On Ghosts and Absence: A Review of Terese Svoboda’s “Dog on Fire”

"Dog on Fire" cover

“My brother was dead was what I remembered then,” reflects our unnamed narrator, “and I cried a little the way a car does when the ignition’s gone, a click and a grind, something that needs something, that could be stopped only by stopping.” That balky engine seems a defining image for Terese Svoboda’s new novel. Dog on Fire isn’t itself aflame, but rather smoldering: something that needs something. That’s not a criticism the text delivers an arresting portrait of both melancholy and a way out but rather a description of what’s lacking for the principal players. Both the grieving sister and her fellow-narrator Aphra, the brother’s lover and one of the only characters with a name, fumble after what psychologists call “closure.” 

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An Excerpt From “A Tide Should Be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon” by Jessica Bell

Jessica Bell poems

You might know Jessica Bell best through her work as a musician — she spent five years in the group Keep Shelly in Athens, as well as having released work as BRUNO and under her own name. She’s also been working on a number of books, including forays into both fiction and poetry. We’re pleased to present an excerpt from her new collection, A Tide Should Be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon, out now from Vine Leaves Press.

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Excerpting a New Graphic Novel Adaptation of “The Great Gatsby”

Today, we’re pleased to present an excerpt from Ted Adams and Jorge Coelho’s graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby. This project has been in the works since 2019, and is currently available via a Kickstarter campaign from Clover Press. As Coelho explained in a statement, the timing of the project was unexpectedly serendipitous: “A feeling of chaos, confusion and crumbling eras permeated both art and real life during the making of this book, resulting in my largest and most rewarding creative challenge so far.” Read on to see a new adaptation of a classic story.

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