Picks from 751 magazine

[Here are a few of my favorite works published in the 2nd issue of 751 magazine.]

THE poetry of Ally Harris provides a two-way lens that is first critical of one's surroundings, and then seems to upturn the underbelly of the criticism. Her writing is not bold for the sake of being bold. The creative language of Harris sparks emotion and curiosity, which elicits rereads, which begets more emotion and curiosity. I couldn't escape how I felt after one read, and I caught myself revisiting and rereading a couple weeks later.

TWO flash fictions written by Tim Coe are crafted with a soft satirical tone that is familiar but always worthy of a certain indulgence. The first story, "Revenge, a Little," pokes an omniscient finger at how we might naturally react to an unnatural suspended sun; I am always attracted to the stories that change the rules of our universe in order to explore our conditional nature and response. If Coe's second story, "Today In A Back Alley A Man," were a human being, then I would like to become friends with it [or him]. Coe capsulizes the honest plight of conscious thought into short story form; he does so in an environment when the similarities of people in very different stages of life are exposed.

LASTLY, Micheal Jay Tucker's narrative essay "Ghost. Dog. Virgin." was uniquely noteworthy. For me, nothing compares to the literary intimacy of exploring the memories that never submerge into the subconscious and follow a person around his whole life. Tucker phrases it much better than I have. And he incorporates a bit of wisdom within his creativity as he shares with the reader an example of such an exploration.