Tending to Fires
Volume 22 (2019-2020)
ISSN: 1520-4580
ISBN: 978-1-9334458-09
Distributed by Ubiquity Distributors, Inc.
and Don Olson Distributors
Designed by Patrick Sexton of DesignWorks
at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Cover photograph by Xavier Tavera
Border Landscape At Night, 2017
Copyedited and proofread by Anne Kelley Conklin
$5.00
VIEW IMAGE FOLIO:
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Tending to Fires
Volume 22 (2019-2020)
Editors
Mary François Rockcastle (Executive), Meghan Maloney-Vinz (Managing), Sun Yung Shin (Poetry),
Sheila O’Connor (Fiction), Patricia Weaver Francisco (Creative Nonfiction) .
Assistant Editors
Jennifer Fillardo, Mark Teats, R. Thadhani
Assistant Managing Editors
Robyn Earhart
With gratitude to the students of the Editorial Board.
CONTENTS:
FICTION
Where Strays Might Find Comfort JEREMY GRIFFIN
Reading Aloud MARLIN BARTON
The Ferryman ED BOK LEE
The Taste of Stones ANCA FODOR
Gods of Mischief (excerpt) JOE HORTON
The Saddest Song JUAN J. MORALES
Jim ERIKA T. WURTH
Bliss G. BERNHARD SMITH
The Quiet Rules JOSIE ANNE SIGLER SIBARA
POETRY
Territory Was Not Virgin and Neither Was I (Virgin) HEID E. ERDRICH
Collection: a definition MARY WLODARSKI
Questions for My Body KENJI C. LIU
do not seek religion here ANTHONY DiPIETRO
Coldwater APRIL GIBSON
Some Exorcisms That Lead Away from Forgetting ALEXANDER ZITZNER
Run the Jewels BAO PHI
All I Know about Prison Shanks C. FAUSTO CABRERA
Sky MAE OLIVET
Dialogue Between Colander and Self MITCHELL JACOBS
Mi apellido es . . . MARION GÓMEZ
Only That G. E. PATTERSON
Only That (bis) G. E. PATTERSON
The Mystic Explains TESSA LIVINGSTONE
Mother STEVE CASTRO
Sleeping with Women LEIGH ANNE COUCH
My Black Boy Dead GABRIELLE CIVIL
Reductio Ad Numerus MATTHEW FEENEY
The Weekend BERNARD FERGUSON
Imago TRAVIS DOLENCE
[TK] JEANETTE BEEBE
Levis as Flotation Device HENRY GOLDKAMP
May Swenson in Line behind Gertrude Stein at Dunkin’ Donuts ELIZABETH REES
Monster STEPHEN ERIC BERRY
Becoming American MICHELLE BONCZEK EVORY
Oppression MARGARET RHEE
The Citrus Thief MARJORIE SAISER
Never Know What to Wear in This Heat ALICE DUGGAN
Moving houses, Maya pumps a music that cannot offer PURVI SHAH
CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Sand CYNTHIA BRANDON-SLOCUM
Early Spring DANIELLE BYLUND
Isle of Refuge CHERENE SHERRARD
There Is a Light KEVIN LANAHAN
Driving JEFF OAKS
My High Horse JEFF OAKS
(Un)document(ing) MORGAN GRAYCE WILLOW
The Coward LAURA THEOBALD
Tending to Fires ELIZABETH HORNEBER
MERIDEL LE SUEUR ESSAY
Thy Kingdom Come STEPHANIE ELIZONDO GRIEST
INTERVIEW
with Percival Everett MARY FRANÇOIS ROCKCASTLE AND GEN DEL RAYE
BOOK REVIEWS
New Varied Carols STAN SANVEL RUBIN
Form Is a Story BARRIE JEAN BORICH