Why I Hoard Books & Why I Won’t Read Them

So many books I haven’t read Anna Karenina; The Pale King; The Night Circus; Silver Sparrow. These are a few of the physical books in front of me, suspended in the air by blood red “floating shelves” bolted to the … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Christopher Citro

Remember November, when the temperature was turning and the snow was just starting? Now that those things are gone, remember these Five Poems from Christopher Citro, from the November Issue. 1. What happened the last time you ventured out beyond … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Eugenia Leigh

These Three Poems from Eugenia Leigh were published in the February Issue. Eugenia enjoyed answering all our questions. 1. What would be the first thing you did when you get out of prison? Lie down in a field. Or seek … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. “Dear Corporation”, by Adam Fell, at Sixth Finch 2. “Building of Unseen Cats”, from Fjords Vol.1 by Zachary Schomburg, at Verse Daily 3. “Night of The Lillies” by Antonia Crane, at The Rumpus 4. “Mercy”, poetry by Layne Ransom, … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I Would Have Obeyed Those Gods, Became A Dunce, And Joined The Confederacy

I read John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces last month.  But it was too late.  My life was damaged beyond repair.  If I had read it ten years ago as a high school student, I would have a career, … Continue reading →

Inferno (A Poet’s Novel) by Eileen Myles (A Review by Helen McClory)

271 pgs/$16 OR Books, 2010   Imagine you come into a room all wooden and light, say it’s a bar, or an old converted church. You’ve come in out of the NYC street (LES or East or West Village) into … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Stephen Mills

In the February Issue, there was this great piece, “Sex Education,” from Stephen Mills. 1. Why is it always funny when a guy gets raped in a tv show or a movie?   Watch a few episodes of HBO’s Oz and … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: Too Human by Nishant Batsha

“These machines were to them an advantage, inasmuch as they superseded the necessity of employing a number of workmen” —Lord Byron, in a speech to the House of Lords in defense of the Luddites.   When the web we weave … Continue reading →

Spring Funds Drive

Dear Readers, Do you love [PANK]? Do you love what we do, what we stand for? Do you love the writers we publish, their stories and poems that keep you up at night, keep you thinking and guessing, creep you … Continue reading →

Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah by Patricia Smith (A Review by Jason Carney)

Coffee House Press 116 pgs/$16  Patricia Smith’s newest collection, Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, evokes a sense of history and self-awareness combined with precise storytelling and the most crafted verse. Each poem delves deeper into the mythology of her family, her … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Mike Dockins

In January, “Letter To Iredell From The Yucatan” by Mike Dockins. 1. What made you choose the stanzaless structure of this poem? This was not the first of what is now a collection of 21 epistolary poems, making up my … Continue reading →

Prairie Schooner’s Inaugural Creative Nonfiction Contest

Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events by Kevin Moffett (A Review by Amye Archer)

Harper Perennial 240 pgs, $10 I first met Kevin Moffett on a cool April evening when he cracked open my skull with an ice pick and settled into my brain for the next three weeks.  Okay, so maybe he wasn’t … Continue reading →

Nectar by Lisa Bellamy (A Review by P. Jonas Bekker)

Encircle Press 24 pgs/$12.95   I staggered out of the theater after Waiting for Godot. Jeez, I griped to Peter, That’s it? We’re all just wind and gristle? Yep, he said after a minute, and I knew he was trying … Continue reading →

If You Take Me With You: Massive Goddamned Roundup

There is, of course, a new issue of PANK with writing by Lisa Fink, Lisa Ahn, Ian Brown, Melissa Yancy, Maria Elvira Vera Tata, Ashley Bethard, Tyler Sage, Hedy Zimra, Kimberly Ann Southwick, Danielle Sellers, Glen Pourciau, Wendy C. Ortiz, … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: They Are Two Different Games But In The End They Are The Same

“There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game” – that’s what the protagonist of Bernard Malamud’s The Natural wanted people to say when he walked down the street.  And they would have.  He was a baseball … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Jennifer Pieroni

From January, “Life on the Dead Tree” by Jennifer Pieroni. Jennifer answers questions about climbing, eating, editing, rapping, and witnessing. 1. When was the last time you climbed? How high was it and what did you see? I don’t climb … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: Gator, Florida by Vanessa Blakeslee

It’s autumn in central Florida. This year, summer’s heavy humidity and torrential thunderstorms stretched throughout September without respite, but at last, the trees across from your condo have turned a dusty pink. The clouds blow over, bestowing one perfect day … Continue reading →

Little Red Riding Hood Missed the Bus by Kristin Abraham (A Review by J. A. Tyler)

What follows is the first in J. A. Tyler’s full-press of Subito Press, a series of reviews appearing at [PANK] over the course of 2012, covering every title available from Subito. J. A. Tyler’s previous full-press series have appeared at … Continue reading →

Names: Beer, Food, Literature — “There’s not a better current term, dammit”

I’m going to talk about names: beer names, food names, genre names. I’m going to talk about names, and I’m not going to mention that quote you’re thinking of right now [1]. But I will talk about beer, food, and … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Grandaddy

“Yeah is what we had, no we never knew Good, good is what we understood” Grandaddy, Yeah is what we had I help raise two children. They are young now, and I try to teach them the basics: manners, kindness, … Continue reading →

No Award for 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; Franzen Seethes

  On my way home from work, I said to myself, “I’m not going to write about this. I don’t care.” Welp– As you probably know, the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize For Fiction was “No Award,” written by … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes

