We Give Thanks for November PANK

Another month is upon us and as always, we are thankful for the amazing writing that comes our way. We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again–the quality of our submission queue never ceases to impress us. The good in the queue is so very good and we have some of the finest examples of that goodness in the November issue. We know that the issue listing of names in an alphabetical list can be a bit daunting so we thought we would tell you a little something about each contributor or their piece so you might have a better sense of where to dive in to this cornucopia of words. (Did ya see what I did there?)

You will want to start with The Tongue Party by Sarah Rose Etter. I insist. When I first read this story, I thought, “What on earth?” Everything about the story made me feel tense, uneasy and I wanted to understand what was going on without ever quite getting the satisfaction. This is a story told in two parts and they complement each other in really elegant ways. The first part is surreal while the second part is sublime. You will not regret reading this story. You will not forget reading this story.

Mel Bosworth brings his usual charm, imagination and poignancy to Jonah is Clean and at the end of the story, there is rain, sweet rain. There are three short stories from Christy Crutchfield that will make you want to go out and find more of her wonderful writing. She is masterful in taking strange writing to the edge of absurdity but maintaining control of her stories, her characters, the little worlds she creates.

Cautionary Notes on a Blood Splashed Sneaker, Size 6 1/2 by  Matthew Burnside uses omission and that which is not there to reveal something sharp, intense and quite memorable.

In her cover letter, Jess Glass mentioned it was a goal of hers to have a story accepted by PANK. When I accepted her story The Baby in the Bedroom, I told her she better come up with a new goal. I hope it’s exciting. This is one of those stories that is beautiful and strange and a little heartbreaking and manages to be all those things without veering into the maudlin.

The Fan Dancers, by Molly Gaudry and Lily Hoang (the writing equivalent of a SuperGroup if ever there were one), is a unique blend of poetry and prose, the story told in five parts.

I enjoy when writers use footnotes and these excerpts from Faces have footnotes. The prose-poetry is also quite fascinating, so win win!

Wit is the order of the day in two poems by Matthew McBrearty who writes of werewolves, vespas, Larry McMurtry, and the Holiday Inn.

Nearsong by Joshua McKinney uses the waxing and waning of a day to bring shape to the poetry.

Letitia Moffitt is an amazing woman. In addition to being a lovely writer, she runs marathons. She willfully puts one foot in front of the other for 26 miles and change and then thinks simply finishing is nothing to brag about so I’m going to brag for her. She runs marathons. In this issue, her story Incognito is eminently relatable and a bit sorrowful as she tells the story of a girl hiding in plain sight with her yearning.

Three poems by Elizabeth O’Brien tackle so much. There is tenderness in her words and there is violence but most of all there is heart.

Salvatore Pane brings wit, technology, and modern romance together in a story you will want to read over and over again. This is damn good stuff.

The Orange Suitcase by Joseph Riippi will be released in 2011 by Ampersand Books. In the meantime, you can read a few excerpts from that book which is a novella of sorts, in this month’s issue.

There is an almost claustrophobic quality to the dense writing in Ben Segal’s A Room That Is or Is Not Past Tense.  The story builds and builds and closes in on you in a really satisfying way.

Two pieces by Feng Sun Chen defy description but I keep coming back to them, the word play, the imagery, the everything.

We are not afraid of publishing long writing online. We have faith that if you bring good writing to the Internet, length is but a small consideration. Conscious Knowledge by Rone Shavers is one of our longer pieces but it’s so engaging, political, aware of its own artifice, and one of those stories that makes me think, “Damn, that’s smart.”

JA Tyler’s The Rhinoceros, from his forthcoming collection The Zoo, A Going, was a finalist in our 2009 1,0001 Words contest.

While we’re not afraid of long work, we’re also not afraid of very short work. Vallie Lynn Watson’s Pocket is one of those stories that accomplishes  so much with so little. It’s a little sexy, a little angry, a lot good.

The November issue comes to a close with two pieces from Marcus Wicker that are connected yet can be read alone. The last line of Oblivious Spring, in particular, will make you oooh (or ahh, depending).