Of course, my shrink was two tables over watching me through the whole dinner. Not that he meant to. In fact, he probably was trying to avoid looking at me, as I was him. I did feel a bit like putting on a show, though, so I laughed often and tried to contribute as much conversation as I could with my friends. We talked about the word schnitzel. How attractive it was and how someone had to order the pork schnitzel just to say it. And...

While sitting down at the computer for a few hours two nights ago to compile that list of June writing contest deadlines and calls for submissions, I came across an awesome new independent literary press based out of St. Louis. Architrave Press, founded this year, selects poems for publication and then offers them for sale individually, the same way you can buy a song from iTunes. Their website isn’t set to launch until September, but...

Jesse Schweppe A singer cries in sunglasses to circulate the light, Brilliant on a Dixie snare. A drunk band assembles, As saints march in to the nickel of noon. The wind tossing on the Gulf of Mexico Was an historic phantom. Busy in war, citrus or gin, Henry followed life to a last public echo Of sulfur, fuggy air, or speeches at the lectern. Deep in the Date Line, prosthetic limbs still ask, ‘Were you bombed?’ His gay...