A new story from D.A. Hosek, “Place de Stalingrad”

"Place de Stalingrad" by D.A. Hosek asks is it better to make art that matters or art that makes money? If nobody wants art, what does the question matter? Find it in here in Ligeia Magazine, Spring 2022.

"Place de Stalingrad" by D.A. Hosek asks is it better to make art that matters or art that makes money? If nobody wants art, what does the question matter? Find it in here in Ligeia Magazine, Spring 2022.

If I go back home and get a day job, well, you know what happens eventually: that energy you have at the end of the day begins to vanish because nobody wants art.
— "Place de Stalingrad"
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Is it a quiz or a poem? Read the latest by Lori Barret

This fun quiz-in-poem-form kicks off with a question all writers and bakers can relate to, “Can you guess which of the statements below are from judges sampling baked goods and which are from editors sampling my writing?”

Check out CLW’s Lori Barrett’s new story, “Quiz: Is It a Critique from The Great British Baking Show or a Response from a Literary Magazine?,” in Brevity. This fun quiz-in-poem-form kicks off with a question all writers and bakers can relate to, “Can you guess which of the statements below are from judges sampling baked goods and which are from editors sampling my writing?”

It’s sort of squidgy at the sides.
— "Quiz: Is It a Critique from The Great British Baking Show or a Response from a Literary Magazine?"
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“Did You Eat a Lot Of Paint Chips as a Child?”: A new story from Lori Barrett

Check out CLW’s Lori Barrett new story, “Did You Eat a Lot of Paint Chips as a Child,” in Bull magazine. This is a funny and heartbreaking tale of a mid-life man’s adventure working retail.

Check out CLW’s Lori Barrett new story, “Did You Eat a Lot of Paint Chips as a Child,” in Bull magazine. This is a funny and heartbreaking tale of a mid-life man’s adventure working retail.

He glanced around. Tea wouldn’t appeal to a kid. Nor would candles. He thought about the fruity lip balm. His daughter had opened them one by one to smell them the day she came in. He walked the woman back toward the front, to the lip balms in a fishbowl next to another fishbowl with the coconut-bead keyrings. In between them a pink sign on an easel said $2.50 EACH.

The woman sniffed a kiwi scented one. Vaughn could smell the nondescript sweetness from where he stood.
— "Did You Eat a Lot of Paint Chips as a Child"
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Just Published, Short Story, D.A. Hosek Billy Gee Just Published, Short Story, D.A. Hosek Billy Gee

A new list story from D.A. Hosek, "The Norton Anthology of Self-Destructive Behaviors"

“The Norton Anthology of Self-Destructive Behaviors” by D.A. Hosek provides us list-lovers with a short story we can keep on our wall. Well, maybe a little dark for that, this well crafted story uses lists to build it’s drive and leave the reader lingering on the edge.

The Norton Anthology of Self-Destructive Behaviors” by D.A. Hosek provides us list-lovers with a short story we can keep on our wall. Well, maybe a little dark for that, this well crafted story uses lists to build it’s drive and leave the reader lingering on the edge. Find it in here in Meniscus, 9.1, 2021.

Self-loathing
This is not a lifestyle to be proud of. The only possible reaction is disgust. It’s like encountering the festering corpse of a rat covered with maggots.
— "The Norton Anthology of Self Destructive Behaviors"
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Short Story, Kalisha Buckhanon Billy Gee Short Story, Kalisha Buckhanon Billy Gee

Michigan Quarterly Review 60th Anniversary Issue reprints Kalisha Buckhanon’s “Card Parties”

Kalisha writes about “Card Parties,” this “little story gave me the boost at that hard time to push through to write more and that is what writers NEED. And it shows you never know where things we write will go or what it will impact.”

Michigan Quarterly Review reprinted Kalisha Buckhanon’s story “Card Parties” in their 60th Anniversary special issue to celebrate the milestone. In 2002, she sent this off to MQR after she worked it in her MFA program. She was 25 year old student in NYC and had never before published her fiction. Yet, in MQR’s look back to 60 years of the magazine, editors chose her story to be included with other stories deemed important to their legacy. This includes fiction by Joyce Carol Oates and essays by Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood.

Kalisha writes about “Card Parties,” this “little story gave me the boost at that hard time to push through to write more and that is what writers NEED. And it shows you never know where things we write will go or what it will impact.”

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Just Published, Short Story, D.A. Hosek Billy Gee Just Published, Short Story, D.A. Hosek Billy Gee

A new story “The Namesake” by a new CLW member

D.A. Hosek has joined us in our virtual Zoom world this strange year. Please check out his most recent publication in The Sandy River Review, “The Namesake”.

We are happy to welcome a new writer to our group. D.A. Hosek has joined us in our virtual Zoom world this strange year. We look forward to meeting him in corporeal form in 2021. Please check out his most recent publication in The Sandy River Review, “The Namesake”.

It began as a joke. I share my name with a famous author. I’d known as much since his first book appeared on the best seller lists, but I hadn’t known that we also shared a birth date.
— "The Namesake"
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Cassiopeia

Laura Nelson published a great new story at Fiction Southeast. The group workshopped the story at lest once! Check it out!

Laura Nelson published a great new story at Fiction Southeast. The group workshopped the story at lest once! Check it out!

I turn off the headlights and pull into the driveway slowly, willing the old Camry to tiptoe under the children’s windows. An old Modest Mouse album – an album I first heard in college and still think of as new music - is playing softly, but I can’t risk it. I disconnect my phone from the cheap Bluetooth speaker clipped …
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