DYN-O-MITE!: The Revolutionary Origins of an Explosive Catchphrase

Long thought to be a sitcom catchphrase like any other—DYN-O-MITE!—the excited refrain of James Evans, Jr., the oldest son on the Norman Lear produced family sitcom, Good Times, is perhaps the most interesting and subversive in television history. The refrain … Continue reading →

We Are Not Yet Fools

Did you catch this new fiction from Chelsea Laine Wells over at Housefire? Prick of the Spindle 5.1 includes writing from CL Bledsoe, twice, Len Kuntz, Tim Tomlinson, Andrea Kneeland once twice thrice,  and others. At Small Doggies, Amber Sparks … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Lania Knight

Lania Knight’s moving and poetic essay appears in the February issue. She talks with us about dancing playlists, the potential of passionate affairs, and the pelts of dream animals. 1. What is on your dance party playlist? I’ve got eclectic … Continue reading →

Huckster: First-Draft Taglines

Chances are, if you don’t work in the magical world of advertising, then you’re probably not aware of what company taglines originally looked like before they evolved into their present state. For instance, did you know that Volkswagon’s “Drivers Wanted” … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Adam Moorad

Adam Moorad makes another appearance in PANK with his story Wine of Youth. He talks with us about skin oracles, the actual taste of the wine of youth and more. 1. What does the wine of youth taste like? What … Continue reading →

One

My mother died March 20, 2011. Her name was Lydia Kathleen. She married my father when she was seventeen. At eighteen, Lydia Kathleen gave birth to me. My father tells me about the snowstorm in Durango that night. They were scared … Continue reading →

Clare Fisher’s The Hole in the Wall: A Review by Dan Holloway

Clare Fisher’s The Hole in the Wall is a beautifully produced, exquisitely edited novella, just as I’ve come to expect from the fantastic Philistine Press. It’s daring, and so nearly brilliant. For such a short book The Hole in the … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Joseph Cassara

Joseph Cassara’s imaginative fiction appeared in the February issue and was also featured on the American Short Fiction blog. He talks with us about the neuroses of his childhood, singing as the ship goes down and more. 1. How would … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Len Kuntz

The prolific Len Kuntz made his PANK debut in the February issue. He took a stream of consciousness approach to our conversation and then magic happened. 1. How can one tell the level of toothache through a kiss? If the kiss flutters … Continue reading →

Huckster: My First Date

Everyone remembers their first date. I certainly remember mine. I was 22 and I had just been promoted from junior copywriter to copywriter. In fact, I remember my first date like it was yesterday. Her name was Judy or Joan … Continue reading →

Fiction from Len Kuntz is up at LitSnack. He is also interviewed. Enjoy something instructive with How to Butcher Someone’s Self-Esteem at Metazen, by J. Bradley. Random Cartography Notes, not only is a great title, it is also an e-chapbook … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Amy Butcher

Amy Butcher’s Taking Form appears in the February issue. She talks with us about the coolest name, working the pole and Mennonite breakfasts. 1. You have one of the coolest names of all time. However, to protect your cool name, … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: 100 Facts About Brian Oliu (by Brian Oliu, of course)

100. I always finish what I have started. 99. Things I love: writing, afternoons, beer, basketball, non-art as art, juxtaposition, kindness, my life, you, you, you 98. Things I am scared of: space, the idea of forever, drowning, heart attacks, … Continue reading →

Slave, Please

I must have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a long time ago, back when I was a teenager or something like that. Never finished it. Figured there wasn’t much to it. A bunch of ignorant White folks saying ‘nigger’ … Continue reading →

Fluffer

The first erotic story I ever wrote published was in 1995. I called it “Private Investigation” and had Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in mind when I wrote it. They fucked on a mattress at a crime scene. Playgirl Magazine published it. … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Lydia Unsworth

Lydia Unsworth’s imaginative fiction appeared in the December issue. She talks with us about watery music, the specialness of the sea, and what she was born to kill. 1. Is the sea nothing special to you? It’s getting there.  I’m … Continue reading →

By Invitation Only: A Review by Kenny Mooney

By Invitation Only, a collection of short stories from Unbound Press and Spilling Ink Review, ironically enough, came into my life uninvited. I won it in a competition I was only vaguely aware I had even entered – a promotional … Continue reading →

An Interview with Ocean Vuong By Amanda Mathews

As a follow-up to Krystelle Bamford’s review of Ocean Vuong’s Burnings, Amanda Mathews presents an interview: Q: In the first section of your book Burnings, the majority of the poems center around Vietnam along with maternal relationships with both your mother … Continue reading →

