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A few years ago, a reader wrote a complaint letter about our saying “Cowabunga!” here. It was summer and the surf was up even though we live in the Midwest. Back then, we vowed never to say “Cowabunga” again. Here. But art, in part, is finding the contrary moment within the expected emotion or response. As the Midwestern leaves sail into the sky this fall, we think about US Army paratroopers yelling “Airborne” as they jump. At the same time, some soldiers say, “Only bird shit and Airborne fall out of the sky.” So, in the spirit of transgression, we say . . . COWABUNGA!
This month’s fiction is full of contrary impulses. Marc Dickinson’s anti-Hallmark Christmas story features a father struggling with personal demons and bouts of aggression; Vicky Mylniec explores the defamiliarized dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship, in which the youngster is encouraged to steal.
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, celebrated in the US in November, we also offer poems by Anita Endrezze (Yaqui) and Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (Huron/Cherokee/Creek/Métis).
We’re launching a quarterly podcast, the “NAR Literary Roundtable,” where we talk about writing, the writing life, and specific pieces. Download the first episode from NorthAmericanReview.org or subscribe on iTunes. Please tell us what you think on our Facebook page at facebook.com/northamericanreview.
Enjoy the issue. Cowabunga, cowabunga, cowabunga!
ART
Cover The New Addiction [oil on canvas] • Gary Kelley (with apologies to Edgar Degas, “The Absinthe Drinker”)
11 Untitled [pencil] • Li-Ying Bao
19 Illustration for Bold as Can Be, a short story [graphite on paper] • Kim Behm
25 Anywhere But Iowa [mixed media] • Joanna Barnum
32 Untitled [digital collage] • Marty Gotera
FICTION
11 Latent Image • Barry Targan
19 Bold as Can Be • Vicky Mlyniec
25 Anywhere But Iowa • Marc Dickinson
32 Skin Dreams • Kent Nelson
NONFICTION
3 Archaic Torso of Apollo • Don Lago
6 Village of Adams • J.P. Vallieres
42 War and Empathy in Vonnegut’s “Fates Worse than Death” [Past Perfect] • Jeremy C. Justus
POETRY
10 The First Human Cannonball • Gary Fincke
10 Island of the Deaf • Claudia Burbank
10 Karma • Stacia M. Fleegal
17 Indigo • Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
17 Preserve • Brandon Krieg
18 The Beekeeper’s Daughter • Nadine Sabra Meyer
21 Packing Grapefruits • Lilly Deng
22 Thirteen Ways of Looking at an Indian • Anita Endrezze
23 Elegy for a Scarecrow • Cynthia Atkins
23 Direct Current • Janet McNally
24 Cataract Falls • Shari Wagner
24 Calling Westport • E. Tammy Kim
24 Delivering the Xmas Mail • Brian Swann
31 Recipes You Need • James Engelhardt
34 Reverence • Andrew Najberg
35 Climbing the Lighthouse • Faith Shearin
36 Making Camp • Leslie Adams
36 Going Onstage • David Wagoner
REVIEWS
37 Telling Words • Robert L. King
40 Synecdoche: Brief Book Reviews • Vince Gotera
41 Crosscuts: Brief DVD Reviews • Grant Tracey
MISCELLANY
2 From the Editors • NAR Staffers Out in the World
43 Contributors
44 Annual Index • Volume 296 • 2011