admin7EyZHDb8HNC8btr3, Author at X-R-A-Y

RECOMMENDS: DREAM MACHINES by Emmalea Russo

March 24, 2026 · Interviews & Reviews

Dreams. Dreams. Dreams. Nightmares. Reveries. How do they power us? Take hold? What do they tell us, in their own wicked and unwieldy ways? Lately, they’ve been on my mind, as I’m teaching a yearlong dream study workshop. We’ve been delving deep into dreams from literature, film, and psychoanalytic cases. I often teach long and trippy workshops, but this might be my favorite yet. I chose dreams this year, in part, because in the days/daze of digital-everything and quick AI answers, the dream remains impenetrable. It is remnant, belonging to the world of high weirdness and ungraspable grossness and subtlety….

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AN INTERVIEW WITH LEE UPTON by Alice M

March 23, 2026 · Fiction

Alice M: As I read The Withers I was struck by its genre. Even before the narrative mentioned Rebecca, I thought, ‘This is Lady’s Companion Gothic.’ I tumble thoughts in the back of my head as I read books, and at first I defined ‘Lady’s Companion Gothic’ to myself as a perversion of what used to be quite a common practice. But that’s not exactly right, is it? The practice itself seems like a perversion, making it an inherently gothic idea. Even in cases where the employer’s intent is totally benign, the role of lady’s companion is a perversion of…

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CHEST by Oliver Land

March 19, 2026 · Fiction

At the work Christmas party I sat with the junior staff, who were all shy and awkward. I made small talk about indie music with the shyest one, then talked to another about video games. One of the senior waitresses, there with her ex-boyfriend, was flirty with me. She wanted me to stay all night, then go home with her. She laughed too hard at my jokes. Every now and then, as she spoke to me, her live-in ex glanced at us. She pretended not to notice. Back at her table, she messaged me, suggesting we leave the party and…

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GRAND NATIONAL by Mitch Russell

March 18, 2026 · Fiction

For training, they make you sit in this grey room with a bunch of computers on a grey table. Your boss tells you she’s thrilled to have you on board but she doesn’t exactly sound thrilled. She sounds a little high strung, which is understandable, what with all the security checkpoints and facial recognition scanners and armed guards stomping up and down the corridors, back and forth, back and forth. You’d be stressed too! “This is just a little orientation presentation,” Pam tells you. “This explains all the, um, great things we do here!” A dome camera blinks in the…

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THE HUMANE ZOO AND HOLIDAY HOME by Pia Koh

March 13, 2026 · Fiction

When the guests are sitting around the table Lucien’s mom asks Lucien “Do you ever think about your dad?” If the guests weren’t there Lucien would glare bitterly at his mom then turn back to peeling the egg. But when guests are over and Lucien’s mom asks him something like this, he’s obliged to make a thoughtful expression. He says “Sometimes,” as if he’s never considered how much he thinks about his dead dad and this consideration is in itself somehow valuable. Lucien’s mother when they’re in the presence of guests and eating boiled eggs as an appetizer, chopped celery…

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HIS FATHER’S FATHER by Joshua D. Graber

March 12, 2026 · Fiction

After Lydia Davis 1. Every time his father spoke, he had questions. Primarily, which parts of the stories were true and which were false? A narrative based on a true story is a wonderful promise for people who believe in Jesus or Tom Hanks, but he was less interested in this muddled middle ground. He wanted verifiable truth or delicious lies, and to know the difference. There is infinite combinatorial explosion when multiple people tell a story and infinite doubt when only one person does. Like, for instance, the story of his father’s father walking into a bar where…

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DAVID SIMMONS RECOMMENDS: THREE BOOKS

March 11, 2026 · Interviews & Reviews

The Winnowing Draw by Michael Tichy (Castaigne Publishing, 2024) “Keeping a fire alive is an act of vigilance. The darkness merely awaits.” The Winnowing Draw is like Bone Tomahawk meets The Neverending Story, with beautiful language that really immerses you in the time period. We are in 1880 where a poor teenager named Cecil is on the run after accidentally (or not so accidentally?) murdering his best friend, another boy, but from a privileged and prestigious background. Meanwhile, a colonel, his kidnapped two-spirit guide, and his band of ragtag soldiers are on a hunt for American monsters. The wild…

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NOTHING CAN BE DONE by Pham Thu Trang

March 10, 2026 · Creative Nonfiction

The singing starts before dawn. Four or five in the morning, when the alley is still dark and narrow and holding its breath. The houses face each other across a strip of concrete barely wide enough for two motorbikes to pass without touching. Sound has nowhere to go here. It hits walls and comes back. She throws her doors open and sings. She is about twenty, maybe. I know she has a neurological condition—people say it quietly, with the tone that means explanation and permission at the same time. We have spoken before, in small ways—offering snacks, simple questions, asking…

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LEVS FIRST WORD WAS… by Angel T. Dionne

March 8, 2026 · Video

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A FISH STORY: PART FOUR by Michael Seymour Blake

March 2, 2026 · Comics

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