JUNE 2010

The Story They Would Love Him For - Paul Milensk

I helped incorporate the Berkshire Writers Room (Massachusetts) in the mid-80's, and it's still going strong. Although I write just about anything, including commentary, court investigative reports, and novels, I have a special fondness for those wee little fictions: the short-shorts, the best of which can be as powerful as good poetry.

Teeth - Molly Rodgveller

Coerced into bal­let as an eight year old (by want­ing to mimic friends, not by any push from my mother, lord no), I lacked grace and found the basic bar rou­tine some­what bor­ing. I wrote my very first poem imme­di­ately before a class, describ­ing how com­pletely alien and some­what gross a knee looks under tights. 325% of my life later and after a degree in lit­er­a­ture, bal­let has trans­formed into a myr­iad of meth­ods of flaunt­ing arms, hips and hair, while attempt­ing not to spill the prover­bial seed of self expres­sion and dis­cov­ery planted in each flick and jut. In this way, I can help sup­ply space for us to snicker at our­selves even more than you do.

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Words - Martha Meltzer

Martha Meltzer is a California poet from the East San Francisco Bay area town of Pleasanton. She is currently serving as their 5th Poet Laureate. She has been published in the SF Street Sheet, California Quarterly. and In The Mist. Last year she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.