Fiction
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An Immersive Experience by Darren Bradley Jones
No one knows why the aliens decided to land off the coast of Costa Rica.
Landed is the wrong word. They hovered above the ocean, the space between the base of their vessel and the water below unreachable. David and Venus had seen photos taken from a distance, the vessel looked like a hole in the image, a shard of obsidian or onyx dropped onto a page. Had they landed in the water with any force, their ship would’ve flooded the small beaches, driving out the tax-evading locals and bronzed ex-pats selling woven jewelry and knick-knacks from folding tables,
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An Interview with MFA ’21 Gina Chung and an Excerpt from her Debut Novel “Sea Change”
Interview by Jonathan Kesh
Gina Chung’s debut novel, Sea Change, applies a touch of the speculative to a deeply interior story.
The protagonist, Ro, is an isolated, directionless woman in her early thirties who spends her days handling sea life at an aquarium. Her mother is estranged, her father disappeared during an expedition to the climate change-induced “Bering Vortex,” and her boyfriend has just dumped her to join an experimental Mars colonization program. All that’s keeping Ro afloat is her bond with an old octopus at the aquarium named Dolores,
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Bedtime Story in a Foster Home Somewhere in California (1974) by Cerissa DiValentino
Mom told everyone how you were born in somebody’s living room in San Francisco while her feet were held down; she was telling your dad to sing while she pushed; so he sang “You Are My Sunshine” and then said mom looked blue because he was on acid; you were born blue; that’s what your dad said; blueberry; baby blue; blue like mom when your dad was supposed to take you to the park but ran away instead; our mom is a good woman; I know she tried; she hit her head when she was nine; did you know that?;
