Fiddleblack – April 2013

Fiddleblack, an online magazine now on its tenth issue, seeks to find and publish pieces that “eloquently capture what it means to know the finite bounds of self and place.” The editors go on to say that they are “interested in works of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction that make purposeful commitments to figuring out whom one is meant to be, and how it is that one should exist in the space enclosed around him.” And certainly the characters included in this issue are searching through these problems.

Fiddleblack, an online magazine now on its tenth issue, seeks to find and publish pieces that “eloquently capture what it means to know the finite bounds of self and place.” The editors go on to say that they are “interested in works of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction that make purposeful commitments to figuring out whom one is meant to be, and how it is that one should exist in the space enclosed around him.” And certainly the characters included in this issue are searching through these problems.

Gillian Morrison’s “Sparks” is an excellently written fiction piece that weaves a young girl’s memories of her encounters (both sexual and otherwise) with Chase. These memories are woven in with a memory of when the narrator and Chase no longer see each other, or look at each other. They are at a school trip at an amusement park, and while waiting in line for a ride, one of their classmates falls from a rollercoaster, lands hard on the cement, and instantly dies—right in front of the narrator’s eyes.

Eric Van Hoose’s “Remember the Bridge” has excellent descriptions, such as this one: “He drank a beer and got warm, feeling a calm rocking like a washing machine starting in his stomach. He got in the rhythm and ordered another and another, seeing black, letting the rage waft from his hot skin up into the dead ceiling fan, smoke curling around its blades.”

Elias Marsten’s “In the Wink of a Young Girl’s Eye” is an eerie tale of a man who stalks young girls. But not just any young girls: “Finds were on the tail of freshness, only beginning to take scholarships in New York and Tennessee and the Carolinas. Spoiled Finds who’d done more than a semester were not worth the fortitude that a Catch required.” And this is all a hunt for him, taking days to watch his newest prey’s habits from afar. These moments in the story are interwoven with his job stocking stores with Pepsi and his life at home where he lives with three female roommates (who, by the way, are too old to be targets). I was captivated as I read, wondering how he’d make the final Catch. And what he did with her when he caught her? I was surprised.

Find also in this issue Kim Slama’s “Pig Bitch” and Ross McMeekin’s “The Keeper of Strays.”
[fiddleblack.org/journal]