PEN America‘s MAKE BELIEVE issue is seriously out of this world. Poetry by Christian Hawkey, Mathias Svalina, Cynthia Cruz; A forum on the titular theme featuring Lynne Tillman, Terese Svoboda, Cynthia Ozick, and Damion Searls; plus Brian Evenson, Philip Gourevitch, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, and a whole lot more. Super bigtime.

SALTGRASS 4, meanwhile, features poetry from the sweet likes of G.C. Waldrep, Anne Boyer, Ben Mirov, Ish Klein, Danielle Pafunda and Brett Price. Here’s Mirov’s poem “Ghost Receptor”-

I have no questions for anyone.

They want to be held by the neon light of the OPEN sign.

They fill their pockets with sand.

They wake up and look at a deer.

I lay the crumpled body next to the convenience store.

Noah puts a plastic medal around my neck.

I’m tangled in the branches.

Something wants me to fall asleep.

Also, as long as we’re talking about new issues of things, the current Harper’s (Richard Rodriguez’s “Twilight of the American Newspaper” cover)  has Diane Williams in the READINGS section and Christine Schutt as the fiction feature. Seems to be another piece of Christine’s new novel. Good times!