Amuse-Bouche
Our regular and occasional Amuse-Bouche series offer little bites each week to keep you satiated between issues. Dig in!
Spotlight is a regular series published every other Monday throughout the year, showcasing an individual writer or artist. Writers Read is an occasional series showcasing craft-based reviews of published works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and translation. À La Carte is a curated occasional series featuring short pieces by writers from underrepresented or historically misrepresented communities and/or writing that engages with issues of social, economic, and environmental justice. Litdish is an occasional series of interviews with writers and artists in conversation with our staff about literature, art, social justice, and community activism.
Spotlight: Earth Mother / Dimensions / Me Versus the Dainties
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Jennifer J. Pruiett-SelbyMy earth mother told me to rub cocoa butter on my gray winter legs, and never fake bake with UV rays…
Spotlight: When You Choose Thor: The Dark World Over 12 Years a Slave
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Jason McCallTap into your Southern blood and blame Obama: A black president. A black nerd president. Anything is possible. These days, alien-space-Vikings seem as unreal as the Middle Passage…
Spotlight: A Pair of Red Shoes
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Dawn FerchakThis is a story about a pair of red ankle-strap shoes. High heels, of course, high heels that give the longest legs to even the shortest of girls—in this case, an Italian girl who stood just a little short of five feet tall, in the Jersey City of 1942…
Spotlight: Fragments of a Shoreline Adolescence; Heroes Tunnel: Confessions of a Working Class Slob.; and Charlene Comes Home From College, May 2012
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Christopher Eugene GrilloFrankie and I protect our town, on the scoreboard and at the town fair, still wearing our jerseys, proud of our colors…
Spotlight: The Feeling of Now
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Alison RollmanTonight she’s in a park, sprawled out on her back under the shelter of a scratched-up willow tree…
Spotlight: Gods, Heroes, and Saints Revisited
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Sarah HahnMy work is a reflection of past cultures, distorted by a mirror of aged antiquity, seen through a haze of modern neon lights…
Spotlight: Anne Boleyn’s Purple Gown / Anne Boleyn’s Cravings / Anne Boleyn’s Coronation
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2013 / Juliana GrayThe first time Henry left a purple bruise, I sent a message to the velvet merchant. His hands, the king’s, had touched me tenderly at the start, although his fingers were always rough…
Litdish: Mohsin Hamid, Author
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2013 / Interviewed by Zainab ShahMohsin Hamid is the author of three novels: Moth Smoke, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a New York Times bestseller that was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and adapted for film; and, most recently, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia…
Litdish: Kate Maruyama, Author
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2013 / Interviewed by Miriam González-PoeHarrowgate is a decided break from the dominant genre trends, and as such, Maruyama is modernizing a classic form and re-introducing it to a whole new generation of horror readers…
Spotlight: Closing the Bar / Enough to Stand On / Letter to Youngstown
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2013 / Karen SchubertBacked up to our favorite piece of wall, we’re at Cedars the week before it closes and my friend says she’s been coming down since her bartender boyfriend snuck her in. So many Saturday nights of garage bands and traveling shows, lights and that sound that rattles the ribcage…
Spotlight: The Mason Jar
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2013 / AnonymousI thought of my mother as I waited for the museum’s copier to do its work. I watched the green light scan across my retinas and remembered leaning into her, folding myself small into the space between her chin and her lap, feeling the raspy rumble of her voice as I stared into the fire until my eyes swam with spots…