Blog Different

This past week, I wrote a post on my personal blog and snatched it down shortly after pressing “Publish.” As I typed out the gory details involving my depression diagnosis, it never occurred to me that I was sharing more … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Brendan Constantine

Brendan Constantine’s Noct appears in the February issue and he talks with us about white space, counting, WTF, and more. 1. How did you form the white space in “Noct”? I’d been writing about speechlessness. Hardly an original notion, I … Continue reading →

First Person Memoirs For People Who Don’t Exist

I write first person memoirs for people who don’t exist. I just thought this to myself and it sounded cool and authoritative (in the author sense of the word). It may be accurate, since they’re as bewildered and mistaken about … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Shanti Perez

Shanti Perez’s Krst, The Little Spy, appears in the December 2010 issue. She talks with us about barn sneaking, researching for her writing, and the guilty pleasures of watching. 1. What would you sneak into a barn? This is the … Continue reading →

A Life Transparent by Todd Keisling – A Review by Ally Nicholl

Donovan Candle has a problem: a telesales rep for nine years, the mundanity of his existence has brought him to the attention of the Gatekeeper of the Grey, a sinister overlord named Aleister Dullington who feeds on boredom and uses … Continue reading →

Huckster: Do You Have A Urinary Tract Infection Or Are You Just Doing Your Timesheets?

Let’s face it: there’s only one thing worse than having “that feeling” and that, of course, is not knowing exactly what the feeling means (besides excruciating pain! Help!). Many doctors rush to the diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI), but … Continue reading →

Meet the Brides of March

The March issue of PANK is ready for your literary delectation and this one is a doozy. Check out work from Libby Cudmore, Sandra Simonds, Kerrin McCadden, Kristina Born, Joseph Michael Owens, James O’Brien, Robert Swartwood, Kyle Beachy, Megan Williams, … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: I don’t know what to call this

I don’t know where the time goes. I’ve been desperately grasping the holes where it used to be, clawing to save bits of burnt straw. Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Sarah Kokernot

Sarah Kokernot’s The Russians Have Come appears in the February issue. She talks to us about laughing at orphans, collecting things, and how much of her life is in stories. 1. What is the worst thing you have ever laughed … Continue reading →

March PANK, For Your Eyes and Hearts Only

The March issue of PANK is ready for your literary delectation and this one is a doozy. Check out work from Libby Cudmore, Sandra Simonds, Kerrin McCadden, Kristina Born, Joseph Michael Owens, James O’Brien, Robert Swartwood, Kyle Beachy, Megan Williams, … Continue reading →

A Sample of Critical Reactions to Martin Lawrence’s: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

Eds. Note: In 2000, Martin Lawrence starred in the seminal black-man-in-a-fat-suit-portraying-a-black-woman comedy, Big Momma’s House. This was an exciting moment for cinema. Lawrence, long thought to be the clown, turned in a sensitive and nuanced performance as a man who, … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Nate Pritts

Prolific poet and editor Nate Pritts has a fine series of poems in the February issue. He speaks with us about the construction of poetry, where words crash, and what he wants to hold hands with. 1. What’s with poetry’s … Continue reading →

Bragi Ólafsson’s The Ambassador (translated by Lytton Smith): A Review by Rebecca Leece

It was January of 2011 when—working my way through the lung-high drifts of snow—I decided to focus on reading international writers. “No, wait!” I cried out, raising a mitten-clad hand, just in time to catch the arm of another Brooklynite … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Mel Bosworth

“The spell is over us all, the spell is over us all, relentless.” Mel Bosworth, Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom Sometimes I stress over the big decisions: job choices, moving from state to state, parental choices. However, I am … Continue reading →

Cattle Call

Have you ever been to a cattle call? It’s like entering a writing contest. But I should explain a cattle call first. When I was a model I used to go to these things the industry referred to as a “cattle call,” … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Leslie McGrath

Leslie McGrath’s nuanced poem, Parallax, appears in the February issue. The poet talks with us about pocket Museums, poems as love stories, commonality or rarity, and more. 1. What is in your pocket Louvre? I went to a reading at … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Chloe Caldwell

Chloe Caldwell’s visceral Hunger appears in the February issue. She talks with us about the best scotch pairings with coke, pinatas, and orgies in her mouth. 1. What scotch do you recommend in McDonald’s Coca-Cola? Johnnie Walker Red Label holds … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Rachel Brown

