Midwestern Gothic: Issue 20 Winter 2016

by Midwestern Gothic (Editor), Robert James Russell (Editor), Jeff Pfaller

Issue 20 features fiction from K Brattin, Drew Coles, R.M. Cooper, RS Deeren, Marnie Bullock Dresser, Brad Felver, Erin Fortenberry, Jeannette Hinkle, Joseph Johnston, Kevin McIntosh, Hadley Moore, Caitlin Palmer, Mike Salisbury, Timothy Scott, and Chloe Seim. Poetry from Kenzie Allen, Erin Bealmear, Bethany Bowman, Chloe N. Clark, Brian Clifton, Katie Hartstock, Lisa Higgs, Adam Hughes, Mark Madigan, Sandra Marchetti, Jay Newman, Terry Savoie, Marc J. Sheehan, Z.G. Tomaszewski, and Jessica L. Walsh. Midwestern Gothic is a quarterly print literary journal out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, dedicated to featuring work about or inspired by the Midwest, by writers who live or have lived here. Midwestern Gothic aims to collect the very best in writing inspired by the Midwest.

174 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

About the author

Midwestern Gothic (ISSN 2159-8827) is a quarterly print literary journal out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, dedicated to featuring work about or inspired by the Midwest, by writers who live or have lived here. Midwestern Gothic aims to collect the very best in Midwestern writing in a way that has never been done before, cataloging the oeuvre of an often-overlooked region of the United States ripe with its own mythologies and tall tales. Don’t be fooled by our name. Gothic fiction is often defined as the inclusion of deeply flawed, often “grotesque” characters in realistic (and, oftentimes unpleasant) settings/situations. At Midwestern Gothic, we take to heart the realistic aspects of Gothic fiction. Not every piece needs to be dark or twisted or full of despair, but we are looking for real life, inspired by the region, good, bad, or ugly. Ultimately, we’re striving to catalog the best of Midwestern writers, and whether it be pieces physically set in the Midwest, or work inspired by your time living here, we want it.

Source: About Midwester Gothic

Reviews

[Andy Kristensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue of Midwestern Gothic is closer to 4.5/5 stars. While the poetry seemed average, most of the short stories were great and really made me think.
Literary journals often seem to diverge along two paths- ones that are pretentious and only publish poetry and short fiction that hipster-like critics adore, not caring about whether they actually have lessons and stories and themes and messages within the writings populating their covers but focusing instead on fancy wording and structure and risqué plot points, and then ones where poems and stories contain all of that- prose that grabs you and makes you relate to it and makes you go back and reread a whole section because you could've sworn that the events of that paragraph are exactly like a moment in your life.
This issue of Midwestern Gothic is chockfull of stories that bring me back to the 17 years I spent living in the Midwest, from the cow-smelling air to the simplicity of standing on the edge of a lake and watching the sun go down. The highlights are the short stories by Marnie Bullock Dresser, K Brattin, Jeannette Hinkle, Mike Salisbury, RS Deeren, Brad Felver, and Hadley Moore.
This is only the second issue I've read of Midwestern Gothic, but I look forward to reading many more if this is the quality of writing they choose to publish.

[Lili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favourite: Milk and cookies on the other side, Two Sisters, When my father was in prison, He is probably talking too much for this date to end well

Medium favourite: His body like water, his bones like oil, What we kept of Charlie, Nostalgia for the Chevy, Walnut Beach, Big Lake, The Tour

Least Favourite: Down Flight, The era of good feelings, Frame, There but not really there

[Mike Smolarek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great work in this issue. I especially liked Big Lake by Mike Salsbury and Two Sisters by Kevin McIntosh

[Jeff Pfaller]

This issue marks the 5th year of Midwestern Gothic – it’s kind of unbelievable that we’re around 20 issues after Rob and I first announced a literary magazine focused on celebrating Midwestern writers.

When we started, we had little knowledge of what we were doing (what we did know had been gleaned from a failed comic book publishing company). We had no idea whether or not people would even like the concept of fiction and poetry inspired by the Midwest.

Luckily, we were wrong about the latter, and learned about the former. We started out with an issue every three months. Now we’ve published four books, with four more on the way. We’ve put out three themed issues, one on nostalgia, and two on non-fiction. We partnered with the Residential College at University of Michigan to put on a literary festival keynoted by writers of Stuart Dybek, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Ross Gay’s ilk. And the latest issue features the 2nd annual finalists of the the Lake Prize, a our own literary contest.

It’s absolutely crazy, when you list it out like that.

I couldn’t feel more grateful that I’ve got such an incredible partner in Robert James Russell to bring all these things to life with. And when I think of all the new friends I wouldn’t have met otherwise at readings, conferences, and digitally…I couldn’t be more thankful for all our contributors.

Thank you for allowing us to share your work with the world.