PANK 5! IS SO GOOD! And not because I’m in it.

March 1, 2011

Though my piece in the new Pank IS one of my very very favorites. This is such a standout issue. More risks taken. More experimentalism. More new faces. More extraordinariness.

Here are some favorites from the issue (though you should really just read it all, front to back and cover to cover and upside down and in a mirror): J.A. Tyler’s oddly lovely story; a raw and revealing and really great piece by Rion Amilcar Scott; Brian Oliu’s strange and wonderful story that begins with a file extraction and pulls you in with the weight of the whole world; Lauren Becker’s award-winning “The Apple Dress” which you MUST read; “The Right Company for Death,” by Lydia Ship; an amazing multi-faceted glittery piece, “The Bell Curve,” by Valerie Suffron; two great, rubbed bare stories by the always top-notch Andrea Kneeland; “Quisling” by Nick Ripatrazone; Lucas Southworth’s creepy-good Little Red story; and brilliant side-by-side poems by  xTx and Sheldon Compton. Oh, and the artwork! Genius.

Good job, everyone in this issue. Thank you, Roxane Gay and Matt Siegel, for another amazing issue.

Anyone, if I spelled your name wrong, I’m sorrier than I can say. I’m reading from notes scribbled at three in the morning and as you probably would guess, my handwriting is not so awesome even at three in the afternoon. But I love you all anyway.