I have like eight stacks of books I’ve bought or been sent from small presses and indie authors sitting all over my apartment. I’m working my way through them, slowly, slowly, and just worked my way (though it hardly felt like work) through three I felt were so spectacular I had to give them a shout-out. Eric Beeny apparently writes prose and poetry with equal grace and passion and observations and syntax that somehow feel perfect. I read his lovely, limited-edition chapbook, Snowing Fireflies, first, and these strange little fictions – some only a line or two long – punched me in the gut, but gently, with their stark and yet starry simplicity. So then I read his poetry collection, Of Creatures, and it socked me again, even more quietly.I felt like a balloon bumping against a table. Beeny’s work is so breathtakingly fragile, so strangely sad and examining of flaws, so retrospective and yet so flash-on-brilliant in its insights. I thought of creatures throughout, little glass creatures thinner than a fingernail and more broken than heartbreak. Shatter on the floor. A shatter. That’s what these stories and poems seemed to be, and I had to literally get my breath back after reading. I’ve never read anything quite like them. Get them, get them. Highly recommended.
I was already familiar with Jen Gann’s work, and had loved what I’d read so far. Her chapbook, back tuck from Magic Helicopter Press, made me even more of a fan. Brilliant little fantastical stories that read like fables with a kick, a violent twist, a frenetic yet measured feeling that sends you loving her characters then dreading what will happen to them. I thought these stories were the most amazing deal ever at $6. I’d have paid three times that for this small but powerful collection. Buy it here.
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Thanks so much, Christopher! I’m happy you liked them. You’ve made my day…
Thank you, Amber!…
gettin softly punched by eric beeny
Thanks, Steve! Too often, I’m my own punching bag…
My day is also made! Wow, thank you, Amber.
Glad to give your fine words a little exposure, Eric and Jen. I enjoyed them a lot.