Rachel Brown’s four poems are featured in the February issue. She talks with us about her first time (publishing, pervs), math, zipping things and more. 1. Based on your bio, I understand this is your first publication. What was your … Continue reading →

Huckster: The Worst Kind Of Client

It’s common for someone working in advertising to complain about a client every now and then. It’s only human nature as well as science (chemistry). There are the clients who want to play art director, or the ones who like … Continue reading →

Ides, They March

The ever wonderful Jimmy Chen has this wonderful story, Sashimi Saturdays, to offer. Desmond Kon has new poetry. Kyle Minor tells an Origin Story at Metazen. At Abjective, a poem by Ricky Garni. Wonderfort continues to be wonderful with a … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Deanna Larsen

Deanna Larsen’s elegant Buenos Aires in Three Short Lessons is part of the February issue. She talks with us about what she wishes her calves would cut, matters of bones and being afraid of her own body. 1. What or … Continue reading →

Doing Dishes

I dreamed once a person took a shit in the middle of a room and then left it there, and I just stood looking at it like, I’m supposed to clean this up? I used to live in this apartment complex where a guy … Continue reading →

Two Calls for Submission

Monkeybicyle is looking for awesome writing, particularly for their online imprint. Send them brilliance. Full guidelines, here. — Annalemma 8: Creation Only the most proficient of techies among us would be able to fix their mobile phone if it broke, or … Continue reading →

Disintegrating Novels

I’m glancing at my noticeboard, at the numerous tasks I need to complete: four stories (three fiction, one personal essay) in various revision stages, three works in progress and my column. The noticeboard excludes other lesser duties: update my Tumblr … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Claudine Moreau

Claudine Moreau’s No Witnesses is a fine addition to the February issue. She talks with us about achieving hidden motives, literature as her religion (sort of), the research she puts into her writing, and more. 1. How would you pimp … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Andrew Kozma

Two poems by Andrew Kozma appear in the February issue and he discusses the matter of epigraphs, what he is willing to mine and what he has cut to save something. 1. What epigraph best describes or introduces you? I’ll … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Los Angeles Alleys

It’s been far too long since I wrote a post for Literary Los Angeles, but now I am in the process of writing several very long ones at once, including a whole series on Los Angeles history and how it’s … Continue reading →

Love! Give us love!

From today’s Oakland Examiner, some PANK love.

Ocean Vuong’s Burnings: A Review by Krystelle Bamford

It’s a strange feeling to miss a place sporadically.  I lived in New York for a few years before moving to Scotland, and when I think about the city it’s a glancing, regretful attachment.  A really beautiful and thoughtless boyfriend who you’re … Continue reading →

Not Vegas

So it’s Thursday everyone and I realized at 5:49 this morning I hadn’t written my column this week. Wow. Time flies. It’s Friday, 7:11 a.m., and I’ve still not finished my column. Slacker. Actually, I’ve got stuff happening and probably could have skipped this week, but … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Edward Abbey

“A swirl of little pale birds, like confetti, like a net of lace, exfoliated from the sky and draped themselves upon an Aleppo pine … the world continued, bland and blase, while catastrophe opened beneath the one who cared.” Edward … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Peter Schwartz

Peter Schwartz’s masterful poetry is part of the January issue and he talks to us about a number of things including the 12th thing his pain has, the influence of art on poetry and more. 1. If your pain has … Continue reading →

Huckster: Myth Bustin’

Why am I here? Why are you here? Why are any of us here? Why is this cat here, sitting on the barstool next to me? Why is there a living goldfish wriggling inside the cat’s mouth? Where did that … Continue reading →

Come Away Easy Now; Please Come Away

ATTENTION: We are having a reading in Chicago, this saturday, at 9 pm, though words will start spitting at 9:30. There’s going to be burlesque. Both Matt and I are reading as are other luminaries such as, well check out … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Katy Resch

Katy Resch’s The Fawn Skull is one of my favorites I’ve had the opportunity to publish. In this excellent story, in the January issue, she captures the life and mind and heart of an adolescent girl so beautifully in this … Continue reading →

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday!

Ask the Author: Laurence Pritchard

Laurence Pritchard’s engaging “Fucking Mermaids” is one of our favorites in the January issue. He talks with us about the logistics of sex with mermaids, minotaurs, and other mythical beasts. 1. Would fucking a mermaid be like that pool sex … Continue reading →

They All Have Shaft Afros

At once, I see why I used to love—and now hate—the Law & Order series. When I was down with the show, I stuck with the original version. Every so often, I’d watch SVU, but I could only handle sex … Continue reading →