Issue 23. April 2012
West Texas Tears
downloadDaniel Davis brings a modern sensibility to the cowboys-and-Indians tale in "West Texas Tears". In his short story, two lawmen come upon a land-grabbers' home where Indians have left only one little girl alive. The narrator, Horace, wrestles with what's fair and what's just as he comes upon a surviving Indian caught in barbed wire. Davis' story is a subtle study of the complications of justice and belonging. (15:02)
STORIES ON THE STREET Dante's Inferno
downloadStories on the Street went underground in April to record Dante's Inferno. Dante's journey through the underworld begins at the gateway warning of the horrors awaiting within. The Drum's Sara Fetherolf went into the New York City subway to ask ordinary people to read from this classic text. Click here to read along on Project Gutenberg. (2:18)
Home
downloadJyotsna Sreenivasan's "Home" explores exactly the nature of that concept for young Amiya as she returns to 1970s Ohio after several years of childhood in her native India. She is in the position of being both immigrant and emigrant at the same time. As Amiya navigates her return to American culture and second grade, Sreenivasan sheds new insight on what it means to belong and to be different. (30:00)
Shards of Glass
downloadAngela Foster's "Shards of Glass" finds a brother and sister fighting their step-father with whatever tools they have--a knife, a gun, anger, and rejection. But books, escape, and the imagination turn out to be just as powerful as these young people stand up to the bully who runs their house. (13:26)
Zip-Code Stories
downloadDaniel Roberts' story "Sandwich" is our Zip-Code Stories winner for this month--and our first piece of fiction to win in the Zip-Code Stories project. "Sandwich" is set in the eponymous Cape town, where Eugene's wife Jan has decided to take him to resolve certain issues in their long marriage. Is Eugene a victim of hypochondria, or an aging American man plagued by the standard ills of body, mind, and psyche? In Sandwich, he takes matters into his own hands. Listen to the piece to see if you think it's a lighthearted or a cynical conclusion. (3:13)
Once More With Feeling
downloadEric Weinberger's "Once More With Feeling" is a story of fidelity and infidelity set in the world of guided tourism. The story's protagonist Adam steers his tour groups around locales emblematic of diplomacy and international negotiation as he encounters one couple who seem to manage a diplomatic menage of their own. The narrative follows him as he studies these two and contemplates a crisis in his own relationship. (22:17)
Interview
downloadEleni Gage met with Drum editor Henriette Lazaridis Power on February 29, 2012 for an interview at Newtonville Books in Newton, Massachusetts. Gage spoke about her new novel Other Waters, about living with two cultures and more than two languages, and about aspects of Greek history and of her own family's history. The conversation ranged as well into dicussion of the notion of the curse--a key element of her novel--and how the practical and scientific world and the more mystical world of curses and fate intersect and combine. (46:15)
