One of my favourite young writers, Heidi James interviews Kent-based painter and musician, Duke Garwood and discovers if, like Robert Johnson, he’d be prepared to sell his soul to the devil for the mystery of the blues. Heidi’s story, ‘Neophobic’ also features. I can’t recommend the short stories of Heidi James highly enough. Her work is macabre and deliciously black. In this story, a prison officer’s son’s life is haunted by a childhood memory of being complicit in the gang rape of a local girl. As in much of Heidi’s work, the bleak and uncomfortable aspects of the story are countered by a wicked vein of humour running through. The boy recounting his father’s:

“…cherished tale of serving the Moors Murderer steak and kidney pudding and how he notices she was actually an attractive woman, despite being a Catholic,”

tickled me particularly. Fingers crossed that Heidi taking over as publicist with Open Wide will ensure more of her work is published in forthcoming issues, although I fear she will be snapped up by bigger fish rather soon.

Frank Adams’ latest despatch regarding his character, Mr Hatcher is a well written, titillating tale of a man’s seduction by his wife and step-daughter. Like Adams’ Hatcher story in Open Wide #12, the letter form the story takes detracts rather than adds anything. It’s also rather confusing as to the time setting of the story. The language seems from another era but this is not expressed anywhere else. As erotica goes though, it still manages to push all the right buttons.

Mike Fenton’s debut novel, ‘A Ticket to Somewhere’ will be serialised in Open Wide over the next few issues and published by Feel Free Press in Spring 2005. It considers the mixed fortunes of a group of male friends, one of whom, Stu, suffers (or thinks he suffers) from ME. Although the opening chapter was reasonably engaging, at times the characters seemed rather one-dimensional and there was too much telling rather than showing. The second chapter was slightly more promising, however, I found many of the minor players were better drawn and more convincing than the main characters. Mike’s friend, Muff, is particularly likeable and his relationship/favourite record analogies are hilarious and really hit the spot. Mike is the stronger of the two main characters but does nothing particularly memorable in the opening chapters of the book to hook the reader. More will hopefully be made of the Stu character’s illness/hypochondria as the novel progresses, otherwise, there is sadly, really nothing new here.

It is good to see the increasingly and deservingly ubiquitous Delphine LeCompte involved at her bitter and dangerous best with ‘I’m Practicing on my Sainthood.’ Since featuring Delphine’s uniquely raw prose on this site several months ago, I’ve been delighted to see her work becoming a regular feature on so many sites and lit mags of late. She’s even managed to bag herself a few guest columns, such is her growing cult status.

Salena Saliva Godden’s paean to corporophilia, ‘Are you Sitting Comfortably’ addresses the reader directly, waxing lyrically about the merits of one bowel movement against another. Nauseating and fascinating in equal measure, the story is certainly written with a worrying, knowing passion.

A good selection of poetry includes contributions from some of the best from the US – Debbie Kirk, Lyn Lifshin, D.B. Cox, John Dorsey plus home-grown talent from Open Wide editor, James Quinton. I also loved Maggie Shurtleff’s rich, sensual poem, ‘Of Us’ which really swept me up and made me want to read more. Glen W. Cooper’s ‘Home Movies’ was another favourite:

“Today feels like
somewhere between
Falling Down and
Leaving Las Vegas.”

Issue #13 concludes with Charles P Ries’s review of ‘Last Call: The Legacy of Charles Bukowski.’ Although previously unfamiliar with Bukowski’s work, Reis’s pro-active passion for small presses gives the review a firm footing, and is actually quite refreshing, giving as it does a sense of looking at Buk for the first time.

All in all, another great issue from one of the UK’s most cutting edge, must-subscribe literary magazines. Welcome proof that some editors are still willing to take risks.

Laura Hird is the Orange and Whitbread nominated author of the collection, ‘Nail and Other Stories’ and novel, ‘Born Free.’ Her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies internationally. Her new collection of short stories is due to be published by Canongate Books in May 2005. She runs and edits her own loosely arts-related website on which she seeks out and publishes new poetry, short stories, reviews, interviews etc. She was born and lives in Edinburgh.