My newest story — and my newest character — appears courtesy of guest editor and incredible writer/essayist/novelist/activist Ryka Aoki and the beautiful, brave James Franco Review:
That You Were Meant For Great Things — Dream Big, Hope Bigger
Published by Stephanie Barbé Hammer
Stephanie Barbé Hammer is a prose writer, magical realist, and a committed, intermittent poet. A 5-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize she has published work in Hayden's Ferry, Pearl, CRATE, Rhapsoidia, NYCBigCityLit, the East Jasmine Review, Apeiron, Inlandia, Literary Alchemy and the Bellevue Literary Review among other places. Her fabulist novel _The Puppet Turners of Narrow Interior_ appeared in March 2015 with Urban Farmhouse Press. Her poetry collection _How Formal?_ was published in 2014 with Spout Hill Press and her prose poem collection _SEX WITH BUILDINGS_ was published in May 2012 by Dancing Girl Press. Stephanie is addicted to teaching; she taught composition for the first time ever at Edmonds Community College. She is currently managing editor for SHARK REEF literary magazine and trying to make something happen with her second novel manuscript. View all posts by Stephanie Barbé Hammer
“but I’m still not used to that. If I don’t go through the mail, and if I don’t throw away their stuff, they are still alive somehow.”
That line is very poignant to me. My father still lives in a teetering Ikea shelf in my closet—all his university math books, and a strange Kurta device (mechanical calculator) that he almost fetishized about, winding it up and counting it down. So much that belonged to my father I had to put into storage, because it’s true, the objects keep such nods and pinches of pain alive each day.
Sent from my iPad
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Thank you for commenting. Yes, objects have a magical power. This makes me think of EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED and the collector character and how he handles all the things he collects as a way to remember and manage memory. Thanks again.