In February, this wonderful piece of fiction from Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes, “The Lights.” 1. Why did you choose to write “The Lights” in second person? This started as an exercise from Noah Eli Gordon based on Eula Biss’s essay “Time … Continue reading →

Books We Can’t Quit: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Chosen By: Ally Nicholl Bullseye Books, 1988 272 pgs/$6.99 I discovered The Phantom Tollbooth at the appropriate age and in the usual way. I was about nine, and it was a battered old copy I came across in the schoolroom … Continue reading →

For Your Monday Morning Coffee

1. We would love to have your support in our Spring Funds Drive. Read about it and donate here. We’re half way through the month, but not quite half way to our goal. 2. The April Issue, it’s alive. 2. Mark … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Robert Rothman

In February, “Arrow” from Robert Rothman. 1. If you were Cupid, what projectile would you use? Love is savage but an arrow with its expanding tip rips and ravages. I would use a dart that pricks interest, that causes the beloved … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: They Have Since Cut Their Hair Off, Sued Their Fans, And Are Probably Opening A Chain Of Vegan Restaurants

When Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads and called upon Satan to rise from the fires of Hell to tune his guitar, he didn’t have dollar signs in his eyes and titties on his brain.  Material possessions were of … Continue reading →

God’s Autobio by Rolli (A Review by David Atkinson)

Now or Never Publishing 233 pgs/$17.95 To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I picked up God’s Autobio by Rolli. I hadn’t heard a lot of talk about the book. In fact, I hadn’t really heard … Continue reading →

Million Writers Award Nominations!

We made them. It was, as ever, a very difficult choice. We only accept work we believe deserves such recognition. Alas, we can choose only three and this year, those three were: Story 1: “Becoming Deer,” by Rachel Levy http://www.pankmagazine.com/becoming-deer/ … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Eric Higgins

“The Inexact Nature” by Eric Higgins was published in the January Issue. Now, Eric discusses prostitution, restraining orders, and illegalities. 1. Who would you prostitute? What would be your pimp name? I wouldn’t prostitute anyone. To prostitute someone seems deeply … Continue reading →

Legs Get Led Astray by Chloe Caldwell (A Review by Ryan Werner)

Future Tense Books 168 pgs/$12 I remember being young because I still am. What is there to say about it? I met a lot of people, didn’t have sex with most of them, and then either left them or was … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Benjamin Rybeck

In January, “Back-Story” by Bejanmin Rybeck. “The real story isn’t starting yet.”…. 1. When is the real story starting? The idea of “the real” is but a construct used to mediate “the imaginary.” Which is to say, it’ll start on … Continue reading →

Death Wish Winner Announced

Congratulations to Martha Williams on winning the Death Wish Book Giveaway. Death Wishing author, Laura Ellen Scott, had this to say about judging the wishes submitted and making the difficult decision to choose just one: “So hard to choose! I … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. OF BIRDS, BINOCULARS & GRADE SCHOOL ANATOMY, poetry by B.J. Love at DIAGRAM 2. Turn Off My Face, poetry by Ben Kopel at La Petite Zine 3. Graphs About Charts and Charts About Graphs, Ben Greenman at McSweeney’s Internet … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Flavor Flav Is A Classically Trained Pianist, Tom Petty Has A Dirty Fish Tank, and Selena Gomez Is Starring In Harmony Korine’s New Flick

Dostoyevsky used to watch his wife shit, G.G. Allin voted for Jimmy Carter, Jerry Garcia tongue-kissed his older sister on her deathbed, Diana Ross hated the movie When Harry Met Sally, Elizabeth Taylor is a beer enthusiast, Kirk Douglas collects … Continue reading →

Not Merely Because of the Unknown that was Stalking Toward Them by Jenny Boully

84pgs/$14 Tarpaulin Sky, 2011   In this prose-poem hybrid, the texts of Peter Pan have been enmeshed, re-corded, and spun into a thickness of sensual detail and slippery cross-reference. Under Boully’s fingertips, Neverland has burst open like a sodden swollen root, … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Nancy Flynn

Distant Early Warnings, from Nancy Flynn, in the January Issue. 1. How does one unclot a vapor? With the wave of a magic wand? Alchemy? Other dark arts? When I wrote that line, I was channeling the ancient Greek and … Continue reading →

Make a Wish and Win Free Books!

Laura Ellen Scott’s excellent and quirky debut novel, Death Wishing (Ig Publishing, 2011), is set in post-Katrina New Orleans. In this wonderfully reimagined world, random dying wishes are granted by some unknown and arbitrary power. Wishes that can cure cancer, magick-away … Continue reading →

A Found Poem by John Mortara

Every year (well at least the past 2), John Mortara collects all the flyers and handouts and whatever flotsam he finds during AWP, and cuts them up into a found poem. This is the poem he found this year.  

This Modern Writer: Where We Are by Brian Oliu

After the tornadoes that affected Tuscaloosa, Alabama on April 27th, 2011, I decided to assemble an eBook of Tuscaloosa writers writing about Tuscaloosa. The works in this anthology are attempts (essays, Montaigne would call them) to capture what it is we love about … Continue reading →

[PANK] Went to Mission Creek

and it was awesome. I could sum it up at that, but I’ll go into a little more detail: ten hour drive, bookfair, reading, BBQ, concert, ten hour drive. I can go into further detail still: Dubuque Iowa in the … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Matthew Gilbert

In January, these Two Poems from Matthew Gilbert. Now, this interview. Read both today. 1. How does one feign virginity? In the same way you fence: in the suburbs where I was raised (a cow-town parents brought us to as … Continue reading →