Ben Drevlow
GOOD TIMES IN HERMOSILLO
FICTION by Mather SchneiderArturo loves his motorbike. It’s good on gas. He’s always about town, popping in here and there, zip, zip, in and out of traffic, cutting corners, up on the sidewalk, he zigs and he zags, he zags and he zigs, he’s a bumblebee, big fat Arturo on his little motorbike, beep beep!… more
Wilson Koewing
BULL Interview by The DrevlowI didn’t sit down with the intention of writing a dark book. My goal with this book was pretty simple, stark realism. These are the people that I know and that I meet, and these are the problems that I see or that I hear about or that I’ve had or that I’ve witnessed. And while yeah, it’s fucking dark, I feel like life is pretty dark.… more
When the Cold Wind Comes to the Glass Yard
FICTION by Jeff BurdIt brings with it roughnecks reckoning with reality they were warned against long before they laced up steel-toed boots and lit lights on their hard hats. They know the dust cough. They know how the mine spits them out until the cold wind pushes them stumbling in the dark with their bottles to the glass yard.… more
THE GUIDE TO KING GEORGE
FICTION by Bradley SidesIf Dad had to die, I wanted to give my new best friend a chance at eternal life. Something that would keep me from losing him, too. So, I named him King George.… more
Horace Poor, Horace Mint
FICTION by George SingletonHorace once wrote, “Don’t think, just do.” He also wrote, “Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.” That’s why I thought Perry quoted the Roman, not an ex-roofer with a broken back. There’s nothing more “roofer” than a man acting fool while concocting serious plans.… more
Sheldon Lee Compton
BULL Interview by The DrevlowI wanted to write about the strength of my people, Eastern Kentuckians. We’ve been, and will continue to be called, dumb, backward, incestuous, lazy, drunkards and drug addicts, and on it goes forever. Pisses me off at a fire-and-brimstone level. And I took that pissed-offedness and Breece’s abilities as a writer and busted ass to show our heart and loyalty and ability to survive hardship and a hundred other positive traits. I’m still trying to bust ass with that as much as I can.… more
Something Different
FICTION by Bethany JarmulRain, snow, sleet, or hail—every day, at precisely 7:30 a.m. Michael takes Goldie, his golden retriever-german shepherd mix, for a walk. Every day at 8:55 a.m. he arrives at work, where, for the last 40 years, he’s sold minivans to families with sticky-fingered toddlers and sport cars to retired men with bald spots and dropping testosterone levels Every day since his wife died, for dinner Michael microwaves a frozen dinner. Every day, by 9:30 p.m. he’s drifted off to sleep, Every day until today. Today, he is jobless.… more
Low IQ
FICTION by Eleanor LevineHarold Simpson, the English department chair, told me I had a low IQ. To Mr. Simpson, I was somewhere between mentally defective and virtuoso—more likely to work in an ad agency than write poetry or a Harvard thesis about the existential angst of Jean-Paul Sartre and his friends. I would never, in his mind, be… more
Capital of Dreams
FICTION by Travis TurnerHe’d felt chewed up and spit out a thousand times but this time the hangover was nowhere to be found. He felt rested. He was ready to take on the world all over again and give just as much as he got. A drink was exactly what he needed.… more
