Medium Chill - Issue 9

by Rhonda Baughman, Jason Simon, Robert Beveridge

Here comes the long-awaited 9th issue of Medium Chill - jam-packed, full of flavor, and more than a little salty. Many of your favorite writers and AI-free artists are in this issue.

180 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2026

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Medium Chill is an anthology of indie literature, including short stories, poetry, visual art, and film criticism, frequently with a Northeast Ohio focus. The ninth issue is most notable for a lengthy essay about the first season of the TV show La Femme Nikita. To be honest, I've never seen the show before, but I did enjoy editor/writer Rhonda Baughman's detailed analysis and personal reflections on all 22 episodes. I'm a big fan of Baughman's writing--full disclosure, I also know her personally--and appreciated how heavily her work features in this issue. My favorites of her pieces were "Lily's on the Couch," about the death of a neighbor, "Green Means Go, Red Means Go Faster," about one of those annoyingly timed local traffic lights, and the absurdist magical realism of "The Store Is Closed, My Eyes Are Open and 'Five Fucking Stars for Circuit City.'" I also liked Robert Beveridge's poetry in this issue. Two of my own stories appear here: "Nemesis," about a man rehabbing his dead uncle's house and dealing with a potential supernatural presence, and "Title Withheld," in which the uttering of specific words and phrases can cause disastrous results. All told, it's another very enjoyable issue of this now long-running series. I'm always glad to have another installment.