Frank meets a mermaid whom he suspects is his dead wife.

(from Black Warrior Review, vol. 31, #2)

Love this story. Short, sharp, smart, spooky, gorgeous. Plotwise, and moodwise, this story appeals to my superstitious nature. The way the fisherman in this story are spooked by their blue collar mythologies. The way bad luck manifests itself in shipwrecks, diving gulls and fouls smells. It’s also sensuously detailed and confident in its vision. You just know you’re in good hands.

Today was my birthday and I was drunk in Borders. So I bought some things.
1) The abovementioned issue of Black Warrior Review. I liked the look of this book, but had previously passed on it because I tend to look for purchases that give me a high ratio of short fiction. This one also has some comic strips and poetry and stuff. Here‘s a link.
2) The Paris Review, #173. Fiction by A.S. Byatt, Rick Moody and more. Cool cover. Looked like a can’t miss. Here‘s the link.
3) The Iowa Review, vol. 35, #1. Had good luck with the last issue, far as I can remember. Here‘s a link for that.
4) Ploughshares, vol. 31, #1. Fiction by Melissa Bank and others. Yikes, a lot of poetry in this one, too. Oh well. Click here.
5) The Believer, vol. 3, #4. You know I never seem to read more than one thing in any issue of The Believer, so I haven’t picked it up in a while. But it always looks fun, so sometimes it suckers me. I heard the next issue’s got a sweet CD with Cynthia Mason, The Mountain Goats, The Decemberists and such. Here‘s a link to The Believer.
6) In/Vision, Spring 2005. Collection of poetry and fiction by students of Temple University’s creative writing program. Flipping through, I found that an old friend has some poems in it. At the register, nobody seemed to know what to charge me for this. After a lengthy but fruitless investigation, we ended up just scanning an issue of Glamour, which is probably cheaper. Can’t find a good link for In/Vision, so here.